01 - What We Do

Eight capabilities. One TSA.

Drapes & Accessories→ Soft goods, FR treatment, hire fleet. Sets, Scenery & Props→ Scenic builds, props, set hardware. Lifting & Rigging→ Chain, pile & drum hoists, controllers, consumables. Production Engineering→ Production management, design, custom kit. Venue Engineering & Installation→ Fit-outs, integration, upgrades. Dance & Studio Equipment→ Sprung floors, barres, mirrors, vinyl. Compliance & Service→ Inspections, certificates, callouts. Hire & Touring→ Calendar-driven kit. National coverage.
Products
Services
Drapes & Accessories Soft goods, supplied and supported. Drapes, tracks, FR treatment and hire fleet from our in-house workshop. Theatre-grade soft goods, engineered, FR-treated and serviced under TSA.
Services
Sets, Scenery & Props Built in-house. Toured nationally. Set construction, prop fabrication, museum and gallery fit-out and exhibition builds from our dedicated workshop. Concept to strike, with the engineering paperwork to back it.
Products
Services
Lifting & Rigging Rated gear. Stocked and serviced here. EXE Rise and Ace chain hoists, TSA pile and Hercules drum hoists, Atlas controllers, full consumables range. Design, supply, install, service, recertify.
Services
Production Engineering When off-the-shelf stops working. Production management, technical design and drafting, custom fabrication and cue-driven motion control. The technical side of your show - managed, designed, built and run.
Services
Venue Engineering & Installation Fit-out to commission, one team. Venue fit-outs, system installation, integration and safety upgrades. From new-build PACs to retrofit refurbishments. Engineered, documented, signed off.
Products
Dance & Studio Equipment Made for the joints that depend on it. Sprung floors, Tarkett performance vinyl, ballet barres, studio mirrors, tap and sports flooring. Measured, manufactured and installed to the room.
Inspections & programmes
Specialist inspections
Compliance & Service The paperwork your insurer asks for. Service & Inspection Programme, Venue Systems Health Check, electrical testing, emergency callouts. Defensible documentation, on schedule.
Services
Hire & Touring Calendar-driven kit. National coverage. Drape hire, hoist hire, touring packages. The same kit you'd buy, available on a calendar. Picked, prepped, shipped, collected.
02 - Industries

Eleven industries. One TSA.

Theatres & Performing Arts Centres Lyric houses, regional PACs, repertory venues. Long-cycle compliance, dark-week installs. Schools & Education Term-break windows, school-budget cycles, training programmes. Worship Venues Acoustic-sensitive spaces, AV-led production, multi-purpose halls. Stadiums, Convention Centres & Live Events Arena rigging, convention fit-outs, large-format event delivery. AV & Production Hire Companies Trade supply, cross-hire inventory, servicing and specialist support. Touring Productions Tour-ready packages, on-the-road servicing, certified gear. Film, TV & Studios Studio rigging, broadcast support, motion-controlled scenic. Museums & Galleries Permanent galleries, touring exhibitions, heritage recreations, display fabrication. Dance Studios & Companies Sprung floors, ballet barres and studio mirrors, made to the room. Corporate & Conference Venues Conference stages, auditorium AV, corporate event rigging and staging. Government & Civic Venues Council-owned PACs, civic centres, town halls and public venues.
Proof of work Recent Projects Lyric theatres, arenas, museums, schools and studios. The jobs behind the capability, and what we specified, built and signed off on each one.

Fly systems - counterweight line sets, motorised and automated flying, and dead-hung pipe grids, designed, supplied, installed and serviced by Theatre Safe Australia, Australia wide

Lifting & Rigging · Fly Systems

If it flies above your stage, we've got it.

A fly system is the overhead rigging that flies your scenery, drapes and bars in and out - counterweight line sets, motorised hoists, or a dead-hung grid. We design, supply, install and service the lot, so you can run the show and leave the load to us.

See what's in a fly system →

Or call 1300 439 872

Flown on stages and in venues around Australia
HOTA Home of the Arts Canberra Theatre Centre Brisbane Powerhouse Ipswich Civic Centre Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre Brisbane Showgrounds Arts Queensland WA Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries National Gallery of Victoria Cairns Convention Centre Melbourne Olympic Park Griffith University Queensland University of Technology University of Melbourne University of Adelaide Logan City Council Mackay Regional Council Wollongong City Council Mueller College Anglican Church Grammar School
The four kinds of fly system

Four ways to fly.
One team for all of them.

Most stages use more than one. Here are the four fly-system types we design, supply, install and service - pick the one that sounds like your stage, or tell us what you fly and we'll help you choose.

Counterweight line sets

The manual standard - each load balanced against weights on a cradle and hauled in by hand on single or double purchase line sets.

See how it works

Motorised & automated

Powered chain and wire hoists run from a control desk, with cue-driven automation when scenes need to move on a number, not a count.

Explore automation

Dead-hung pipe grids

A fixed overhead grid for venues without a fly tower - bars dead-hung at trim for lighting, drapes and lightweight scenery.

See venue installs

Soft-goods & drape flying

Pile-wind hoists and curtain tracks that fly drapes, cycs and legs smoothly - on their own, or networked into the rest of the system.

See pile hoists

Not sure which suits your stage, or running a mix? and we'll help you scope it.

What a fly system is

Overhead rigging,
that flies your show.

A fly system is the overhead rigging that flies scenery, drapes, lighting bars and backdrops in and out above a stage. On a counterweight system, each batten of gear hangs on a line set of wire lift lines, balanced against stacked weights on a cradle so an operator can haul it in by hand and hold it on a rope lock. On a motorised system, powered hoists do the lifting from a control desk.

The bar your gear clamps to is the fly bar or batten; the short ropes that suspend a dead-hung bar from the structure above are droppers. Every bar is rated to a working load limit (WLL), spread as a uniform distributed load across its length. We design, supply, install and service all of it, and keep it certified.

Manual counterweight line sets Motorised & automated hoists Dead-hung pipe grids WLL rated & certified AS 1418 / 4991 aligned
Counterweight line set · how it flies

Single purchase · 1:1. The arbor travels the full batten distance and carries an equal counterweight. The simplest set, but it needs a tall counterweight run behind the wall.

A side-section blueprint of a counterweight flying line set. Wire lift lines run from the batten up over the loft blocks and the head block, then down to a counterweight arbor that rides the locking rails. An operating line with a rope lock lets one operator fly the bar by hand. Toggle between single purchase, where the arbor travels the full batten distance, and double purchase, where the lift lines reeve through a sheave on the arbor so it travels half the distance and carries double the counterweight. Drag the slider to fly the bar in and out. GRID / LOFT STAGE DECK LOCKING RAILS BATTEN TRAVEL BALANCE 1:1 ARBOR TRAVEL FULL C-WEIGHT ×1 ARBOR TRAVEL · FULL
Flown out Flown in

Flies in and out on a loop - drag to scrub

Hover a part - or drag the slider to fly the bar in and out.

The rope lock holds the set where you leave it. It is the part an operator touches most. We design, install, balance and service every component shown here, and our fly system inspection grades each one against discard criteria.

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Australian venue installations
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Standards behind every install and inspection
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Chain-hoist certificate validity
AU
In-house design, supply, install and service, Australia wide
What a fly system lets you do

Move the show.
Safely, on cue.

Fly scenery in Reset fast Clear the deck Run on cue
Design to recertify, one team

Your fly system,
start to finish.

Rigging, hoists, control and soft goods are all in-house, so one team carries your fly system from the first drawing to the annual certificate. No subcontract chain, one point of accountability.

Design & documentEngineered fly plans and certified load documentation, sized to your stage and what you fly.Specify
SupplyCounterweight gear, powered hoists, control and soft-goods tracks, stocked and specified to suit.Supply
Install & commissionFitted, balanced, load-tested and commissioned, with the as-built paperwork to back it.Deliver
Train & hand overYour operators trained on the system and its safety features, so the team runs it inside designed limits.Operate
Service & recertifyScheduled inspection and servicing that keeps every line set safe and certified, year on year.Maintain

One team. One point of accountability.

Tell us what your stage flies and where it is in its life - new fit-out, upgrade, or a system that needs servicing - and we'll take it from there.

Or book a Systems Health Check

New to fly systems? Click through one in our Venue Rigging Explorer. Or explore the parts that make it up: chain hoists, pile hoists, controllers and curtain tracks. Already installed? The fly system inspection grades every line set, and the Service & Inspection Programme keeps it certified with scheduled visits.

Delivered across Australia

From a single
line set to a flagship.

The same in-house team scales from a single motorised bar to a full counterweight and automated system in a major arts centre - designed, installed, commissioned and certified.

See all projects
FAQ

Questions
about the fly system.

If your question isn't here, call us or send your stage detail - we'll come back with the right answer for your room.

Call 1300 439 872 →
A fly system is the overhead rigging that flies scenery, drapes, lighting bars and backdrops in and out above a stage. It can be a manual counterweight system of line sets, a motorised or automated system of powered hoists, or a fixed dead-hung pipe grid, and is usually a mix of these across one venue.
A counterweight fly system balances each load against stacked weights on a cradle, so an operator hauls the set in and out by hand on a line set. A motorised system uses powered chain or wire hoists run from a control desk, and can be automated to play back cues. Many venues run both.
Operating an installed fly system is competency-gated, not licence-gated. Operators need training on that specific system and its safety features, but no High Risk Work Licence to run it. Rigging work, such as attaching loads, can be licensed depending on the task and your state. We train and hand over so your team runs day to day inside designed limits.
Yes. We design, supply and install new counterweight and motorised systems, and upgrade or motorise existing fly towers and pipe grids - from a single line set to a full system - then commission and certify the result.
Powered and load-bearing flying equipment should be inspected at least annually, with electric chain hoists load-tested and certified for 12 months. Our fly system inspection grades every line set against discard criteria.
Start with your stage

You run the show.
We've got the load.

Tell us what your stage flies and where your system is in its life - new fit-out, upgrade or service. We'll help you scope it, design and install it, and keep it certified - here and Australia wide.

Book a Systems Health Check →
Or call 1300 439 872 sales@theatresafe.com.au