Blitz has been selected as the latest member of the global AV Alliance, which is now represented by 46 event suppliers in 26 countries.

The AV Alliance is a network of leading event technical rental specialists committed to delivering performance, service and quality at the highest possible level. The network boasts 2,725 employees, undertaking 46,209 projects each year with equipment sourced from 210,676 m2 of warehousing. Alongside Blitz, England will be represented by two additional organisations; Smart AV and London Audio.

Munir Samji, Chairman at Blitz comments, "We are thrilled to have joined the AV Alliance and to now have access to unrivalled resources across the world. We already supply quite a number of events across Europe, but we will now be in a strong position to provide a comprehensive service in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa."

Sim

UK - Sennheiser UK has confirmed the full availability of GB Channel 38 capable products, with examples on show at PLASA 2011 including 2000 Series and 3000/5000 Series products.

The updated versions include significant changes to the existing product ranges and ensure full Channel 38 compatibility post 2012, with 2000 Series GBw now tuning from 606 to 678MHz and 3000/5000 Series GB from 606-790MHz.

Additionally, Sennheiser UK has developed eRack, an all-in-one, cost effective solution that provides a fully assembled, ready-to-go evolution wireless G3 GB system.

The system comes in two formats: a cube, the eRack4C, and a 19inch rackmount unit, the eRack4. Each system includes the rack itself, an ASA 1 antenna, power supply, plus all other accessories required, and is custom built with four evolution wireless G3 GB systems of your choice.

Also on show from Sennheiser are th

UK - The Backstage Academy has announced a new training partnership with software developer TroikaTronix, the company behind the visual control software Isadora.

The companies united to demonstrate the capabilities of the software to peers and industry professionals as part of the Education and Learning Programme at the PLASA exhibition at Earls Court, London.

Backstage Academy specialises in training for the live events production industry and will be offering courses on Isadora, an award-winning graphic programming environment that facilitates interactive control of digital media and real time manipulation of digital video.

Isadora expands on the traditional media-server concept by offering interactive control over video and audio. Isadora's easy-to-learn user interface and reliability has led to its rising adoption by designers, artists and performance groups across the g

UK - The 2011 Michael Northen Bursary (MNB) Awards saw not three winners but four, plus a dramatic change of criteria for the entries.

This year, for the first time, entrants for the Michael Northen Bursary were required to submit a portfolio which demonstrated imaginative and creative lighting design, together with an explanation of how and why the end result was achieved, for between two and four productions. Until now students were required to submit just one production and the ALD, which manages the Bursary, felt that this change would not only demonstrate consistency in the entrant's work, but also provide the students with the basis of a portfolio which they could use in their future careers.

The change in criteria did not, however, make the judges' task any easier, as organiser Jack Knowles explains, "The quality of work was exceptionally high and this was reflecte

UK - One of the best known designers in pro audio and a veteran of some 40 years in the industry, Terry Clarke of amplifier manufacturer MC2, was this year's recipient of the prestigious Gottelier Award, presented last night at the 2011 PLASA Awards for Innovation.

In 1975 Terry Clarke founded Klark-Teknik with his brother Phil. During his time at KT, Terry designed several products that became industry standards in the touring and installation sectors - including the DN70 delay line, the DN27 and the DN360 Graphic EQs, and the DN780 digital reverb - many of which are still in use worldwide.

In 1984 KT bought DDA and in 1985 bought Midas, going on to launch the popular XL2 and XL3 consoles before selling the company to Mark IV. In 1992 he founded XTA Electronics and launched amplifier manufacturer MC2 Audio in 1994, going on to design the well regarded MC, T and E Series ampli

Licence Free - Pubs, clubs and other small venues offering live music would no longer have to apply for an entertainment licence, under government proposals. The plans - going out to consultation - would apply to premises in England and Wales with a capacity of under 5,000. Ministers say the changes could also apply to school and charity events. The government says the consultation paper on activities defined as "regulated entertainment" under the Licensing Act 2003 is part of its attempt to eliminate red tape.

Tourism Minister John Penrose said changes could provide an "important source of new income to struggling businesses such as pubs, restaurants and hotels". He said extra costs and red tape had also been imposed on school plays and discos where ticket sales went to Parent Teacher Association funds, Punch and Judy shows, street artists, park brass bands

UK/Germany - Cloud Electronicshas announced S.E.A. Vertrieb & Consulting as the exclusive distribution channel for the full range of Cloud audio mixers, zoners, multi-channel amplifiers, and audio distribution systems throughout Germany, effective 15 October 2011.

S.E.A has been distributing audio and music equipment in Germany for more than 12 years and has sales, marketing, administration, technical and logistical facilities in Emsbúren, but also utilises third party logistics and warehousing to provide nationwide coverage for all its brands, including Cloud.

Uwe Kirchfield, director and founder of S.E.A, states, "Our whole team is excited about our relationship with Cloud Electronics. Cloud products fit perfectly within S.E.A's portfolio and are designed for lots of commercial applications. With S.E.A's focussed and energetic approach we expect to achieve an excellent

UK - Chauvet has announced the release of Q-Wash 260-LED, COLORado Zoom Tour and AmHaze to the European market at PLASA 2011. Additionally, Chauvet is participating in this year's STLD LED Shoot Out presented by Society of Television Lighting and Design.

TheQ-Wash 260-LED joins the Q-Series of moving heads. It is "a punchy, fast and compact moving head wash light" with RGB colour mixing. This lightweight, easy-to-install unit has 37 three-watt, RGB LEDs, a six-degree beam angle, and nine or 12 channels of DMX control.

COLORado Zoom Tour joins the popular COLORado series of rugged wash lights for production and touring.

AmHaze is a road-ready, water-based haze machine well suited for large scale applications. The unit is housed in a durable, low-profile road case that is designed to be set on the deck or flown from truss, complete with Neutrik powerCON connections.<

UK - Following a meticulous design and testing process Stageco is unveiling details of the company's new Tower Staging system at this years' shows in Earls Court, London. The new system is significantly stronger, bigger, and, in-keeping with Stageco's approach to stage design, is a modular component system. This means the new XL Towers can be used in multiple configurations, allowing more flexible design on a larger scale than ever before, says the company.

Director Dirk De Decker was part of the development team and he explains, "The XL Tower system has arisen from our experiences designing and building the extra large steel for the U2 360° World Tour. We learnt a lot about large scale fabrication, engineering and handling large steel components on site.

"While we've been developing our skills over the last two or three years working at that scale, we have also

UK - Lake Processing is introducing a new standalone system processor, the LM 44 - which is being unveiled at the PLASA show in London this week.

The LM 44 is a powerful, full-featured digital audio processor based on the Lake Processing technology, which builds on the success of the LM 26, and marking another major step for the Lake brand under the stewardship of Sweden's Lab.gruppen.

Identical in many respects to the LM 26 Digital Audio Loudspeaker Processor, the LM 44 is distinguished primarily by a different input/output configuration. The LM 44 provides four analogue input and four analogue outputs, in contrast to the LM 26's 2-in/6-out. In addition, the LM 44 accommodates 8-in/8-out AES3 and 4-in/8-out Dante digital audio transport. The LM 44 benefits from the latest implementation of Lake's iconic 'Mesa EQ' configuration, utilising four Mesa modules, each with an indepe

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd has recently gained BS EN ISO9001:2008 certification - the internationally recognised quality management system standard - reflecting the importance the company places on continually improving customer satisfaction and complying with all relevant standards for the products and services it provides.

The ISO9001 certification continues AC-ET's investment in its staff and systems as part of the company's customer-focused ideology. In August, the British Standards Institution independently certified AC-ET after completing vigorous internal audits on procedure implementations required to meet the ISO9001 quality standard.

ISO9001 is a valuable asset to AC-ET, providing a model for enhancing customer satisfaction, achieving continual improvements to the company's performance and ensuring that it meets this high standard required by an

Siberia - The first Russian installation of QSC's advanced integrated Q-Sys network system has been carried out at the Nordic Ski Centre in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk.

A complete facility upgrade - which included the sound system - was required by the International Biathlon Union to conform with the latest technical requirements, and enable the Centre to host this year's 46th World Biathlon Championships.

Installation companies Avintel and High Tech Security were responsible for carrying out the technological upgrade, with QSC's proprietary Q-Sys audio signal processing and transmission components supplied by Mixart Distribution, their exclusive distributor in the Russian Federation.

The audio has been placed on a fully-redundant Q-Sys platform and comprises two Core 1000 64 x 64 hubs and 12 I/O Frame modules (with full redundancy provided in the back-up network in the even

The Netherlands - At IBC 2011 in Amsterdam, HHB Communications and Japanese cable manufacturer Mogami presented a cheque for £5,000 that will be donated to the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal .

The donation is a result of the recent appointment of HHB as Mogami's exclusive distributor for the UK and Ireland. HHB pledged that it would donate 10 per cent of the proceeds from all Mogami cable sales made from the beginning of the partnership earlier this year up to the IBC 2011 trade show. HHB's large stock of Mogami cables and the popularity of the product have already made it possiblefor HHB to exceed £50,000 in sales and donate £5,000 to the Red Cross.

The cheque was presented by HHB MD Ian Jones and Mogami's president of sales Lew Hirabayashi during a press ceremony held on the first day of the show on the HHB stand.

"We are delighted to help our friend

Belgium/UK - Orbital Sound reports that its fast deployment of HME's 2-channel DX210 digital wireless communication system has rescued an escalating radio-frequency problem being encountered by the international production of We Will Rock You, which has just opened at the Stadsschouwburg in Antwerp, Belgium.

The show has used the same RF format for over a decade, with some 12 radio-comms channels, as well as numerous radio mic frequencies, but the reducing RF spectrum available across Europe - due to the growth of digital TV - meant that there was simply insufficient clear radio space available in Antwerp.

The sound for We Will Rock You - a Stage Entertainment production - is being supplied by Orbital Sound, with Orbital's Dan Bailey as production sound engineer, and Richard Sharratt the show's associate sound designer.

Tom Byrne, sales director at Orbital Soun

UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems in the United Arab Emirates has recently supplied 22 Premium PR:O stage monitor cabinets to Dubai based rental firm, SLS Productions. Established in the early 90's, SLS Productions' beginnings as a small sound and lighting production company were short lived as the business quickly transformed into a major rental firm serving an ever-growing and diverse client base.

"SLS Productions have been very happy with the performance of their new purchase," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Melody House. "The compact size of the speakers are a great advantage as it allows them to be flexible for various events."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Following the release of their new album, I'm With You, the Chili Peppers' production team has said they are 'with Tait' for the extensive European tour kicking off on 7 October.

Tait Technologies has been awarded the contract to provide staging and automation elements for the forthcoming tour, with this leg spanning 11 countries and finishing in Madrid on 17 December.

The elements are being designed and manufactured in the Tait Towers US headquarters, where project manager James Erwin has liaised with lighting designers, set designers and video providers to co-ordinate the designs into tour-friendly items.

European CEO Frederic Opsomer said, "Tait Technologies will ensure that Tait's impeccable high standards are achieved throughout the tour. The company's expanding European capabilities will ensure optimum logistical delivery of the technical elements supp

Singapore - The largest light and water spectacular in South East Asia has opened on the doorstep of the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Using lasers, searchlights, LEDs, video projectors and giant water screens to create stunning visual effects, Wonder Full is a breathtaking 360-degree sensory experience portraying light and water creating Life, choreographed to an inspiring original score.

Wonder Full features new and exciting technology that took Laservision three years to develop and refine. A team consisting of 100 specialists in architectural, design, creative, musical, engineering, technical and IT resources was drawn from its Hong Kong, Australian and Singaporean offices.

Three massive water screens illuminated by high definition video projection and optically pumped full colour laser systems face the audience at the Event Plaza, Marina Bay Sands entertainme

UK - Allen & Heath has chosen the PLASA show in London to launch a Waves SoundGrid option module for the iLive digital mixing Series, which provides a low latency 64 channel bi-directional interface to SoundGrid. The new M-Waves module opens up the opportunity to use Waves' acclaimed SoundGrid plug-in processing and concurrent multi-track playback and recording.

Developed by Waves, SoundGrid is an Audio-over-Ethernet networking and processing technology for live applications. It provides an extremely low latency environment for high precision Waves audio processing using standard Gigabit Ethernet networks and an Intel-based server running a customised version of Linux. A separate standard Windows or Mac computer runs the MultiRack SoundGrid control application and GUI functions. An integrated Ethernet switch with two EtherCon and one RJ45 SoundGrid port is provided on the M-Wave

UK - Green arts organisation Julie's Bicycle has launched its new UK-wide Better Batteries campaign at PLASA 2011. The campaign aims to bring together the music and theatre industries in a drive to switch over to rechargeable battery systems, particularly for portable sound equipment, and increase the rate of recycling for both disposable and rechargeable batteries. Focused on venues and individual productions the campaign is backed by scientific research and case studies from commercial theatre productions which prove the reliability of the technology, environmental benefits and cash savings available.

The environmental benefits associated with using rechargeable batteries and recycling after use include less pressure on natural resources, less pollution from the manufacturing process, less waste created and less carbon emissions resulting from transport and distribution, due t

UK - The Backstage Academy is exhibiting in association with Jigsaw Systems at PLASA 2011, consolidating their new partnership.

Backstage Academy's training for the live events production and entertainment industries includes courses on Apple based software such as Logic and Final Cut.

Jigsaw Systems has been working with Backstage Academy as it has developed its course portfolio and invested in new technologies over the past two years. The two companies have now formalised their relationship, with Backstage Academy becoming Jigsaw's official training partner for their UK-wide business and professional customers.

Backstage Academy's Apple courses, which currently include Logic 101, Logic 301, Final Cut Pro 101, Final Cut Express 101, Final Cut Pro 300, Final Cut Pro X, Motion 101, Colour Correction 101, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Intro to Apple Macs and iLife, will be d

South Africa - SGM has appointed South African importer Prosound, as its new distributor for Sub-Saharan Africa, with immediate effect.

It joins an already rich brand portfolio of globally-recognised sound and lighting companies - which includes SGM's parent company, RCF - and will be managed under Prosound's Theatre & Architectural Lighting (T&A Lighting) subsidiary.

T&A Lighting general manager Ian Blair stated, "We were particularly keen on SGM's newly-developed LED range, for both the architectural and entertainment markets; this will fill a gap in the product portfolio and at the same time offers great value for a highly professional range. With Peter Johansen heading up the R&D initiative at SGM we foresee some interesting times ahead."

With operational bases throughout South Africa, Prosound is no stranger to the Italian lighting company's catalogue. Set up

UK - Robert Lawrence Creative Solutions, one of the UK's leading event production support companies, recently installed Outline's Mantas and Butterfly line array at the 2011 British Grand Prix. The system was used in Vodafone's VIP area over the practice, qualifying and race days, including the live interviews with Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button to a crowd of over 3000 supporters.

Lawrence Marchington, director of Robert Lawrence commented, "Our clients expect the highest level of quality and finish not only in appearance but also in sound. We have been using Outline equipment for over 10 years and it provides the reliability we need and an unparalleled audio quality. Our investment in a Mantas and Butterfly system was a logical addition to our already extensive range of Outline equipment, and one that will ensure we continue to offer the highest level of audio quality to o

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which has just closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events Manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new d

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which last week closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new

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