It’s not all steel and aluminum – softgoods are an important aspect of our stage systems that are also used in our rigging department for chain bags and weather covers. Combined with custom printing, softgoods can transform your event into a unified, branded experience. Here are the 4 most common softgood materials that we just can’t live without, starting with…
Vinyl Mesh
Applications: Stage Audio Bay Panels, Masking, Custom Print Branded Softgoods, Chain Bags
Our most commonly used softgood material is our vinyl mesh. Our 14oz. Vinyl Coated Polyester (VCP) Mesh is a standard in the industry, and serves a variety of purposes in both our staging and rigging departments. If you think of our stage systems as the bare skeleton, softgoods are the skin.
A black vinyl mesh is hung for masking purposes and adds a finishing touch to every stage. This mesh is also the material of choice when hanging softgoods in front of audio bays and line arrays. Its acoustically transparent nature allows the music to reach your farthest audio members without any interference.
Black vinyl mesh
Festivals and concerts are heavily branded, and clients have optimized their stage investment for years with custom printed vinyl mesh. These panels are perfect for branding your festival logo or shouting out to your event sponsors. The visibility is proven, and everyone likes to see their graphics displayed in massive scale. This material isn’t bound to any particular application, and be custom fitted to almost any piece of equipment, from stages to barricade to entrance towers and more.
Custom printed mesh for Lincoln Center
In our rigging department, a different type of vinyl mesh is used to manufacture Mountain Productions’ chain bags. Phifertex Plus is a thick woven VCP that provides extra strength and dimensional stability. Aside from these benefits, Phifertex Plus is easy to clean and is fade resistant. Mesh chain bags are perfect for outdoor applications, allowing rain water to filter through the bag.
Mountain Productions’ Mesh Chain Bags
Solid Vinyl
Applications: Stage Header/Backdrop Banners, Roof Skins, Custom Print Branded Softgoods, Chain Bags, Chain Hoist Weather Covers
As versatile as vinyl mesh is, it’s not our one stop solution to softgood applications. Equally as important, our 18oz VCP solid vinyl serves many purposes at Mountain Productions. For obvious reasons, solid vinyl is the material of choice over mesh for our durable roof skins, and is effective at catching/repelling water during rainstorms. Beyond just roof skins, our 3-sided removable weather wall serves as the perfect weather protection on our mobile stages. Our vinyl is flame retardant and will ease your worries when setting up pyro.
3-sided vinyl weather protection
Solid Vinyl roof skin
Along with our mesh, solid vinyl is capable of being branded with custom printing. Because this material lacks the blow through woven holes inherent of mesh, solid vinyl produces a slightly crisper print, and works well on stage headers and backdrops.
Custom printed solid vinyl backdrop
Solid vinyl is also used in our softgoods shop to manufacture chain bags as well as chain hoist weather covers.
Ferrari
Applications: Mountain Truss Weather Protection
Ferrari is a highly durable and pre-stretched coated fabric that does not distort or deform over time. Used on our massive Mountain Truss system, ferrari protects performers by providing 3-sided weather protection, covering the side and back walls of the system. For extra strength, ferrari is installed using a keder track rather than grommets and tie line. With the ever growing popularity of our Mountain Truss system, we depend on ferrari to protect the performers as well as the valuable equipment that keeps the show going.
Mountain Truss ferrari weather protection
Mountain Truss ferrari weather protection
Drape
Applications: Stage skirts, Backdrops, Decoration
Drape is used commonly for stage skirts, masking and backdrop purposes. While vinyl offers a sturdy material that is usually pulled taut, drape is a more elegant material that can appear “flowing” with the option to hang with folds and ripples. Commencements indoor and out have used stage drape as large backdrop walls and masking for years – it’s an alternative material when vinyl just doesn’t cut it.
Stage skirt in drape with custom printed mesh for back wall
Drape backdrop
Drape backdrop
