UK - At the PLASA Show this year, Midas will be showing the XL8 live performance system on stand M40 for the first time at a UK trade show. XL8 heralds the leading console manufacturer's entry into the digital mixing realm, offering an incomparable design combining exemplary sound quality, flexibility and reliability with an ease and familiarity of use unrivalled by other digital control surfaces. XL8 is the first of a new generation of open-architecture, cross-platform, integrated audio control and distribution systems, which brings control of not only audio, but other aspects of live performance to a single, intuitive control centre.

As well as offering classic Midas audio quality and superb reliability, XL8 actually improves upon the performance of the analogue consoles which have established the brand as the number one choice of sound engineers the world over. XL8 represents

Germany - ChainMaster has introduced the JumboLift, designed to lift heavy weights such as video cubes. The BGV-C1 chain hoist will be capable of lifting weights as great as 6,000kg, and is equipped with a frequency converter, incremental encoder and (optionally) with an absolute value encoder. The controller is available in both one- and two-channel configurations; a control cabinet control system with breakdown control can also be implemented. The JumboLift is also available as a BGV-D8 version, say the company.

Also new from ChainMaster is a manual controller for up to 48 chain hoists. With the remote control, which is equipped with a 5.7" touch-screen, it is possible to program runs as well as display individual positions and loads. It will also be possible to effect a group shutdown in the event of the synchronicity tolerance being exceeded, the target position being o

UK - Lite Structures will launch Digitruss - an innovative, cable-free, truss system that incorporates both live circuits and data rails within the one structure - at the PLASA Show this year. The data rails can carry both the architectural protocol DALI and the entertainment industry standard DMX512, enabling both conventional and intelligent lighting to be attached to the same truss without the need for extension cables.

Litestructures says: "With Digitruss from Lite Structures it is now possible to cost effectively create, seamless, colourful mood paintings or micro climates. You can now stimulate your audience with an endless variety of canvasses in a fraction of the time and with reduced labour costs. Any number of light, sound and visual sources can be incorporated in the one, cable-free, lightweight, low maintenance, environmentally friendly, infinitely flexible trus

Germany - Protonic Software, developer of the Easyjob rental management system, has introduced what it calls "an easier way to make informed business decisions" - The Easyjob Business Information Center (BIC). This new tool critically analyzes data from an existing Easyjob database and displays key figures on one easy-to-read screen. Users can quickly and easily determine the profitability of projects, the return on investment for purchases, the cost-effectiveness of employees and freelancers, plus much more. Full-colour reports and statistics can be saved and distributed in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Excel files.

Protonic Software representatives will conduct live demonstrations of the new Easyjob BIC at the 2006 PLASA Show (10-13 September, Earl's Court, London). Protonic software GmbH/Corporation is the leading manufacturer of software solutions

UK - To date, Funktion One's renowned large-scale bass systems have been focused around 18"s in the form of F218s (with their unique and highly efficient loading technique) and the Infrabass/Infrahorn systems (for extreme low end reinforcement down to 30Hz and below).

In the 1980s, Funktion One's Tony Andrews had also pioneered work with Precision Devices on the development of the first widely used 21" (6" voice-coil) loudspeaker. This provided the low end for his highly regarded Flashlight system design of the time which was used on world tours by groups including Pink Floyd and Dire Straits. "In 2006, with F1s access to advanced materials and Andrews' heightened understanding of loudspeaker and enclosure tuning, his original 21" concept was due for a revisit. This work has resulted in a new product with dramatically increased performance," say the

Belgium - Barco are showing the all new MiStrip at PLASA 06, which is making its debut on the Mesh City Bon Jovi tour. At the show, Barco demonstrates that LED no longer has to be rectangular or flat. With the whole portfolio of creative LED solutions on show it is easy to see that the only limits are those of the imagination.

MiStrip, entered in the PLASA awards for innovation competition, sets a new standard for LED display technology in a wide variety of applications. From large free-form video displays to architectural visual design.

High brightness and high pixel density in a slim and lightweight yet rugged package make MiStrip a true all-round performer.The possibilities with this product include not only bright video displays of any size, shape or form but also lighting-type effects, in one package.

Also on show is the MiSphere which pens up the door to new, bold and

UK - Lightfactor Sales is showing a variety of its core theatre and performance orientated products available from Italian manufacturers SGM, LDR and Novalight, VXCO from Switzerland and LightProcessor from the UK.

SGM's new Pilot 3000 is a value-added DMX controller ideal for use with small rigs, with all functionality of larger consoles. This includes 1024 DMX Channels, two DMX outs and four in; touch screen for quick access to all functions. There's six programmable scene control faders and four encoder wheels for attribute control during programming, and effects control during playback. A 'Joy Ball' gives intuitive Pan/Tilt control.

The Genio Mobile is a reliable, compact, stylish LED colour-changing fixture with incredible brightness. Producing a wash light effect generated by 16 high-powered Luxeon LEDs (1,800 lumens). Lamplife is at least 100,000 hours at maximum power.

UK - Visual messaging captures the imagination by combining audio, videoand graphics to provide custom messaging in a compelling and dynamic visual format.

Denon's new DN-V755 Network AV Player provides the flexibility to achieve this, enabling: the display of schedules or directories, interspersed with marketing material; the creation of interactive kiosks; the ability to integrate messages into dynamic signage; the ability to upload new training and educational videos, and messages to be programmed into a loop, for delivery according to a preset schedule. They can even interact with users and be updated with new information and graphics at a moment's notice. The DN-V755 can be controlled from a remote (either on- or off-site) or directly from the front panel without the need for a computer.

The DN-V755 Network AV Player dispenses with the expensive programming involved when

UK - Visitors to the PLASA Show can join Halls for a glass of something chilled on Monday afternoon (11 September) as they launch the all-new website - over 700 pages of useful information on every product. The new site will have technical details on all key aspects of the catalogue and Halls are building a great deal of interesting stuff in as well, from 'how to' installation guides, links, archives, project shots, downloads, free stuff and more, say the company.

The company will offer its usual hospitality on the stand - along with new products from Visual Act, ASM Steuerungstechnik and Hof Alutec. The main display this year will be the Visual Act 3D, an add-on module for Visual Act's Stage Control System. Visual Act 3D creates an interactive workspace for creating, programming and operating 3D flying objects. Objects are created quickly and easily by selecting an object type

UK - Leading UK loudspeaker system manufacturer Martin Audio will be celebrating its 35th birthday at PLASA 2006. On show will be examples from its product ranges - including line array, Wavefront, stage monitors, AQ, Blackline, Ceiling, Stadium, Contractor, Cinema and accompanying dedicated control electronics and amplifiers.

Martin Audio - stand G39.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - The V-440HD, a flexible and affordable video mixer, is the latest flagship video mixer/switcher from Edirol. Building on the success of the Edirol V-4 VJ mixer, it was designed as a professional solution for live concerts, corporate events and outside broadcasts - or any application requiring seamless mixing of SD and HD video and computer signals up to SXGA. The mixer sports eight individual inputs and Edirol say it offers "exceptionally clean transitions" augmented by a joystick-controlled Picture-in-Picture facility. Two separate Keyers for SD and HD are accessible from the user interface.

Expandability has also been a key design feature and Edirol says it has ensured that chaining together multiple units of the V-440HD is pain-free, enabling a single HD image to spread across multiple output displays - ideal for multi-screen performances. The V-Link control sy

UK - PLASA 06 will see the UK launch of InOut Digital, on the stand of its UKdistributor, CUK Audio.

InOut Digital is an Italian based manufacturer, designing and manufacturing advanced audio devices utilising solid-state memory. These devices have been designed to automatically reproduce warning messages, voice alerts, music and sound effects, in fact all types of audio files in a vast array of situations. The main advantage to this approach is reliability as, unlike hard disk based solutions, there are no moving parts. The memory is also extractable making files quick an easy to update. The four devices within the range cover all applications where audio needs to be repeated / reproduced.

The Panel Player can manage more than 16 hours of MP3 audio files and incorporates a stereo Class D 20W + 20W amplifier, which can also be bridged to provide a single channel of 40W. 6/8 mu

UK - The IBC and PLASA 2006 shows will see several major new product releases from ADB Lighting Technologies, as well as an expanded accessory range.

On PLASA stand H19, the company will unveil two new ranges of luminaires in the award winning Warp series - the HMI Warp/Daylight and the cool running, long lamp-life Warp/Ceramic, along with new Warp series accessories. Two new dimmers will also be on show - the Eurodim Sine Wave series and the Erack 50 Plus economy dimmer rack.

On IBC stand 11.539, ADB will show the improved Softlight Rah2502/S and Rap2502/S - the first units were recently supplied to Flemish Television studios - and the Eurodim Sine Wave Dimmer.The new, HMI powered Warp/Daylight automated spot luminaire range, available in both motorised and manual versions, provides the brightest beam in the 575 discharge lamp range. A new fixture range with electronic flicke

UK - The Martin Mania EFX700 combines some of the features of two of Martin's most popular effect light series - Ego and Mania - to produce a high powered flower effect.

Surprisingly bright for a 150W discharge effect, the Mania EFX700 casts an impressive and widely dispersed display of aerial effects from a rotating parabolic mirror dish. This flower effect features an array of colours, 12 gobo designs, and strobe effects. Its high quality optical system produces clear definition. The Mania brand is very service friendly and the discharge lamp has a long-life of 6000 hours.

Designed primarily for installation use, this versatile effect light includes a number of mounting options yet is durable enough for life on the road. Suitable for any show, club, or party, the compact EFX700 is DMX controllable or operates in music or auto trig. Pre-programmed macros are included for simp

USA - Renkus-Heinz will introduce the IC7 self-powered and ICX7 non-powered Iconyx array systems at the 121st AES Convention in San Francisco.

Unlike their predecessors, the IC7 and ICX7 are passive arrays with fixed beams that can be mechanically steered. The IC7 is self-powered and the ICX7 is designed for use with an external amplifier. Both feature seven high performance 4-inch coaxial transducers in an architecturally transparent enclosure that is only 44 3/8" (112.7 cm) tall, 5 11/16" (14.5 cm) wide and 4 3/8" (11.1 cm) deep.

Iconyx digitally controlled array systems use advanced technology to provide natural music and intelligible speech in the highly reverberant environments typically associated with architecturally distinguished buildings. Their slender "thin stick" vertical profile mounts flat to the wall, blending easily with both classical

UK - Stage Electrics says it has identified that it is possible to incorrectly use the Squelly Adaptor, thereby rendering the product dangerous. The earth pin can be inserted correctly yet the neutral pin can be inserted into the live socket of the adaptor, leaving the live pin of the plug exposed.

Although the company says the product is perfectly safe if used correctly, it has taken the decision to withdraw and recall the product from the marketplace, and is asking owners of the units please remove this product from use immediately.

Stage Electrics says it contracted a design and manufacturing company of considerable repute in the UK within the domestic electrical market, and is therefore extremely disappointed to find this issue with a product which they were informed conformed to regulations.

Stage Electrics has set up an information point on their website on how to retu

UK - PLASA 2006 will see the worldwide launch of Audica, a new brand to the professional audio installation market, on the stand of its UK distributor, CUK Audio. Audica focuses on three key elements; style, audio quality and innovation.

Cambridge-based Audica Professional Ltd products are designed the heartland of UK audio in Cambridge and engineered by a world-leading acoustic design house in Germany to meet the very highest standards for discreet elegance and application flexibility for high fidelity installed sound. The Audica Microseries is ideal for background music systems in applications such as restaurants, retail outlets and hotel public areas and for AV systems in boardrooms, meeting facilities, museums, visitor centres and hotel bedrooms.

Microseries consists of two ultra-compact wall-mount and one ceiling-mount 'micro-spot' loudspeaker which give wide-band audio s

UK - Colour-Tramp is a versatile lighting controller for two- and three-dimensional arrays of colour changers. Since its launch, it has become a market leader for large architectural lighting systems with installations worldwide, according to its manufacturer, Artistic Licence.

Colour-Tramp leads the way in the convergence of light and video by allowing the designer to choose their preferred medium. Lighting designers are able to use the free-of-charge 'off-line' version as an authoring tool for the client presentation, with the benefit that once the contract is won, the off-line programming can be re-used for the actual show.

The latest version release (1.45) contains a wealth of new features that have been requested by customers or simply needed for a particular installation. One particularly innovative feature is the concept of visual mapping fixture date. Colour-Tramp uses

UK - Speaker company JBL will exhibit a new addition to the existing popular VRX900 line array at the PLASA Show this year, and also show a new, affordable PA line for the first time at an exhibition in the UK - the MRX500 series.

The VRX900-series 'constant curvature' line array is designed for small to medium-sized venues, and can be used in a fixed installation, or to form a portable PA. The first speakers in the series to be launched, the two-way VRX932LAs, featured the JBL-patented 'constant curvature' waveguide which lends its name to the series as a whole. Three compression drivers are mounted on a continuous arc in each speaker, and when further VRX932LAs are added to the system, the speakers fit together in such a way that the arc of drivers continues. In use, the acoustic effect of this is that the drivers work together as though they were a single driver on a continuo

USA - Entertainment Technology has announced the release of software version 3.1 for the complete line of Marquee lighting control consoles. "We are very excited to be releasing software version 3.1 for the Marquee lighting control consoles," says Alan Keen, Entertainment Technology product manager. "As the popularity of all Marquee consoles continues to grow, we are dedicated to providing lighting programmers with the latest technology to complete their lighting designs."

Designed by Horizon Control, Marquee software version 3.1 introduces new moving light and intensity effects, independent attribute timing, redundant tracking backup, a new colour picker tool, and astronomical time event control.

Robert Bell, Horizon control product manager, said: "For this release, the most challenging hurdle for the development team was to 'tame' our very powerful e

UK - This year's PLASA Show will be Harman Pro UK's first European showing for three new Lexicon products which are now shipping to dealers. The Lexicon MX400 and MX400XL are 1U, 4-in 4-out hardware reverb processors aimed at studio and live users which expand upon the spec of last year's successful MX200 reverb. The MX200 was a stereo device with two effects engines, and as their name suggests, the two MX400 models are four-input, four-output devices with four independent effects processors each. The only difference between the two models is that the analogue inputs and outputs on the MX400XL are professional XLR connectors, while the MX400 sports standard TRS jacks. S/PDIF digital I/O is also available on both models.

The effects engines offer the usual complement of high-quality, rich-sounding Lexicon reverbs (a total of 17 different types), say Harman, plus delays and effect

UK - AKG are renowned for the quality of their microphones, and for the intense research and design that goes into them. In recent years, competition in the budget mic market has been fierce, and so to keep up with developments at the ultra-affordable end of the microphone business, AKG released the Perception Series 100 and 200 condenser mics last year. Designed in Europe but made in the Far East, the 100 and 200 manage to be excellent value without sacrificing design standards, says the company.

AKG are now introducing the Perception 400 at this year's PLASA, a new microphone which sits at the top of the Perception range, creating 'good, better and best' models for purchasers to choose from. The Perception 400 is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone with multiple pickup patterns (cardioid, omnidirectional and figure-of-eight) designed for both live and studio-based applicati

Hong Kong - LED video screen manufacturer Lighthouse Technologies has introduced its new video processor, the X-Drive One, which provides an all-in-one image processor and a fully integrated LIP SX/DX (Lighthouse Interface Processor) LED video display controller in a single rack-mountable unit. The unit features offers execellent image quality and scaling of video and computer graphics, say Lighthouse, and is aimed at rental, staging and fixed installations.

The minimum screen size of 128 x 96 pixels considerably exceeds that of previous models and is therefore capable of fitting a much wider range of screens, the company says, while the 6.5" (16.5cm) TFT LCD analogue VGA monitor dispenses with the need for a separate preview screen and is capable of Dual Identical Output, thus allowing the same image to be sent to two identical screens, where previously only Single Output

UK - UK distributor Stagetec has announced the product line-up from Compulite for the PLASA Show. The company's Dlite range was officially launched at PLASA last year and has already been popular in a wide range of applications including TV studios, theatres, arts centres, schools and colleges. This year sees the launch of the largest system in the Dlite family with an integral 48/96 channel manual console.

Also new, CompuPACK is a range of portable digital dimmers being launched at PLASA.Available in either 12 x 2.5kW or 6 x 5kW power ratings, a range of formats will be shown including hard-wired, UK 15A, Ceeform, Schuko, Socapex and Weiland. CompuPACK can be controlled via DMX or Ethernet and incorporates both MCB protection for the incoming mains supply and an MCB per output channel. The built-in LCD display and function buttons allow quick and easy set-up of a whole host of

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