TPi explores the partnership set up two years ago by Dave Weatherhead and Andy Cave to take scenic automation to the next level.

Great partnerships often have interesting origins. This one started in the air when a pair of like-minded professionals met in the grid at the Dominion Theatre in London's Tottenham Court Road in 2002, whilst both working on different aspects of the rigging and automation of the Queen/Ben Elton musical We Will Rock You.

Andy Cave was installing his automation system for Brilliant Stages and Dave Weatherhead was working on control elements of the project for Stage One. They talked extensively and discovered that apart from obviously hitting it off as people, they both had an enormous amount in common. This included a shared passion for perfection and doing things right in the often arcane world of automation, and a love for the production industry in general.

Cave had just won a contract to supply The Rolling Stones' Licks tour with a control system for their moving screens and lighting pods. He'd developed the back end - drive racks and distros, and sought a front end control system. Weatherhead mentioned that he'd had some experience in this field and said he could provide a solution... and so landed the gig of writing the software.

Years of freelancing and the shortcomings of using other systems had made Weatherhead acutely aware of the features and functions he wanted to incorporate into the ultimate automation control system. The Stones project gave him the opportunity to do just that.

The pair worked together again at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in summer 2002. This was whilst simultaneously developing their separate but related elements of the Stones tour, for which they joined forces during the final stages at production rehearsals in Toronto. They stayed with the Stones throughout production rehearsals and then into the first shows, with the rigging and movement all going like clockwork.

The long days of the Stones production rehearsals really cemented their relationship on all levels, and in the following weeks they decided to go into business together. A great technical synergy existed with the software that Weatherhead had written and the hardware - now already at second generation level - that Cave had developed. They also had a set of common goals about how automation systems should amalgamate together, how they should look and work.

Having designed the world's ultimate motion control system in their heads, they decided that the next step forward was to set up a company and make a proper job of actually building it in reality! Kinesys was born as an integrated, solutions-based hardware and software design and realisation concept. Cave and Weatherhead's different backgrounds add to the company's breadth of experience and dynamics.

Weatherhead was born and raised in St. Albans before going to Bristol University to study Electronic Engineering. He graduated in 1995 and almost immediately went to work for Unusual, following a random series of events. This proved a fund of experience in all areas of rigging, and turned into a full time job during which time he worked on a plethora of major shows, events and projects.

From his first job of flying video monitors for the opening of an office in Soho Square to flying James Bond 007 (well, it was Pierce Brosnan really!) up and down the side of a building, the work was always varied. Further film work followed, plus an eclectic mix of corporate projects in interesting locations, from car launches in Marrakesh to a Centenary celebration in Saudi Arabia.

The last few months of 2000 alone saw installation of a control system in the Royal Albert Hall, completion of the automation installation at Milton Keynes Theatre and an inevitable stint at The Millennium Dome. In 1999, Weatherhead left Unusual for the more random world of freelancing, which would ultimately lead into the formation of Kinesys.

Cave grew up in Blackburn - although the accent is hardly discernable - and came to London to study chemical engineering at Imperial College. It was an era and a 'moment in time' where Imperial heralded an extraordinarily high proportion future industry 'names' - Bryan Raven, Nikki Scott, Nick Moran, Matthew Tonks, Dave Isherwood, to name but a few.

Seduced by doing lights and sound for various shows and bands at college, Cave ditched his degree halfway through for the glamour and glitz of showbiz, and started work at Theatre Projects. Cave had a great talent for fixing all types of equipment, especially lighting. His live work at TP included numerous military tattoos and tournaments in the UK and the Middle East, and concluded with Roger Waters' seminal The Wall show in Berlin in 1990, after which he left to freelance.

This saw him working on all types of productions, and in the quieter months, he built gadgets, interfaces and various gizmos to make incompatible pieces of kit work together - always relishing the technical challenge of making the seemingly impossible happen. Initially he concentrated on lighting projects, and then automation as it became a more popular element on shows.

On the automation front, he was working with Brilliant Stages, and then also found himself designing and manufacturing control systems for Stage Technologies as they commenced the epic West End run of Sunset Boulevard. This led to design involvement with Stage Technologies' award-winning control systems Acrobat, Nomad and Solo.

Cave continued his lighting work throughout this period, including at The Millennium Dome. Although he and Weatherhead were sometimes working in the very same venue, their paths were not destined to cross there!

COMBINATION
Forming Kinesys in December 2002, the pair based themselves in Wandsworth, south London on a mission to combine their aggregate skills, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in the growing automation industry. It didn't take long for this winning partnership to bear fruit. The first Kinesys job was for Troika Entertainment's US production of Starlight Express for Tomcat USA, who wanted a variable-speed chain hoist system for the tour. Kinesys hit the accelerator and sped from conception to completion on this project in just five weeks, including design, CAD drawings, sourcing metalwork, assembly and testing the system hardware and software. It also saw the birth of what's now one of their key products - the Elevation 1+ vari-speed hoist controller. Weatherhead oversaw the set up and installed the final software upgrades during the rehearsal period. Once again, everything ran very smoothly. The touring schedule was particularly arduous, and the system proved rock solid to the rigours of the road. Now, two years later, the tour has just hit the road in the UK, and the original system came in for an 'MOT' after two years' hard labour, passing with flying colours. "A great testament to the build quality," states Weatherhead. Kinesys has also designed and built extra control hardware and software to track and lift video screens for the UK tour of Starlight Express. Since those first hectic days on Starlight, the projects have rolled in steadily from a number of areas - installations, rock'n'roll and theatre. "One of the great advantages of being a lean, streamlined company and in full control of all our own decision making, is the ability to react very quickly," comments Weatherhead. This and Kinesys' position in a very specialist section of the industry makes them uniquely flexible, a great asset, especially in a world where production decisions are increasingly being made later and later in the day. Kinesys has honed a network of suppliers who can also be relied on to work at the same level and pace when required. This often involves massive diplomacy when interfacing between the 'real' world, with little conception of things like working nights, weekends and bank holidays, and the entertainment industry, where "the show must go on" even when vital decisions are left till the 11th hour!

The company now has a range of about 15 versatile standard products - motor controllers, distros, drives, power distribution, hand controllers and software packages - all of which can be used as they are, or customised to suit an individual application.

CHALLENGING
Robbie Williams' Escapology tour in 2003 rates among the most challenging concert touring projects to date - the spectacular LED screen movement system tracked them 360¡ around the stage and split into eight spinning and lifting columns. This followed on from a drive system designed and built for Bon Jovi's Bounce tour that flew a series of video walls.

Williams' screens were moved up and down with 14 vari-speed chain hoists, and the tracking and rotating was achieved with a further 16 axes of movement. Kinesys also advised on the accompanying cable management system. This would have been no inconsiderable feat as a long term theatre installation, but it toured and so had to be rigged and de-rigged each day in a matter of hours.

The excitement and profile of rock'n'roll is one thing, but Kinesys is also equally active in the installation market. This year, they completed major automation projects for two of the UK's premier multi-purpose venues, the Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse and the NIA in Birmingham. Both installations were driven by the desire to make the venues among the UK's safest in which to rig and work.

In Cheltenham, Kinesys designed, specified, supplied and installed hardware and software for motion control and motor load cell monitoring systems for their two grids. At the NIA, they did the same for a new, fully updated automation control system for the mother grid, again using a selection of standard Kinesys products as building blocks.

In both cases the control systems had to be intuitive, easy to use and operable by various technical people rather than just one full-time dedicated staff member (the norm for long term theatre installations). Kinesys also undertook extensive personnel training on completion of both projects.

One of the reasons for their success is the constant flow of feedback engaged in by Weatherhead and Cave, who act upon their intense dialogue with riggers and venue operators about what they want from their systems. They make sure these needs are incorporated in Kinesys' product ranges and project designs with a mix of practicality, common sense and innovation.

They believe in starting each project with a completely fresh outlook and set of values appropriate to finding the specific solution needed by the client.

Cave expands on this further: "We pride ourselves on the fact that we have great working relationships, not just with our clients, but also with the end users, the people who have to work with the equipment day-in-day-out. It helps us to stay sharp and focused on what's ultimately important in our products.

"Having great features is essential, but if it isn't reliable or simple and logical to use, then no amount of bells and whistles will stop the client looking elsewhere. This process of listening to comments and feeding it all back into our designs ensures the products are always evolving and improving."

In many ways, Cave and Weatherhead are trying to demystify the art of automation, and make it as simple as plugging in moving lights and making them work rather than an esoteric black art only fathomed by a Masonic-like community. Kinesys have a clear vision of the future, they can see automation crossing the boundary from technical to artistic, evolving from its current role as a facilitator of effects to a future role where the movement is perceived as aesthetic in itself.

Weatherhead summaries this sentiment: "Automation and scenic motion has traditionally been viewed as a means to an end, moving the object of interest from A to B. The resulting motion is being increasingly viewed as having a creative life of its own - it's becoming an end in itself."

Cave continues: "With increasing frequency we're seeing show and lighting designers using objects in motion to convey an emotion. Similar to the way the line between lighting and video is becoming increasing blurred, the interaction between these departments and other traditionally discrete disciplines will become increasingly fluid."

As the capability of automation technology continues its inevitable rise, the possibilities and applications will increase, and Kinesys is looking forward to meeting the challenge. If further proof be needed, just wait for U2's forthcoming Vertigo//2005 world tour.

Interview & photographs by Louise Stickland