USA - With just over two weeks until the doors open at PLASA Focus: Baltimore 2014, organisers PLASA Events have confirmed new exhibitors and seminar speakers. The event is taking place at the Reitz Arena, Loyola University, Maryland on 8-9 May 8-9.

The latest exhibitors to sign up include d&b audiotechnik, Ushio, A.C.T Lighting, Nemetschek Vectorworks, Stagemaker, Parlights, Robe Lighting, Neutrik, PixelFlex, Nicolaudie, Navigator Systems, Shadowstone, Look Solutions, Group One, Core Lighting, Applied Electronics, and Absen America, to name a few.

Five new sessions have been added to the Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free-to-attend educational seminars running alongside the event.

In The National Theatre at 50 - Changing Stages Richard Pilbrow will examine the changes on the way to today's stages, architecture and theatre. Pilbrow, founde

UK - Roland Systems Group has announced that the M-480 Live Digital Mixing Console is now available to purchase with a tour grade flight case from leading manufacturer 5 Star Cases. Used extensively by live sound professionals around the world, the advanced technical capabilities of the award winning M-480 provide an ideal solution for the touring market - making the addition of the flight case a logical next step for the company.

"Our new technical relationship with 5 Star Cases enables us to fully support the M-480 as a touring product, making it easier for our customers to specify the console with a professional flight case," commented Simon Kenning, UK sales manager. "The versatility of the M-480 has made it a popular choice for live sound applications such as house of worship, but we are confident that this console has the power and functionality to take furt

UK - AED Rent and AED Distribution UK, total solution providers to AV professionals, will be exhibiting at PLASA Focus 2014 on stand N-A02 in the Royal Armouries Museum.

"We are pleased to be part of this ever successful exhibition which is oriented specifically to the UK market." says David March, managing director of AED Distribution UK Ltd. "This will be the first time that AED Distribution UK Ltd. will be present as a stand-alone entity and we are very excited to partner up with our colleagues from AED Rent UK."

The AED team will be on-hand to share with visitors the range of services that are offered in the UK, and with the support of the AED group, ranging from AED Rent and AED Lease through to AED Distribution, AED Second-Hand and Trader Platform along with AED Store.

Specifically for AED Distribution, will be the UK trade show premiere of a number

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will showcase a selection of the very latest lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from their vast portfolio of premium brands - on stand N-E02 at PLASA Focus: Leeds this week.

Sales teams from AC-ET's four specialist product divisions will be on hand to demonstrate and discuss the latest technologies from leading marques which AC-ET are the exclusive UK dealer for, as well as over 200 leading brands available for immediate despatch from the company's multi-million pound inventory.

UK-exclusive brands on show from AC-ET's Lighting division include various Chroma-Q, Spotlight and Mole-Richardson LED entertainment & broadcast lighting solutions; Jands' innovative Vista lighting & media control solutions range and award-winning Stage CL lighting console 'made for LEDs'; GLP's Impression Spot One, X4/X4S & Volkslicht LE

UK - Leisuretec Distribution are gearing up for another successful show at PLASA Focus Leeds. This will be the fourth year the Bedfordshire-based distributor has exhibited at the entertainment technology event.

Visitors to the Leisuretec stand (N-CO3) will have the opportunity to meet their highly motivated and knowledgeable team, with a combined experience in the industry of over 120 years covering commercial audio, lighting, video and special effects to the trade only. Their stand design will allow you to take a journey from the brands they can offer you, the strengths of Team Leisuretec, their newly created events facility: 'The TecZone' and finally, discovering the company's user-friendly e-commerce website, which has "everything in one space".

Managing director, Cliff Dounting commented, "PLASA Focus has a special 'feel good' factor and a personality of its

Germany - The 136th Audio Engineering Society Conventionopened today with healthy attendance at the Estrel Hotel and Convention Centre in Berlin.

Offering a wide variety of Technical Programme events, manufacturer exhibitions, the Project Studio Expo, and more, the 136th AES Convention brings attendees the latest in professional audio innovations, as well as networking and educational opportunities with leaders in the industry.

Additionally, AES executive director, Bob Moses, made the announcement that next year's European AES Convention will take place in Warsaw, Poland (Spring 2015) taking advantage of its burgeoning audio industry and growing base of audio engineers, producers and music aficionados.

(Jim Evans)

Serbia - Elation Professional's Serbian partner, Light and Sound Design, recently held a special Elation Open Day at the prestigious National Theatre in Belgrade where the latest in Elation lighting technology was demoed for lighting professionals from Serbia's television and theatre industries.

"We had an excellent turnout with over 30 attendees spending quality time and getting a closer look at Elation products," stated Milan Scepanovic, general manager of Light and Sound Design. "All the attendees were professionals, many representing government institutions or TV stations, and half of them came with their own lux meters and measuring devices. We had a lot of products on hand and a beautiful venue to display them in. Overall the response was very positive and the day quite a success."

A full range of Elation LED lighting solutions optimized for theatre,

USA - The organisers of The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival raised eyebrows when they announced that they were adding a second weekend to their iconic event. Would it be possible, the naysayers wondered, to sustain Coachella's well-known spontaneous sense of excitement over such an extended period?

As anyone who was at the 2014 edition of the famous festival can attest, the answer to this question was a resounding "yes!" With surprise appearances by Beyoncé and a parade of other stars, the festival was as fresh and bright as a summer's morning. The "bright" part was helped along by dynamic lightshows, like the one at the high-profile Outdoor Theatre anchored by 36 Nexus 4 X 4 panels from Chauvet Professional.

Todd Roberts and Brandon Dunning of Visions Lighting (Brea, CA) specced the Nexus panels for the Outdoor Theatre Stage rig, because

UK - Established lighting designer Richard Rhys Thomas of the Royal Albert Hall turned to the high-quality colour and reliability of Clay Paky fixtures to implement his richly layered lighting design for the Mountbatten Military Festival of Music at London's Royal Albert Hall (RAH).

Her Majesty's Royal Marines performed traditional marching songs alongside bespoke compositions and a soaring rendition of Swedish pop-group Abba's top hits. Thomas's lighting design wrapped the orchestra in swathes of colour, working in flawless harmony with the score.

"The brief was to create lighting that would seamlessly complement the music," explains Thomas. "The music ranged from film to classical, big band to traditional marches and the spectacular corps of drum displays. The standard of music was remarkable and so it didn't take much to create a spectacular show."

Tho

UK - Early March saw thousands of eager party goers shake off the winter doldrums and dance the weekend away at Outbreak Spring Festival at Ricoh Arena in Coventry. The all night dance party went on until the wee hours of the morning beneath an Elation lighting system supplied by live event equipment hire company MusicMann of Walsall.

Outbreak is the UK's fastest growing House Music festival and features a full list of top DJs and other artists.

Production manager for the event was Steve "Shaggy" Wright, lighting, video, and production pro at MusicMann, who speced an all Elation lighting rig for the event.

"We've carried a full line of Elation products for many years and they've proved very reliable for the variety of events that we do like this," he stated. "It's the first year they've held Outbreak on this scale; it's a real arena-sized show now an

Russia - Moscow's Arena Club played host to the Welsh band, Bullet for My Valentine, on 6 March 6 with Martin Professional lighting fixtures and the M1 Console, provided by Moscow's Euroshow Rental Company. Robert Coleman, the lighting designer for the tour and Moscow show, deployed Martin to bring out the most of his creative ideas.

The set of lighting fixtures included 10 MAC 700 Profiles (six on the middle truss, four on the back truss), 14 MAC 401 RGB Zooms (four on the side truss, five on the middle and five on the back), nine Atomic 3000 DMX strobes, six MAC Viper Profiles and the M1 Professional Lighting Console.

Coleman, who was introduced to the M1 console a few years ago but never previously had the opportunity to use it, worked with Alexey Zhuravlev, lighting designer, Euroshow Rental Company, to programme the Moscow show.

"I thought the design was good, and

UK - West Midlands UK technical production and rental specialists Central Presentations Ltd. (CPL) supplied the design and full technical production - video, lighting, audio, set - including a bespoke projection screen - and staging - for the 2014 TaxAssist Accountants' AGM. The event was staged in the Caernarfon Suite at the Celtic Resort & Conference Centre in Newport Wales, UK.

CPL's team was headed by dynamic project manager Jimmy Smith who was working to a brief that required a clean, contemporary conference environment for the daytime sessions, which would be quickly and seamlessly transformed into a glamorous evening location for a gala dinner and Awards event!

With that adaptability in mind, he designed a practical and highly effective solution to meet the client's needs.

Behind the stage a 42m wide starcloth backdrop was installed and in front of that the set was bu

UK - Over £2.5 million in seed finance has been released to fund approximately 400 new start-up businesses in London over the next 12 months. The cash, available through Start Up Direct, a direct delivery partner of the Government's Start Up Loans scheme, will help make the dreams of budding entrepreneurs in the capital a reality in 2014, as the hiatus in bank lending continues. The scheme is targeting the TV and Events sectors.

Start Up Direct, which has recently established a base in the heart of London's Tech City, is targeting talented individuals who wish to start a business but lack the capital and often the experience to make it happen. As well as offering loans of up to £15,000, Start Up Direct matches every entrepreneur with a mentor who will be on hand to help and guide them as they develop their business over the first year. Entrepreneurs also have access

USA - Designed for the professional touring and production market, the new EPT9IP LED video panel from Elation Professional checks all the boxes rental companies require in a professional, touring standard LED display. Elation will be showing the new LED panel at the InfoComm trade show 18-20 June in Las Vegas.

Featuring outstanding image quality, the EPT9IP is an ultra-bright 9mm pixel pitch LED panel with 4,096 3-in-1 LED pixels per panel (64 x 64). It incorporates the latest dot correction technology for superior color and brightness uniformity and delivers an impressive 5,000 nits of brightness, more than sufficient for any indoor use and bright enough for virtually any outdoor application.

Integrated curving options from -15° to +15° allow designers to create a variety of seamless curved video displays, including convex, concave and even full circle designs, while

UK - The anticipation that preluded the sixth PLASA Focus: Leeds delivered everything it promised, with two-days of packed show floors and seminar rooms. A total of 2107 visitors flooded into the Leeds' Royal Armouries, drawn by a showcase of professional sound, lighting, video, trussing and staging companies, plus an education programme that spanned the industry's expertise.

A mixture of quality, variety and enthusiasm combined to create the unmistakable atmosphere that the show has become renowned for. "We really enjoy PLASA Focus," says Michael Brooksbank, European General Manager, Chauvet Professional. "It's a small, intimate, networking show, it doesn't cost us a significant amount of money, which always helps, and we get instant returns."

Martin Professional's UK Sales Director, Mike Walker, adds: "It's an important show for us. The international

UK - Who wouldn't want to be in Leeds on a sunny spring day with all the delights of the PLASA Focus event laid out before you? As usual, long before the need for a mid-morning latte, the place was busy with visitors and exhibitors alike. Nowhere was busier than the d&b audiotechnik stand in the New Dock Hall where the three latest products were on display.

Mounted against a backdrop of vaulted gothic cathedral windows was the rather elegant xC-Series of column loudspeakers, comprising the 16C, 24C and 24C-E. Designed specifically to deliver the d&b System reality in those difficult reverberant environments, the company's long experience of working with passively crossed loudspeakers has produced a series of column loudspeakers with supremely effective horizontal pattern control.

Meanwhile, the freshly updated ArrayCalc simulation software from d&b attracted a steady stream of

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd had another busy PLASA Focus show this year with a stand in the New Dock Hall and an audio demo room in the Holiday Inn hotel next door. Both positions were themed to promote MilTec's increasing British manufacturing base. Visitors to the demo room had the opportunity to try out a traditional Kentish ale or a G&T made with London dry gin.

As well as promoting fine British ale and spirits, the company also used the additional space to demonstrate their Blakite range of British speakers along with their own signal processing equipment. New products on show included a 6" speaker and 12" compact stage wedge, both fitted with dual concentric drivers. These speakers and two subs were being powered by a prototype class-d amplifier. The amp has six channels giving 2x 2,500WRMS and 4x 800WRMS into 4 Ohms. It also includes an updated version of MilTec's DNP2

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USA - With just days until the doors open at PLASA Focus: Baltimore - taking place at the Reitz Arena, Loyola University, on 8-9 May, 2014 - exhibitors have been busy releasing details about the products they will have on display at their booths.

Philips Entertainment will be showcasing three new products - the NEO lighting control console, the SL NITRO 510C LED luminaire, and the PLprofile4 Universal Lens Tube Adapter. On Friday, May 9, at 1:30pm, as part of the free-to-attend Professional Development Program, a Philips Entertainment specialist will present "Meet Neo."

ElektraLite will have three new professional LED products making their worldwide debut. The new 1018-AI is an improved version of ElektraLite's popular 1018 QUAD LED stage light; the LightStream - a multi-plane moving head spot system featuring six 12W, quad (RGBW) LEDs; and the new eyeBall Outdoor wh

UK / USA - Trade-only AV specialist PSCo is offering AV and IT resellers and rental companies an opportunity to win an exclusive VIP trip to InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas, 18-20 June. The competition kicked-off on 4 March and will run until 30 May. Three winners will be picked at random and announced on 2 June via the PSCo website as well as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook channels. To enter, simply visit www.psco.co.uk/infocomm

"InfoComm is an event that has been overshadowed by ISE in recent years, but the level of new and innovative technology on show makes it a must see event," said Richard Bovingdon, sales director of PSCo. "As a trade-only provider we are offering all channel partners, whether Rental, AV or IT, the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to InfoComm with PSCo. We value all our partners and want to offer everyone the chance to win one of the thre

UK - Electrosonic will provide corporate and oil and gas industries an in-depth look at the latest audio-visual and collaboration solutions at its Technology Day on 4 June at the AECC in Aberdeen. Over 30 leading technology companies are participating at this free event.

The event will give attendees a real insight into how state-of-the-art technologies can increase productivity and communication between teams, as well as how new collaborative technologies can improve business performance.

During the Technology Day, a member of the Electrosonic team will guide each visitor through the exhibition, visiting each supplier to discuss the new technologies and how they can be integrated into any current facility.

Unlike other technology exhibitions, the event will showcase full solutions as opposed to individual products. Attendees will have the opportunity to see complete, real-t

UK - Lighting control expert, Artistic Licence, used the recent PLASA Focus show in Leeds to spread the word about DALI - a control protocol that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the architainment sector. Showing no favouritism, DMX also featured high on the list of talking points, with many visitors lingering to check out the prototype for nanoScope, Artistic's new pocket DMX tester.

Already well-known for its expertise in DMX/RDM and ethernet-based lighting controls, Artistic Licence has been quick to respond to a growing need for DMX/DALI conversion products and DALI tools. While developed with fluorescent ballasts in mind, DALI is enjoying a much greater reach as designers and specifiers recognise the possibilities of combining it with DMX systems.

However, DALI remains an unknown quantity to many - a situation that Artistic Licence founder and CEO, Wayne Howell, aime

UK - Leading polymer specialist, igus UK, will be exhibiting its innovative range of cable management systems, flexible cables and bearings solutions for the theatre industry at the ABTT Show in London next month. Visitors to the igus stand will also see live demonstrations of its solutions as well as meet industry experts.

igus supplies a wide range of energy chains for the theatre and entertainment industry, enabling theatre technicians to easily manage cables, and the company's compact energy chains have proven particularly popular in lifts, stages and lighting rigs. The reliable energy chain solutions include unsupported or gliding energy chains for horizontal energy supply, hanging and standing chains for vertical energy supply, as well as special solutions for rotating or retracting motion.

At this year's show, igus will be showcasing its innovative e-spool - a new gener

UK - Hot on the heels of its UK debut at PLASA Focus: Leeds, Chauvet Professional has announced a day of hands-on introduction to launch the groundbreaking Chauvet Professional Rogue range of fixtures, to be held at the Leighton Buzzard premises of Leisuretec Distribution, on Tuesday, 13 May, 2014.

The four models of the Rogue series comprise two power output levels of moving head spot fixtures and moving beam luminaires. Chauvet Europe General Manager, Michael Brooksbank, illustrates, "Rogue is unique in offering such outstanding performance with so many features for its price. Rogue will allow designers on a limited budget to create some very intense, high-impact designs with crisp beams, bright colours, aerial effects and split colours that may have been out of reach to them in the past because the budget wasn't there."

Rogue R1 Spot is powered by a 140W LED for a

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