Events

Clay Paky

Details: 14 March 2016

Clay Paky always has a major presence at SIB, and this year was no exception. The large stand, with its hands-on demonstrations of its leading Alpha range of moving head luminaires - not to mention its hospitality - was a hive of activity throughout the show. The Alpha range, first introduced at SIB two years previously, now offers lighting designers a choice of 10 units. The latest models added to the range are the Alpha Profile 1200 and the Alpha Wash 1200.

Baldwin Boxall

Details: 14 March 2016

Baldwin Boxall displayed brand new voice alarm products and a new range of microphones, as well as pouring a good pint of real ale at this year's show. Vigil EVAS is a range of DSP controlled voice alarm products, Vigil Eclipse2 is a cost-effective wall-mountable voice alarm or public address system, and BDM400 is a networkable range of paging microphones. If these products are as good as their hospitality is warm, then they are onto a winner.

Look Solutions

Details: 14 March 2016

Look Solutions had several foggers on display with some new products including the Low Fogger, exhibited as a prototype and shipping in a couple of months. The new Unique2 was also featured on the stand.

Studio Due

Details: 14 March 2016

Studio Due's Graziano Carosi was keen to talk about the company's new factory in China, stressing that the factory, working closely with the company's Italian staff, enabled prices to be reduced whilst quality had remained unchanged. The company presented a new model of the City Color, with 2500 or 1800W of power. A new asymmetric bracket gives the head more inclination, and the unit is IP54-rated. Also presented was the Shark 250 and 150 units as well as the CityLED, which with RGB DMX-controllable LEDs offers a cost-effective graphic solution for architectural applications.

Behringer

Details: 14 March 2016

Behringer kicked things off with another 10 new products to add to the 32 launched at NAMM. "We continue to be all about value for money," said Michael Leidel, sales manager for Behringer's European Business Centre, which makes no distinction between pro audio and MI sales channels. "We're still very strong in small mixers and 19" rackmount units, but computer-based recording is the big future for us." Leidel also dismissed the recent news about Behringer being fined $1 million in the US as purely a local issue, with no effect on - or relevance to - European trading conditions. Moving on, then . . .

Pulsar

Details: 14 March 2016

The team from Pulsar reported a busy show, with lots of "important" people and overseas visitors attending. As seen in the March issue at ARC, the new Chroma Range has just begun shipping and includes: the ChromaBatten 50, ChromaStrip X3 and ChromaBankIP.

MA Lighting

Details: 14 March 2016

MA Lighting's GrandMA products also dominated: grandMA video version 1.28 was released at the show with three new key features - admin, multi-screen preview and soft-edge blending. These new functions, in combination with previously released ones such as four live video inputs, the keystone effect, beam shape effects, and the FOH blind editing function directly from a grandMA console, make grandMA video a powerful tool. www.vari-lite.com www.pulsarlight.com www.lightpower.de

RCF

Details: 14 March 2016

Although RCF also had something to say in conferencing, sales director Fausto Incerti kicked off with a similar plug for its loudspeakers. "This year, with the introduction of the line array, we complete our offerings across all the different marketplaces," he said. "It's an important achievement because in such a short space of time we've completed the lines for fixed installation, for touring and theatre and for conferencing - as well as continuing our transducer developments. This is only the start of the third year of RCF's latest incarnation."

RCF's Forum 6000 is a fully digital congress control system, but will soon gain a bigger brother discussion system - "the most important in this product family," Incerti said. Prototypes were on display, as were new flying, rigging and installation solutions that single out the TT+ (Touring and Theatre) range, i

High End

Details: 14 March 2016

Hot news on the High End stand was the Studio Command H, which was launching at Frankfurt. High End's Fons de Vreede demonstrated a new 1kW tungsten fixture which will be shipping in a couple of weeks, and hinted at more news to come before PLASA.

G-LEC

Details: 14 March 2016

G-LEC launched its walk-through LED system, the G-LEC Tube, which is similar to the company's transparent LED frame systems - but without the frame. Each individual transparent tube hangs free, for a kind of 'beaded curtain' effect, and the tubes can be constructed in different lengths, from 10cm up to 6m.

Turbosound

Details: 14 March 2016

Turbosound had three major launches at the show. TSB118 and TA500 are wide-dispersion models in the Aspect range for installation. "That's because Aspect is only 25°," explained European sales manager Dominic Harter, "so on smaller shows it can be expensive to cover a room. Also we have lots of Floodlight installations that are 10 or 12 years old, and we weren't previously offering an upgrade path to those customers. Now we are."

The other news surrounded the TCS52 ceiling speaker. "Turbosound hasn't had a massive name in contracting," said Harter, "so we launched a range at PLASA in that direction - although we still make the Impact speakers. It's important to service the whole job in installation - if you get the cloakrooms and ceilings, you'll probably get the PA as well. So it's all about colour options, weatherproofing and covering every angl

SIB 2006, Rimini, Italy

Details: 14 March 2016

SIB 2006 appeared to be a strong performer by most accounts, attracting good visitor levels with a healthy international showing. And all this amid rumours of a move to Milan - which turned out to be a mooted rival show that seemed to drum up little support on the show floor. Lee Baldock & Chris Henry report

Visual Productions

Details: 14 March 2016

Visual Productions' focus was on the Matrix Mania, a lighting tool for the control of LED matrixes, which has covered considerable ground since its launch at the show a year ago, and can now render full animations. The company's newest hardware device, the Frontier, was launched at the show and is a playback unit with the capacity for 16 pre-programmed sequences. A new VisualDMX software version is also available.

ADB

Details: 14 March 2016

News from ADB included their EuroDim dimming system, which now offers silent dimming of practically any load using new sine wave modules. The dimmer offers self-protection against short circuits, self-limitation of peak current, elimination of lamp filament noise and noise induced in audio equipment. The sine wave dimmer modules for the EuroDim ranges can be retrofitted into existing installations, and can coexist with conventional thyristor modules in the same cabinet.

ADB's WARP lighting fixture range was on display, with new improved features and discharge light sources. A low-noise colour changer with an adaptor plate that reduces spill light from the front of the fixture has been introduced. WARP/HMI is a new fixture range that uses HMI/MSR discharge lamps and flicker-free electronic ballasts; the fixtures are silent due to their fan-less design.

ADB's Phoenix and Mentor console

L-Acoustics

Details: 14 March 2016

L-Acoustics announced the availability of Version 1.3.0 of Soundvision, its three-dimensional sound design program. The latest software incorporates temporal mapping, speaker grouping and subwoofer visualization. Temporal mapping utility conveniently enables users to optimize the performance of their delay systems by displaying, in real-time, whether speakers are within or outside of a useful time delay. The new speaker grouping feature allows enclosures to be grouped by categories within the loudspeaker control panel. Models of L-Acoustics' subwoofers have been added to the program, allowing users to see the physical existence of low-frequency enclosures in a system design.

Spotlight

Details: 14 March 2016

Spotlight were exhibiting as at SIB, but new for Frankfurt was the Accurate BLITZ Stage, a powerful 5W moving-head laser, complete with gobos, animations and frost effects, which is also DMX controllable.

NSCA, Las Vegas

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - A trade exhibition is where everyone talks to each other. But NSCA is where everything talks to each other.The machines are taking over the conversation, and contractors are having to start listening in.Harman Pro and Loud Technologies once again dominated. Version 1.08 was launched of BSS Audio's HiQnet London Architect - not be confused with version 1.1 of HiQnet System Architect. It's for the SoundWeb London platform at the moment, but there is a plan to migrate over to System Architect so that absolutely all Harman product is available under it.

"It's a legacy thing," said Ian Gregory, product manager at BSS Audio. "The development cycle for SoundWeb London just predated HiQnet, at which point it was decided that a completely new software application would be written from the ground up. This would then be the central control softwar

LSC Lighting

Details: 14 March 2016

Amongst other products, LSC Lighting showed the DNAnet/R which is a DMX/ArtNet converter, as both an input or an output module. The unit includes a fully working RDM for bi-directional communication with RDM enabled devices. ArtNet View software enables full configuration and monitoring of any number of DNAnet/R units via ethernet networks. Also exhibited was the e24 v2, an evolution of LSC's e24 compact touring dimmer system.

Anolis

Details: 14 March 2016

Anolis, the architectural LED lighting manufacturer formed just over a year ago in a joint venture between Robe Show Lighting and Australian distributor ULA, was again exhibiting adjacent to Robe, and was one of the companies reporting a good level of interest from overseas buyers at SIB. General feedback from Anolis was that one year on from its inception, expectations are being exceeded and general manager John Saunders was positive about the future.

ProLight&Sound '06

Details: 14 March 2016

Last month, the total number of visitors to the combined shows reached 100,000 for the first time, a 10% rise over last year, while exhibitors increased by 5%. And this over just four days, with a 16% rise in overseas visitors. No wonder there are long queues at the taxi ranks.

Loudspeakers

Details: 14 March 2016

The new Pro Lounge opposite Hall 8 is actually a marquee, erected in one of the many inter-hall plazas that break up the Messe site into architectural respites. In it you can actually hear audio - including, at 4:00pm on the first day, the redoubtable Thomas Blug & Friends. "If you like the guitar playing of Jeff Beck and David Gilmour," said the poster, "it's a safe bet you'll like Thomas Blug."

Apex

Details: 14 March 2016

Belgian manufacturer Apex began with analogue EQs, 10 years ago, went digital in both signal processing and speaker management, but has now returned to high-end analogue with the dBC-8 and dBG-8 - an 8-channel compressor and 8-channel noise gate respectively. "There's a developing sector that wants to save rack space without going digital," says product specialist Filip De Vos. "These address the same need that PA companies have for more and more compact kit, each with eight channels in one unit. They also avoid too many control knobs and switches that people don't have the time to set. There is definitely still a middle range of users who want the analogue sound quality, the ease of use and the cost-effective price.

"The more digital we go, the fewer racks will be needed. Some will remain for the esoteric units, and there are those who don't have the budget to go h

Neumann

Details: 14 March 2016

Neumann showed its stage microphones, the KK104 and KK105s. The capsule head of the KMS vocal microphone, compatible with the Sennheiser SKM 5000 / 5200 wireless system, makes wireless Neumann sound possible on the stage.

Martin Professional

Details: 14 March 2016

Martin Professional's Tungsten MAC TW1 was a a bit of a crowd puller but I was able to grab a few moments with Martin's Harry de Lon who walked me through the fixture due to ship in the summer. CMY colour mixing providesa full range, from delicate pastels to deep saturation. The standard lens gives a variable range of 20-40° with other options available. The company says that the MAC TW1 1200W fixture is the brightest in its class, and also that it is exceptionally quiet - a feat achievable through a new, (patent pending) silent cooling design which traps the heat and dissipates it away from the back of the fixture. The MAC 700 Wash was also on display (for more on this, see our Technical Focus review, pages 84-89), and other important launches include Maxxyz PC, a PC-based version of the popular Maxxyz console.

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