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Germany - TOA Europe will return to Frankfurt's ProLight+Sound exhibition this year, promising a major new product-line introduction to add to its already impressive line of audio solutions for public address and emergency evacuation.

From its base on Stand 8.0 F46 in Hall 8 of the Messe Frankfurt complex, TOA will showcase a new range of flat-panel loudspeakers - marking the first time the company has offered such low-thickness transducers and extending even further the possible applications for TOA's core technologies.

"Last year in Frankfurt we were the first manufacturer to show loudspeakers that were certified to the new pan-European EN54 standards for fire safety," says Brett Downing, sales & marketing director, TOA Europe. "This year we are extending our lo

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UK - London-based creative agency Knifedge has produced another set of dramatic theatrical projections to act as the backdrop to a major new production of Verdi's Aida at The Royal Albert Hall.

This latest production of Verdi's operatic masterpiece is co-produced by Raymond Gubbay and The Royal Albert Hall, and directed by Stephen Medcalf. It is widely regarded as Verdi's most epic opera, telling the tragic story of a classic love triangle between slave girl Aida, the King's daughter Amneris, and Captain of the Guards, Radames.

Knifedge's latest visual effects paint evocative pictures of Ancient Egypt onto huge curved gauzes, stretching around almost a quarter of the venue. The agency has worked closely with set designer Isabella Bywater and lighting designer Andrew Bridge to blend its imagery into the overall design of the show. From a technical stand point, the rig co

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South Africa - The Theatre Lighting Archive is a new website which celebrates the pioneers of theatre lighting design in South Africa and went live on the 29 February 2012.

"I figured 29 February 29 doesn't happen every year and neither does a project like this," said the man behind the enormous task, lighting designer Denis Hutchinson. "Unlike most archives with their reams of paper and dust, the idea here is much more personal with the primary focus being video interviews with the amazing people who laid the foundations of lighting design in South Africa."

The idea came to Hutchinson after watching a panel discussion moderated by Ken Billington which was filmed in New York. "Names that I'd seen in print - Abe Feder, Peggy Clark, Tharon Musser - suddenly became people, and that was really exciting. It also got me thinking about how little we do to pre

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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UK - A Midas PRO6 at FOH with an additional PRO6 and the new PRO2 on monitors, specified by live sound supervisor and supplied by Britannia Row Productions, delivered perfect performances at this year's Brit Awards, held for the second year running at London's O2 Arena .

The Brit Awards, the biggest event in the British music industry's calendar, is one of the most challenging shows to stage, with a multi-artist line-up that this year ranged from the simple guitar and vocal of Ed Sheeran to the full band, backed by choir, of Blur, all broadcast live on TV to an audience of over six million. A total of nine artists performed on the night, the line-up also including Adele, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Florence and The Machine, Noel Gallagher, Olly Murs and Rihanna. All were mixed on the PRO6.

FOH engineer, Britannia Row's Josh Lloyd, says, "The PRO6 was perfect for the job. Its ab

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Finland - Viking Line commenced service in 1959, when the S/S Viking began sailing between the Finnish mainland, the Åland Islands and Sweden. Today Viking Line has seven vessels, which sail between the Finnish mainland, Åland and Sweden as well as between Finland and the Baltic states. Operations include passenger services, recreation and cargo carrier services.

After renewing M/S Rosella's dance restaurant to the height of two floors, Jouni Sironen, the AV manager of Viking Line, was looking for the line array set, which could support live music and entertainment. After a few demo listenings, RCF TTL 31A was chosen for the new system.

The system consists of rigged TTL 12AS and four TTL 31A per side and TTS 28A subs in the centre ground stack to produce the perfect bass coverage. Four RCF C 3108W delay speakers fill the back parts of low height first floor.

RCF's Finnish

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USA Alabama based Lighting designer Taylor Price used a Jands Vista S3 console, running the next generation Vista v2 software, to control lighting for the recent US tour of Grammy Award winning rockers, Third Day.

Taylor made the switch to the Jands Vista platform while lighting another Grammy award winner, Switchfoot. Their punishing touring schedule meant Taylor was looking for a powerful yet portable control system that could easily travel on a plane. His solution was to join the growing international family of lighting designers who have bought their own Vista system. He's not looked back, and has been an enthusiastic Jands Vista user ever since.

Third Day play a wide variety of venues using a mix of their own touring rig and locally supplied production. On arena shows the Vista S3 was controlling the full touring rig of Vari*Lite 3000 profiles, Vari*Lite 3500 washes, Mart

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USA - Lighting designer, Lawrence Upton recently extended his long relationship with Smashing Pumpkins when the band took first to the American tour circuit, and then Europe, in support of their ninth album, Oceania.

However, it was the first time he had used GLP's impression platform, building 20 of the compact, lightweight Volkslicht Zoom LED heads into the set. And it certainly paid dividends.

Taking responsibility for the full stage design and dynamics, he set out in search of the latest equipment available "to suit the vibe of the tour", opting for the GLP fixtures after they had been recommended by Kevin Forster at Epic Production Technologies, who supplied the rig for the American leg, and Craig Gaff at PRG.

The tour itself was picked up across the Atlantic by Neg Earth, who maintained continuity with the GLP heads - ensuring that they performed as fl

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UK - Well over 100 sound engineers and sound rental companies from as far afield as Brazil, homed in on Wembley Arena for two days of Martin Audio MLA (Multi-cellular loudspeaker array) product demonstrations this month.

The two days were split into four separate sessions. Each session combined a theoretical presentation from R&D director Jason Baird followed by exposure to different optimisation plots, created in the new Display 2.1 software, out in the Arena itself. This enabled visitors to sample the consistency of sound coverage from points on the floor, behind the PA, at the bleachers and at the top of the raked seating in the 12,500 capacity venue.

Jennifer Warnes' Somewhere, Somebody was used as a reference track but it was left to acts such as Rammstein to demonstrate the full dynamics and muscularity of the system.

At one point Baird demonstrated the close co

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USA - Busy booths, packed seminars and a raft of new product launches firmly established PLASA Focus as an unmissable industry event for Texas. A total of 820 attendees, including exhibitors, headed to the Renaissance Austin to see over 50 brands launch dozens of new products and enjoy Focus's trademark informal, friendly atmosphere.

Among the new products making their debuts at Focus Austin were: the MAC III AirFX luminaire and M2GO and M2PC consoles, launched by Martin Professional; along with the DLV Digital Light, and TechnoArc automated luminaire, both from High End Systems.

The Professional Development Program was a major attraction with substantial audiences for sessions that ranged from Demystifying Audio to Austin City Limits Live!.

CEO of PLASA Matthew Griffiths, commented, "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and th

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UK - In May 2011, four apprentices joined entertainment lighting specialist White Light. All four joined on a two year term as part of White Light's involvement with the National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural.

Natalie Brotherton, Gabrielle Felix-Daramy, Daniel Goodwin and Danielle Morris all took the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience in the world of entertainment lighting by working within White Light. Starting with preparing cables then moving on through White Light's rigging and bench teams the apprentices have been learning the 'nuts and bolts' of entertainment lighting. The plan, in time, is for all four to work in every area of the company's warehouse, helping to prepare equipment for the more than 3,000 projects White Light is involved with each year while learning from the company's highly experienced staff.

Their work is by no means limited

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USA - Four draft Rigging Working Group Standards are available at the web address below. Materially affected members of the public are invited to review them.

BSR E1.6-2 - 201x, Entertainment Technology - Design, Inspection, and Maintenance of Electric Chain Hoists for the Entertainment Industry, is part of the E1.6 powered entertainment rigging project. This draft standard covers the design, inspection, and maintenance of serially manufactured electric link chain hoists having capacity of 2 tons or less and used in the entertainment industry. This standard does not cover attachment to the load or to the overhead structure. Its review runs until April 24.

BSR E1.6-4 - 201x, Portable Control of Fixed-Speed Electric Chain Hoists in the Entertainment Industry, is a standard for the controls often used to operate chain hoists. Its review runs until March 27.

BSR E1.8 - 201x, Ent

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UK - Following the launch last year of their latest system design/documentation tool, Stardraw Design 7, software provider Stardraw.com has reported a number of significant milestones. The first is that SD7 was Highly Commended in the Most InAVative Commercial AV Accessory category of the InAVate Awards at ISE in February. The second is that Stardraw.com has recorded record sales for December 2011 and January 2012.

"These were our best December and January ever, and our best two consecutive months ever," reported Stardraw.com marketing director, Rob Robinson, "and that is principally down to SD7 sales. It's a huge testament to the relevance of the product to today's systems contractors, and doubly so when you consider that we have achieved record sales at a time when many others are still feeling the effects of the economic crisis. We've also garnered professional

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UK - Comic, Paddy McGuiness hosts the new Roughcut Television Saturday night comedy panel show Mad Mad World which will be aired on ITV later on in the year.

The show looks at fun new stories, events and TV clips from every corner of the globe. Each episode team captains (Rhys Darby and Rufus Hound) are joined by celebrity guests to explore foreign customs, curios and cultures.

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supports LD Chris Kempton on the show, which is filmed at the BBC TV Centre, White City.

His specification includes Clay Paky Sharpys, MAC 500's, Alpha Wash 1200's, MAC 600's, VL1000 TS, GLP Impressions and Alpha Spot 700's.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - PLASA Focus: Leeds will be the first UK show that MT Pro has taken a stand at as the distribution arm of MilTec(UK).

"We welcome all existing and new clients onto our stand where we will be showing several new audio and lighting products from our MT Audio and LED Head ranges of products," the company says. These include a new 8-channel amplifier, new 1U mixers, zoners and a digital processor, along with battery-powered units and one of the first wash/profile LED moving heads in the one unit from the company's LED Head range.

MT Pro - Stand S-C7

(Claire Beeson)

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Canada - CAST Software of Toronto has announced the promotion of Jim Hutchison, creator and editor of the internationally renowned JimOnLight.com, stepping up to assume the role of product manager for CAST Software's wysiwyg as well as for Vivien Virtual Event Designer, the CAST software suite for the special events industry.

Hutchison has been contributing marketing and technical copy for CAST Software as their social media manager since early 2009, in addition to writing various articles for the company's newsletter, The Plan.

"I'm beyond thrilled to be leading the amazing development team at CAST," says Hutchison. "I've been a wysiwyg User since Release 4, and I don't think that there is a design I haven't created in wysiwyg since the early part of this century! I love the products, I love the teams, and I love talking to our Users about how wysiwyg wo

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UK - 4HM has launched a new MADI to multi-format AES audio converter called the MA64. The MA64 provides simultaneous 32 x AES/EBU and AES3-id pair outputs, offers multiple synchronisation options and is Dolby compatible.

Also new from 4HM are two rack-mounted breakout boxes. The BOB/O-32 provides a means to break out two DB25 connectors to 16 AES/EBU pairs on 3 pin XLR connectors. The BOB/I-32 does the reverse and permits 16 AES/EBU pairs on 3 pin XLRs to be routed to two DB25 connectors.

MA64 is a compact and convenient 1U MADI converter designed specifically for broadcast and production applications. Accepting both optical and coaxial MADI, the MA64 simultaneously makes 32 pairs of balanced AES/EBU and unbalanced AES3-id available for interconnection to broadcast routers, audio consoles or any other AES equipped devices.

Comprehensive synchronisation options including word

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Belgium - ArKaos has released GrandVJ 1.6.5, a new version of its real-time video mixer with features that "bring out the VJ in everyone".

ArKaos GrandVJ 1.6.5 introduces Scratch Control support for DJ-style MIDI controllers with jog wheels, to bring DJs another step further into the VJ world. Two new slider widgets control the sensitivity of the scratch and the scratch itself.

ArKaos has added templates with feedback support for the new American Audio VMS4.1 and VMS2 MIDI controllers in a move designed to give a DJ-style feeling while mixing video with these controllers. It has also updated the mapping templates for the Hercules DJ Control series to take advantage of this new Scratch Control feature.

GrandVJ 1.6.5 also adds mapping templates for the Livid OhmRGB, with feedback support and coloured keys, and for the Elation Midicon with feedback support.

GrandVJ'

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Germany - Visual Productions is set to launch IOCore at Prolight+Sound this month. The IOCore is an expansion module in the CueCore product family of solid-state lighting controllers. It offers interfacing to digital and analogue inputs and digital outputs and supports various protocols like DMX, RS-232, OSC, UDP and Art-Net.

The IOCore features eight inputs that can be individually configured as digital or analogue input. Set as digital input, it allows for an easy connection with, for example, physical switches and sensors. When set to analogue, it supports 0-10V and 1-10V inputs; ideal for connecting to household dimmers.

The eight outputs on the IOCore are relay-switched and can handle 3 Amp. The digital outputs can be used to switch various other equipment like A/V devices, blinds or heavy-duty relays.

Additionally, the IOCore is fitted with a DMX-512 port that can be c

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Germany - As Renkus-Heinz celebrates a productive ISE, the company is gearing up for an even busier ProLight+Sound 2012 in Frankfurt.

ISE 2012 saw the first European showing of the new IconyxICR-MkII digitally steerable installation loudspeaker, with its innovative new triple tweeter design. "We now have a complete, equally spaced, array of high frequency devices extending the whole length of the array" comments Rik Kirby, VP sales and marketing. "This gives the new, fourth generation, column even better steering ability, reduced side lobes, and greater fidelity."

Equipped with RHAON (Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network) the ICR-II series is available in 8, 16, 24 and 32 driver formats, enabling sophisticated large-scale coverage of even the most imposing spaces. Typical applications will be cathedrals, airports, train stations and other large, acoustical

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises have recently been appointed as distributors for Rycote in the Middle East.

"Rycote is the industry standard for news, TV, film and recording industry professionals when it comes to microphone windshields and microphone suspension systems," commented Chicco Hiranandani, business development manager at NMK.

He added, "with brands like Shure and Sound Devices that cater to the same market, the Rycote range of products now allow us to provide a complete solution to the client base. We look forward to growing our business in the broadcast and production segment."

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Roland Professional in the Middle East have recently supplied the V1600HD to Dubai based Liquid Productions. A live video production company working on a number of high profile events in the region, Liquid Productions purchased the Roland V1600HD after a demonstration by NMK's Roland specialist Moswain Antao. The HD vision mixer was immediately used for the BBC Good Food Middle East Awards 2012 held in Dubai.

"Liquid Productions have been working on SD for several years but due to market needs they realized that they had to quickly upgrade to HD and were looking for a flexible yet cost effective solution," commented Moswain Antao, Roland product specialist at NMK.

He adds, "the V1600HD gives them an all-in-one solution for any live event as it is multi-format, is HD and most importantly, si

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