Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Events

Details
UK - On Sunday 3 June, over 1,000 vessels participated in a flotilla on the Thames from Battersea to Tower Bridge in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. And while it may have been an awful day for the weather, live acts were the order of the day at Battersea Park, with everything from 1950s swing orchestras on the bandstand, to a host of exciting acts on the main stage.

On hand was Illuminate Design, who set up and managed the lighting for all five stages, with an anticipated audience of up to 90,000 - as well as a number of different craft areas with a small but functional lighting arrangement.

Project manager Robin Shephard-Blandy reports, "We have worked on the Mayor's Thames Festival many times before, so knew the organisers of the Diamond Jubilee Pageant already. They asked us to help with a number of different stages, with a finishing time of 7pm - which meant ev

Details
UK - Conceived and sponsored by Saville Audio Visual in partnership with De Vere Venues Whites, the first ever Conference North attracted an enthusiastic audience to Bolton's Reebok Stadium.

Chairman Richard John introduced a team of leading events industry professionals to debate the benefits and the development of blended, or hybrid, events in some detail. The viability and effectiveness of the eStream streaming solution was clearly demonstrated on the day, with 25% of the audience watching and interacting online as remote participants.

Topics and questions from the room and from the online audience were discussed, broadcast and captured, using the Saville iDEA iPad platform to sample opinions and display results on screen. Nearly half the audience comprised professional event organisers and 60% saw the benefits to accessing a wider audience coupled with the ability to respo

City Theatrical - Banner - July 2025

Details
USA - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light will this week be at PLASA Focus in Nashville, showing the latest LED lighting technology from i-Pix and Core Lighting.

For the last seven years, i-Pix has been creating LED lighting fixtures that have immediately become the favourites of lighting designers working across the full spectrum of entertainment lighting, from concerts and live events to theatre productions. At PLASA Focus, staff from White Light, i-Pix's distributor, will be showing the new i-Line 600 and i-Line 1200 battens. Building on the success of i-Pix's renowned BB range, the i-Lines are six-cell or t12-cell colour-mixing fixtures offering high light output in a beam that is completely blended. The i-Line fixtures deliver over five times the output of the original BB range. The new fixtures have already been put to use lighting the Queen's Diamond Jubilee con

Details
Music in Schools - Violinist Nicola Benedetti has attacked the spending squeeze on music tuition in schools. She said young people needed a cultural identity to replace their obsession with celebrities and in becoming a celebrity. Benedetti began violin lessons at the age of five and went on to attend the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. The 25-year-old told the Radio Times, "I'm fiercely furious about the provision of music in schools."

Benedetti secured a £2m, six-album record contract after winning BBC Young Musician of the Year at 16 and has risen to international fame. She has also been involved in supporting the Big Noise orchestra in Raploch, Stirling - inspired by the Venezuelan El Sistema scheme to help poorer children. The violinist said: "So many people up and down the country are trying to create a better foundation for musical education.

Details
China - The Volkswagen Group presented an exclusive preview of its latest models at the first Volkswagen Group Night in China, which was held recently during the Auto China 2012 exhibition at the Beijing Olympic Swimming Centre. Over 1700 guests turned up for the one-hour event, which took place the evening before the opening of the motor show. The event was planned and coordinated by Filmtec Media GmbH, on behalf of Volkswagen Kommunikation, and technical direction was entrusted to Martin Kuhn.

Seventy-eight Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500s, 24 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, 14 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s, 32 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s and 18 Clay Paky Sharpys were used at the event together with other lights.

Kuhn explained the advantages of using Clay Paky moving heads for this Night, "The Clay Paky range has been highly successful at this type of event in recent years, an

Details
USA - On the morning of 14 September, 1814, Major George Armistead signalled the American victory in the war of 1812 by raising the first American flag over Fort McHenry. The incident inspired poet Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, which would eventually be declared the country's national anthem.

On 13 June, the city of Baltimore kicked off a three-year national commemoration of the events of 1812 with the Star Spangled Sailabration, a seven-day festival of concerts, celebrations, fireworks, an international parade of ships, and a rousing air show featuring the Blue Angels.

To provide audio support for the Blue Angels air show, Continental Air Show Productions selected a dozen Community R.5HPT loudspeakers. CASP's Dave Olmstead comments, "Obviously, the biggest challenge in providing sound for a Blue Angels air show is competing with the a

Details
Australia - "The Prime Minister's Olympic Dinner has become the signature lead-up event in preparation for the Games - to recognise and support those who have been selected to represent Australia in London by raising vital additional funds to support our Olympic team" says Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia.

The Prime Minister's 8th Olympic Dinner, produced by Multiple Award Winning producers -Peter Jones Special Events, held at the Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, raised over $2m dollars for our Australian Olympic Team, competing at next month's Games.

VIP's included former Prime Ministers, Over 60 past and present Olympians, along with corporate guests.

Entertainment for the evening included a star studded line up featuring Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, Delta Goodrem, Todd McKenny, David Hobson, Silvie Paladino, Mar

Details
Portugal - Headlining the fourth night of this year's Rock In Rio (Lisboa) festival, Stevie Wonder used three DiGiCo SD7 consoles, ensuring that his sound didn't rely on any Superstition.

Playing a mixture of hits and cover versions to an audience of over 75,000, Stevie Wonder himself requested the three SD7s - one for Front of House, one for vocal an in-ear monitors and the third for band monitors.

Supplied (along with the rest of the festival's audio system) by Brazilian rental company Gabisom Audio Equipment, Stevie Wonder's set included over 80 inputs with each SD7 having two dedicated SD-Racks.

The FoH console was on a redundant Optocore loop, with the monitors on redundant MADI. All SD7s were dual redundant mirrored engines (audio and control), which assured total permanent redundancy.

"When Stevie made the jump from analogue to digital, the SD7 was the ideal ch

Details
UK - As booking opened at 9am this morning, strong exhibitor numbers, record breaking pre-registration figures and a new focus on content provision were creating a buzz about PLASA 2012. With four brand new theatres and 80 free-to-attend sessions split into nine new themes, these exciting developments underpin PLASA's commitment to providing an unparalleled experience for visitors and remaining a leader in the provision of education, professional development and knowledge sharing across our industry.

PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths comments, "PLASA runs events to provide quality business opportunities, education and thought leadership. The PLASA Show in London is the only entertainment technology event to reinvest its revenue back into the industry it serves - anything that is not invested back into the show is used to help develop technical standards, certification and qualifi

Details
UK - Prolyte Group has announced the launch of the latest incarnation of its LiteConsole - the XPRS. The performance platform, which previewed at Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound, is now available to consumers through a network of Prolyte partners.

LiteConsole is a versatile podium structure that offers a portable and high-visual-impact solution for any number of applications from live musician and DJ performances, to corporate AV presentations, exhibitions, conferences and retail environments where it makes an eye-catching stand.

This new version "combines all the most desirable features of LiteConsole in a sleeker, lighter package". The design makes the system even easier to assemble - it now takes one person just a matter of minutes. The innovative folding frame design means the LiteConsole XPRS will flat pack and fit into an average car, thus leaving plenty of room fo

Details
UK - XL Events, commissioned by the TRO Group, supplied a specially constructed circular LED screen for Nissan's stand in the main exhibition area of the 2012 Festival of Speed, held at the Goodwood Estate, Chichester.

The stand was showcasing Nissan's rugged Juke crossover vehicle under the 'Built to Thrill' banner. Over the Festival of Speed weekend, fans were treated to a virtual skydiving experience.

XL Events' display, measuring six metres in diameter, was made up of lightweight Pixled F-11 LED, mounted on to a circular Litebeam truss. The circular display was flown just off centre of the main stand and displayed facts and figures about the Nissan Juke throughout the Festival of Speed weekend.

Rich Pow project manager for XL events worked with Matt Price from the TRO Group both before and during the event:

"It was a pleasure to work with Matt," said Pow. &qu

Details
USA - Mac Miller knows how to reach for the heights when it comes to moving his career forward. He famously titled the first single from his breakout mixtape Donald Trump which garnered over 53m views on YouTube and elicited a favourable comment from Trump himself, via Twitter, who stated when it reached 20m views, "Who wouldn't be flattered?" and declared Miller the "new Eminem."

So when it came time to choose a PA system for Miller's first major solo tour, Showtime Sound, of Glenelg, Maryland, put together a touring EAW PA system consisting of 24 KF740 line array modules in two hangs of 12 modules each. Six KF750 modules were used for flown out-fills, three per side, with six KF755 modules hung beneath as down-fills, also three per side. Another six EAW JF80 systems were used as front-fills positioned along the front of the stage lip.

The system wa

Details
UK - Canegreen, a part of the SSE Audio Group, is providing Meyer Sound equipment to multiple name artists as the summer touring season heats up. A dealer and provider of Meyer Sound for more than 25 years, this year sees Canegreen/SSE Audio Group supporting artists as diverse as Tony Bennett, George Benson, Paul Weller, and newcomer Jessie J. The common denominator is Meyer Sound.

Another aspect that links current Canegreen/SSE clients is that many of them are performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, which hosted the annual BluesFest in June and for which Canegreen/SSE provided a Meyer Sound system.

The Royal Albert Hall, says Canegreen/SSE Director Yan Stile, is a notoriously challenging environment for front-of-house engineers. "The nature of the building," he explains, "is its 360-degree coverage. It's a really difficult place to cover." For BluesFest

Details
UK - Last month inspHire demonstrated market leading hire software solutions, tailored to meet the specific needs of the Lifting and Access Hire Industry, at Vertikal Days 2012.

Over the course of the two days, inspHire exhibited key features that are valuable to hire companies within the lifting, access and crane industry such as:

Automatic Servicing - inspHire provides you with the option to automatically place items in to a state of service when off-hired so an inspection must take place before it can be hired again.

Forward Planning - Carry out multiple future bookings for the same piece of equipment, checking clashes and scheduled service and repairs ensuring maximum utilisation of your machinery.

Create your own custom test certificate criteria, a LOLER certificate for example. Enter the test results, complete the test and attach it to the equipments record fo

Details
South Africa - Once again Wayne Sproule from Pendragon Dezign was in charge of the technical facets of the PSL Awards, a live broadcast, hosted at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City on 27 May 2012. The event incorporated over 50 Robe fixtures.

"I still get excited about working on events," commented Sproule. "If I didn't, it would be time to pack up. It is estimated that viewership for this live production was 14m million, and apparently it was the number one tweeted subject between 8pm to 10pm that evening."

A rare occurrence was that for once there was more than enough time for the set up, but what really made it a success were the people involved. "I just love working with this team," said Sproule. "There is no drama, everyone gets on with it. I call them 'The Wrinkle Rockers Road Show,' and while there is fun and laughter, nothing is a pro

Details
Ireland - Westlife played two highly emotional farewell concerts over two nights at Croke Park stadium in Dublin in their very last live performances, capping a 14 year chart-topping, multi-million record selling career.

Lighting for this - and the six week tour preceding the two 85,000 capacity sold out shows at Croke Park - was supplied by UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL. It included nearly 200 moving lights.

The lighting design was created by Dave 'Biccie' Lee and operated on the tour at Croke Park by Simon Horn. Mike Oates project managed for HSL, who were working for the tour's technical production co-ordinators Production North, under the auspices of production manager Karen Ringland.

Says Mike Oates, "We were immensely proud to work on this tour and the two landmark Croke Park shows. The show was absolutely stunning and a real tribute to all involved i

Details
Canada - Kid Koala has adopted a compact iLive system to mix his new Space Cadet live project. Touring venues such as planetariums, biospheres and space museums, Kid Koala performs a live rendition of his latest album, Space Cadet, and each member of the audience is equipped with their own set of headphones installed in individual inflatable 'space pods'. The show uses an iDR-16 MixRack and an xDR-16 expander unit to cater for the large number of mixes required.

"The show format requires a 32-channel mixer, which ordinarily would take close to 4 hours to set up venue to venue. However, with this Allen & Heath iLive system, we are essentially bringing our own console everywhere we go and it fits into two 3 rack space bags. We can even take them as carry-on luggage when we fly," comments tour manager, Ryhna Thompson.

iLive enables Kid Koala to store all o

Details
UK - When the eyes of the world are upon you, you need to be shown in your best light! And what higher profile could you have than the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert, held on 4 June 2012 outside the gates of Buckingham Palace before an audience of over 10,000 people and broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide?

On a stage designed by Mark Fisher with a backdrop of the palace itself, lighting designer, Durham Marenghi, worked his magic to create a spectacular lighting show worthy of the occasion, balancing the light from 240 moving lights, 36 20K projectors, and a wrap-around LED backdrop.

Marenghi specified five Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HTI followspots as the main stage key lights to pick out the performers and presenters on stage. These included a variety of artists from the past 60 years, from relative newcomers, Ed Sheeran and Jesse J, to veterans such as Cliff Richa

Details
USA - Two days of packed seminars, a host of new product launches, and buzzing booths established PLASA Focus: Nashville as a triumphant landmark event for Tennessee - 668 attendees and over 50 of the biggest brands were boosted by an additional 20% of sign ups on site.

New products making their regional debut at Focus Nashville included: Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX; MAC Viper Profile; M2GO, M2PC VC; d&b audiotechnik's E4 and E5 loudspeakers; Elation Professional's IP65-rated RGBW wash; Clay Paky's A.LEDA LED moving head range; Chauvet's new PVP S7 high-res video panel, new moving yokes Q-Spot 360-LED and Q-Spot 460-LED, Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yoke lights and MVP 12 modular video panel - and many more.

The free to attend Professional Development Programme attracted over 1000 registrations for sessions that ranged from The Green Scene: Recycling Sets

Details
UK- XL Events supplied audio and video equipment for two of the Škoda display areas at the recent 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Chichester, West Sussex.

One was in the Moving Motor Show where approximately 40% of visitors entered the event, and the other was at Škoda's Pavilion stand in the main exhibition area. Commissioned by A1 (Events & Exhibitions), based in Milton Keynes, XL Events was asked to provide video screens for both the inside and outside walls of the main Pavilion.

The main challenge when specifying the LED for the outer wall was to identify a product that was both light enough to hang on the exterior of a temporary structure, and that offered high resolution at short viewing distances.

Pixled's FX-11 was chosen as it is lightweight and suitable for outdoor use.

For the interior of the Pavilion, XL Events supplied two LCD seamless di

Details
Australia - The Event Safety Alliance Australia (ESAA) has been established in response to the increasing need for a universal code of best practice in the live events industry.

Recognising "that the events industry is diverse encompassing not just the performing arts, but everything from public and corporate events to exhibitions and broadcast, wherever the same equipment and techniques are in use", The ESAA intends "to bring together all the players in the market to develop a truly representational voice for the Australian industry".

In the context of public event safety and emergency management, the ESAA aims are:

To develop and promote the Australian Event Safety Guide, across all States and Territories incorporating national and international standards of best practice.

To promote co-operation and mutual assistance between people and organizations.

Details
UK - PLASA has announced the shortlist of nominees for this year's prestigious Gottelier Award.

Named in honour of Tony Gottelier, the designer, innovator and industry commentator who died in 2006, this prestigious annual presentation aims to recognise "the product designers and developers who have made a significant and sustained contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation".

This year, a panel of 20 people, all with links to the PLASA organisation or its Media divisions, was invited to put forward their suggestions for the most deserving individuals or teams according to this criteria. From there, the final shortlist of six nominees was reached.

The nominees for the 2012 Gottelier Award are:

Nick Archdale<

Details
UK - Altman Lighting will introduce the Spectra Cyc 200 to its family of LED Wash

Luminaires at PLASA 2012. The new fixture uses two arrays of Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs for maximum brightness and colour rendering, along with its patented LED blending lens and asymmetrical reflector.

"This unique combination gives you fantastic light output and colour with the smoothest,

most even field available on the market," says the company. "Using this combination of technologies we are able to space our fixtures at an industry leading 2.5m - 3m apart, at 1.2m off the cyc or wall."

Standard features on the fixtures include DMX in and pass through, with RDM compatibility, and

Power in and pass through using powerCON connections enabling up to 10 fixtures to be 'daisy chained' together. Usable height of the output light for a single row of luminaires has also been

Details
UK - PLASA 2012 is now accepting entries from all exhibiting manufacturers and their representatives for the 2012 PLASA Awards for Innovation and the PLASA Sustainability Award. Do you have a new product that you think deserves special recognition?

With a total of eight Awards for Innovation to judge, and with the option of bestowing a 'Gold' Award on one or more really outstanding entries, PLASA's panel of experts from across the industry are looking for products which "advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety." Entries will be judged on new and original thinking; novel ways of harnessing new technologies, materials or techniques; showing fresh perspectives and improvements in technical practices; original concepts that qualify for new patents or unique intellectual prop

  1. PLASA 2012: All-round F-10i/o from Pixled
  2. PLASA Focus: Stamford 2012 dates confirmed
  3. PLASA 2012: coolux Pandoras Box Version 5.1 software released
  4. The ARC Show moves to London's ExCel
  5. PLASA 2012: Ghost from the Lectern Company
  6. PLASA 2012: Martin Professional debuts new breed
Page 265 of 322
LSi 40th sponsors - Large MPU - July-Aug

Latest Issue. . .

PLASA Media Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 4111709 - VAT Number GB 762 5913 14
PLASA Media Ltd, Redoubt House, 1 Edward Road, Eastbourne, BN23 8AS, UK Tel: +44 (0)1323 524120

 

login