The BBC will open the PLASA Focus seminar programme at 10.30am on Tuesday 28 April with a look at the UK's first Media City, opening in 2010 at Salford Quays.
The inspirational new Media City will cover two hundred acres and establish a new state-of-the-art media enterprise zone for the North. The new iconic building will hold a custom-built recording studio for the BBC Philharmonic, floating stages for theatre and concert venues, studio and technical facilities and a number of other offerings for media industries
During the seminar, Jim Brown (Portfolio Director, Production Studio and Technical Facilities in BBC Workplace) will explain what will be in Phase 1 of the project, what first attracted the BBC and how the project will change the media landscape in the UK. The seminar will also explore the opportunities it offers for partnerships, with the focus on the technical facilities being built and operated by Peel Holdings for the BBC and the wider creative community.
Closing the packed seminar programme on Wednesday 29 April will be Steve Brown, head of sound at the award winning Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Housing one of the most unusual theatre spaces in the country, the Royal Exchange Theatre is a seven-sided steel and glass module suspended from four pillars within the Great Hall of the Manchester Royal Exchange building. It is a pure theatre in the round in which the stage area is surrounded on all sides, and above, by seating. Steve Brown is also head of the Sound Design Working Group for OISTAT and sound design curator for the Prague Quadrennial 2011.
Over 1700 people have already registered to attend PLASA Focus, with the latest batch of new announced exhibitors including Road Ready UK, Lab.gruppen and Peavey.
(Claire Beeson)
