Short answer: what a truss can carry is decided by two numbers rather than by the brand on the label, the span and the number of points you split the load across. The manufacturer's certified load table spells it out row by row. In the TÜV NORD approved loading table Prolyte publishes for its H30V series, the same truss takes 1,298.1 kg as a single centre point load over a 4 m span, 563.2 kg over 10 m and 466.5 kg over 12 m. Keep that 10 m span but split the load across four points at the fifth points and total capacity rises to roughly 952 kg. In Turkey this is regulated ground, not preference. Item 2.2.1 of Annex III of the Work Equipment Regulation (İş Ekipmanlarının Kullanımında Sağlık ve Güvenlik Şartları Yönetmeliği, Official Gazette dated 25/4/2013, issue 28628) requires lifting equipment to raise and hold at least 1.25 times its declared load. Article 7 of the same regulation requires an inspection after installation and at every change of location, and requires the last inspection document to travel with the equipment whenever it is used away from the company's own premises. Every event is a new location. Below: the span maths, a load list in kilograms, hoist classes, secondary safeties and what to put in writing before you sign.
How much can you hang? The span decides, not the brand
The first question in any truss conversation is the span. A truss behaves like a beam supported at both ends, and capacity drops away quickly as the span grows. The TÜV NORD approved loading table Prolyte publishes for the H30V series shows it plainly. Over a 4 m span the allowable centre point load is 1,298.1 kg and the uniformly distributed load is 485.3 kg per metre. At 8 m the centre point load is 700.6 kg, at 10 m it is 563.2 kg, at 12 m it is 466.5 kg. How you divide the load matters just as much. On the same 10 m span, a single load at the centre is limited to 563.2 kg, two loads at the third points are limited to 407.6 kg each (about 815 kg in total), and four loads at the fifth points are limited to 238 kg each (about 952 kg in total). Read the footnotes as carefully as the figures. The values apply to static loads only, to a single span supported at both ends only, and to the cross sectional orientation shown in the table. Truss self weight is already included, and any other static system needs its own structural calculation. Deflection deserves a look too: the same table gives 114 mm of sag at 10 m and 164 mm at 12 m under full load. If you expect the top edge of an LED wall to sit straight, start there.
Write the load list in kilograms: what are you actually hanging?
You cannot pick a truss before you know the total. Build the list item by item. A heavy class moving head such as the Robe MegaPointe is listed at 22 kg in rental catalogues, so twelve fixtures come to 264 kg. Video is even more concrete. A ROE Visual Black Pearl BP2 panel measures 500x500x90 mm and weighs 9.35 kg, which works out at roughly 37 kg per square metre. A 6 x 3 m LED wall is 18 square metres, so the panels alone pass 670 kg. The list does not stop there: truss self weight (around 6.3 kg per metre on the H30V, so 63 kg across a 10 m span), hoists and chain bags, slings, shackles, safety bonds, power and data cabling, speaker fly bumpers, plus any banners or branding. Cable weight is the line most often forgotten, and on a large LED wall it can run into hundreds of kilograms on its own. Once you have the total, go back to the load table with two questions: across how many points is this load carried, and where on the truss do those points land? Between one central pick and five spread picks, capacity on the same truss and the same span nearly doubles.
The 1.25 rule and declared load: the legal floor in Turkey
Suspended loads in Turkey sit under the Work Equipment Regulation published in Official Gazette 28628 on 25 April 2013. Item 2.2.1 of Annex III states that unless standards say otherwise, lifting and conveying equipment must be capable of raising and holding at least 1.25 times its declared load effectively and safely, with load brakes adequate for that load. The footnotes to Table 2 of the same annex put numbers on the testing: in the periodic inspection of cranes, the static test load must be at least 1.25 times the declared load and the dynamic test at least 1.1 times. Another footnote defines declared load as the maximum weight the employer declares for that lifting device. Where a device is to be used below its capacity, that declared maximum must be marked so it is visible, and if a heavier load is to be lifted the equipment has to be re-examined and re-tested against the new figure or it cannot be used. Annex I item 3.2.2 makes the marking a separate duty: the maximum load that can be lifted must be marked clearly and visibly. Item 3.2.2.1 extends the same requirement to lifting accessories such as slings and shackles. On site that reduces to one sentence: no load tag, no use.
Inspected at every change of location: which paperwork reaches site?
Article 7 is the provision the event industry skips most often. Paragraph one, subparagraph (a), requires that where the safety of work equipment depends on its installation conditions, the equipment be inspected by authorised persons after assembly, before first use, and at every change of location, with a document issued confirming correct installation and safe operation. Every event is a change of location. Paragraph two is equally direct: when work equipment is used away from the company's own premises, the document covering its last inspection must be kept with the equipment. The hoist's inspection report belongs in the venue, not in the warehouse. The interval sits in Table 2 of Annex III: for lifting and conveying equipment, one year where no period is set in the applicable standards. The standards referenced there include TS EN 818-6+A1 for chain slings, TS ISO 4309 for wire rope in service and FEM 9.755 for powered hoist units. Under Annex III item 2.2.2 these inspections are carried out by mechanical engineers and mechanical technicians or senior technicians. Validity has conditions too: Article 13 requires the Ministry registration number on periodic inspection reports, and reports issued by people without that number are treated as void. Record keeping has gone digital as well. An amendment published in Official Gazette 33116 on 23 December 2025 defines EKİPNET as a module inside İSG-KATİP for recording and monitoring everything related to periodic inspections.
Can people stand under the load? Annex II 3.1.3 and the 50 percent rule
Annex II item 3.1.3 of the same regulation is short and binding: unless there is a technical necessity, measures must be taken so that nobody is under a raised load, loads must not be moved over unprotected workplaces where workers may be present, and where that is unavoidable suitable working methods must be defined and applied. Item 3.2.6 goes further: a suspended load must not be left unattended unless access to the danger zone is prevented or the load is held safely in suspension. On the equipment side, international practice sorts chain hoists into classes. A D8 hoist is built to raise and lower loads with the area beneath cleared of people, while D8 Plus and C1 hoists are built with double brakes and additional safety features for holding loads above people. The German reference document is DGUV Vorschrift 17; in Europe the standard is EN 17206. Hoists made to EN 17206 carry a manufacturer declared Entertainment Load Limit, derived from the industrial working load limit with an enhanced factor of safety and based on six classes of use, from lifting with one hoist and nobody below to flying performers on multiple hoists. The concrete figure comes from item K2.32 of the UK Technical Standards for Places of Entertainment: standard industrial hoists may suspend loads over people at 50 percent of their rated capacity, so a hoist rated at 1,000 kg is loaded to 500 kg. The NRAG guidance endorsed by PLASA also names three myths outright: safeties are not required by law, double brakes do not mean safeties are unnecessary, and higher safety factors do not compensate for poor rigging decisions.
Two hoists or four? Coordination and secondary safeties
If one of two hoists on a truss line releases, the remaining point has to carry a span and a cantilever it was never sized for. The regulation covers the organisational side of that scenario. Annex II item 3.2.5 requires all lifting operations to be properly planned and supervised, and where a load is lifted simultaneously by two or more items of equipment, arrangements must be made and applied to coordinate the operators. In practice there are two routes. Either you install a secondary safety next to each hoist, or you split the load across four points and size the structure for the increase in span and cantilever a single failure would cause. The NRAG guidance says the second route may remove the need for secondary suspensions altogether, with one condition: the structure has to be designed to absorb that increase. If you do fit safeties, the same guidance gives four rules. They should not be slack but as taut as possible. They should be at least as strong as the primary suspension they safeguard. They should be rigged as if they were primary suspensions, following good slinging practice. Where possible they should be independent of the primary support. One venue note: some halls make secondary suspensions a contractual requirement, so read your rigging plan alongside the venue's own policy.
Ground support and outdoors: ground, wind and scaffold rules
With no rigging points overhead, the load comes off the floor and the job turns into a structural calculation. Annex II item 3.1.1 requires mobile or dismountable load lifting equipment to be used soundly and stably under all foreseeable conditions of use, with the characteristics of the ground taken into account. Car park asphalt, a timber stage deck and bare soil are not the same surface, and putting spreader plates under the feet is part of the calculation rather than a finishing touch. For tower structures treated as scaffolding the bar sits higher. Annex II item 4.3.1 requires strength and stability calculations to be produced where none exist, and states that scaffolds cannot be used before those calculations are made. Item 4.3.2 requires the assembly, use and dismantling plan to be prepared by a civil engineer, civil technician or senior technician. Table 2 of Annex III sets the periodic inspection interval for construction scaffolds at six months, and a footnote requires the maximum load a scaffold can carry to be marked visibly. Outdoors has its own clause: under Annex II item 3.2.7, where weather conditions deteriorate so that safe use is prevented and workers are put at risk, the outdoor use of equipment designed for lifting non-guided loads must be stopped. Put the wind threshold and the name of the person who calls the stop in writing before build starts. In Europe the governing standard is EN 17206, prepared by CEN/TC 433, whose scope covers temporary installations using trusses at events, including ground support systems and towers.
What to ask for in writing
Rigging is the line item most often agreed verbally and least often written down. Ask for these twelve lines in writing: truss series and section size, the span of each line, the manufacturer's published load table for that series, a load list in kilograms with fixtures, LED panels, speakers, cabling and banners listed separately, how many points the load is split across and where those points sit, the number of hoists and their declared capacities, hoist class and whether they will hold loads over people, the secondary safety plan, load tags on the lifting accessories, periodic inspection reports for hoists and accessories with the Ministry registration number and inspection date, the venue's rigging point capacity and its approval of your plan, and the outdoor wind threshold together with the name of the person authorised to stop work. Fill in those twelve lines and rigging stops being a hoped-for item and becomes a calculated one. Tales Event is based in Istanbul and delivers truss, staging, sound, lighting and LED screen installation with a single crew across Turkey for dealer meetings, product launches, gala nights, openings and graduation ceremonies. Send us the venue, the ceiling height and the equipment you want in the air, and we will come back with a span plan, a load breakdown and a hoist count.
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