UK - PLASA is set to host a Member Business Forum at the Victory Services Club in London on Wednesday 29 March. The forum will feature guest speakers to discuss ways of building culture, continuity and resilience.
PLASA members can attend the forum free-of-charge, with up to two members of your team able to attend. Non-members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets from Monday 13 March for £55+VAT.
The Member Business Forum will offer an afternoon of keynote talks from respected business leaders, followed by an evening of networking and drinks. Attendees will gain actionable advice on how to improve their business practices. Plus, they will meet like-minded industry professionals.
William Rogers MBE has been confirmed as the keynote speaker to deliver a talk on Leading Culture Change. He appeared in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Leader of a mid-siz

USA - Since the opening of the ICP Production Centre in Atlanta, In Concert Productions founder, Jay Rabbit, has been looking at expansion opportunities. The 30,000sq.ft facility is set to double in size by March 2024. The larger facility is predicted to offset production costs while creating jobs.
Rabbitt founded In Concert Productions (ICP) in the late 1970s. While the company was built on providing sound production and audio services, ICP quickly scaled into a full-service event production company. Its clients include the 1996 Olympics and Coca-Cola to long-standing television shows like Family Feud.
According to Rabbitt, ICP’s success stems from a commitment to being a one-stop service provider. “We provide an experience that the clients in LA and New York are used to getting. We make it easy for them,” he explains. The ICP Production Centre was inspir

USA - Jetbuilt has announced a strengthened global footprint through new software enhancements, strategic developer partnerships and a worldwide team.
In 2015, Jetbuilt was established to accelerate projects and simplify collaboration for AV professionals. Jetbuilt has evolved from a simple sales tool to an end-to-end project management solution.
“As a commercial integrator in Southern California, I identified the need for a cloud-based platform that empowered fast collaboration,” said Paul Dexter, founder and chief executive officer of Jetbuilt. “At the time, there were a handful of AV software vendors and the community of integrators, including myself, had stressed the need to modernise their technology for the future of collaboration. They resisted strongly. Jetbuilt was established to not only fill that void but build a solution that would never stop listen

USA - Wisycom SRL has announced a corporate restructuring that will enhance its business in the Americas. Among the changes is the opening of Wisycom, Inc., its new U.S.-based facility, which will give the company a larger and more active channel into the Americas. Led by the newly appointed vice president of sales and marketing, John Kowalski, the new office will allow the team to better support the brand’s growth in the region.
As a division of Wisycom SRL, Wisycom, Inc. gives customers in the region a more direct connection to the brand’s sales, support and administrative personnel. “Wisycom has grown tremendously in the United States, especially over the past year, and we found these changes necessary to help nurture and expand our business,” says Massimo Polo, CEO of Wisycom SRL. “With the restructuring, I am also pleased to welcome John [Kowalski] to our te

UK – Electric Airshows, the new company offering aerial drone light shows to the UK events industry, has announced its membership of PLASA, the UK-based Professional Lighting and Sound Association, and ARPAS-UK, the only trade association focused on the UK drone community.
Electric Airshows, which officially announced its arrival at the start of 2023, has been a long time in development. Headed by two well-known figures from the entertainment production industry, Chris Crockford and Ian Lomas, the company is now offering an initial fleet of 100 drones, purchased from leading Chinese drone show specialist, DAMODA Intelligent Control Technology. The company plans to reach a total of 500 drones – the limit allowed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – by mid-2023, making it a major player in the UK’s emerging drone show market.
In being accepted by PLASA

Coronation Concert - A ballot has opened for 10,000 free tickets for a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle to mark the King's coronation. The televised show will be on 7 May, the day after King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey. The BBC has promised the line-up will feature "musical icons and contemporary stars". There are 5,000 pairs of tickets in the ballot, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will close on 28 February. The tickets would be allocated based on the geographical spread of the UK population, the BBC said, with those successful notified by late April.
The castle's east lawn would see "a world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favourites fronted by fantastic entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance and the arts", the BBC said. It "will also feature a selection of spoken-word sequences delivered by stars of stage and s

India - One of India’s fastest growing live event service providers, Global Production Services (GPS), has added a Martin Audio WPC line array to its inventory, becoming the first company in India to invest in the system.
The system was supplied and will be supported by Vardhaman Megatech Pvt (VMT), Martin Audio’s Indian distributor.
GPS’ portfolio spans prominent Bollywood music events, award ceremonies, political rallies, corporate functions and more as well as conventional live gigs.
“We have always placed great pride in the quality of technical equipment and expertise that we provide for our shows,” states GPS director Saurabh Ayare. “We’d been wanting to expand our inventory for some time and after experiencing WPC we knew right away that this system would be the perfect addition to our inventory. We were extremely impressed with the quality of

UK - 22live has invested in three Outline Newton units as part of their initial hire inventory. The Midlands-based company have hit the ground running, having already supplied touring systems for The Australian Pink Floyd Show and Sigur Rós as well as completing a run of O2 Arena shows with UK rapper D-Block Europe.
Technical director Simon Gladstone comments, “We are using Newton as our front-end processor with the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision series. The Newton lives in the FOH drive rack, sending PA returns to the Martin Audio IK42 amplifiers at stage end via our Dante enabled fibre backbone which carries control and comms.”
22live’s ‘no legacy equipment’ approach has allowed them to create ‘state of the art drive racks’ which also feature MIPRO’s ACT-800 wireless system. This enables high quality wireless transmission of measurement mic signals

Indonesia - Ayrton has announced the appointment of PT Inti Megah Swara (IMS) as its new, exclusive distributor for Indonesia. IMS will be responsible for the sales and rental of the entire Ayrton product range in Indonesia. The appointment takes place with immediate effect
Established in 2000, IMS is the official distributor of many international brands of audio equipment, with a strong retail presence of approximately 40 Desound and JBL stores located across Indonesia. The company also has branch offices in Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Manado, Malang and Bali.
2022 saw a strategic decision from IMS to expand into professional lighting to better facilitate its customers in all aspects of production. Since this date, IMS has made both professional audio and professional lighting the main focuses of its business. This, in addition to its retail lines, enables the team

UK - Event venue ExCeL London has signed a new contract with audio-visual and entertainment technology company, Anna Valley. The new deal not only extends the organisations’ preferred partnership agreement, but also grants Anna Valley exclusive AV provider status in key parts of the venue - a move designed to strengthen ExCeL’s global congress and conference offering.
Anna Valley was first appointed as ExCeL’s preferred AV provider in December 2020. Despite the impact of the COVID pandemic on the industry at the time, the AV company invested in the staff, infrastructure and support network necessary to provide a hybrid event solution at ExCeL, and to support the return to live events over the following months. Since then, Anna Valley has delivered several international conferences and congresses at ExCeL.
“Over the last two years Anna Valley has demonstrated o

Switzerland – The LIT Lighting Design Awards is now accepting submissions for its annual event, recognising and celebrating the best in lighting design from around the world.
For the 7th edition, the LIT Lighting Design Awards is now featuring a new section dedicated to entertainment lighting design. This award is a billed as a cross-disciplinary platform from which to promote your designs to a truly international market’.
With 31 categories in architectural lighting design, 15 categories in entertainment lighting design and 44 categories in lighting product design represented, the programme aims to ‘unite creativity, and innovation’.
In 2022, the programme received over 650 submissions from 51 countries. L'Observatoire International was awarded the Lighting Design of the Year title for the Hermès’ collections at Milan Design Week 2022 and Expolight w

Hungary - What started as a two-employee TV and projector repair business has grown into a global pro AV operation, as Lightware Visual Engineering turns 25 years old in 2023. The manufacturer celebrated this milestone at ISE 2023 by introducing new corporate and several other vertical market AV solutions.
Lightware will also strengthen its lines of educational, defence and intelligence market solutions throughout the year, with many on display in Barcelona last week.
The celebration comes at a time of rapid company growth, with Lightware strengthening the security profiles of its product range as collaborative AV over IP applications continue to soar in popularity across the globe.
New advanced security features incorporated into Lightware’s products - like isolated ethernet networks and data diode technology – promise unidirectional signal data flow while m

New Zealand - Kramer has announced a distribution partnership in New Zealand with Westan NZ, one of the largest AV/IT media technology distributors headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
With this new partnership, Westan NZ will be able to market, distribute and support Kramer’s entire portfolio.
Marc Remond, Kramer president APAC says: “Partnering with a distributor as credible and professional as the team at Westan NZ makes me excited for the future of this collaboration. Together, customers in New Zealand will gain access to Kramer’s secure and reliable AV products, that is further boosted by the seamless support from Westan NZ, ultimately driving innovative audio-visual experiences that power creativity, collaboration, and engagement across New Zealand.”
Kam Aghtan, director Westan adds, “Kramer stands for a high level of innovation. The range of

France - Christie Mirage 4K40-RGB pure laser projectors have formed the centrepiece of a new extension to a research centre at IRCAD (Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l'Appareil Digestif) located within the University Hospital of Strasbourg, France. IRCAD 3 is the latest addition to the globally recognised surgical research and training institute, and the 2,400sq.m (26,000sq.ft) hub building dedicated to robotics.
AV integrator DEYA installed a pair of Christie Mirage 4K40-RGB projectors in its 237-seat auditorium, delivering 3D and leading colour reproduction required for specialist learning. A Christie Terra SDVOE-based AV-over-IP solution is used to power content at the auditorium, and the building features a host of IP-connected AV elements throughout, including speakers, microphones, digital signage and video conferencing technologies.
“The aims of t

UK - 22live has been appointed a d&b audiotechnik rental partner following a significant investment into their SL-Series.
Following 22live’s launch in January 2023 there has been a flurry of activity and excitement around the new start-up, and the team now behind the company. 22live was established in early 2022 by Paul Timmins, hire director, and has already gained recognition completing two significant tours and an O2 Arena production prior to its official launch.
In January it was announced that Spencer Beard and Alex Penn have also joined the team as managing director and commercial director respectively, completing the line-up which also comprises Stefan Phillips operations director and Simon Gladstone technical director.
Spencer Beard comments, “It was always the intention of 22live to stock two loudspeaker brands. The company made a strong start in

Europe - Obsidian Control Systems has announced that MTG (More Than Group), a growing AV equipment supplier based in Belgium, has been appointed the sole distributor for Obsidian products in Belgium and Luxembourg. The distribution agreement is effective as of 1 January, 2023.
Despite being a relatively new distribution company, MTG boasts considerable experience in the AV industry, with its team having over a century of collective expertise. MTG's co-founder, Micha Meijer, has been a key player in the lighting industry for over three decades, holding roles as a lighting operator/programmer, technician, and designer.
Micha, who previously worked extensively with a different lighting console brand, reached out to his long-time acquaintance Bert Schmeits at Elation Professional. After thoroughly evaluating Obsidian's full range of products, Micha attended training sess

Time Traveller - Beyoncé won a record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award, while Harry Styles won album of the year, at this year's ceremony in Los Angeles. Beyoncé made history as she won best dance/electronic album for her dance opus, Renaissance. In doing so, she overtook Hungarian-British conductor George Solti, whose record of 31 Grammys had stood for more than 20 years. Overall, Beyoncé won four prizes at the ceremony - but missed some of the early presentations after getting stuck in gridlocked downtown Los Angeles. "I'm surprised traffic could stop you," joked host Trevor Noah. "I thought you travelled through space and time."
Border Crossing - Eurovision's stage will use a design that demonstrates "how music can transcend borders and bring people together", the BBC has said. The song contest will take place at Liverpool Arena in May, with the city hosting th

UK - Theatres Trust, the charity that campaigns to protect the UK’s theatres, has published its annual Theatres at Risk Register, which highlights theatres across the UK under threat of closure, redevelopment or severe decay, but which all have the potential to be revived for their local communities.
Theatres Trust has removed three theatres from the list, which are no longer considered at risk due to advocacy, planning and viability advice from Theatres Trust, along with the vital support of their respective local authorities, theatre operators and community groups.
Century Theatre, a travelling theatre that toured the country in the post-war years, is now looking more secure in its permanent home in Coalville Leicestershire. It had been threatened by the redevelopment of its site and had been added to the Theatres at Risk Register in 2014, but it is n

UK - Now in its 15th year, PLASA Focus Leeds is set to return to the Royal Armouries for another year from 9-10 May. Free to attend, the popular regional event connects thousands of professionals with many of the biggest names in live entertainment technology.
With a sold-out show floor, PLASA Focus Leeds is set to be a powerful platform for networking and discovery. 150+ brands representing pro audio, AV, lighting, rigging and staging will span two halls, offering visitors to opportunity to see new products up close while speaking face to face with potential new suppliers.
Headline sponsor Ambersphere will showcase the latest from Astera, Ayrton, MA Lighting, Robert Juliat, and Zactrack. Lighting professionals can also look forward to meeting Artistic Licence, Avolites, Chauvet Professional, ETC, GLP UK, Robe, and Vari-Lite.
Top quality pro audio is also on offe

Spain - Returning to its normal January/February timeslot in the AV calendar, ISE 2023 had 58,107 attendees from 155 countries, alongside record-breaking occupation in the city’s hotels, bars and entertainment venues, and with exhibitors reporting ‘unparalleled footfall’ on booths across the show floor.
Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, commented: “It’s been an extraordinary week and it’s hugely gratifying for us to look back and realise we’ve delivered an exceptional show for our industry and the wonderful city of Barcelona.
“We’ve had unprecedented visitor levels to the show, so much inspiring content and features on display, and ground-breaking visits from the King of Spain on Tuesday and the President of Catalonia on Thursday to add both a royal and a political seal of approval to the show. This week at ISE 2023 confir

Italy - Chauvet Professional has appointed Zalight the exclusive distributor of its products in Italy.
"The timing of Chauvet and Zalight joining forces to develop the Italian market is spot on, as both companies share a similar vision and culture,” said Stéphane Gressier, international sales director of Chauvet. “We are thrilled to start this new adventure with Graziano Zanini and Luca Di Donato's team at Zalight. Antonio Parise, our business development manager EMEA, and Goran Doncic, our senior European business development manager EMEA, and the rest of the Chauvet team are looking forward to accomplishing great things with Zalight.”
Graziano Zanini, CEO of Zalight, is equally enthused about the new agreement, staging, “Chauvet Professional needs no introduction. It is a highly respected global brand with offices with universally recognized leadership, and

Spain - LED screen manufacturer Alfalite received the visit of His Majesty King Felipe VI on the first day of ISE. The Spanish manufacturer is exhibiting at the Digital Signage and DooH Zone in Hall 6 (stand 6H310).
Jesús Cabrera, CEO of Alfalite, was among the team welcoming Felipe VI. During his visit, Felipe VI praised Alfalite for their innovations in LED technology.
Jesús Cabrera says, "We feel honoured by the King’s visit to our company stand at ISE. We shared a brief talk about the company, its products and innovations. And we took the opportunity to invite him to visit our plant in Huelva."
The Spanish manufacturer has 20+ years of experience designing and manufacturing LED screens for advertising, shows, television and conference rooms with the most sophisticated technology. Its innovations for the display market include technologies like ORIM or Mo

Spain - Electronic musician and composer, Jean-Michel Jarre, and contemporary French artist Eric Decastro teamed up with Coda Audio to unveil Space by Coda at ISE 2023.
Space by Coda combines advanced AV technology with art ‘to create a seamless audio-visual experience that is scalable and adaptable to any environment – and where the mechanics of what is a concert-grade audio experience are rendered completely invisible’.
“Conventional AV solutions are often a compromise between technical requirements and visual aesthetics,” explains Coda founder and MD, Svetly Alexandrov. “High quality AV solutions usually include projector and/or LED screens, multiple loudspeakers, mounting accessories, and a lot of cables as well as acoustic absorbers and diffusors. This is usually at odds with the vision of the architect and/or interior designer who don’t want loudsp

Europe - Hall Technologies has announced a new distribution relationship with ADI Global Distribution, a global distributor of security, AV and low voltage products. ADI customers across EMEA will now have access to the comprehensive line of end-to-end pro AV solutions from Hall Technologies.
“As part of our global expansion strategy, we’ve partnered with ADI to bring our human-centric products to their clients. Hall’s focus is on truly understanding what customers need and offering top quality products to exceed those needs. We look to ADI as a key strategic partner to help us grow our brand and customer base in the region. We’re thrilled to collaborate with ADI and look forward to our mutual growth opportunities,” says Hall Technologies vice president of sales and marketing, Hal Truax.
"ADI remains committed to expanding our Pro AV portfolio of products and

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