In the 25 + years that we've worked in the live events & TV/Film industry, it would be fair to say we've seen and created almost every effect you could think of.
With this comes a huge amount of varying & specific equipment. During lockdowns we've come to realise that we have far too much of this equipment to keep to ourselves and it's time to share this amongst industry professionals and even collectors.
These items include Ex-Demo/Hire & Pre-Loved equipment in the form of full size replica Pirate Cannons, all the way to Ex-Demo Snow Machines.
A full sized pirate ship cannon, replica. This was used as an effect for a Captain Morgan’s advertisement campaign. Just one of our many weird & wonderful Pre-Loved items.
View all our Pre-Loved
equipment here
Confetti Master Blasters require no electric mains power and produce a continuous stream of falling confetti. This is what makes them a firm favourite when it comes to live events and music shows.
View/Buy the
If you've ever been to a festival or concert and witnessed a huge amount of confetti and streamers during a performance, then there's a very strong chance you've seen the stadium shots in action. These Confetti Cannons fire up to 50mtrs!!
View or buy the Stadium Shot Confetti Cannons here
We have a very small handful of large 15" Plasma Balls left in stock. These interactive lightning globes are super cool to touch and look at.
View or buy the Ex-Demo Plasma Balls here
We’ve had some exciting, high voltage equipment heading out the door this week.
Our vibrant blue, interactive Plasma Panel is on its way to its new home within the UK whilst 2 of our new 15 Inch Large Plasma Balls are making their way to the City of Arts & Science museum in Valencia, Spain. We’ve worked closely with the museum in previous years, supplying them with various high voltage props and equipment. Our most exciting and largest project was the installation of an SG75 Tesla coil. Housed within a large faraday cage , the Tesla Coil can be found in the museums “Electricity Theatre”
We stock a wide variety of High voltage equipment props for both sale and hire. If you have any questions or are perhaps looking for a custom designed product, please do get in touch.
After having a recent sort out here at HVFX and to make way for our new stock of Plasma Balls, we thought it would be time to let our much loved ex-hire and demo plasma globes find a new home where they can continue to amaze viewers with their vibrant lightning displays. Introducing MTFX Pre-Loved High Voltage Equipment!!
All our equipment has been professionally maintained and well looked after, with most of our equipment seeing very little use. Not only will you find a premium quality plasma ball, you’ll also find a bargain.
We will be continuously adding to this new section of our shop site, but If there is anything you can’t seem to find on our pre-loved page, get in touch with us and we’ll try our very best to help.
Check out our Pre-Loved Plasma Balls here
The BBC One Show’s, Rory Reid stopped by our High Voltage Lab to help explain what happens when lightning strikes an aeroplane during flight. Unfortunately for him, this involved a few minutes in our Faraday cage (also known as the cage of Death) to show exactly what happens.
This experiment involved 2 large Tesla Coils to produce around 1 Million volts of electricity.
When the cage is struck by the lightning, rather than it passing through the cage, it is instead conducted around the cage. This keeping the objects within the cage, or in this case the person safe while the electricity travels around them.
Click the video to view the full segment.
Want more information?
The Brightarcs Musical Tesla Coil is a musically modulated, highly advanced, high voltage piece of equipment which can be used as a single unit or as a pair. 500,000 volts are used to produce the sparks that create the sound you hear. The coil can be programmed to play a variety of melodies and songs with the option to be connected to a number of instruments.
The Musical Tesla is an impressive piece of kit. Its dynamic lightning and sound offer a unique experience for its audience. The coil has been implemented in to many events, displays and as permanent installations at attractions around the world.
We’ve been playing around with a number of our favourite songs recetly. Here’s one of them.
If you'd like to use Tesla coil systems in your business get in touch.
The hair raising Van de Graaff Generator is always a popular special effect during this time of year. As the summer holidays commence, our High Voltage machine heads out to various summer camps, science events and ingenious bespoke projects that are in need of some static hair action.
A Van de Graaff Generator is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to build up very high amounts of electrical charge on a hollow metal globe. When a hand is placed on to the globe the electrostatic begins to work its magic. As a tingly feeling flows through the user, hair begins to rise, creating an ingenious effect.
If you’d like to find out more information on hiring the Van de Graaff then get in contact with our Ingenious team who will help discuss your needs and answer any questions you may have.
You heard that right!
Would you like to gain valuable qualifications at Cirencester College whilst learning a unique trade working in the TV/Film Industries?
We are getting busier and busier so we're looking to expand our team of INGENIOUS special effects technicians and engineers.
If you have experience of providing ingenious engineering ideas and solutions we would love to hear from you.
We have some very exciting news to break in the New Year!
Following our expansion into Wales in 2017, MTFX have acquired new premises at the Bottle Yard studios in Bristol.
A comfortable meeting space, offices and storage mean we can provide even more ingenious Special Effects in Bristol and The Southwest and get closer to our valued customers.
In our 25 years as an internationally renowned Special Effects Company, Bristol and The Southwest has always been an important hub for many of our projects. We are one of the biggest local providers of Snow, Pyrotechnics, Wind, Rain, Fire effects and everything in between.
We’ve been a part of many ingenious productions at The Bottle Yard such as Poldark and The White Princess including this Ingenious Snow Scene we created for Sky One’s Trollied.
If you’ve got a TV/Film production at the Bottleyard, Bristol or in the Southwest – Get in touch!
MTFX had another fantastic year promoting our Ingenious Special Effects at The Showman’s Show.
Matthew and Tom met loads of exciting people from the Outdoor Events Industry.
We exhibited our Ingenious Snow Range by crafting a stunning Trade Stand using our outdoor artificial Snow Effects such as our Snow Underlay, laid over with our Bio Degradable Fake Snow Paper Snow Standard and our Ingenious Tree Waxing Machine to decorate our Christmas Trees with an Ingenious Snow Wax effect.
We also had our Snow Mini Foam Snow Machine for special demos controlled by DMX from the safety of our Chalet, catching people by surprise!
And our Showstopper the MTFX Smoke Bubble Machine, an Ingenious concept creating a high adjustable output of up to approx. 6000 smoke filled bubbles a minute.
To find out more about our Ingenious Indoor and Outdoor Snow Special Effects, our Snow Machine Hire or our New Ingenious Smoke Bubble Machine for your events. Contact MTFX today!
As part of our HVFX Brand we’ve got some rather Ingenious, Hair Raising Electrostatic Effects!
Our Van De Graaff Generators are the perfect attraction for your Show or event. We’ve used them for a huge range of clients over the years from Music Videos to Science Fairs, Parties, TV adverts, Performances and more!
A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to build up very high amounts of electrical charge on a hollow metal globe most commonly used to make peoples hair stand on end.
Our highly skilled technicians will not only come out and operate the devices for you - keeping everyone safe whilst creating the optimum effect, but are also on hand to discuss your needs and requirements prior to your booking.
Contact Us Today to find out more.
We don’t just do Van De Graaff Generators; we have a wide range of High Voltage Effects from magnificent Tesla Coils, to Plasma Balls and more. Check out more of our High Voltage Special Effects Here
The Brightarcs Musical Tesla Coil is a highly advanced Tesla Coil which can be programmed to play music. Set up to work with a wide range of options from keyboards to programmed tunes and melodies, this uniquely Ingenious effect will amuse, wow and entertain for hours!
The Brightarcs Musical Tesla Coil is a highly advanced Tesla Coil which can be programmed to play music. Set up to work with a wide range of options from keyboards to programmed tunes and melodies, this uniquely Ingenious effect will amuse, wow and entertain for hours!
Crank up the volume and wow your colleagues with this Ingenious Jam Session.
MTFX have proudly opened a new office in Wales!
As a UK Based Internationally Renowned Special Effects Company, we are so proud to have worked on many Ingenious Welsh Productions and recognise the importance and value of the Welsh Film, TV and Events industry.
The significance of the Welsh Film/TV industry has been internationally recognised and especially in UK Government.
“Wales is an amazing centre of creativity. The Welsh broadcasting market reflects everything from S4C’s Welsh language provision to news and current affairs programmes and the ever-expanding range of high-quality drama and entertainment formats." Steven Crabb – Secretary of State for Wales.
With such a booming TV and Film and Events industry, not to mention some of the incredible venues such as The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Caerphilly Castle, The Liberty Stadium Swansea, Cardiff Castle, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena. Also the countless sporting events we have attended including 6 Nations Rugby. Working in Wales has always been an exciting prospect to us as a company.
Our value in the Welsh market has been recognised across the board working with BBC Wales, S4C and more. Here are some of the Welsh productions we’ve been a part of to name a few:
TV/Film/Advertising
Live Events
That’s why we have decided to invest in a new office just outside of Cardiff. This enables us to spend valuable time getting to know our Welsh clients, providing a new comfortable and welcoming facility where we can run our business and meet with customers new and old.
If you’re a Welsh based production company why not give us a call or send us an email? See our Contact Us Page
A stunning visual effect, our 15” Plasma Balls are an easy to use, plug and play interactive wonder. These beautiful glass spheres, mounted on a well finished wooden base are filled with rare gasses which react with electricity to create beautiful bolts and streams of plasma.
The attractive glow of the mysterious globe makes the perfect centrepiece to any darkened space, perfect for museums or as educational props.
Our Plasma Balls have been used by a huge range of clients from private events to TV productions and adverts.
To purchase, please click here.
Or to enquire about Hire’s click here.
When operating Tesla Coils and other special effects in the UK and around the world, training is such an important part of what we do here at MTFX.’
Not only does it keep our technicians, our clients and the public safe, it also means that we have the best expert knowledge to produce the INGENIOUS effects we do.
We spent some time "Tesla Training" our newer colleagues as well as a recap for those more experienced. Tom Lock & Jake White were brave enough to try the Faraday Cage!
To find out more about our Tesla Coils and all of our other ingenious High Voltage effects, click here
Staff at ‘On Events’ were thrilled to witness HVFX lighting up their brand re-launch at the Nottingham Contemporary. HVFX showcased the Lightning Man stunt, featuring a chain mail clad stunt performer who is electrified and then able to fire bolts of lightning from his fingertips. The performance, set to music, wowed the onlookers, who were then able to join in the high voltage fun with a ‘Cage of Death’
Several of the staff were brave enough to lock themselves into the metal sarcophagus shaped cage and watch as lightning bolts connect just inches from their bodies.
HVFX were delighted to take the opportunity to work with Katy Perry during her live performance on BBC1’s ‘Let’s Dance for Sport Relief’ show. Thrilling the audience with her song ‘Part of me’, Miss Perry was surrounded by twelve large plasma balls and four plasma columns, topped off by her own laser display; the ensemble made for an electrifying show.
The vibrant colours of the plasma balls and columns were echoed by the pink and blue stage lights, making the whole vision a show to remember.
HVFX was asked to provide some hair raising special effects for the latest Beecham “breathe clear” Menthol commercial. This involved HVFX providing a number of Van de Graaff generators to lift the artists hair on cue as required. It was certainly a hair raising production!
HVFX has recently completed the installation of an SG75 Tesla coil in a museum in Valencia, Spain. This latest order follows on from an order from the museum for electrical bolt guns and large Jacob's ladders that we fulfilled last year. We are proud to have been able to supply the museum twice and believe that the repeat order reflects well on our customer service and ability to supply high quality electrostatic effects.
HVFX were excited at being asked to provide a Tesla coil to provide a lightning effect to strike a Porsche 911 Sport Classic and a Porsche Boxter Spyder for the BBC's Top Gear programme at 24 hours' notice.
The Tesla coil was set up close to the cars and the cars were repeatedly struck by lightning bolts up to 3 mtrs in length. Despite the cars being struck with the lightning they were completely undamaged and could be immediately driven away – proving that your car really is the safest place to be in a thunder storm!
In the one-off show for Bravo Television, Gavin Henson had to decide if he would take part in an experiment where he would be hit by lightning.
To help him make his decision production brought in high voltage experts HVFX to provide a variety of equipment to demonstrate the effects of lightning. They fired electricity through a pig carcass, ignited a tent and a garden shed and demonstrated that a car really is the safest place to be in a thunder storm!
The finale of the show saw the Welsh rugby ace taking part in a stunt that saw 750,000 volts shoot towards his skull, in complete safety.
After the show Gavin Henson said: “I came face to face with my own death in this extremely dangerous experiment, and used every ounce of personal strength I had to see it through to the very end. I confronted it in the same way I face my opponents on the rugby pitch … head on. Except this time I knew I could lose everything.”
The team at HVFX was very excited at the prospect of installing a series of air effects and a large Tesla coil at Alton Towers for the exciting new ride, Th13teen.
The air effects are used to scare the ride users as they plunge down into the abyss. The air effects were custom made with precision control to allow the effect to be accurately repeated each time.
The Tesla coil, positioned inside a Faraday Cage within the queue area for the ride, will emit a lightning bolt 1 metre in length. It has also been installed with a custom made controller to allow it to fire the effect for 5 seconds every minute in complete safety.
As with all of MTFX effects, they have been designed for an extremely high duty cycle and will be working continuously for years to come.
To experience these effects, why not spend some time at Alton Towers this summer?!
HVFX recently provided lightning effects at the Royal Mail's launch of the Royal Society Commemorative Stamps. We shot the whole sequence at HVFX’s new warehouse on a very tight deadline.
HVFX supplied 3 different Cages of Death (or Faraday cages) for a recent Most Haunted Live. We placed three people into three different cages – sarcophagus-shaped, coffin-shaped and tube-shaped – and fired 750,000 volts at them. The results were safe but spectacular!
HVFX supplied a number of different high voltage special effects to Raging Planet for the Discovery channel to demonstrate how lightning works. This involved firing lightning over a mannequin dummy, showing how lightning can blow off someone shoes, blow bark off a tree and hit telephone wires and cause fires.
HVFX supplied all the high voltage special effects for the highly popular series Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections produced for the National Geographic channel. We were able to guide Richard through safely using our Voltrex stunt suit, which enabled him to control lightning with his fingers. He fired 500,000 volts into the air and a local earthing point. He remarked how great it would be to be a super hero with these powers. We are proud to be part of such a successful show.
HVFX provided all the high voltage special effects for the Red Bull X-Fighters finale at Battersea Power Station recently. Because Battersea Power Station is a Grade II listed structure, special close liaison with the authorities and owners was required.
We are delighted to announce we have just completed our move to a new and larger purpose-built unit at our existing premises. The move means we now have space to have a permanent display of Tesla coils so customers can see them in action. And because all our contact details are staying the same, we won't have any of the usual difficulties associated with a move to new premises.
HVFX has just completed a permanent installation in Granada, Spain for a science museum. It involved a standard SG75 tesla coil, controller and a domed Faraday cage.
MTFX High Voltage Special Effects:
Velt House
Velt House Lane
Elmore
Gloucester
GL2 3NY
Telephone:
+44 (0)1452 729903
Email:
info@mtfx.com
