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Events

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Poland - Throughout July and early August, the Baltic Sea was home to one of the most spectacular annual maritime events, the Tall Ships Race. Starting at the Danish port of Århus, the ships sailed to Kotka in Finland, then the Swedish capital Stockholm, before finishing the season at Szczecin in Poland, where two large Lighthouse LED screens were in place to greet the ships and their crews.

"According to one popular Polish saying 'It's not necessary for a man to eat, but to sail - it is,'" laughs Rafael Kociemski of Polish screen company Wizja Sp. "That is how important an event the Tall Ships is to Szczecin."

Proof of this was provided by a crowd of 1.5 million which came to admire the ships in Szczecin harbour, making it the largest Polish outdoor event of 2007. In total over 200 ships took part, accompanied by a wide variety of other attractions, perfo

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UK - Due to circumstances beyond their control, Deco Leisure Group has been forced to pull outof the forthcoming PLASA Show at Earls Court.

The company suffered severe damage to its Birmingham manufacturing plant during the recent floods in the UK, and had hoped to have time to recover from the damage. However, the situation was exacerbated by a reoccurrence of the drainage problems over the week-end of 1 September, prompting CEO Sammy DeHavilland to make a formal statement:

"We consider the PLASA Exhibition to be the most important in the calendar; however the recent flooding has forced us to focus on the continuity of supply to our customers, rather then attending the show - it has become obvious we cannot do both.

DeHavilland explained: "Ironically the main problem, which involves the run-off of excess water from the site, was not our responsibility until last y

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UK - To celebrate the scout movement's 100th anniversary, 5,000 members of the UK South Coast Movement, recently came together in Hampshire in the south of England. The programme of the open-air event at the New Forest Showground in Hampshire featured speeches, presentations, theatre performances and a performance by the Gosport Gang Show, supported by a 5-piece live band.

These diverse demands presented a challenge for Guy Morris of MLS, the local rental company. For this event, he required a sound system that could do a top job of reproducing speech, prerecorded music, and live music equally well over a large area. He chose the HK Audio Cohedra Compact line array and set up eight CDR 108s and four CDR 210 subwoofers on each side of the stage, and powered them with three matching PR8 amp racks with digital field controllers.

Due to the width of the stage, two ConTour Series C

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UK - Production company Event Concept has designed the lighting for the National Army Museum's ground-breaking exhibition Helmand: A Soldier's Story. The exhibition recreates the experiences of soldiers in the troubled Helmand Province of Afghanistan and is believed to be the first to explain a conflict while it is still unfolding. The idea for this powerful exhibition came from the first NATO troops who entered the Province and it has been built, written and contributed to by them.

Describing his approach, Event Concept's designer Dan Terry says: "I wanted a rise and fall in lighting levels as visitors walk through the space as well as contrasts in colour; the open areas are lit in bright desert tones, while the buildings are more darkly atmospheric, with strands of brilliant white light to recreate sunbeams through windows. As many of the displays have written expl

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UK - XL Video supplied 254 panels of Barco MiTrix video screen and Catalyst media server control for the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize Awards, staged at London's Grosvenor House.

It was the first time that scenic video has been used on the event. The MiTrix was specified by lighting and visual designer Nigel Catmur, who has lit the show for the last four years, and wanted to introduce a new contemporary look. The show was broadcast "as live" on BBC radio and television, and was won by The Klaxons with their album Myths of The Near Future.

With 11 of the 12 nominated artists performing live, the video element added to the dynamics and presentation of the show, ensuring that each band's set looked different.

Richard Turner came onboard as video designer and programmer to work with Catmur in producing special content for the show. They also collaborated c

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International - The first digital edition of Lighting&Sound International magazine goes live today, on the eve of the 2007 PLASA Show.

Timed to coincide with both the PLASA 07 and the re-launch of the popular LSI Online website, L&SI's digital edition will offer an easily navigable and fully searchable on-screen version of the familiar magazine, accessible for subscribers anywhere there is Internet access, as soon as the magazine is published.

The digital edition will allow PLASA Media to significantly increase the global circulation of Lighting&Sound International magazine.

Available free to industry professionals worldwide, the digital edition will boost readership, particularly in developing markets where the cost of subscriptions has previously been an obstacle, and equally in far-flung territories where

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USA - As many music fans, historians and Baby Boomers celebrated the 40th anniversary of 'The Summer of Love', high-profile concert events across America made 2007 'The Summer of Aviom', suggests the company. Aviom's personal monitor mixing system and digital snakes have found a niche among musicians and live sound professionals working the summer's biggest music events the world over.

Trevor Lawrence, Jr. used his custom Aviom monitor rig on stage while playing drums with Alicia Keys at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. Meanwhile, in the cradle of American independence, Philadelphia, hometown heroes Hall & Oates treated the rain-soaked 4th of July crowd with an outstanding 90-minute performance of their greatest hits. Broadcast live on ABC television, the whole band used Aviom personal mixers for their monitors.

Summer concerts in the park are becoming more popular throug

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UK - Smoke Factory of Hannover, Germany, has been regarded as an "innovator in fog" for almost 20 years. Their first appearance at the PLASA Show was in 1990, followed by hundreds of successful UK installations, from major West End musicals to the Imperial War Museum.

Florian von Hofen, owner of Smoke Factory, comes from a practical special effects and touring background himself and as a result has always concentrated on developing equipment for live and touring professionals. Many of his innovations have become features of fog machines today: transportability, 0-10V control, radio remote control, DMX interfacing, flow control and "permanent ready" function to name a few.

In its home market Smoke Factory machines are an industry standard to any rental company. Europe's largest rental company, Procon, has recently standardised on 'Captain D' as its fogger of

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UK - A seminar chaired by Mhora Samuel, director of The Theatres Trust, will highlight what leading theatre owners are doing to limit the carbon footprint of their venues - and what the industry can do to help. The seminar will take place at the forthcoming PLASA Show in London.

Following the Kyoto Protocol, the UK Government set a goal for CO2 emission reductions at 20% below the 1990 level by 2010. With the Climate Change Act due to be in place by Easter 2008 all businesses are being asked to play their part. Many theatres are aware that reducing emissions also helps to reduce their energy bills and are taking action now.

At this seminar, organised by The Theatres Trust, Dr Ben Todd, executive director of Arcola Theatre and Natalie Lewis, group operations co-ordinator of Ambassador Theatre Group, will talk about their plans to reduce CO2 emissions in their theatres and what

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UK - The last 12 months have been a busy and prolific period for French digital mixing console manufacturer Innovason. Several products have made their debut this year, all of which bring new functionality to the Innovason digital mixing experience.

The most important development is the FM-8VB 8-in/8-out plug-in effects module offering 32 effects engines. Compatible with all Innovason audio racks, the new module will ship in December. For more information, please see separate press release.

Further processing capability comes in the form of the UM-8PO universal output module. Replacing all previous output modules from Innovason, the UM-8PO combines analogue and digital processed outputs for the first time ever in any digital mixing console. Equipped with eight XLR outputs that are configurable (in pairs) as analogue, AES or even ADAT, each output benefits from a powerful and c

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UK - The appointment of Beyer UK as exclusive UK distributor for MC2 Audio products has been announced at PLASA07. This major change to UK distribution has come about as part of MC2's ongoing appraisal of business performance and aligns MC2 Audio distribution with that of sister company, XTA Electronics.

Beyer UK has a long history in the pro audio industry and counts many brands that are considered to be 'industry standards' within its product portfolio. The company mission is to supply audio and video equipment, sourced from some of the world's leading manufactures, to the live, installation, recording and broadcast segments of the market as well as specialist products for the conference sector.

A combination of system design expertise, depth of product knowledge provided by their specialist product managers and full technical support, all adds up to Beyer UK being well qual

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UK - Lab.gruppen outlined at PLASA07, the benefits of its new association with Dolby Laboratories Inc.

The new product - the first fruit of the technology collaboration between the two companies that was announced last October - is a sound engineering tool which offers "far more than the sum of its parts", in the words of Lab.gruppen's Tim Chapman. A potent mix of existing and new technologies, it also supports a new audio networking standard which promises extreme low-latency Ethernet distribution.

The product is the PLM10000Q - the first in a series of Powered Loudspeaker Management systems - which combines the functions of crossover, delay, equalization, limiting and power amplification in one box, along with a host of new features.

The Dolby Lake Processor, the first live sound tool released by Dolby, was launched at PLASA last year, where it collected a PLASA

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UK - Bandit Lites UK supplied full lighting production and crew for the first three-day Fantasy Island 'Big Weekend' event, staged at one of Britain's best known holiday destinations, Skegness. Bandit was again working with event producers Production North.

Bandit Chief Executive, Lester Cobrin says, "It's always exciting and challenging to be involved in a completely new project, and naturally it was great to be working with Iain Whitehead and the Production North team again."

Bandit charged Dave Lee with ensuring that the three headline acts - Status Quo (LD Patrick Marks), Girls Aloud (LD Andy Hurst) and The Human League (LD & Visuals Rob Sinclair) - had their lighting requirements satisfied.

"The rig was based around Girls Aloud's arena tour spec," explains Lee, "which offered extremely good general stage coverage plus a selection of well chosen

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UK - Stagesafe, the event safety consultancy set up 10 years ago by Chris Hannam, has introduced a new Event Safety Vehicle, based on a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee, that besides serving as a patrol vehicle for event safety staff during festivals and events, is also designed for use as a rapid response vehicle in emergency situations.

Says Hannam: "The specially equipped vehicle can be called in instantly by radio to a hazardous situation that can then be evacuated, cleared, contained and made as safe as possible until the full support of the emergency services arrive. Following the emergency, safety staff can then deal with the aftermath and conduct an investigation designed to prevent further or similar incidents."

The new vehicle is, he says, designed to protect organisers, staff, audience and performers, adding that it can also be used to transport emergency crews, equipmen

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UK - Sennheiser UK confirmed at a press conference at PLASA07 that it is now the sole UK distributor for Italian high-end pro audio amplifier manufacturer Powersoft.

"We're delighted to add Powersoft to our portfolio of brands," explained Sennheiser UK general manager, Philip Massey. "Having spoken to many end-users over the past few months, Powersoft's reputation for versatility, sonic excellence and reliability is well deserved. This is an important partnership for us and we're very much looking forward to increasing the brand's profile over the coming years. Naturally, this is a great time for live music in the UK, but we're also assessing the potential for the brand in the Middle East."

"We are extremely proud to have signed this agreement," confirms Powersoft's commercial director Luciano Ciappi. "We think that Sennheiser UK can help us

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UK - Allen & Heath chose PLASA07 to launch a new range of small format, USB-equipped mixers for live performance, recording, and production. The first mixer to appear in the range is the ZED-14 stereo mixer, which provides 13 independent sources to the mix; 10 independent outputs; 2 pre-fade and 2 post-fade aux sends; a USB send and return for PC or Mac recording, playback and effects; a unique dual stereo input capability; and advanced monitoring facilities.

The ZED-14 has 6 mono channels with a responsive 3-band, swept mid-channel EQ, and 4 stereo channels with a 2-band EQ, in 100mm faders. In addition to the twin TRS jack inputs, flexible dual input options include Stereo RTN on RCA, 2TRK on RCA, and USB interface are provided to enable the engineer to control and route any source.

The ZED-14 features a high performance preamp designed by R&D manager, Mike Griffin. The Duo

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UK - The festival season continued apace for Adlib Audio, who supplied JBL VerTec and Nexo Alpha sound systems plus 18 crew to the NME/Radio 1 stage and the Radio 1 Lock Up stage/Dance Arena at both Reading and Leeds sites of the 2007 Carling Weekend event. This follows hot on the heels from their successful supply of sound and lights to the Virgin Mobile Sessions Stage at the V Festival two weeks previously.

Adlib was asked onboard for Reading/Leeds by Chris Beale of CBA who provided an audio brief and a list of specs for all the different bands. Adlib ensured they specified kit to meet everyone's requirements, and repeated the formula that worked so well at the V Festival of supplying identical systems for both stages at both sites.

One of the biggest challenges of the event was the short changeover times on the high profile NME/Radio 1 stage - most had to be completed in j

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UK - The new look PLASA07 opened for business this morning, 9 September, following a rush of last-minute registrations and confirmation of a substantial number of major product launches scheduled over the four days of the exhibition.

This year's show features a new layout, new features, over 50 new exhibitors, plus an expanded educational programme with many sessions free to visitors. These include special interest sessions from BEIRG, InfoComm International and the Theatres Trust, plus specialist sessions from Cirque Du Soleil, Duran Audio and Wireless Solutions. Additionally, the organizers have invested a range of visitor facilities including wi-fi lounges and meeting rooms.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation will be announced at 6pm this evening in the Central Bar area, located between Earls Court 1 and 2.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Green Hippo stand has relocated to the newly opened Earls Court 2 at the PLASA Show this year, where all the team are present, including two of the newest members. Simon Harris, who joins from Avolites, has been appointed to look after Training and Business Development in addition to taking over some of Nigel Sadler's territories. Daniel Brown joins straight from University and is a new addition to the programming team. The rest of the team comprising James, Nigel, Sean, Kitty, Tom and Jean-Luc will all be there to offer the customary combination of Green Hippo hospitality and expertise.

Green Hippo have been working alongside designers create a new look casing for all Hippotizers. This case is a response to all the feedback they had over the years concerning the physical elements of the systems. "We believe that this case will elevate the Hippotizer's status as a

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UKYamaha has announced that it will further extend its line-up of power amplifiers with the introduction at PLASA 2007 of the new flagship TXn series amplifiers which consists of three models, TX6n, TX5n and TX4n.

The TX4n at 2,200W, the TX5n at 2,500W, and the TX6n at 3,000W per channel into 2 ohms, offer sophisticated onboard DSP. All three TXn models incorporate a 24-bit 96-kHz DSP engine that delivers "an extraordinary range of control and processing capabilities".

In addition to basic amplifier control and status monitoring, there is enough DSP power built in to provide extensive speaker processing capabilities that will make external equalisers, delays and speaker processors unnecessary in most applications, says the company.

All models feature both analogue and direct digital inputs, with automatic failsafe redundancy switching between digital and analogue i

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UK - Goboland would like to invite you to their PLASA stand G31 daily at 12 noon to witness the launch of three new products. Monday will see the beginning of a new era in metal gobos with the arrival of black steel gobos. Tuesday will see the release of the ALDO double gobo rotator kit, complete with gobos and colour filter. Wednesday will mark the appearance of some mysterious Black Holes! Can't picture it? Come and discover for yourself on stand G31.

(Julie Harper)

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UK - Following discussions between PLASA Events and A.C. Lighting, an agreement has been reached that will see A.C. Lighting sell its A.C. Lighting North Trade Show to PLASA Events.

The agreement reflects the intention of both organisations to work together to ensure the entertainment, event and production industries in the north have a single industry-led event that serves their needs.

A.C. Lighting, a long-standing member of PLASA, started their event in 1999 and quickly established it in the industry calendar, developing it further in recent years to provide a strong focus for the region.

A.C. North 2008 will be the last trade show organised under that name by A.C. Lighting. Immediately after its close, PLASA Events will take over the management and ownership of the event and will look to build on the regional platform established by A.C.

The move fits the strategic aim

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UK - In an unexpected move announced today by Julian Blyth and Andrew Stirling at PLASA 2007, SCV London and Stirling Trading are to join forces. The new operation will be effective as of 1 October and Stirling Trading will be moving into the larger SCV premises in Loughton, Essex. The arrangement sees Andrew Stirling taking up a full-time position on the board of directors of SCV London.

"This is the culmination of a one year strategy review to develop the SCV London business," states Blyth. "This merger will strengthen our presence in the pro-audio markets and bring some excellent new talent to the Company. I'm very much looking forward to working together with Andrew to develop our business further."

Andrew Stirling comments, "The synergy of our joint distribution portfolios plus the strength of Stirling's direct sales built up over many years exper

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UK - Today at the PLASA Show, Roland Systems Group announced and demonstrated what it is calling a breakthrough live digital sound solution. The RSS V-Mixing System incorporates the new RSS M-400 V-Mixer live digital console, configurable digital snakes with high quality remotely controlled mic preamps, and a multi-track recording option.

This new fully-digital system eliminates the bulk and noise susceptibility typically associated with analogue snakes and replaces it with Cat 5e (Ethernet/LAN) cable. It's easy to use and sets up in minutes by plugging in one lightweight Cat 5e cable from a Digital Snake stage unit to the M-400 V-Mixer, says RSG. The company says: "The system generates superior sound quality by converting analogue inputs to 24-bit digital streams at the stage, via high-quality mic preamps located near the source. The V-Mixing System then secures the qualit

  1. Goboland launches black steel gobos
  2. Outline launches upgraded Kanguro System
  3. ETC lighting control desks on show at PLASA 07
  4. Allen & Heath debuts Xone 2D at PLASA 07
  5. Industry innovators honoured at PLASA 2007
  6. Visual Productions presents Canvix Matrix Server
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