d&b - Leaderboard - Dec 2024
ISE - Banner - Oct 2024
Showlight (Tickets) - Banner - Dec 2024

General

Details
UK - PLASA is set to host a Member Business Forum at the Victory Services Club in London on Wednesday 29 March. The forum will feature guest speakers to discuss ways of building culture, continuity and resilience.
PLASA members can attend the forum free-of-charge, with up to two members of your team able to attend. Non-members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets from Monday 13 March for £55+VAT.
The Member Business Forum will offer an afternoon of keynote talks from respected business leaders, followed by an evening of networking and drinks. Attendees will gain actionable advice on how to improve their business practices. Plus, they will meet like-minded industry professionals.
William Rogers MBE has been confirmed as the keynote speaker to deliver a talk on Leading Culture Change. He appeared in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Leader of a mid-siz

Details
UK – Electric Airshows, the new company offering aerial drone light shows to the UK events industry, has announced its membership of PLASA, the UK-based Professional Lighting and Sound Association, and ARPAS-UK, the only trade association focused on the UK drone community.
Electric Airshows, which officially announced its arrival at the start of 2023, has been a long time in development. Headed by two well-known figures from the entertainment production industry, Chris Crockford and Ian Lomas, the company is now offering an initial fleet of 100 drones, purchased from leading Chinese drone show specialist, DAMODA Intelligent Control Technology. The company plans to reach a total of 500 drones – the limit allowed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – by mid-2023, making it a major player in the UK’s emerging drone show market.
In being accepted by PLASA
ISE - Banner - Oct 2024
Showlight (Tickets) - Banner - Dec 2024

Details
Coronation Concert - A ballot has opened for 10,000 free tickets for a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle to mark the King's coronation. The televised show will be on 7 May, the day after King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey. The BBC has promised the line-up will feature "musical icons and contemporary stars". There are 5,000 pairs of tickets in the ballot, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will close on 28 February. The tickets would be allocated based on the geographical spread of the UK population, the BBC said, with those successful notified by late April.
The castle's east lawn would see "a world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favourites fronted by fantastic entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance and the arts", the BBC said. It "will also feature a selection of spoken-word sequences delivered by stars of stage and s

Details
Time Traveller - Beyoncé won a record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award, while Harry Styles won album of the year, at this year's ceremony in Los Angeles. Beyoncé made history as she won best dance/electronic album for her dance opus, Renaissance. In doing so, she overtook Hungarian-British conductor George Solti, whose record of 31 Grammys had stood for more than 20 years. Overall, Beyoncé won four prizes at the ceremony - but missed some of the early presentations after getting stuck in gridlocked downtown Los Angeles. "I'm surprised traffic could stop you," joked host Trevor Noah. "I thought you travelled through space and time."
Border Crossing - Eurovision's stage will use a design that demonstrates "how music can transcend borders and bring people together", the BBC has said. The song contest will take place at Liverpool Arena in May, with the city hosting th

Details
USA - ESTA has announced that Richard Nix is the new technical standards manager for the Technical Standards Programme (TSP). His predecessor, Karl Ruling, will stay on in a supporting role.
Nix’s involvement in the development of standards spans decades. In early 1994 he was already actively involved in the USITT Rigging Standards project when discussions began about the TSP and its mission. He immediately came on board as a volunteer and has been, as he puts it, “a rather hyperactive standards evangelist ever since,” having led multiple tasks groups over the years before joining ESTA as assistant technical standards manager in May 2019.
Former technical standards manager Ruling will now be senior technical standards manager. “I am stepping back so that Richard can step forward, and I am sure he will excel. Richard has been involved in the TSP for as long as

Details
Planning Ahead - The Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival could become a permanent fixture, if plans are backed. Festival organisers currently have rolling temporary planning permission but want it to become permanent. It would mean that as well as the festival, it would allow use of the land, on the Somerset site, throughout the year for parties and camping. But local residents are concerned it would change the land from a working farm to a festival and camping site.
The permission would also allow the "permanent regularisation" of the Pyramid Stage, along with a building currently used for storage and recycling, and the allocation of land to accommodate the temporary festival workforce. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the festival would still be subject to its official licence. So even if planning permission were granted, it would still need

Details
UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) has announced the launch of the Make A Difference conference, an annual proactive conference day committed to finding solutions to current industry issues. The conference will be more than simply talking and will ask attendees to commit to taking action and developing strategies to achieve solutions for the issues discussed.
The first conference will be held on Friday 21 April 2023 in the Ambassadors Lounge, Lyceum Theatre, 21 Wellington Street, London WC2E 7RQ with thanks to Ambassador Theatre Group for their support of this event. The theme for this year’s discussion is Solving our industry’s recruitment & retention crisis.
The conference has been developed to continue the joined-up thinking that is happening in the many ABTT seminars which are convened throughout the year and at the ABTT Thea

Details
Spain - BikeFest returned to Spain last week, cycling over 360km towards ISE in Barcelona, and so far has raised an astonishing £40,000 for industry charities Backup Tech, Music Support and Stagehand along the way.
The now annual event has garnered huge support from across the live AV and events industry, in both the UK and Spain. Organised by #WeMakeEvents, PLASA and AFIAL, the 2023 edition of BikeFest Spain was proudly sponsored by Ayrton, AVIXA, d&b Group, EARPRO, Fantek, ISE, SOJC and Total Solutions Group.
Piers Shepperd, Backup Tech Chair, Technical Director of Wonder Works, and BikeFest member, says, “I’ve been amazed by the widespread support for BikeFest and Backup Tech, as well as our fellow industry charities Music Support and Stagehand. It's been a delight - making new friends, and catching up with old ones, but most importantly riding in a way

Details
UK - Event Power Ltd, one of Ireland’s leading electrical hire companies supplying temporary power to major sports, festivals and state-run events, has invested in Data Strategy’s QC-Check workstation so that in the company’s busy warehouse, safety is an integrated part of the daily process.
With its power and cable inventory in constant demand, the company required a system to facilitate control of the stringent record-keeping associated with certified testing of distro and cable, as well as one that offered on-demand reporting.
Taking the advice of global temporary power specialists, Aggreko, who currently rely on more than ten QC-Check workstations to inspect the integrity of their power distribution units and cables in use at high-profile international events such as the recent Commonwealth Games, Event Power invested in a QC-Check workstation which included

Details
New Theatre - Southwark Playhouse Elephant has become the latest theatre to open in London. The 310-seat venue in Elephant and Castle, the sister venue to Southwark Playhouse Borough, is the fruition of an idea first conceived in 2006. Among its first shows are Bermondsey Revolution, which opens on Thursday, and The Walworth Farce on 17 February.
Artistic director Chris Smyrnios said: "It's a great feeling to come to the end of the journey and to be at the beginning of a new one. Because of the regeneration, we've always been renting places and never really had a place of our own. Finally, we're in a building which is where we can set our roots, it'll be our forever home and it'll be a great place to be able to serve the community but also put on world-class theatre by new and emerging theatre practitioners."
At Risk - The King's Theatre in Edinbur

Details
Spain - 22 live event and AV professionals are ready to cycle up to 390km from Valencia to ISE in Barcelona this weekend. Together as the BikeFest team, they are raising vital funds for industry charities Backup Tech, Music Support and Stagehand.
Organised by #WeMakeEvents, PLASA and AFIAL, BikeFest Spain is in its second year. Last year’s debut saw a team of 10 head toward the empty Fira de Barcelona exhibition centre, where ISE should have been taking place, poignantly showcasing the impacted live events sector.
However, this year’s BikeFest will head towards a thriving trade event – but not before taking in the stunning Mediterranean coastline. 18 members of the team cycle the entire route over three days, with the remaining four joining for the final 95km on the last day. The team represents the span of the live sector, including companies such as Bishopsou

Details
Creative Warning - Government complacency risks jeopardising the future of the creative industries, a report from the House of Lords has warned, as it called out an "indifference to the sector’s potential". The report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee follows an inquiry into the future challenges of the creative industries, which heard evidence from sectors including the performing arts, film, TV, gaming and music.
It warns of missed opportunities among senior government figures to recognise the sector’s commercial potential and makes a series of recommendations to support the future of the creative industries, including that the Department for Education must "address the decline in people taking creative GCSEs". This has been an ongoing concern in the creative sector, which has repeatedly warned that the English Baccalaureate is side-lining t

Details

USA - ESTA has announced approval of three standards by ANSI's Board of Standards Review.
ANSI E1.37-1 - 2012 (R2022), Additional Message Sets for ANSI E1.20 (RDM) -- Part 1 is part of the E1.37 project and provides additional get/set parameter messages (PIDs). Most of the messages in this document are intended for use with entertainment lighting dimming systems. These additional messages allow access to configuration parameters commonly found in many theatrical dimming systems.
ANSI ES1.18, Event Safety – Rigging, provides minimum requirements and general guidelines to assist an event organizer or producer regarding the suspension of equipment and materials that are used in the technical production of organised events. It addresses the general requirements for design, planning, installation, set-up, removal, and operation of rigging activities.

Details
Europe - In the next phase of Power Logistics’ ambitious plans for expansion, the temporary power specialist has appointed a European director to lead its newly opened office in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Experienced international sales and marketing professional, Patrick Elissen, will be spearheading the company’s EMEA operation from the centrally located office. Situated in close proximity to both the German and Belgian borders, the new office is just a short hop from many major European cities.
The news follows the company’s announcement in November that it had established a permanent base in Cork, Ireland, and is part of an ongoing programme of growth that will see Power Logistics build on its market-leading reputation for driving innovative, sustainable solutions forward across the globe.
Commenting on his appointment, Power Logistics’ European direct

Details
Flagship Opening - City Academy is to open a new arts complex in the former home of the Central School of Ballet, which it is describing as a "flagship" offering. Opening in the old heritage building in Clerkenwell, London, the site will contain a purpose-built black-box theatre – opening later this year – and classes that will run over the five storeys, with the first course having started already.
City Academy offers dance, acting and other creative courses. Its managing director Michael Ward said: “We are incredibly excited to be bringing this wonderful heritage building back to life and filling it with a new generation of actors, dancers, singers, performers and creatives. As you walk around the building, you can feel its history, and we aim to honour and respect this past as we refurbish the building. Our team cannot wait to welcome our students and clients into t

Details
USA - Behind the Scenes is offering virtual training for mental health First Aid and Bystander intervention.
Says BTS, “Become a certified mental health First Aider in 2023 and make a real difference. Take an active role in helping to care for those you work with. Expand your skill sets by learning how to identify, understand and respond to signs of distress in your colleagues and help make our workplaces healthier and safer spaces for all. You will be able to use the information you learn every day in interactions with your co-workers as well as friends and family.”
Mental health First Aid virtual classes are posted for January and February at btshelp.org/mhfa. The course is delivered in two parts. The first is a two-hour self-paced online course that must be completed prior to a six-hour virtual live instructor led session.<

Details

Lights Dimmed - Many West End theatres dimmed their lights on the evening of 21 December, in support of Ukraine and the winter blackouts the country will face due to the ongoing war with Russia. 21 December is the darkest day of the year, with the shortest day and longest night of the year, and West End theatres, along with other London businesses and the Mayor of London, participated in the worldwide supportive act.
West End theatres have a tradition of dimming theatre lights before or during an evening performance to pay tribute to notable figures who have died, mark a moment of tragedy or show support for a cause. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged organisations and individuals to band together for An Hour For Ukraine by switching off festive and non-essential lights to help raise public awareness of the continued war impact on Ukraine and to help with f

Details
Italy - Sadly, we report the death of pro audio consultant and journalist Mike Clark, who passed away on 30 December at the age of 77.
Mike, Scottish by birth, arrived in Italy at the end of the sixties as a sound engineer for a band. He fell in love with the country and decided to live there.
He always worked in the field of music, first as a DJ in the leading discos of the Riviera, and then as a music expert in one of the largest shops in Italy, Dimar in Rimini.
A specialised journalist and correspondent for entertainment industry magazines including LSi, he also collaborated with many pro-audio manufacturers, including Outline.
“During the last 30 years, Mike was the most precious resource for our r&d and marcomms departments,” Michele Noselli of Outline states. “A brilliant, generous and extremely reliable person, Mike translated intricate pat

Details
World - The LSi and PLASA team are getting ready to down tools for the last time in 2022, but before we do, we’d like to thank you for your continued readership and support this year.
Our daily online news service will resume on Tuesday, 3 January 2023, but if you find yourself pining in the meantime, all 37 years’ worth of LSi’s back catalogue is accessible for free, HERE.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays - we hope the new year finds you happy, healthy, and thriving!
The LSi team

Details
Going Underground - Ukraine has chosen pop duo Tvorchi as its act for next year's Eurovision Song Contest in a live broadcast from a Kyiv bomb shelter. Tvorchi's entry Heart of Steel is the first song to be confirmed for the 2023 competition in Liverpool. Band member Andrew Hutsuliak said: "We will try to do everything to present Ukraine with dignity."
Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra won this year's contest, but the UK will host in 2023 because of the war. A metro station in Kyiv was transformed into a TV studio for Saturday's selection show. The underground stop has been in use as a bomb shelter since Russia invaded in February.
War Child Support - Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres has launched a partnership with charity War Child to support children caught up in or affected by conflict zones. It marks the charity’s first partnership with a theatre compan

Details
UK - Scottish singer songwriter Gerry Cinnamon concluded his summer tour with two sell-out concerts at his home stadium, Hampden Park, in Glasgow, breaking records as he did so. Cinnamon was the first Scottish artist, and the first independent act to sell out the 50,000-capacity stadium - twice!
His long-term production and lighting designer, Pete Hutchison of Illumination Creative Design, knows all about Cinnamon’s determination to entertain every member of his audience and give each and every one of them an unforgettable experience, whichever part of the stadium they are seated in.
‘This Is The Beginning Of The Rest Of Your Life’ is a maxim which forms a big theme for Cinnamon and outlines his intention to bring the party to his fans. His set and lighting are designed to deliver big moments, which include lots of pyrotechnics, video and lighting effects, and ar

Details
Germany/Italy - ams Osram, a global leader in optical solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Claypaky entertainment lighting business to Germany based ARRI AG. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Claypaky, established in 1976 and acquired by Osram in 2014, is headquartered in Seriate, Italy and is recognised as a leading brand in the professional high-end entertainment lighting market. The company has a strong reputation for its LED- and laser-based portfolio extensions, and offers an innovative, award-winning portfolio of moving body and moving mirror projectors, colour-changers, followspots, projectors and various lighting effects.

ARRI AG, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is a leading designer and manufacturer of camera and lighting systems as well as system solutions for the film, broadcast, and media

Details
Japan - Sony Group Corporation (Sony) has been included in the CDP’s A-List,*1 a distinction which recognises Sony as a leader in efforts to address climate change. This is the second year in a row, and the seventh time that Sony has made the A List in the climate change category.
Based on the recognition that its business success depends upon a healthy global environment, Sony has established Road to Zero, a long-term environmental plan to achieve a zero environmental footprint throughout the entire Sony Group by the year 2050 and is promoting activities from the four perspectives of climate change, resources, chemical substances and biodiversity.
Considering that climate change risk becomes a more serious and pressing issue, and also given our past achievements, this May, Sony announced the acceleration of the target year for achieving its goals in the clima

Details
UK – Warwick Arts Centre, based at the University of Warwick’s Coventry campus, reopened in late 2021 after an extensive four year redevelopment, choosing APS configurable power distribution technology from LSC Control Systems at the heart of its new technical infrastructure.
One of the busiest cultural arts destinations in the Midlands, attracting over 300,000 visitors per year, the Warwick Arts Centre boasts an array of busy entertainment spaces. There are two theatres - a 575-seat main house and a 150-capacity black-box studio, a 1,450-capacity concert hall and three cinemas, alongside exhibition and presentation spaces.
Managing the technical requirements of the refurbishment was chief electrician Mark Smith, who is responsible for lighting and power across the Centre’s auditoria. He found that the APS system met a number of requirements. “The APS units wer
  1. The Week in Light & Sound
  2. Production Futures enjoys action-packed year
  3. The Week in Light & Sound
  4. ABTT announces two new Honorary Members
  5. BlackTrax creator CAST Group appoints CEO
  6. PLASA members hear from DIT and CBI at AGM
Page 11 of 240
Robe - Large MPU
MA Lighting - Large MPU - Dec 2024
Sennheiser - MPU - Dec 2024
Astera - Banner - Dec24

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline