Despite strong gusts of wind in cold and rainy weather conditions, around 600,000 people from Germany and abroad celebrated German Unity Day in Berlin that featured several event stages and the worldwide debut of two MILOS Steel PA Towers.
The motto for the celebration was "Only with you" and consisted of numerous events that took place at historically significant sites in the city. The highlight of the three-day celebration was undoubtedly the Citizens' Festival at the Brandenburg Gate, which included a concert and fireworks display. With artists such as Nena, Namika and The BossHoss, freedom, tolerance and cultural diversity were celebrated.
The company responsible for putting together the stage areas was Germany’s Black Box Music, which has been a leader in the event technology field in Germany since 1992. In addition to renting equipment for live events, they also carry out the planning and implementation of technical concepts. This includes complete solutions for worldwide tours, corporate events, and trade shows, among others.
A big advantage that Black Box Music brings to the table is their own fleet of vehicles, workshops, case building, and other services like tailoring and painting. They also offer three rehearsal halls with expanded backstage areas for convenient test runs of performances and timely improvements to live presentations. The rehearsal halls can also be used as event venues for up to 600 attendees. Artists and guests are provided with food by the company's catering division.
Support in the form of MILOS Steel PA Towers was provided to Black Box Music by Nuremberg’s Barowski AG. In the Spring of 2018, professional event and media technology service provider Barowski AG understood the need for ultra-high strength support structures for Germany’s biggest events and invested in MILOS Steel PA towers. "Equipping the largest festival of the year with our MILOS Steel PA Towers was the best opportunity to present them to a broad audience," said CEO Michael Barowski.
The MILOS Steel Truss Line was introduced on the European market earlier this year and the Citizen’s Festival marked the first time this new truss was used for a live event. The MILOS steel truss range consists of steel trusses, towers and base sections that feature an optimized weight to strength ratio. Through the use of very special steel alloys, truss sections are able to handle an average of 2.5x more load at just double the weight compared to aluminium systems with the same dimensions and under the same deflection.
Benefits of the steel truss range include optimized dimensions for packaging and/or nesting in trucks, profiles with OD’s to suit scaff clamps, pinned connectors for increased safety and strength, and integrated forklift pickup points. The end frames also come with lateral connection options.
The 20 metre high Steel PA towers, which flanked both sides of the massive stage, were constructed with MILOS S-M780 Quatro steel truss. Each tower supported 2500kg of PA and featured a front surface area of 10 m2, side surface area of 5m2, and a 2 metre cantilever, thereby making them a good choice for any conceivable main and delay tower application.
MILOS Steel Towers can stand 20+ metres high, handle a 40+ ton loading capacity, and support loads on up to 60+ metre spans (with UDL 140kg/m). Tower head sections are equipped with wheels for double fall chain hoists, and can lift up to 10 tons with a 2.5 ton chain hoist. Steel base lugs feature a variety of guy wire attachment points and the tower truss segments come with wheels.
Each tower also has a multi-directional sleeve block with a mechanical safety lock system that prevents drop and lift. The sleeve block is able to support a total of 40 tons per tower, with the cross beam able to support a centre point load of up to 6,500 kg on a 50 metre span
The extraordinary load-bearing capacity of MILOS Steel PA Towers was thoroughly tested during the cold and wet Berlin event, where the German Weather Service issued a storm warning with winds gusting up to 70 km/h. While the children's and family area in the Tiergarten was closed for safety concrns, the Citizen’s Festival at the Brandenburg Gate took place as planned, thanks to the wind and weatherproof MILOS Steel PA Towers.