030 INTERVIEW
The faciity in Leek began as just one building, but over the years has expanded into three buildings, all adjacent to the original - taking its total floor space to 10,000 sq metres
would involve tripod-mounting speakers or using Powerdrive wind-up Super Power Tower. “People were needing more structures to hang things on. There was no- one supplying in Holland and it was difficult to get these things imported from the UK.” In particular, there was a need for goalpost aluminium trussing such as Slick Systems. The Dutch company had been buying the 24cm aluminium trussing that Adrian Brooks’ Astralite was making, “so we got hold of the drawings, found someone that could weld aluminium and started producing 30cm section,” Fokko recalled. “At that point I had to decide whether to continue with the rental company because I could see a bigger picture in trussing.” Fokko duly sold the rental business to his partner, and in 1991 Prolyte was launched at Frankfurt’s Prolight + Sound, where the company signed an immediate deal with a German distributor. The adventure had begun. Production moved from a small Groningen facility to Leek in 1994, where they took over an inauspicious building that had been used for the production of clothes pegs for washing lines. This has now grown to three large adjacent buildings giving them a combined 10,000 sq metres of real estate, making them one of the town’s largest employers (today their total roll call across the group is around 260-280 employees). By this time Fokko had been joined by two people who have become pivotal in the company’s success. Marc Hendriks, having trained as a civil engineer, had been working as laser technician at Disco Techno. In 1993 he responded to an advert for a technical commercial role in Prolyte’s small team - a role that has expanded exponentially. Today, as Technical Director, he is not only responsible for all R&D activities, but is involved in Prolyte’s training activities and is Chairman of the European CWA 15902-1/2 start up groups concerning load-bearing and lifting equipment (stage machinery), in their desire to make it an EN standard. He is also a member of the German working group that re-wrote the SR-1.0 and SR-2.0 code of practices converting it to IGVW SQ P1/P2. On top of that he is a member of the Dutch event safety-standardisation group, NPR 8020. Marc had taken part in PLASA focus groups since the establishment of the Association’s National Rigging Certificate back in 2007 but both he and Marina believe that PLASA is not taking a sufficient international approach to achieve a workable international standard that can be implemented across borders, and
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“We announced the merger at PLASA in 2010 and by the time we
got to Frankfurt for Prolight + Sound the following spring everyone felt as one company and there was great camaraderie.” - Fokko Smeding
are not confident that the recent merger with the North American-based ESTA will do much to alter that perception. “There are conflicts of interest. PLASA has approached BS to convert the CWA Code of Practice into a European standard, but you compare it to the US and it’s apples and pears. It is our wish to get all countries involved and come up with an international set of regulations that work and make the lives of riggers less complicated.” As for Marina Prak, she had already experienced temporary structure building at the business end before joining Prolyte, and talks effortlessly about her experiences in the real world of rigging. She had been working with the eminent and hugely experienced Rinus Bakker of Rhino Rigs with whom she co-founded Argh! (Association of Riggers & Grounders in Holland) back in 1990, and who today works as a consultant, assisting companies like Prolyte with their training and certification. Fokko had met Marina two years into his campaign, when he started to realise the growing importance of safety issues, and sought advice from Rinus. Marina joined in 1998 and has headed the company’s marketing department ever since. As we set out to walk the vast real estate, we witness everything from the development of conical couplers coming off the production line in the machine shop to ProLyft chain hoists and motorised lifting gear production (in what was Prolyte’s original unit). Prolyft products are tested with a web-enabled program
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