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14 March 2016

The PLASA Awards for Innovation always draw a great deal of interest from visitors to the PLASA Show, who can view all of the nominees in the specially designed 'Innovation Gallery', which will this year again be situated near the Earls Court 2 entrance to the Show. Independently judged by a panel of industry experts from lighting, audio, video and rigging & staging specialist backgrounds, the PLASA Awards for Innovation are one of the most prestigious product Awards in the business. The judges will again have eight product awards at their disposal, with the option to award a 'Gold' to a product or products

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14 March 2016

The deal includes receivers and transmitters from the top of the line UHF-R series. AVI-SPL have purchased four sets of the new UR4D+ receiver, which allows them to cascade up to 10 units without the use of an antenna distribution system.

"AVI-SPL are a well-known AV systems integration company in the US, they have expanded their presence in the Middle East with a dedicated office in Dubai," commented Shajahan K K, Shure product manager. "Already we have seen them complete a number of prestigious projects around the region using products from Shure."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Human Rights - Sting has cancelled a concert in Kazakhstan's capital Astana over claims of human rights violations on oil workers in the Central Asian country. In a statement on his website, the singer axed Monday's planned show after Amnesty International told him of "the repression and crackdown" against them. The singer sai

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14 March 2016

A new studio and the show's switch to HD entailed a new concept in lighting. Camera operators at the 600sq.m studio at MDR's headquarters laid down a stringent specification for lighting the huge cyclorama - which has a curved base with a 1m radius that merges smoothly with the floor to avoid a hard lighting transition. This stipulated a maximum variation in lighting of +/- 70 lux across the cyclorama, within the cameras' operating range on Kika of between 300 and 500 lux.

Thomas Jacobs of ADB Germany, which supplied the new luminaires to MDR, said, "The existing facilities, with 90 kilowatts

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14 March 2016

Le Mark's managing director Stuart Gibbons recently visited the country, primarily to introduce Le Mark's acclaimed Manero Ultra Lite portable 'floating' dance floor to the South American market. "However, Colombian clients were extremely enthusiastic about the full range of both self-adhesive StudioTak and our excellent portable vinyl performance floors," says Gibbons.

While there, Gibbons had the opportunity to spend time working with Claudia Pava Davila and was impressed by her sales and marketing abilities. It quickly became obvious to Gibbons that Claudia had developed an excellent relationship with potential television and production company clients based in Colombia's

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14 March 2016

FFE has worked successfully with Hippotizer media servers in the past, with high-profile events including the national university games, the 2011 New Year's Eve Party 'Let's Celebrate' at Central Chidlom and 100 Years of Wachiravudth School (King's College).

Fuzion Far East Ltd is based in Bangkok, geographically well placed to service Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia and is a leader in supplying professional distribution services.

Supporting system integrators in providing solutions to extensive audio-visual set-ups, they represent brands such as DiGiCo, Nexo and Coemar amongst others, alongside Hippotizer.

FFE facilitates an extensive variety of projects and works within an array of different sectors, including nightclubs

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14 March 2016

Strand Wallracks with Accent controllers have been installed for production and architectural lighting. "The Strand Wallrack is a great dimmer, it's just very reliable and simple to use" comments Steve Aitchison, project engineer.

Elsewhere, QSC Acoustic Design speakers and PLX amps are the backbone of the audio systems with Ampetronic low spill and cancellation induction loops providing the hearing assistive systems.

(Claire Beeson)

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14 March 2016

"We are moving away from unpowered boxes for most of our inventory," says Andrew MacColl, ANZPAC manager procurements and inventory, staging connections group. "Powered boxes like the PRX612M are a more straight forward solution in a lot of what we do onsite for our clients. It also has the right look for corporate use.

"They sound good, look good and are reliable," he added. "Setup is simple and straight forward and they are easy to handle and move about. We mostly use them on small to medium corporate shows mounted on stands. It's early days but the reaction to them has been very positive and we will

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14 March 2016

Corporate and worship events comprise the majority of Sound Media's business along with a steady stream of music concerts. With venues ranging from hotel ballrooms and churches to golf courses and airplane hangars, flexibility and ease of use were critical factors in choosing a new line array.

"Physically, the TFA-600H is differ

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14 March 2016

The set list corresponded to the original of Johnny Cash when he gave his most legendary concert in 1968 in the Folsom State Prison, California. For Rogge & Derks, supplier of event technologies, the installation works were an interesting experience. It was also an opportunity to deploy the new loudspeaker systems GRAVIS 12 and NOMOS LS from Kling & Freitag.

Top and bass were operated passively by means of the K&F SystemRack on only one channel. Thus, the PA system used only two of the four channels of a SystemRack. The two remaining channels permitted to operate one SCENA 15 monitor each for the musicians.

"The whole setup was operated on only one three-pin power socket, extremely simple and with excellent performance", said Oliver Derks from Rogge & Derks.

Both the

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14 March 2016

Some of the most technologically advanced sound systems will be able to strut their stuff without the constraints of an indoor demonstration area and visitors will be able to view, hear and experience this outdoor fest between 20-22 July.

Viva Afrika Sound and Light will be demonstrating DAS audio sound systems in the outside area. "The systems we intend to demonstrate are the Aero 8A; Aero 12A and Aero 50 line arrays with a new powered, ultra-compact unit ideal for small to medium applications" says the company's Bernard Pienaar. "The Aero 8A was shown at the recent Pr

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14 March 2016

The production, for a bill headlined by U2, Coldplay, Beyoncé, Paul Simon, Elbow, Paulo Nutini, Pendulum, Plan B, Morrissey, B B King and Biffy Clyro, was based on last year's highly successful Pyramid Stage setup. It saw the team once again maximise audience sound levels while attracting virtually zero complaints from local residents, quite some achievement in Glastonbury's notoriously tricky environment.

The PA w

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14 March 2016

Easy rigging and easy setup were two of the reasons for the system acquisition, the other being the Electro-Voice Dx46. This IP-based DSP enables the user to control the complete system from front of house using wireless network protocols. Complete system control and supervision via IRIS-Net software and its easy-to-use GUI was an added feature. The amplifier and touring racks were supplied with Electro-Voice power and audio distribution panels.

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14 March 2016

Colour Sound's Haydn Cruickshank created an overall production design for the dance areas - Dance East, Dance West, WOW and Cube Henge. Colour Sound supplied 22 crew and six trucks of equipment in total.

The Dance East and West designs featured a mix of Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1500, GLP Impression and Robe ColorSpot 700E AT moving lights, which were rigged off Supertowers at the upstage end and the tent poles further downstage and in the audience in both areas.

These were joined by Atomic strobes, Sunstrips, blinders, PARs, profiles and an assortment of other generic fixtures - with the aim being to

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14 March 2016

The 'Big Man' as he is known springs from the imagination of Es Devlin, such is his size that Cronin knew immediately special measures would be required. "As soon as Chris Vaughan at The Production Office (TPO) confirmed us for the job the first thing I did was make a trip with Nigel Tranter (our project manager) and Malcolm Richards (TFL's long serving Structural Engineer) to Stageco in Belgium. Even before we knew exactly how we would be building him we needed to determine how his form would interface between our st

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14 March 2016

The base of Blue Island Tower's LED display is a full 32m above the ground, which requires an exceptional angle of visibility to allow viewing from close range. To meet this challenge, Barco LiveDots applied "a world-exclusive LED encapsulation technology", tilting the LEDs downward towards the viewers. This technology gives the millions of LED lights a consistent downward angle of visibility and visual range, while also decreasing light pollution.

Barco LiveDots provided an integrated solution for Blue Island

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14 March 2016

Welcoming half a million people over nine days of music, which included headliners Pulp, Bon Jovi, Kings of Leon and Rod Stewart, Arena Seating worked closely with the event organisers Live Nation to supply 800 tiered seats.

Hannah Farnham from Live Nation comments, "We brought Arena Seating back into Hyde Park because of their superior systems and service levels. It provided a real peace of mind to know the grandstand would remain stable during the shows when lively crowds were bouncing up and down on them, which was particularly true during the Black Eyed Peas."

In addition to the high level of engineering, Arena's project manager Dave Withey paid particular attention to the fini

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14 March 2016

The landmark installation was performed at Mount Laurel, New Jersey's Twelve Thousand Building Conference Centre, housing training room and boardroom spaces for TD Bank. Xantech products, including the WIC1200 Web Intelligent Controller and CWTC10 10.4-inch Wireless Touch Controller, now form the foundation for the A/V distribution in several rooms in the building.

The ceremony was attended by APA's VP of sales and production Dave Pedemonti; Xantech president Graham Hallett; and Xantech director of business development Rick Seegull.

Pedemonti stated, "We are very proud to have completed Xantech's two-millionth

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14 March 2016

Philip Cajka, Audio-Technica U.S. president and CEO, and David Marsh, Audio-Technica territory manager, professional products, presented the award to Online Marketing principal Mark Taylor. Online Marketing sells Audio-Technica's complete line of professional audio products to sound contractors and retailers in Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Philip Cajka stated, "Online Marketing is one of the premier rep firms in the pro A/V industry. They are keenly dedicated to their customers and the brands they represent, which are among the best in the marketplace. We are extremely proud to have them take the top award in the fiscal year of 2011."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

To meet the requirements of the artists performing on the stages in the Mojave and Gobi tents, Rat Sound, the production sound provider for the Coachella Festival for the past 11 years, this year supplied two complete systems comprising a total of 28 EAW MicroWedge12 (MW12) stage monitors.

"We provide the artists with what they want rather than what we think they should have, and we offer three premium monitor systems," stated Dave Rat, Rat Sound Systems founder and co-developer of the MicroWedge line with EAW. "The sound quality, volume level and feedback stability of the MicroWedge are exceptional and meet or exceed the competing p

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14 March 2016

Happy End functions as a restaurant during the day and a lively entertainment venue during the evening, so an audio system was needed that would provide subtle background music for diners, but also provide high energy, high quality sound reinforcement for DJs and live bands.

"There was only one requirement - to provide the best sound, positive vibes and maximum power for the music," says Igor Horváth of Humenné-based installation company Citylight. "So, for me, there was only one possible solution."

Happy End's owner had been to the Blue Note jazz club in the Slovakian town of Nové Mesto nad Váhom, which was Igor's first Funktion One, MC2 and XTA installation in the country. "With that combina

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14 March 2016

FOH engineer, Steve Pattison, has previously used various iLive systems for bands such as Alphabeat, Ellie Goulding and Royksopp, and for this tour, has opted for an iDR-48 MixRack with the rackmount iLive-R72, supplemented by the iLive MixPad app, providing remote and instant control of key faders.

"The R72 fits anywhere and I can carry it under my arm but that's only part of the story," Pattison reports. "To me, using only the basic functions of a desk is like having a gym membership and never going. There are a lot o

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14 March 2016

The company is bringing two of its vintage, Vegas-style slot machines to the show, customised to allow players to play for one of the company's most sought-after products.

Clay Paky president Pasquale Quadri, a long-time collector of gambling paraphernalia, has had two machines from his personal collection specially refurbished in a Clay Paky theme. All guests at the Clay Paky stand (1E 36) will be entitled to a free spin of the reels, while any visitor bearing an official voucher will be able to double their chances with an additional play. The redeemable vouchers can be retrieved from the official PLASA catalogue or from the July edition of Lighting & Sound International.

The slot machines will be in operation throughout the official opening hours

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14 March 2016

To mark this expansion, it is inviting everyone along to explore the new facility during an Open Day on Thursday, 21 July.

"For those who remember it, our base in Fulham was charming but difficult to work in, particularly as more and more shows moved to HGV transport and the drivers had to back down the narrow suburban streets," comments White Light's managing director, Bryan Raven. "Moving to Wimbledon a decade ago immediately made life easier, with much more office space, much more storage and equipment preparation space, and much, m