Its closure led to Big Beat Holdings going into receivership. At the time, the established pub, club, restaurant and hotel business operated 23 licensed premises around the world. The sale also covers the range of Big Beat venues in Scotland, the recently-opened Media in Nottingham and the Australian Home in Sydney. The sale is likely to attract a great deal of interest from the leisure industry.
Since the publication of the first edition, there have, of course, been revolutionary changes in stage lighting technology - all quickly embraced by the regular new editions of the book.This latest edition naturally embraces all the latest technology, but also continues to discuss the basic principles - event to the extent of advising how to use one single spotlight if that is all that is available. It also includes up-to-date information on new equipment and discusses its impact on working methods.
While continuing to provide an introduction to readers with no previous lighting experience, the scope of the book has been widened to include more advanced aspects of lighting design and technology. Consequently, the num
Throughout today, and for the duration of the show, the team from PLASA Media will be bringing you all the latest news and pictures from the show floor. To follow events as they unfold at PLASA 2001, visit our dedicated news section at the address below:
To view the complete list of products entered for the PLASA Awards for product Excellence, visit the web address below:
As a design and communications agency, it earns its living transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, whether it be for a product launch, exhibition stand, new visitor attraction or an interpretation project at a heritage site. I guess
If you work in the LA or NY are
Understandably, the horrific events in New York and Washington cast a shadow over the Show, not least because of the large number of American exhibitors and visitors who always support the event. The shock of the news was felt widely across the show floor, but it quickly turned to a resolve to keep the Show open and a determination that business should go ahead as usual.
Attendance figures were boosted 4.5% on last year’s event as 13,373 visitors (subject to ABC audit) attended the spectacular four-day show to witness the unveiling of the industry’s latest innovations. Of these visitors, an amazing 25% were international. Results of an exit survey showed
Living up to its reputation as the industry’s premier launch pad, the PLASA Show saw a record 56 technical innovations new to the market this year nominated for the Awards. All entries were featured in the New Technology Gallery, sponsored by Lighting&Sound International, which attracted enormous visitor and exhibitor attention and certainly took centre stage.
The awards were presented for Design Excellence and Technical Innovation in four categories: Lighting; Sound; Audio-Visual and Stage Engineering. The winners were presented with a PLASA Award for Product Excellence trophy, specially designed by DHA Lighting. Talking about the Awards, MD
If any exhibitors or visitors have a
Behind the new association are Ampco Pro Rental, Flashlight, Focus Show Equipment, Improve and R&R Show Equipment, all well established companies in the entertainment industry. Chairman Antoinette Wijffels told PLASA Media: "We have finally managed to create a platform where members can exchange ideas, and one which we hope will lead to an even more professional attitude towards clients. We can now also negotiate on important matters at government level, which, as individual companies, was not possible before."
Then came Tuesday September 11th and the PLASA Show faded into the background. Word from New York spread quickly around the hall. The atmosphere was surreal because the events that those who had received phone calls from the States were describing, couldn’t possibly have taken place, even in the wildest imaginations of those who work in this crazy business of ours that specializes in dreaming up the impossible then making it happen.
But as those who gathered in the Platinum Club lounge to watch the news live quickly found - all this, and more, was true. We watched the second World Trade Centre Tower crumble live in front of our e
Three squads competed for the third annual Hayden Laboratories Pro Sound & Lighting Cricket Trophy, in which teams representing the PLASA Show's lighting and sound exhibitors took on the might of the PLASA Show organisers, Clarion Events. After successfully defending their title in 2000, Clarion were set for a fall this year, and fall they did, losing in the final to the PLASA Audio team, captained by Hayden Labs' Simon Curtis.
All three teams fielded some great performances during the day, with only one notable injury - to the neck of PLASA's financial controller Shane McGreevy (playing for PLASA Lighting), who took a show-stopping catch to send Clarion's James Brooks-Ward
Bob Forster, BBC Health and Safety Manager, says: "The lack of safety competence is one of the contributory factors in many accidents within the broadcast industry. Through this programme, anybody from stunt artists to special effects supervisors will be able to attend free training at a convenient location."
The BBC initiative has been warmly welcomed by the HSE, which has said: "Everyone has a responsibility for their own health and safety and all those involved in broadcasti
The Forester Cash Plan is not just another Private Medical Insurance (PMI) scheme - it complements the facilities of the NHS and will also complement and enhance existing PMI schemes because of the different types of benefits provided. The plan will cover pre-existing conditions for all PLASA members - companies and individuals - who sign up for the scheme before 31 December 2001.
Under the Cash Plan, cash refunds are provided for dental treatment (100% refund), eye tests, prescription glasses and contact lenses (100% refund), prescription charges and physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic homeopathic acupuncture, refle
The Group is one of thousands of organizations throughout the UK set to take part in this annual event which this year focuses on the prevention of workplace accidents. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the main organizers of the event in the UK, has received a record-breaking 100,000 requests for action packs - almost double last year’s figure. Provisional statistics for the year 2000/01 indicate an increase of 34% in fatalities among Britain’s workers, with 295 deaths compared to 220 in 1999/200
He also produces an album every two years or so, and on tonight’s evidence he certainly has an ear for a melody. And that’s essentially why he needs a voice; for the bluesy part of his repertoire he can get away with his shouty vocals, just another cracked walnut veneer on the guitar of melancholy, but when it comes to Parisian Walkway and the like, he needs a voice that can match all the subtlety and nuance of
One major problem though. Being the tropics, most afternoons the plaza is deluged by rain of unbelievable ferocity - not the ideal environment then for a fashion show. Which is why event producers Faber Image, and particularly director Robert Seah, began to give this conundrum some serious thought. "This was to be a big show, a reception followed by the fashion parade for a seated audience of almost 1,000. We needed a large, flexible structure, at least 40 by 20 metres, and it needed to be elegant as befits our client.&
"I think 75% of what a lighting designer does is solving problems. So much of the design thought process is about creating the best picture within the limitations you’re working to - and there are always limitations! If you remember the basics of lighting design you can usually get a good end result - it may not always be the end result you were hoping for, but it can be a pleasant surprise.
"Don’t ever forget the basics: cover the performance area in a simple way and hopefully leave yourself something to p
Sound for Reading (and Leeds too) was supplied by SSE. Chris Beale explained that the company had adopted a slightly different approach for the main stages this year, using BSS systems to split the Nexo systems into six separate zones and thereby optimize performance and controllability.
SSE used SIA SmartPro computer-based analysis software to give them precise system control. This ensured both systems behaved in exactly the same way in terms of SPL, EQ, dynamic performance and other general characteristics, allowing bands to have as near the same sound as possible at both sites - notwithstanding the natural variants of wind and atmosphere. True to form, the elements remained
Richard Puxley started Oakleigh Cases with his uncle in 1976: like others in the industry, his interest had been fostered by his father, who manufactured record player and tape recorder cases. The fledgeling company started in the the British Rail Yard in Camden Town, north London. By a stroke of luck, in one of the ad
