Events

XTA Electronics

Details: 14 March 2016

As ever, the unofficial 'most comfortable seating' award went to XTA Electronics for its deep blue sofas - an excellent vantage point from which to view the company's range of audio processing products. Marketing manager Guy Lewis was kept busy throughout the show with a steady stream of enquiries and pronounced himself well pleased with the interest shown.

Doughty Engineering

Details: 14 March 2016

It was good to see a company specializing in 'non-sexy' products, like Doughty Engineering, having such a busy stand throughout the show. As well as promoting its new catalogue, a range of new products including barrel trolleys, a new heavy duty pulley range, a pantograph-style light hoist, a slimline Quick Trigger clamp for those times when you need to squeeze a fixture hard up against the end of a pipe or truss, and finally, a new barrel trolley system designed to operate on top of standard rigging pipe.

Studio Due

Details: 14 March 2016

Some nice products from Studio Due; launched at SIB in Rimini earlier this year, the Photowall 1200e ('e' for electronic ballast) is a ruggedized slide projector with a 1200W HMI source and 90 images pre-loaded. Four fully editable user programmes give a total of 682 scenes for stand-alone control (without DMX). The CS line is expanded with the CS2, a pair of 250W 28V lamps in Par 64 enclosures on a moving pan and tilt yoke with onboard dimmer.

Messe Frankfurt pulls out of St. Petersburg

Details: 14 March 2016

Russia - The organizers of the Musikmesse/Prolight+Sound St. Petersburg exhibition have announced that in future the event will be organized solely by Messe Frankfurt's Russian partner, Lenexpo. The decision was taken by the organizers, Messe Frankfurt GmbH and Lenexpo Exhibition and Trade Fair Company, and communicated to the exhibitors and other interested parties at the end of September.

Last year, the second trade fair for musical instruments and accessories, lighting, sound and event technology in the Northwest Region of the Russian Federation, enabled around 300 exhibitors to make contact with some 8,000 visitors at the exhibition centre in St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, the results of this edition showed that the expectations of Messe Frankfurt in terms of event growth and profitability were unlikely to be fulfilled in the medium term. "Musikmesse/Prolight+Sound St.

PLASA@Sea launches at Seatrade 2005

Details: 14 March 2016

UK/USA - PLASA - the Professional Lighting and Sound Association - has announced a joint initiative with CMP Princeton, the organizers of the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, to launch a new pavilion at the event in 2005, focusing directly on lighting, audio, AV and staging technologies.

The new PLASA@Sea Pavilion will form a key element of this annual cruise-related trade show and conference which is the largest gathering of cruise line owners, operators and suppliers in the world. More than 9,000 people from 116 countries, including over 1,000 senior cruise line executives attended Seatrade 2004.

Whilst the Conference will offer a four-day programme of targeted seminars and meetings, the exhibition will showcase the latest innovations in marine technology, with PLASA@Sea providing a connection to recent developments in entertainment and leisure-based technology. A

Power Logistics: no Virgins to Festivals

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Ensuring uninterrupted, safe and reliable power to the stages and numerous hospitality areas of a festival the size of V is no mean feat. Power is essential to everything that happens on a festival site from stage lighting, sound and AV to the toilets flushing, showers running and car parks and campsites lighting up at night. From the first day of the fit up to the last hour of the out and of course throughout the event itself, the one thing that cannot go off is the power.

The responsibility for site power for V at the Chelmsford site this year fell to Power Logistics. And with 65,000 people coming to see over 50 acts playing on four stages in Hylands Park - plus the DJ and sponsored dance tents, catering vans and stalls, backstage hospitality areas, campsites and car parks, toilets and showers - power distribution can be a logistical nightmare.

The production team found itself

Led Screens illuminate Vasco Rossi tour

Details: 14 March 2016

Italy - Although Italian EMI recording artist Vasco Rossi is over 50, he's definitely still the country's rock "enfant terrible" and his huge popularity with young fans was once again confirmed by the crowds at his recent Clear Channel-produced tour to promote his latest album "Buoni e Cattivi" (the Good and the Bad). In fact, the tour kicked off with a sold-out gig at Rome's Olimpico soccer stadium and ran to packed stadia, before finishing with a free show in Catanzaro, to a reported audience of 400,000.

Vasco's fans expect maximum visual impact from his shows and this was no exception: Grandi Schermi (Large Screens), a business unit of Euphon Communication, was responsible for the supply, installation and technical assistance for The three Lighthouse Technologies LED screens used on the impressive set designed by Giò Forma, and Rome's Limelite supplied a

SAND hosts Connectivity Pavilion at LDI

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - SAND Network Systems will host ETC, Martin, Pathway Connectivity, and Wireless Solutions at this years LDI Connectivity Pavilion. On display is a wide variety of networking technology with emphasis on emerging standards and protocols including ACN, RDM, and W-DMX.

New hardware and software will give visitors a preview of the future of networked show and lighting control. Hands-on demonstrations will highlight the new and exciting possibilities these technologies offer specifiers, designers, and users. Important features like manufacturer interoperability and gateways to legacy equipment will be explained in detail. Staff from several manufacturers will be present to discuss the technologies and answer questions. The Connectivity Pavilion is located in Booth #3607 and get a glimpse of the future!

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Fried Buttstedt of XLNT Advanced Technologies and Vertigo Rigging director Rebecca Loughran with the PLASA Award for Innovation

Vertigo signs for XLNT Advanced Technologies

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The PLASA award-winning InMotion 3D / CyberHoist motion control system is set for a strong UK presence following an announcement today that Vertigo Rigging, the rigging and height access specialists, has become the UK Service Point for the InMotion 3D motion control system by XLNT Advanced Technologies. The system won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA Show last month in conjunction with the CyberHoist intelligent motor by Verlinde and the DataMotion and PowerMotion system components from XLNT.

Vertigo director Rebecca Loughran said: "Designers in all environments are embracing the vast possibilities this technology can deliver. For Technical Managers the time saving advantages, reliability and unbeatable VGB-C1 safety standard, are making this the 'must have' motion control system for the professional entertainment industry."

The UK Service Point will pr

Chauvet's new models strut LDI catwalk

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - LDI 2004 will not be business as usual as far as Chauvet is concerned, the company promises. The manufacturer will cast its newest luminaires as supermodels on a fashion show runway, under the theme 'Welcome to the Future'.

"This is sort of a coming out party," said product development manager Barry Abrams, adding that hitherto-unseen technology will be on display, reflecting its largest-ever product range.

The new autumn collection includes four moving-yoke lights: the Legend 250RT Spot, Legend 250WT Wash, Legend250 Zoom and the 18-channel Legend 575 Zoom.

Also on show will be the Trackscan 250 DSR- ILS scanner. Housed in a silvery casing, it's accompanied by an entourage of models including the Trackscan 250 DBR-ILS, curvy Colortrack 250DCR-ILS, and the powerful ILS Control Center, all endowed with technology conceived to ease and widen programming options

ETC and Cast new partnership agreement

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - ETC and Cast Software jointly announced changes to their worldwide distribution relationship today. From January 1, 2005, Cast Software will take over worldwide marketing and distribution of WYSIWYG, while ETC, in partnership with Cast, will continue the development and marketing of its own Emphasis control system. Cast will also supply ETC with WYSIWYG Perform Console Edition for distribution with several of its control products including the Avab, transtechnik Lichtsysteme and Emphasis product lines.

In a joint statement, the two companies said the decision to amend the distribution agreement was based on a number of factors. Since forming the original partnership with ETC four years ago, Cast and WYSIWYG have enjoyed strong growth, while ETC has expanded and grown its product portfolio. Now, "ETC and Cast have mutually agreed it is the right time for Cast to take o

Martin, Mach and JEM set for LDI 2004

Details: 14 March 2016

Denmark - Martin heads to LDI in Las Vegas with an array of new products including a new digital media server and a flexible wing extension for the popular Maxxyz lighting console. New Mania series lights - new flower effects, a new promotional projector and the first scanner in the Mania series - expand this range for DJs and clubs. A new powerful, portable smoke machine will also be on display, along with a number of other lighting tools and updates - and what the company calls "a few special surprises".

The new Maxedia Digital Media Composer is designed to provide a new level of digital lighting creativity. Maxedia, which includes integrated DMX control, provides full control of both lighting and video elements and promises various advantages over other digital media servers including a maximum of 20 layers simultaneously, 3D effects with unique real-time manipulati

Wybron to distribute Super Beam 1200 in US

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Wybron, Inc. has announced its appointment as Lighting Innovation's exclusive North American distributor for the new Super Beam 1200.

Lighting Innovation has successfully distributed Wybron products in Austria for several years, resulting in a strong relationship between the two companies. Lighting Innovation's founder, Hermann Sorger, known worldwide as the main engineer behind the successful Pani projectors, said he is was very happy with the new direction the alliance is taking: "I am very excited about working together with Wybron. The Super Beam is a perfect product for the North American market, and Wybron is our perfect partner."

The newly-launched Super Beam 1200 has been heralded as 'the next generation super bright beam light'. The Super Beam 1200 uses a new Philips 80V 1200W lamp, which together with sophisticated double reflector optics, gives an un

Sunlite unveils Color Manager software at LDI

Details: 14 March 2016

France - PLASA Award-winner Sunlite is introducing its new Color Manager software at the LDI show on Booth 1341. This new tool allows designers to work with RGB or CMY fixtures with the ease of use of a drawing software package, with familiar tools such as pen, colour picker, paint bucket and copy/paste - and also features powerful wizards including images and video loading, text scrolling and more. The tool is compatible with LED device matrices as well as conventional fixtures. Color Manager will be included with Sunlite 2004 and Easy Stand Alone software from November onwards.

The Easy Stand Alone, a winner of the PLASA 2004 Awards for Innovation, will be on show in its new IP version. The Stand Alone USB-DMX interface has been a great success since it was released and the new Stand Alone Ethernet DMX 512 interface (IP version) makes it possible to work either locally or via

Inition's Duality 3D projection rig behind the back projection screen

3D Starlight to début on British stage

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The UK tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Starlight Express' is the country's first touring theatre production to feature 3D film, thanks to a stereoscopic video projection system supplied by London-based 3D specialists Inition.

The 'Duality' projection system - installed and maintained by Inition - recreates the high speed skate races that made the original London show one of the capital's most successful musicals of all time. The new tour builds on the achievements of the 2003/4 US Troika Tour - but, says Inition, "adds even more edge of the seat 3D sequences and jaw-dropping special effects".

Now the same projection system is heading to the UK for a new tour opening in Manchester on November 1st and stretching from Bristol to Edinburgh. Inition is again providing technical support and expert know-how to integrate the system into the UK production.

It marks the

Crown powers huge Norway worship centre

Details: 14 March 2016

Norway - The Christian Church congregation of Norway recently held the grand opening of their new 7,500-seat Brunstad Conference Center main hall and facilities. The new PA installation is the largest installed sound system in Norway and Europe's largest house of worship installation. The system featured the largest number of Crown I-Tech Series amplifiers in a European installation to date, with 100,000 watts of total amplifier power.

LydRommet AS, Harman Pro distributor for Norway, was responsible for system design, installation, trimming and quality control. The congregation's technical department handled all cabling and termination themselves.

Twelve I-T4000s and ten I-T6000s were used, in addition to one CTs 1200 for front fill, one CTs 2000 for stage fill, and four CTs 2000 for monitors. All loudspeaker control including crossover, equalization, delay and limiting is han

MIA Awards celebrate innovation

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Music Industries Association's (MIA) annual Awards Dinner, held on 6th October at Sound in Leicester Square, brought together over 280 guests from across the music industry to recognise the winners of the MIA Awards.

Sponsored by Classic fm, Future Publishing, Sound on Sound Magazine and MB Media, the event covered all areas of the industry with awards for classical, contemporary and high tech instruments, and music publishing. There were also awards for outstanding retailers and suppliers and special awards for Stephen Richards (for Outstanding Contribution to Trade Associations) and Michael Doughty (for Lifetime Achievement).

Among the highlights was a speech by Feargal Sharkey (Chair - Live Music Forum), during which he continued the theme of his speech at the PLASA Awards in celebrating the vibrancy of the British music scene. Reminding guests of the issues thre

Audio-Technica the voice of two candidates

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - For the fifth election cycle in a row, Audio-Technica was the premier mic supplier for the USA's presidential debates. Audio-Technica provided wired and wireless microphone solutions for the presidential debates in Coral Gables, Florida on 30 September, St. Louis Missouri on 8 October and Tempe, Arizona on 13 October. A-T also provided onsite technical expertise at the first two debates of the series and had a strong presence, including onsite technical expertise, at the vice presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, near A-T's Stow corporate headquarters.

A leading audio resource for high-profile broadcast events, A-T has been outfitting the debates since 1988, when the Commission on Presidential Debates assumed sponsorship and production responsibilities. With the company again acting as the premier mic supplier for all four debates this

Creative Staging at restored Christ Church

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - At the end of September, the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) held its Annual Awards amid the Baroque splendour of Hawksworth's Christ Church, Spitalfields.

AV company Creative Staging, which has worked with IChemE for many years along with their event-management company, Peter Vary Associates and production company MCB, says it is "used to the challenge of creating a modern awards event in unusual locations". The newly restored Christ Church features authentic 18th century wood panelling and stonework, around which the stage set and equipment had to be sympathetically and carefully installed and operated, to create an empathetic environment for the celebration of the awards.

Creative Staging planned and supplied the set and three screens, with multi-camera live relay, along with extensive sound and lighting systems. An external generator was also suppli

White Light at ETS-LDI

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - White Light continues its long association with LDI, exhibiting at this year's ETS-LDI Trade Show, where its star feature is the award-winning Digital Festoon System. This radical rethink of conventional festoon lighting allows each lamp along a festoon to be individually dimmed under the control of either a laptop or via DMX from a lighting console. Giving the possibility of creating stunning light displays from apparently simple strings of light bulbs, the Digital Festoon System carries both power and DMX using a patented data system. Up to 200 lamps can be controlled from a single Digital Festoon System power supply.

Launched at this year's PLASA Show, the Digital Festoon System was one of the winners of the PLASA Show's Awards for Innovation. It will no-doubt appeal to those creating novel light shows and - of particular relevance to the Las Vegas market - those lookin

Super Vision signs deal with Spectrum

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Super Vision International, Inc. a world leading manufacturer of fibre optic and LED lighting announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Spectrum Manufacturing, Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada for its Variable Color Lighting System (patent # 4,962,687). Spectrum is a member of the UK-based A C Lighting Group and primarily produces colour-changing LED lighting systems for the theater, entertainment and lighting rental industries. The licensed patent will be applied to the production, sale and development of the Color Block system.

David George, President of Spectrum Manufacturing Inc, said: "I am pleased that we have licensed the Supervision "687" patent, as this is in line with Spectrum's policy of recognizing the intellectual property of others."

Super Vision had previously purchased the Variable Color Lighting System patent, publ

Mobos benefit from CT's cut-glass image

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Creative Technology made its production debut with Scarlet productions at the 2004 Mobo Awards, providing a 28sq.m LED display in 16:9 aspect ratio as the centrepiece of a spectacular stage set at the Royal Albert Hall. The nature of the production dictated that the big screen specialists would need to field their highest-resolution display, and the Barco DLite 7 (situated upstage centre) provided the ideal technical solution for Julia Knowles of Scarlet Productions, who handled the TV direction.

The DLite 7 is a unique product, combining a 7mm resolution with short viewing distances, due to the extreme fill factor of the LED components. These were perfect attributes for a show in which the screen took a direct feed from the O21 OB truck via an SDI link, bypassing the usual submix. The signal chain started at front-of-house where content provider Richard Shipman, operating

TransAudio Group at AES

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - TransAudio Group will showcase its complete line of Mercury Recording products at the AES Convention in San Francisco on Booth #602 this week. Unlike previous years, in which the distributor's products were each individually showcased under the Audio Underground banner, TransAudio Group and president Brad Lunde will feature the full line of brands in a single large booth featuring manufacturing company representatives and guest audio engineers.

Mercury Recording is dedicated to bringing the sonic and aesthetic character of classic audio processors such as those originally made by Fairchild, Pultec and Telefunken to new generations through a line of hand-crafted classic recreations.

The first units introduced by Mercury Recording include the Mercury 66, a variable bias-style all-tube, all-transformer compressor similar to the Fairchild 660, and the Mercury EQ-H and EQ-P

ISCE AFIL lecture highlights Institute Day

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Institute of Sound and Communication Engineers (ISCE)'s Institute Day on October 22 in Watford had as its centrepiece the 2004 Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture by immediate past president Doug Edworthy.

The lecture gave an attentive audience an insight into the unique Audio Frequency Induction Loop (AFIL) survey conducted by his company, D G Edworthy (www.dgea.co.uk), for London Underground. The survey, based on research carried out at a number of London Underground stations, was designed to assess the practical implications and costs of full compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act by providing induction loops throughout the underground network.

This year's ISCE AGM was treated to the sight of the recently discovered chain of office now proudly worn by President Michael Leaver. Ray Gatehouse joined the Institute's Council; Romers Electronics of Blackburn beca

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