UK - The projection and LED screens rental house Anna Valley has made a major investment in Avolites Media's industry-leading Ai Infinity servers and the Sapphire media controller - and is exhibiting them at PLASA 2013 on booth E82.

The West London based company - which delivers cutting-edge visuals technology to some of the UK's biggest shows including X Factor, Million Pound Drop, Britain's Got Talent, and many events, conferences and award shows - is working closely with Avolites Media to offer the industry powerful solutions to push the boundaries of on-screen displays.

"Having looked at the marketplace we wanted to select a media server that would be user friendly and at the same time has plenty of future capabilities," says Anna Valley's director of corporate and events, Nick Hart. "The extended features combined with a familiar user i

Germany - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced the dates and location for its upcoming 136th International Convention: Saturday 26 April, through Tuesday, 29 April, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. The Convention's 'Call for Papers' will be available in the coming months, and AES will be accepting proposals for abstract-precis-reviewed and peer-reviewed papers.

"We are excited to return to Berlin for the 136th Convention," stated Bob Moses, Audio Engineering Society executive director. "Berlin is a hub of technology and industry, with a vital and rich history in audio innovation. In addition, Germany is an extremely important marketplace for our business partners and sponsors to engage with pro audio customers. It is a more-than-fitting site for our next European convention."

(Jim Evans)

UK - The sixth Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI), held on October 6th at London ExCel's Platinum Suite, saw lighting and video professionals enjoy a glittering night of celebration and recognition for the exceptional creative talent within their industry.

The ever-popular awards - organised by The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), Clay Paky and Ambersphere Solutions and generously sponsored by Chroma-Q, Hawthorn, MA Lighting, Osram, Robert Juliat and XL Video - provide public recognition for outstanding achievements in touring, television and theatre lighting and video design.

Hosted by Andy Collins, the sparkling ceremony saw over 300 lighting and video professionals from the worlds of TV, Theatre, Concert Touring and Events come together to celebrate the diverse range of creative talent in production design today.<

UK - Yesterday, at PLASA London 2013, ETC donated a cheque for over £17,500 to the Light Relief charity from sales of their mobile app.

The cheque was presented by ETC's Anders Ekvall to Light Relief trustee John Simpson and freelance lighting designer Stuart Porter, who was recently helped by the charity.

(Jim Evans)

South Africa - Based outside the South African city of Johannesburg, Woord en Lewe (Word and Life) Church annually hosts Live DVD/CD recordings within its highly developed technical infrastructure.

This September, resident group Word and Life Worship - described as "a high-energy praise and passionate worship band spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ" - were again under the spotlight. Local sound and lighting specialists Prosound, PR Lighting's new South African distributors, provided a fully dynamic lightshow consisting of fixtures from the Chinese manufacturer to really make the performance come alive in the Boksburg-based church.

These included 10 XLED 1037, 10 XLED 336 and 10 XR 200 Beam - as well as other PR Lighting heads.

To maximize the event and swell the congregation, record companies and other churches from all over the region were invited with heavy pro

Following a second hectic day at PLASA London 2013, a packed audience gathered yesterday evening in the AudioLab Arena to congratulate the winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by Lighting & Sound International magazine. The winner of the prestigious Gottelier Award was also announced at the ceremony.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety. During the show's opening two days, 45 new products were judged 'live' by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

Eight awards of equal standing were presented, as well as the PLASA Award for Sustainability, to the following winners:

Clay Paky for the A.Leda B-EYE K20

The judges said, "The B-EYE had a &q

Malaysia - Two of Malaysia's leading rental companies came together this summer to ensure Metallica's first-ever concert in the country would be a memorable event. By merging their Meyer Sound inventories, Kuala Lumpur-based EHQ Projects and Selangor-based SES Sound & Lighting created a massive, 146-loudspeaker system based around Milo line array loudspeakers.

"There were no delays, but the sound was clear and very loud even 100m back from the stage," recalls Jay Neil, technical director of EHQ Projects. "Afterwards, I had people telling me it sounded like a CD on a great stereo."

In order to cover an audience of 30,000 in Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Merdeka, the two companies configured a system of 72 Milo loudspeakers, including 40 for main hangs, 30 for side hangs, and two for out-fills. Front-fill was provided by 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, and 40 7

Record Sales - Tickets for next year's Glastonbury Festival have sold out in record time, according to organisers. Michael and Emily Eavis issued a joint statement confirming all 120,000 remaining tickets had been sold in just one hour and 27 minutes. They said they were "blown away" by the numbers logging on and were "genuinely sorry" that so many had missed out. Ticketing website See Tickets had earlier apologised to customers on Twitter for "technical difficulties". The site, which had been managing the sale of tickets for Glastonbury, wrote that the issues had led to "a very difficult half an hour" before the site stabilised, later adding that it was selling 3,000 tickets a minute.

Prices for the 2014 event had been increased by £10 to £210, plus a booking fee, but festival-goers could pay a deposit of £50 before sett

UK - HSL supplied lighting for the UK and German performances of Massive Attack v Adam Curtis a mixed-media installation created by incendiary filmmaker Adam Curtis and activist band Massive Attack taking the semantics of image-music-text into a new dimension.

The show was world premiered at the Mayfield Depot in Manchester as part of the 2013 Manchester International Festival (MIF), then played at Kraftzentrale at Duisburg's Landschaftspark at the 2013 Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts culminating in a run at The Park Avenue Armouries in New York last week, making a serious impact.

The powerful and thought-provoking presentation was a collaboration between Massive Attack's Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adam Curtis and technical visionaries, United Visual Artists (UVA).

Lighting designer Tim Oliver has worked on various art and performance projects wi

France - UK indie rock band Tindersticks is marking its 21st anniversary with a 12-date European tour that starts in France later this month. Among the key items of equipment at each show will be two DPA d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones, which are being used on the band's cello and double bass.

Jamie Hickey, Tindersticks monitor engineer since 2008, says he used DPA d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones over the summer when the band performed seven shows as a taster for the 21st anniversary tour. One of these performances involved a special set at the Blue Balls Festival in Lucern, Switzerland, where the six-piece band was joined by a 17-piece string section.

"The venue had a stock of DPA 4061 Miniature Microphones that it was happy for us to use on the string section, but due to their omni polar pattern I didn't think they were the best option for a string section that wa

Japan - Fuji Rock Festival was held an hour's train ride from Tokyo, from 26-28 July. Japan's most eagerly awaited summer event is the largest in the whole country.

Right from its first edition, in 1997, Fuji Rock was a truly star-studded event: artists included Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Massive Attack, Prodigy, Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Nowadays, Fuji Rock is a phenomenon able to attract over 100,000 fans. Born from an idea by Hidaka Masa, the festival aimed at changing the way Japanese fans "listened to music", offering them the possibility of hearing sounds for the very first time, in an atmosphere of "freedom", while camping surrounded by nature.

The event's 2013 edition featured performances by top names on the Japanese and international alternative rock and electronic scenes: Bjork, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Vampire

China - Pilot Records' Inter City Music Festival recently took place at the Golden Sands Beach in the Huangdao district of Qingdao, China. Many of the record label's acts performed including Reflector, Zheng Jun, CMCB, Twisted Machine and headliner Miserable Faith.

Real Music Acoustics & Lighting Technology Co. Ltd., Adamson System Engineering's distributor in China and Hong Kong, supplied an Energia E15 line array system for the two-day festival.

"The record labels artists represent many different genres of music," explains Richie Wang, GM for Real Music Acoustics & Lighting. "We provided a substantial Adamson E15 PA in order to accommodate their heavy metals bands as well as pop and folk music acts."

The E15 line arrays - 12 enclosures per array - were hung from scaffolding erected to the right and left of the stage. Under each array were a stack of six

UK - Broadcast audio specialists Red TX was at London's O2 Arena on 29 September, to capture the broadcast audio for Unity - A Concert For Stephen Lawrence.

Artists including Rita Ora, Beverley Knight and Jessie J were joined by Emeli Sande, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran for the concert, which was held to mark the 20th anniversary of Stephen's death in southeast London.

Red TX was commissioned to handle the broadcast audio by Paul Dugdale, who was directing the project on behalf of ACME TV. Dugdale previously worked with Red TX during the summer when the company recorded The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park.

For the Unity concert, which was broadcast on BBC 2, Red TX used its main Red 1 outside broadcast vehicle, with engineers Tim Summerhayes and Ollie Nesham at the controls.

"We knew the event was going to be challenging due to a tight schedule and the shear amount of ar

UK - The first ever Technical Theatre Awards (TTA) - celebrating the best of 'behind the scenes' skill and talent - were presented at a well-attended ceremony at the PLASA Show at London's ExCel.

Fifteen awards were announced on the Theatres Trust stand in the midst of the PLASA hubbub.

Sponsored by AVW Controls, dbs Solutions, Load Cell Rental, Mayflower, Philips Entertainment, PLASA, Production Resource Group (PRG), StageBitz, Stage Jobs Pro, The Fifth Estate Ltd and Triple E, the TTAs are also very kindly supported by Lighting&Sound International and The Theatres Trust.

Host for the evening was prolific multi award-winning lighting designer Rick Fisher, perhaps best known for his work on Billy Elliot the Musical and An Inspector Calls. Recent credits include Great Expectations at Bristol's Old Vic, The Herd at The Bush Theatre, and Inside Wagner's Head at the Linbury Stud

UK - Robe lighting enjoyed a super busy 2013 PLASA exhibition at its new location of ExCeL London, where they showcased nine new products and won their third PLASA Innovation Award.

Robe's CEO Josef Valchar comments, "We are really happy. There was a constant stream of people to the booth, interest in all the latest products and of course, we are delighted to win another Innovation Award, which is a great recognition of all the hard work and foresight of our product design and R 'n' D teams."

The Robe stand was the largest of the exhibition in surface area and occupied a prominent position at the back of the hall. It was designed by Nathan Wan and also featured an eye-catching light-show - also designed and programmed by Wan, utilising all the new and latest products to a special soundtrack.

This ran every half an hour, and attracted even more people to the booth t

UK - All the endeavours that have gone into promoting SGM's G-Spot LED moving head paid dividends when the IP65 rated fixture was to pick up a top award at the prestigious PLASA Awards for Innovation in October.

A packed audience gathered to see SGM CEO Peter Johansen collect the coveted prize from PLASA chairman, Ed Pagett in a ceremony at the ExCeL's AudioLab Arena during this year's PLASA Show in London, as Association CEO Matthew Griffiths made the announcements.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety. During the show's opening two days, 45 new products were judged 'live' by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

The G-Spot was accoladed for a number of reas

UK - LumenRadio has won a third PLASA Award for Innovation, presented at the PLASA Show in London last week.

This year's award was for the SuperNova 3 software, which enables system-wide control of RDM devices across an Art-Net network. SuperNova 3 offers the perfect tool for production electricians or system technicians to monitor, configure and display their rig status in real-time. Building on the SuperNova platform, this advancement enables users to control their whole rig - even the devices connected by cables.

LumenRadio's first Award for Innovation was given in 2009 for the CRMX Nova product line and it's contributions to wireless DMX and RDM data distribution including low latency, error correction, and cognitive coexistence that enable reliable operation in difficult and saturated radio environments. The second award was given to LumenRadio in 2010 for the CRMX Nova F

UK - The QSC CXD Amplifier platform introduced earlier this year at Infocomm in Orlando, FL was recognised with a PLASA Award for Innovation PLASA London 2013. Featuring user configurable, built-in DSP, this amplifier platform includes Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology (FAST), which allows the amp's total power allocation to be distributed across one, two three or all four of its outputs, enabling amp channels to be combined for maximum current or voltage output, depending on the requirements.

The judging panel, composed of industry experts in the field of lighting, sound and installation technology, commented: "This is an incredibly flexible amplifier that can be used in almost any situation. It can be sub-divided and reconfigured, and will work well in installations or as hire stock."

"CXD and PLD amplifiers are a reflection of our use of cutting-edge tech

UK - PLASA London 2013 proved a great success with exhibitors and visitors alike at its new home at ExCeL London. Over 11,000 visitors (subject to ABC audit) attended the show, of whom over 3,000 attended on multiple days. International interest was high, with more than 2,200 visitors from 84 countries. Stand rebookings for next year's show are also up on last year, and several major companies that did not make the move to ExCeL - including Philips Entertainment - have either already signed up for 2014 or are in serious talks to return.

Chris Toulmin, head of events, PLASA London 2013, said, "The response we've received to PLASA London 2013 has been overwhelmingly positive, both from visitors and exhibitors. They have embraced the new venue and also enjoyed the new features such as the AudioLab Arena, Theatre and Interactive. The PLASA team has worked very hard to get to th

UK - Rosco CEO Mark Engel presented Light Relief with its annual benefit cheque from the proceeds of Rosco's 313 Light Relief Yellow colour filter. The cheque was presented to Light Relief co-found Rick Fisher at Rosco's booth at PLASA. During the presentation, Engel had this to say about Rosco's continuing support of Light Relief, an organisation established to support entertainment technicians in times of hardship:

"When we introduced Rosco's Supergel 313 Light Relief Yellow in 2004, you [Rick Fisher] were quoted as saying "I wanted the Light Relief Yellow to be a warm, late afternoon, sunny colour...," which seems to me the perfect sentiment for this colour and this charity - a comforting ray of light when it's needed most. Thank you to every designer who uses Supergel 313 on stage for helping us help our community offstage. We donate the proceeds from this col

UK - Two intense days of evaluation at an event ambitiously billed the "Ultimate Network Shootout" resulted in success for Optocore over five other leading protocols.

The comparative sessions took place on the opening two days of this year's PLASA Show at ExCeL London, and were supervised by Roland Hemming (of RH Consulting) as part of the new AudioLab Interactive experimental concept, which he masterminded.

An impressive number of attendees on each day were given voting buttons in order to register their preference, as six of the most established industry audio protocols - Optocore, MADI, Dante, EtherSound, CobraNet and Analogue - were closely scrutinised. The Optocore solution was voted the best in terms of signal transmission quality by different independent audiences on both days.

The Optocore presentation was made by support engineer, Maciek Janiszewski, and s

UK - Powersoft joined forces with Pioneer Professional Audio at this year's PLASA Show in London, to showcase the potent new club system which has taken Ibiza by storm this summer.

At ExCel, Pioneer introduced its new GS-Wave and XY series club loudspeakers in the AudioLab Arena - controlled and optimised by Powersoft's advanced electronics

Developed in conjunction with Gary Stewart Audio (GSA), the winning combination of Pioneer's new dance floor stack and Powersoft's flagship K-series amplifiers, with built-in DSP and presets optimised by Pioneer, made an impressive debut in Ibiza - the heartland of serious clubbing - during the recent season in Balearic dance capital.

The landmark installation of four GS-Wave stacks in Booom! Ibiza, powered by Powersoft, has been joined on the island by installations of Pioneer's XY systems at the Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel five-star party

UK - Pearce Hire is exhibiting at the Showman's Show on 23-24 October. With over 25 years' experience providing power, lighting, audio, staging, project consultancy and production services to the outdoor and indoor event, festival, entertainment and corporate event industries, Pearce Hire are a regular exhibitor at this exhibition, dedicated to outdoor and special events.

Pearce Hire has made a significant number of investments in equipment over recent months, with purchases ranging from Robe 1200 LED Wash Fixtures and an L'Acoustics Kara Line Array alongside a major investment in generators and power distribution.

The investment in power distribution and supply equipment includes Stephill 25 kVA silenced diesel generators ideal for small outdoor events and FG Wilson XD fuel-efficient diesel generator sets - 60 kVA and 100 kVA generators, all with full synchronisation and know

UK - As the newly-located PLASA show opened its doors last week at London's ExCel Centre, Robert Juliat was happy to report superlative results. "The show provided an excellent forum to meet our many international partners from Robert Juliat's Family of distributors," says Robert Juliat sales director, Claus Spreyer. "We were very impressed with the range of visitors to our stand who came from almost every part of the globe including Eastern, Northern and Southern European countries, South Africa, Asia, South America, USA, Canada and the Middle East."

Exhibiting for the first time with Ambersphere Solutions, its new UK exclusive distributor, Robert Juliat revealed a bright, new-look stand design, complete with a range of startling pink TIBO fixtures. "The pink TIBOs succeeded in drawing a lot of visitors to the stand and generated much excited chat on th

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