Abstract: An elevating system especially designed for raising and lowering battens used in stages. The elevating system preferably uses two or more winch assemblies with synchronous motors coupled together in parallel to an AC inverter to provide smooth, ramped starting and stopping of the winch assemblies as well as torque boost, speed boost, and electric braking. Each winch assembly is provided with numerous safety features such as overload and underload protection, automatic releveling of the batten, thermal overload protection and cable drum lock protection.