General

New Contract for New Company

Details: 14 March 2016

Circle 8 - the new company set up by former PLASA Show Manager Nicky Rowland - has confirmed its first industry contract in its first week of business. Circle 8 will be managing Theme Magazine’s Bar & Restaurant Awards - a series of regional awards dinners, culminating in a spectacular final dinner in London in June 2001. The North West’s awards ceremony has already taken place and the next event will be taking place on Monday 20 November at Brighton’s famous Grand Hotel to celebrate the best in the South East and Home Counties. Circle 8 offers a unique blend of event management, sales and marketing skills that can be applied to the entertainment industry and beyond.

Rain Doesn’t Stop Play for TPC

Details: 14 March 2016

Despite considerable amounts of unseasonable rain this summer, work has continued on the construction of a new concert hall for the Philadelphia Orchestra, designed by Theatre Projects Consultants.

The project is managed by David Taylor (pictured) from the Connecticut office of TPC, but George Ellerington of the London wing of Theatre Projects provided the unique theatre equipment package with an array of stage lifts, acoustics banners, hundreds of reverb chamber doors and a 40-ton three-piece canopy, all controlled from a custom PC-based memory system.

The concrete is complete to auditorium level in the concert hall and, to stabilise the building, the attic floor overhead is being poured at present. Despite the difficulties in construction over the summer, the site is being considered for an OSHA safety award. The second performance space, a 550-seat recital theatre is also underwa

Legacy of the Dome

Details: 14 March 2016

The Legacy consortium (which includes British Telecom, Imperial College, the Open University and Sun Microsystems) has emerged as the preferred bidder for the Millennium Dome. The consortium plans to retain the controversial tent as a place for IT and science-related businesses as part of a £125m business park called Knowledge City. Talks on the deal are still ongoing, but should Legacy's bid for the Dome collapse, there will be no shortage of others to take its place. The owners of Canary Wharf are eyeing the Dome site as a potential aid to its programme of expansion in the area, whilst a consortium of businessmen, including Michael Jackson’s manager, will stump up £135m to transform the Dome into a rock venue.

SigNET Honoured

Details: 14 March 2016

The Right Honourable Stephen Byers, Minister of the Department of Trade and Industry, recently visited SigNET AC in recognition of the company’s record of achievement for innovation.

In 1992 the company’s VA system received two industry awards for design and concept. In 1998, the digital distributed system (installed in the largest VAPA site in the world - CLK airport Hong Kong) was granted Millennium Product status by the UK government and in May 2000 the company won SMART Award funding for the development of a new compact networked model.

Stephen Byers represents a constituency in the North East of England and is familiar with the Sunderland Stadium of Light - one of the prime locations in the region to have a SigNET VAPA system. The sound system at the football club has received praise from fans, visiting teams and MPs. However, less well recognised, is the SigNET syst

Standards Must be a Priority

Details: 14 March 2016

The recent news of a third accident involving a rigger at Earls Court & Olympia has provided yet another reminder of the need for the industry to demonstrate that it is not complacent, and establish a set of standards by which it can be judged.

This latest accident happened in late September at Olympia, when David Upton of Unusual Rigging caught his foot whilst fitting a banner to the entrance of the Grand Hall and fell 18ft. Fortunately, it didn’t cost him his life, but it has left him paralysed, and an investigation is now underway by Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

This latest incident has refocused attention on the two earlier fatalies at Earls Court - the death of Kevin O’Brien, a freelance lighting designer working for the SpotCo, in December 1999 and the subsequent death of David Mott, a contractor working for Unusual Rigging, in June this year. L&SI has contacted

Conference on UK Theatre

Details: 14 March 2016

The first ever cross-industry conference for British theatre to address the challenges and opportunities for its future will take place in London between February 28 and March 3, 2001. Organised by the Society of London Theatre, the Theatrical Management Association and the Independent Theatre Council, key topics of Theatre 2001 will include new ways of working, developing new leadership, new audiences and ways of financing theatre. Speakers include Melvyn Bragg who will open the conference and Richard Eyre whose BBC2 series Changing Stages is currently being shown. There will also be a speech from culture secretary Chris Smith and David Puttnam is scheduled to debate the contrast between the popularity of cinema and the challenges that face theatre. The conference which includes a range of talks, surgery sessions and social events takes place at 1 Great George Street, off Parliament Squ

PLASA Welcomes Neil Darracott to Executive Committee . . .

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA’s Executive Committee has a new face following the recent elections to decide on the line-up for 2001. Neil Darracott (pictured right), design engineer at Total Fabrications Ltd, now joins the committee, following a closely run contest which saw the final votes cast on December 1st. The elections attracted 123 membership votes in total, compared with 104 last year.

Coming from a rigging and trussing background, Darracott MEng AMIMechE will bring a new perspective to the committee. He joined Total Fabrications at the start of 2000, heading up the design team responsible for the company’s award-winning T2 trussing system; prior to this he worked in a number of fields including broadcasting, lighting, stage machinery, rigging, special projects and demountable structures.

Mick Hannaford (LightProcessor), the serving PLASA chairman, has been re-elected for his second thr

New Face at PLASA

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA Publishing has welcomed a new production manager to the team. Sonja Walker, who joined the company in November following the departure of Nikki Evenden, will be involved with all PLASA Publications.

Neil Darracott Joins PLASA Committee

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA has announced that Neil Darracott (pictured right), design engineer at Total Fabrications Ltd, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Association following the elections which closed on 1 st December. The elections attracted 123 membership votes in total, compared with 104 last year. Mick Hannaford (Light Processor), the serving PLASA chairman, has been re-elected for his second three-year term, while PLASA Treasurer Sammy DeHavilland of Dare Pro Audio/Deco Leisure, has been re-elected for a three-year term. Newcomer Neil Darracott fills the other three-year term, while Paul Hinkly of LMC Audio, who was co-opted onto the PLASA committee last year, was elected for a further one-year term.Peter Walker of NSR, who was not re-elected, has served on the PLASA Committee for the past six years, and was for much of that time involved with membership issues, particularly related

PLASA’s Christmas Donation

Details: 14 March 2016

This Christmas, along with an increasing number of companies who choose to help the environment and benefit charity at the same time, PLASA will again be making a donation to two charities instead of sending Christmas cards. £600 will be allotted to charity from the savings on Christmas card mailings, while a further £300, collected at this year’s PLASA Show from visitors to the PLASA stand, will be added to the sum. The total of £900 will be donated by the Association to two charities which have been put in place to benefit industry personnel in times of hardship: the PSA Welfare & Benevolent Fund and to Light Relief.The team at PLASA Publishing would like to wish all visitors to the PLASA Electronic News site a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

University Challenges Industry to Provide Work Experience for Students

Details: 14 March 2016

As there has been a major growth in students signing up for the BA (Hons) Events Management and HND in Events Management courses offered by the UK Centre for Events Management, at Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU), the University is looking for around 120 events industry work placements for its students next year (2001/2002).

Students without previous experience spend 48 weeks working in the events industry, normally with one organisation. A few students undertake two 24-week placements. Students are normally paid a modest salary and, as well as contributing to the day-to-day operation of the business, they are required to undertake a project which will be of lasting benefit to their host organisation.

Martin Wright, senior lecturer at the UK Centre for Events Management at LMU, told L&SI: "There has been a lot of recent media comment about the need for practical, as well as a

H&S Training Courses

Details: 14 March 2016

Stagesafe, a company set up to address the training needs of companies in the industry, with particular reference to Health & Safety issues, is now taking bookings for the next round of its Event Health and Safety Awareness Course.

Specially designed for anyone working in the live events industry, the day-long course examines event hazards in detail and covers everything from legal responsibilities to Risk Assessment. The course is open to freelancers, students and groups from companies, venues and student unions, and is fully approved by the Production Services Association. The course runs on the following dates: Bristol (29th Jan 2001), London (31st Jan 2001), Manchester (12th Feb 2001), Birmingham (13th Feb 2001).

Wembley Bows Out with Final Concert

Details: 14 March 2016

Early November saw the final concert at Wembley Stadium before the venue is demolished and redeveloped. Quietly publicised, it passed off with little note in the Nationals, but nevertheless raised a substantial amount of cash for the NSPCC thanks to a host of stars.

Keith Morris, under the auspices of CSS Productions, managed the event, reassembling the team he used so successfully for the British Gas, Maritime Museum New Millennium’s Eve event (strange how little we hear of the Millennial events that succeeded). Being November and rather nippy around the towers, this dinner and music show was staged on the pitch, but under cover. Serious Structures provided its Space Building, a giant derivative of the classic Orbit roof, being a curved ‘tunnel’ 92 metres long, 40m wide, with a max height at centre of 15m. The main feature of the Space Building is the totally transp

Cirque du Soleil Unveils Battersea Plans

Details: 14 March 2016

Canadian circus company Cirque du Soleil is planning to turn London's disused Battersea Power Station into a £500m entertainment complex, with a permanent home for its shows. Cirque du Soleil plans to convert the dilapidated building into a 2,000-seat auditorium, along with two hotels and a cinema, as one of a number of planned worldwide developments over the coming 10-15 years. Work on the site will begin within the next six months by the owners and developers of the power station, Park View.

Cirque du Soleil was formed by a troupe of street performers in 1984 and has grown to include permanent shows in Las Vegas, Florida and Berlin; it employs over 2,000 staff across the world, and has performed to more than 23 million people to date. The company has staged productions of Saltimbanco and Alegría at the Royal Albert Hall in previous years, and is this week opening a show in London,

In CODE

Details: 14 March 2016

The newest destination for UK clubbers is CODE, located at the aorta of Digbeth in central Birmingham. CODE is the first superclub and permanent venue owned and operated by legendary club promoters God’s Kitchen.

The stylish, contemporary interior design is by Matt Rawlinson of Raw Design, and the stunning effects lighting design is by Carl Dodds of Making Light Work (pictured with Avolites’ Azure console). All lighting fixtures for Dodds’ rig were supplied by Coe-tech to installers, Dublin-based Audio-Tek, with the Avolites Azure 2000 control console supplied directly by Avo to Audio-Tek.

The club’s main dance floor is overlooked by a balcony, with the VIP area in the ‘Gods’ at the top of the building, an atmospheric former warehouse, built in the 1930s. Dodds chose a variety of instruments for his high-impact rig, which was to be put in the hands

Live Music Online

Details: 14 March 2016

www.wembleytv.com is a new on-line development that has been specifically created to be amongst the first to explore a whole host of new opportunities that have arisen from the Broadband Internet revolution.

The site, launched in late November, is devoted entirely to live music, drawing from the strengths of company partners Wembley plc, The McKenzie Group (owners of three live music venues - Brixton Academy, Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the new Birmingham Academy), UK concert promoters SJM Concerts, Metropolis Music and one of Ireland’s leading promoters, MCD; plus technical partners Virtue TV, Europe’s leading Internet broadcasters.

WTV is distinctive in content and style, featuring "as it happens" tour news and a new Pay Per View Broadband Broadcasting Service. This enables the subscriber to watch a performance as many times as he/she likes during a 24hr

Support for Birmingham Fringe

Details: 14 March 2016

Cause & Effect, the organisers of the 2001 Birmingham Fringe theatre festival, are looking at the possibility of holding collaborative projects with entertainment technology companies during the 2001 festival, in order to demonstrate the contribution made by them to technical theatre. Project director Derrick G Knight told us: "My motivation is to enhance Birmingham as a host city for performing arts. This will be achieved through the development of a network of performance venues in partnership with the performers, venue owners and production companies associated with performing arts." An initial idea is to include a sound and lighting exhibition alongside the festival, which takes place in July and August 2001, and Knight is currently exploring the availability of no-cost exhibition space at a number of venues adjacent to the reserved performance spaces. For further informati

Dome Auctioneer Appointed

Details: 14 March 2016

Henry Butcher International has been appointed to dispose of the contents, owned by NMEC, that went into creating The Millennium Dome, following the planned closure of the Dome on December 31st. The Dome houses an enormous range of assets, including lighting, audio-visual, broadcast & sound equipment, restaurant and catering equipment, stage equipment, office furniture and equipment, golf buggies, battery-powered scooters and vehicles. Even the equipment from the world famous Millennium Show, which currently employs 350 people, will be for sale, including stage and acrobatic props, costumes and circus rigging. Henry Butcher will be disposing of all assets owned by NMEC over the next three months by Private Treaty and Public Auction. The Private Treaty sale process is already underway and includes many of the themed Zones, audio-visual and broadcast equipment from some of the most sophist

USITT Appoints General Manager

Details: 14 March 2016

Tom Scharff has been appointed the new general manager for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. Scharff joins USITT from Cornell University where he was general manager of the Cornell Center for Theatre Arts. His career as a theatre administrator includes work as managing director of the new Repertory Theatre in Boston and business manager for Theatre and Dance at the University of New Hampshire.

Brit School

Details: 14 March 2016

It’s still difficult to think of Performing Arts High Schools without images of multi-coloured leg warmers and ballerinas armed with high octane welders flooding the visual horizon. The movies Fame and Flashdance still have a lot to answer for in terms of how we view formal training within the arts.

A visit to the Brit School in Croydon quickly annihilates those dated eighties images and replaces them with a slick, contemporary vision where leg-warmers (if they’re worn) are disguised beneath cool student attitudes and dedication to the various artistic and technical vocations on offer. With the recording industry backing the Brit School, it’s no surprise to discover that the music courses are well developed and until recently the school emphasis fell in that direction.

The school’s production manager, Caroline Heale, was brought in with a brief that included

Huntington in Control

Details: 14 March 2016

If you’re interested in how control systems and computers are used in the live entertainment arena, then John Huntington’s latest book will not disappoint.

Control Systems for Live Entertainment has become something of a bible for those who seek a better understanding of control systems. In this updated and revised version, Huntington has revised his original work in answer to the changes of the past six years. He covers the new technologies that now operate in the field, although perhaps the most important change has come not in the technology itself, but the level to which it is now being used. Huntingdon addresses the challenge of how to adapt these technologies to purposes for which they were never designed. Covering control for lighting, lasers, sound, video, film projection, stage machinery, animatronics, special effects and pyrotechnics for theatre, concerts, theme

Association News - PLASA Highlights Personnel Issues

Details: 14 March 2016

New service introduced to help members through the complexities of running a company.

Ever mindful of the growing burden legislation places on businesses, PLASA has launched a new service designed specifically to make life easier for its company members.

The new Human Resources Service, set up in conjunction with CP Associates HR Consultancy, provides PLASA members with access to professional help and advice on personnel issues.

The service is designed to offer practical, independent advice, based on the latest legislation, and covers areas including contracts & terms of employment; disciplinary and grievance procedures; employee benefits; employment legislation; pay reviews; recruitment and selection; risk assessment; redundancy and absence control.

To give you an idea of the type of information you could receive through this new service see the Briefing panel to the right. To

Association News - Parental Leave Regulations Briefing

Details: 14 March 2016

Since late 1998, major new requirements have fallen on employers and enhanced rights have been granted to employees through the National Minimum Wage, Working Time Regulations and Disability Discrimination Act. Revised legislation has also raised the unfair dismissal compensation limit to £50,000.

If all this has come as news to you, then it would be worth your while taking advantage of PLASA’s new Human Resources Service. The advice you receive will clarify the current legislation so that you and your staff don’t end up in a dispute.

For instance, when the Parental Leave Regulations were updated in December 1999, the existing entitlements were revised. Parents became entitled to 13 weeks’ leave per child before the fifth birthday (subject to a four-week annual ceiling in blocks of one year), a ruling which also applies to adoptive parents or those of children with

Brits Nominated in US Event Awards

Details: 14 March 2016

The UK Events industry has received an important accolade on a world-wide scale, with four companies from the ISES (International Special Event Society) UK Chapter nominated for awards at the ‘Special Event’ to be held this January. Nominees include The Moving Venue (Best Off-Premise Catered Event), The Special Event Company (Best Multi-Day Event), Vok Dams Gruppe (Best Achievement in Technical Support), and The Full Effect has received nominations in an impressive three categories (Best Corporate Picnic, Best Entertainment Concept over $50k, and Best Theatrical Production). The final judging takes place in New Orleans during the Special Event Show, with the Awards and Gala Dinner being held on 13th January. "It’s a tremendous achievement for the Brits to get so many nominations from the 375 entries submitted," said ISES UK Chapter president, Sally Webb. "

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