Motor Stage Automation (MSA) is a fresh and innovative new company based in Denmark, working internationally, specializing in the designing art of stage and show automation and movement elements and systems. Known for ingenuity, imagination and creative and lateral thinking, the company is headed by Christian Vigsø, who used the downtime during the pandemic positively to launch this exciting venture.
“More and more shows are using automation to make themselves stand out visually, and I saw a need for a company to facilitate straightforward, practical and cost-efficient solutions across all production sectors,” stated Christian.
One of Motor Stage Automation’s first investments was in Litec DST (Dynamic Stack Truss) products, some to help facilitate the fabrication of MSA’s own Touring Dolly systems.
The purchase included large quantities of LITEC DST52 Truss Rail System – 3000 / 118 inch sections, and the new LITEC STK52 MTD2KN, a 52cm DST heavy duty trolley system that can handle loads of up to 1000kg moving at 21-metres-a-minute.
“One of our strategies is to invest in the newest and best equipment we can find,” explained Christian, “and while the DST52 is for sure not the newest, it is still the best! It’s also a well-respected industry standard kit and therefore an extremely cross-rentable and generally super-reliable product!”
The DST heavy duty trolley was needed for MSA’s own new heavier duty Touring Dolly systems offering the larger weight loading.
MSA’s initial Touring Dolly system was developed in response to market demand to make flying and automation systems more accessible, tourable, practical and cost effective for all sectors, boosting the possibilities for visual creativity in the process.
All the associated automation products – hoists and beam-trolleys and other automation kit – remain inside the stackable trussing system for transportation.
This eliminates the need to dismantle all of it from the trussing for each load in and tear down, saving huge amounts of time on site and during set up, and also consuming vastly less truck space!
It is also designed to enable the easy building of a complete track on the floor to test everything before flying. This is handy when the track cannot be flown first thing in the morning during a load in for some production reason. Using the MSA system, the touring techs can build it, test it and then roll it into place when the time comes … and fly it up into the roof!
Another benefit is during warehouse preps, as the truss does not need to be flown, it can be assembled at ground level.
Altogether, it’s a workable real-world solution for a myriad of brain-twisting automation scenarios!
The Litec DST heavy duty trolley trussing is a modular built-in rail system devised for flying lighting, LED screens and scenery which is stackable for storage and offers vertical, horizontal and 360-degree rotational movement.
The initial Litec order was placed during Covid, as Christian had the forethought to get ahead of the game while they had the time. “We really wanted to be ready when the world re-opened for concerts and live performance,” he elucidated, adding that he was glad he took the calculated risk, because as we know, when everything could re-open, the demand for all production kit and crew in 2022 was crazier than anyone could have imagined!
As it also happened, they landed a large European arena tour via UK-based The Motion Laboratories who were coordinating the automation, and the truss actually arrived just a week before the full automation package had to be ready, which comprised two x 24-metre sections of track and a Kinesys Apex hoist system to fly various stage props and also the artist above the audience.
MSA Trolley systems have already been out on several other shows and events including the Pretty Woman Danish theatre tour, and numerous corporate events.
This is actually the first ever Litec investment for Motor Stage Automation, and Christian is very impressed.
The quality of the kit and the service and support from Litec in Italy has been “excellent and highly efficient,” Christian noted, adding, “the Litec / Area Four team can answer all our questions fast, with brilliant tele support in the evenings, at weekends and almost 24/7, and whatever document or certification you might need, they can supply. Absolutely GREAT service!”
Photo: MSA’s Christina Vigso (left) and Kasper Sonberg with part of the new Litec systems