Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - 9-14 May 2025

Events

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Dubai - PALME, the Middle East’s professional sound, light, audio-visual and systems integration exhibition, is offering PLASA members a 25% discount off its space-only rate until 1 September 2003 (inclusive), or a 15% discount off the space-only rate thereafter.

There are strong reasons to justify attending: the Middle East continues to present the professional lighting and sound industries with significant market potential and is the world’s fastest growing tourist destination, predicted to attract 68.5 million tourists by 2020 - an annual growth rate of 7.1%, well above the world average of 4.1%.The region, and the UAE in particular, continue to invest huge sums in new, architecturally-driven initiatives which require state-of-the-art facilities to be competitive. Projects in development include the Kempinski Hotel on The Palm island (US$50 million); The Gardens s

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Germany - The Major One is Lightpower's new single-channel dimmer, dedicated to be used directly with the luminaire. It provides an ideal solution when using single units positioned remotely or over long distances with decentralized dimming and control systems. This makes the dimmer mainly suitable for exhibitions and fairs. With its address, limit, switch and level function the operation of the Major One is straightforward: the light intensity can be adjusted on the dimmer itself without an external control, and in case of a circuit break, all data will remain available.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Renkus-Heinz - Banner - May 2025

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Belgium - When Belgium’s Minister of Culture announced that 2003 was to be the year of Jacques Brel (one of the country’s great modern singer/songwriters in the French language), plans immediately got underway to ensure that events staged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Belgian singer’s death would attract the attention of the world.

One of the key features is an exhibition charting Brel’s life. Stan Colders of Nexus Creative People was commissioned to design the exhibition, his ideas relying heavily on theatrical techniques - lighting, video and set dressing - mixed with artefacts from Brel’s childhood. The ‘set’ incorporates the house where Brel grew up, taking the visitor on a journey from Brussels to Paris, to a recreation of his Parisian room where he wrote many of his songs. Visitors can also re-live Brel’s last co

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Positive feedback from Members to new-style Association Day

PLASA hosted its 2003 Association Day and Annual General Meeting on Friday 6 June, in the impressive surroundings of the historic Coombe Abbey Hotel, near Coventry.

The PLASA Association Day is designed to incorporate the Association's AGM into a full day's activity, offering PLASA Members an event that is both useful and enjoyable, as PLASA's managing director Matthew Giffiths outlined: "We've made a conscious effort in recent years to get away from the focus on the AGM: this meeting is a legal formality for an Association, and is itself over very quickly. The real value of the Association Day then arises from the seminars, discussions, networking and entertainment which follow - all of which is heavily subsidized by the Association and is there for members to take up."

The AGM itself provided the opport

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UK - Innovations set to have a major impact throughout the building and construction industry will be given pride of place at Interbuild 2004. New Product Zones are being introduced in four dedicated areas of the exhibition (which takes place at the Birmingham NEC from April 25-29), and each of the items featured will be automatically entered for a new product award. There will be seven categories - Best Lighting and Electrical Product, Best Interior Product, Best Exterior Product, Best On-Site Product, Energy Efficiency Award, Disability Access Award and Best Overall Product.

Steve Webb, event director for Interbuild said: "Interbuild has always been regarded within the industry as the perfect place to introduce new ideas, and we feel it is only right to give them a greater profile. That's why we have devised a scheme to promote the new products before and during the event

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USA - Entertainment Design magazine presented its annual EDDY Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of entertainment design and technology at a special 'Salute to New York Theatre' ceremony held on Friday 27 June at the John Jay College Theatre in New York. The Awards were presented in conjunction with the Broadway Lighting Master classes and the first Broadway Sound Master Classes.

The 2003 winners were set designer John Lee Beatty, projection designer Elaine McCarthy, sound designer Dan Moses Schreier, production electrician Mike LoBue, noted director Mary Zimmerman's design team (Dan Ostling, Mara Blumenfeld, T.J. Gerckens), and Theatre Projects Consultants.

Winning lighting products included City Theatrical's WDS Wireless Dimming System, Entertainment Technology's IPS Intelligent Raceway, Electronic Theatre Controls' Emphasis control system, Martin Professional

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UK - Last year £50 million was spent converting a former steelworks near Sheffield into the Magna science and exhibition space. In September, Tidy Events is intending to carve this huge space into seven zones, load in full colour lasers, sound and lighting, then add the world's top-name DJs to create a huge dance event catering for 5,000 clubbers.

Tidy has delivered its fair share of groundbreaking and unique events - from a 72-hour dance party in the depths of Wales to filling London's biggest dance club to capacity - and Magna 7 is set to be one of their most impressive yet.

The seven arenas will boast a myriad of sounds and styles and are divided into the Main Arena, the Face of Steel, Funky Bubble, Hardcore Bubble, Digital Entertainment Zone, Retail World, Chill-Out Zone, and the VIP Space Pod. This exclusive zone floats several storeys in the air and is accessed by a hig

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Switzerland - For the ninth consecutive year, US-based manufacturer Shure has been chosen as the official supplier of microphones and wireless systems for the Montreux Jazz Festival. Providing nearly 50 U2 premium wireless systems and over 1,000 additional pieces of audio equipment, such as the company's venerable SM58 and KSM studio condenser mics, Shure will take the stage at numerous festival stages including the celebrated Auditorium Stravinski, Miles Davis Hall, and Casino Barriere. In addition, Shure will also be providing 24-hour, behind-the-scenes technical support for the duration of the festival.

Faced with the challenge of accurately capturing the variety of onstage performances at Montreux, Shure Europe marketing director Ron Marchant said: "With almost a decade of experience to our credit, we've carefully tailored each venue's microphone offerings to the expres

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UK - As part of the PLASA Show relaunch, this year's event will see increased facilities dedicated to technicians with the introduction of The PLASA Production Village. This will incorporate The PLASA Crew Zone supported by Total Production magazine, and The PLASA Backstage Area, organized by the PSA (Production Services Association).

Placed on the Top Deck overlooking the main hall, the area will offer a number of facilities and services. The PLASA Crew Zone will offer a place to relax, furnished with two internet-ready computers sponsored by StageAccess.com, where visitors will be able to catch up with old friends by registering with StageAccess.com. The PLASA Backstage Area, organized by the PSA, will offer demonstrations and the opportunity for 'hands-on' use of products. Companies involved last year included Le Maitre, AC Lighting, Tomcat, Stage Technologies, TMB, Marquee

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UK - Autograph Sales is hosting a programme of regional UK one-day Meyer Sound Technology training courses in late August, which are free of charge to everyone who registers at the website below before August 15. The courses, taught by Meyer Sound's technical training and seminars director Mauricio Ramirez, are scheduled to take place at The Helix, Dublin City University, on August 25; Audio Alliance North, Manchester, on August 26; B&H Sound Services, Peterborough, on August 28; and Capital Sound, London, on August 29. A fifth seminar is also planned to take place the same week in Edinburgh, details of which will appear on the website once confirmed.

The seminar will encompass such topics as phase alignment, delays, filters, line array theory and conventional loudspeaker arrays, as well as acoustic prediction and measurement techniques. Lunch and refreshments will be included d

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Avolites featured the Diamond 4 Elite lighting console, first seen at LDI in Las Vegas last year. This is a scaled-down version of the original D4, and features include 14 submasters and 96 assigned playbacks, with direct access to 96 fixtures via Legend Cells (re-assignable preset playbacks). Also on the Avo stand was the RADlite digital media server - controllable by any DMX desk (in this case an Azure Shadow). This video and digital effects package can be mixed and output from any lighting desk. It can be run as a video source for any show, either independently from the main video IMAG and playback production, or fully integrated with other video media as required. RADlite combines any number of images and vector shapes with digital video, colour backgrounds and text. Controlled just like a moving light, it allows the operator to apply masks like colours, shapes and effects (e.g. rota

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Most theatres would give their right arm for a fully automated powered flying rig, but not every theatre can afford the expense of automation, so Stagemate, developed by Bader of Germany and distributed in the UK by Triple E, will certainly help. It's an inexpensive and easy method of motorizing existing hand-operated counterweight rigging systems. Installed on the flyrail and in place of the existing rope brake, Stagemate allows a single person to control several hand lines.

With this system, the existing hand-operated counterweight rigging system is retained, and it can be moved to enable different lines to be motorized for different productions. Stagemate offers variable speed travel for both individual lines and groups, with speeds of up to 1.2m/s. The provision of a remote control console ensures the fly-man can have an optimum view of the stage. As with all the best inventions,

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Trantec's UK distributor Orbital had on stand the S6000 miniature radio mic. Based on the award-winning S5000 series, the S6000 has been developed from the ground up by Trantec's in-house R&D team, who have worked with end users to produce a system tailored to theatre and broadcast applications.

The miniature transmitter has a profile smaller than a credit card and is housed in a robust aluminium case. It features new 'compander' technology to deliver the audio quality required, and by virtue of its LCD panel, clearly displays gain on power up and the unit's operating frequency. An IR port allows gain and frequency to be configured either manually or remotely from a PDA. The S6000RX receiver is a slimline 2U 19" chassis, which can hold up to eight channel receiver cards. Each channel's bandwidth covers 72MHz, enabling the user to tune from the top of channel 62 to the bottom of ch

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Doughty has launched a range of Lighting Hoists. Although pretty lightweight themselves, these new hoists can handle loads of up to 140kg. Their minimal 'closed height' allows them to be installed in studios with limited headroom, or alternatively to give maximum overhead working height when stowed. By adding one or more pantographs to the system, optimum flexibility and control of individual luminaires can be achieved. Since the hoist will also accept programmable position control, studio time savings can be considerable.

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UK - After a lack of bookings earlier in the year, which forced a rethink on the scale of this year's SBES, the organizers Point Promotions report that the event has now sold out. And, if demand for additional space continues, show organizer Dave McVittie hopes to be able to negotiate extra space with the venue, taking the exhibition back up in scale once more.

The economic down-turn, coupled with the change of venue, clearly gave some long-term exhibitors pause for thought before booking stand space this year. However good it may be, realistically the new venue represents something of an unknown for some, and extra thinking time was clearly needed before bookings were made. Now however, most established exhibitors, and some new ones, are on board.

Amongst the confirmed exhibitors are Canford Audio, De Wolfe Sound Effects Services (exhibiting for the first time), HHB, ntl, P

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ProTrac is an upgraded fly-bar system designed for those situations where a simple bar or ladder beam no longer meets the requirements. For instance, if the uniformly distributed load needs to be upgraded from 300 to 500kg and the point load from 40 to 150/200kg, the normal fly-bar does not have the required strength. Therefore, the single round tube is often replaced with ladder beams, usually made from steel. ProTrac offers a better alternative than the steel ladder beams, thanks to its combination of an aluminium extruded square profile, underneath which a round tube of 60mm or 48.3mm is attached. Suspension points slide into the square profile and can be locked at any position, and flexibility comes from the fact that several lengths can be easily connected.

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Further fuelling the control integration between different visual medias, James Thomas Engineering launched Pixeldrive, a highly innovative new video software-based control system for its Pixel fixtures.

Pixeldrive is the result of a collaboration between JTE's own R&D department and IRAD, the developers of the RADlite digital media server. The end-product is a control system which allows the synchronization of digital media to JTE's high brightness Pixelline 1044 battens and other pixelrange products. When running, this will enable visual sequences to be run across both lighting and video media. One of the main bonuses is in the time this will save - Pixeldrive can reduce the pre-production process from hundreds of hours of complex programming to just minutes. For example, to programme a water ripple effect across a bank of Pixellines would take about 30 seconds of programming.

Th

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Litestructures showed its Chromadeck LED-based colour changing dancefloor system: first seen as a prototype at PLASA last year, but now revised and in full production, the 600mm x 600mm x 195mm Chromadeck panel is a hybrid of Litestructures' Litedeck and Pulsar's Chromapanel. As many as 12 Chromadeck units can be powered by one ChromaZone controller, which, in turn, will interface with any DMX lighting control desk.

Litestructures' Adrian Brooks is confident it will be a best seller: "I'm certain that we'll initially see an explosion of Chromadecks in nightclubs because of its versatility and value for money. It's a simple way to add a new dimension to your flooring needs, whether you're looking for a permanent installation, or want to rent it for a set number of weeks. So many people think that to create effective lighting designs you have to hang fixtures from ceilings and walls

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Large format projection specialists E/T/C UK Ltd showed the Pigi 'S' 500 projector, along with a range of accessories for the theatre market. This new projector uses a 2.5k HMI lamp and includes CMY colour mixing, an internal dimming shutter and DMX control of all its functions. Accessories now include single and double film scrolling, as well as the traditional AMD-32 Slidechanger, a manual slidechanger, and dimming control is also available for less complex applications. A wide range of Barco objective lenses is also available, offering improved optical performance.

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Stagetec showed the first production model of Compulite's Vector lighting console, previewed at PLASA last year. This features an integrated CAD package and enhanced paperwork capabilities and is designed to take the operator from concept to closing night in one user-friendly workstation. Also on show, was LSC's Minim desk, a budget-priced 12- or 24-channel memory desk, and the LSC Maxim series of fader-based consoles.

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There were 11 new products from High End and Flying Pig: whilst many were developments of existing products, two - both prototypes - were very definitely on show for the first time. The ColorCommand colour mixing Par is a versatile, but simple, compact incandescent washlight which will give the end user considerable freedom in colour mixing and beam size. Anywhere you'd currently use a Par can, Fresnel or PC, you can use ColorCommand. It uses an innovative (and patented) dichroic colour mixing system that colours the whole beam simultaneously, ensuring a smooth, even field. The end result is a huge range of colours - from subtle pastels to deep saturates and everything inbetween. The colour media used is dichroic borosilicate glass, so it won't fade or change colour, nor will there be gel scrolls to worry about.

The second new product, ColorMerge, is an attachment that adds full dichro

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If the latest show is anything to go by, the future of the ABTT show is secure. In a year when exhibitions as a breed are facing numerous challenges, the ABTT Show confirmed its position as the UK theatre industry's annual showcase and its main networking opportunity.

The show has grown from a small niche event at The Donmar Warehouse, to one which now fills London's Royal Horticultural Halls to capacity and is attended by over 2,300 visitors from around Europe. Appropriately enough for its 25th anniversary, this year's event was a sell-out show, with a record number of exhibitors - over 100 - showcasing both products and services for the theatre and live performance industries.

Numerous new product launches took place across the show floor, including the relaunch of ADB's impressive Axis luminaire, first seen at PLASA last year, but rebranded for ABTT to avoid confusion with another

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Harlequin showed its new range of Liberty floor panels, with the stand featuring 'touring' panel versions of the Liberty sprung dance floors.

As readers of L&SI may recall, Harlequin's Liberty floors have recently been installed at Laban, London's new purpose-built (and Europe's largest) contemporary dance facility.

There was also a new version of Harlequin's Activity Floor, now available with a choice of oak, beech and maple finishes.

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ETC is supplying a free Headlock with every Source Four sold in the UK until the end of August. Designed by Nigel Hollowell Howard of HH Solutions, the Headlock slips over the yoke of the Source Four preventing the securing bolt rotating independently from the lantern. It's a partial Health and Safety measure in that the operator/focuser requires only one wrench or spanner, as opposed to two to tighten the hook clamp.

The Headlock can save as many as 30 seconds for each lantern you lock off by requiring only one spanner for all - or one hour for 120 lanterns. By reducing the number of tools required it becomes easier to work with them on lanyards and makes focusing safer for anyone below. The Headlock won the ABTT Product of the Year Award in 2001 and has sold more than 4,500 to date.

  1. ABTT 2003 - WYSIWYG prizes presented at ABTT
  2. ABTT 2003 - Zero88 regional roadshows
  3. ABTT 2003 - New chain hoist from Unusual
  4. ABTT 2003 - PCM Unibar
  5. ABTT 2003 - Hall Stage HoldOn
  6. ABTT 2003 - Successful launch for DHA at ABTT Show
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PLASA Leeds 2025 - Large MPU - April 2025
Showlight (Tickets) - MPU - Jan 2025

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