This year there were five awards categories and 79 nominations, generating £12,000 for PLASA'S nominated charities - Light Relief, PSA Welfare and Benevolent Fund and the Golden Lions Children's Trust. This system has been running for five years now and every penny of the entry fees is donated. To date this scheme has raised almost £45,000 for charitable causes.
The five product categories this year were Lighting, Sound, Stage Engineering, Software (a new category introduced this year), Audio-Visual, and finally an Award for the product with the most environmental considerations. The PLASA awards were presented by PLASA's Chairman, David Hopkins OBE, and were split into two categories, recognizing both Design Excellence and Technical Innovation.
So, to the winners . . .
Lighting: the winner of the Award for Design Excellence is Element Labs for their Versa Tile - the judges felt that this was a well thought out and engineered concept. The Award for Technical Innovation went to Powergems for their HF575P ballast - which was felt to be a well-engineered, no-nonsense approach to ballast technology.
Sound: the Award for Innovation went to Clearcom for its CellCom system. This was noted for being the first truly integrated wireless intercom system. The Award for Design Excellence went to AKG for their WMS wireless microphone series which combines maximum functionality with a cost effective package.
Staging: the winner of the Design Excellence Award was PCM's Unibar - with its well engineered simple concept that provides a cost effective powered flying solution for many small venues. The winner of the Award for Technical Innovation was Total Fabrications for its 'new wave' carbon fibre truss - an original concept and noted for its good design.
Audio-Visual: the winner of the Award for Design Excellence was High End Systems for its Catalyst DL1, which the judges felt was the first effective implementation of a moving video projector. The Award for Technical Innovation went to Korg for the Kaoss Entrancer, which provides the VJ with a revolutionary new approach to mixing.
Software: with technology playing a continually increasing role in all aspects of entertainment engineering, it was decided this year to introduce a new category to recognize the work done in this field with an Award for Design Excellence: the category's first winner was Stage Technologies for their Visual Creator, which impressed the judges with its excellent approach to the 3D visualization of flying equipment.
Finally, the Environmental Award went to a simple product that will no doubt become a mainstay in most venues - Le Mark's Gaf Fire tape, which was produced with environmental factors at the forefront of its development and subsequent production.
On this year's judging panel were Simon Swift, a freelance lighting designer; Charlie Kail, consultant stage systems designer; Richard Northwood, consultant sound systems designer (Coms UK); Roland Hemming, technical director of Live Business International; Glyn Hughes, system designer for Sysco; Andy Hayles, project engineer for Theatre Projects Consultants; David Harvey, lighting manager, Royal Opera House and the panel chairman, James Eade, technical editor of Lighting&Sound International magazine - sponsor of the PLASA Show's New Technology Gallery, where the nominations are displayed for visitors.
