Sadly, the 2014 Award was presented posthumously, by the unanimous agreement of his fellow nominees, to Pasquale Quadri, the founder of Clay Paky and an admired innovator for 40 years, who passed away shortly before the 2014 show. This year, his fellow nominees will again stand in the shortlist. The nominees for 2015 are:
Richard Belliveau
As one of the co-founders of Texas-based lighting manufacturer High End Systems, and still leading the company's product developments today, Belliveau has been behind a long line of successful products from the company, from the Color Pro, the Dataflash strobe and the F-100 Fog Generator, through to the Intellabeam and Cyberlight moving mirror luminaires, and moving head fixtures including the Studio Command, the Showgun and the most recent innovation, Shapeshifter. Belliveau is listed as the inventor on 100 US patents, issued or pending.
David Cunningham
An early pioneer of computer lighting systems, David Cunningham developed a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and 80s, including the Multi-Q memory lighting system, the Micro-Q console, the Lightpalette and the CD80 dimming system. After leaving Strand, he set up his own development company, Entertec, and developed the Source Four profile - including its revolutionary 575W HPL lamp. He then entered into a hugely successful partnership with ETC, with whom he went on to develop other products including the successful Sensor dimmer.
Dr. Christian Heil
Dr. Christian Heil founded L-Acoustics in 1984, and the introduction of the V-DOSC line array system in the mid-1990s led to a fundamental shift in the live sound market, and line array systems proliferated for the next decade and a half. Still, Heil and L-Acoustics continue to refine the line array concept: the KIVA ultra-compact system came to market in 2008; the K1 system - seen as the long-awaited successor to the ground-breaking V-DOSC - debuted in 2009; the KARA modular line source system followed in 2010; and the K2 system last year.
All PLASA Members and pre-registered visitors to PLASA 2015 are eligible to vote, and will receive an email inviting them to place their vote at the PLASA Show website. Voting closes on Friday 18 September and the winner will be announced at the PLASA Show on Monday 5 October.
(Lee Baldock)
