Deadline for PLASA Awards Draws Near
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If you want to enter your products for a PLASA Award, full details of the nomination process can be found on the PLASA Show website or call us now on +44 (
General
Lumière de Bourges
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It’s a multi-site Son et Lumière show - the audience sees the 90-minute spectacular on foot and stroll about 2km during the show, being guided by a blue line of light. At each of six main buildings or sites, they see and hear a show with dramatic lighting and projected images. The show was designed by Philippe Noir and Christine de Vichet. Lighting design by Pierre Boudeau and Vladimir Lyszczynski, sound by Daniel Deshays and images by Serge Fouillet. The main technical contractor for the event was AEB, with Cyclope providing the large format filmstrip projectors. Electrosonic France was responsible for overall show control and slide projection.
Australian Lighting Association Proposed
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With an overwhelmingly positive responses from this, and a follow-up meeting in Melbourne, organisers Andy Ciddor and Cat Strom (Forcer) have decided to press ahead in establishing an Australasian Lighting Industry Association, provisionally entitled ALIA.
Discussions at the meetings were based around a widely-circulated proposal prepared by Cat Strom, Steve Furzey and Andy Ciddor, the text of which can be found on the preliminary ALIA website - www.lighting-association.com.
It was agreed that a broadly-based and inclusive lighting industry association is a worthwhile goal. Members of Australia’s existing lighting association, the Illuminat
Brighton Rocks with Rainmaker
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The main focus of the stage was a giant Screenco LED screen. This had been rigged to facilitate a C4 broadcast of the Ashes cricket from Edgebaston on the Thursday through Sunday. However, Channel Four then decided it would create a great local buzz of they threw a party on the Friday night, offering an opportunity to groove the summer evening away with the best in contemporary club vibes with local hero - the Fatboy himself! They then decided to broadcast parts of the party a week later on C4’s ‘Fatboy Slim Night’.
The Fatboy Slim event originally started out just as a just live show, with Rainmaker initial
51st PCM Motor School
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I must confess to not having prior intimate knowledge of Columbus McKinnon hoists, but I now feel confident that should I ever have the need to strip and rebuild one, I would not disappoint the training staff from PCM!
29 of us gathered at PCM’s premises for the start of the two-day intensive course aimed at unravelling the mysteries of CM Lodestars. The popularity of the course, which has been running since 1993, is such that some attendees had flown in from Dublin and Portugal to take part. A cross-section of the industry was represented, including freelancers and representatives from sound, lighting and rigging c
Studiomaster Go Into Receivership
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Studiomaster was well known in the industry as a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment, a role it had been performing for over two decades, although the current company wasn’t incorporated until 1991.
Its first ever products were power amplifiers followed quickly by mixing consoles for live sound. Around this time the first affordable multitrack machines appeared and Studiomaster designed a studio quality desk to meet the
Virtual Tour Now Online
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Guidance Notes for PLASA Members
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Guide to Australian EMC Framework: contains advice on the EMC and C-Tick labelling requirements for equipment destined for the Australian market.
Basic Guide to the FCC Rules: contains advice on application of the USA Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules on EMC for entertainment equipment.
Standards for Dimmers: contains advice on the applicable safety
ESTA Launches New Standards Projects
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BSR E1.18, Recommended practice for the selection, installation, use, and maintenance of single-conductor portable power feeder cable in the entertainment industry. The standard is intended to offer guidance on how to select, install, use and maintain single-conductor portable power feeder cables. The project will promote safety and compatibility in the equipment and practices used in live performance and in film and video production in North America.
BSR E1.19, Recommendations for the use of ground fault devices in the entertainment industry. The standard is intended to offer guidance on how to select, install, use and maintain ground fault protection devices in the entertainment industry. The project is intended to promote the use of these devi
L&SI Sponsors New Technology Gallery
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L&SI will be based on the Lower Deck (stand K19), where we will be offering free readerships to qualifying UK industry personnel, plus special offers on international subscriptions only available at PLASA 2001 - plus PLASA Media freebies to all new subscribers!
L&SI can be found on stand K19.
AC Lighting Completes Move to New Premises
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The move has been a welcome step forward for the company’s 50+ staff which, after 10 years of steady growth, had found themselves bursting out the seams of three separate premises across two industrial areas - with all the inevitable inefficiencies that the situation gave rise to. The meticulously-planned move to the new premises has now given AC Lighting the infrastructure it needs to both operate efficiently at its current size, and to cater for its certain future growth.
Extensive refurbishment of the
2001 Tony Awards
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At the 2001 Tony Awards Ceremony, held on June 3rd at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, The Producers (pictured) won all of the awards for which it had been nominated - 12 wins in all, breaking the all-time record for Tony wins by one show.
Adapted from his own film by Mel Brooks, the show won Brooks himself awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical. It also netted prizes itself (Best Musical), for many of its performers, and for the rest of its creative team: Susan Stroman (Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical), Doug Besterman (Best Orchestrations), Robin Wagner (Best Scenic Design), William Ivey Long (Best Costume Design) and Peter Kaczorowski (Best Lighting Design).
Both Wagner and Kaczorow
Capital Sound Buys Meyer M3D
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Step Forward Mr Average . . .
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Mr Average: The study found that the average director in the audio industry is 49 years old and has been in the job for over seven years. The average salary is £25,000 per annum.
Old Hats: the study revealed that despite a 7% yearly turnover of directors, almost 39% have held their position for more than 10 years. Just under one fifth of UK directors in the sound equipment industry are now over 60 years old, and over the next three to five years, as these bastions of the industry reach retirement age, their departure could have a profound effect on the companies they formerly controlled.
Marathon Runners: If the industry is a vic
Book Now for the PLASA Show Seminars
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In a programme of seminars sponsored by Installation Europe, audio installation and integration is the theme under which issues of networking, control and the benefits of converging technologies are explored. Tuesday sees a Theme and Leisure Masterclass, presented by Leisure Management, in association with the TEA and TiLE, which focuses on how the leisure industry exploits special effects, lighting and audio technology to create unique environments to enhance the visitor experie
Virtual Way Forward . . .
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Using WYSIWYG by Cast Lighting of Canada or the Martin Show Designer from Denmark, designers can create artistic lighting images and present them either as stills or as an animated movie providing an accurate photo-realistic rendition of environmental and show designs. Since he’s been one if its higher profile users, we invited LD Durham Marenghi, to explain why he’s so keen on the virtual route . . .
Over the past month I’ve been commissioned to create virtual designs with WYSIWYG for a temporary exhibition and event environment and a major car launch reveal, the intention in each case to provide a graphic presentation of what will eventually become reality.
Historically, artistic impressions
WYSIWYG Wins Emmy Award
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WYSIWYG is the one tool that allows all production people to see their ideas come alive virtually, in a computer-generated format. It enables users to develop lighting, design sets and perform blocking functions prior to actual production. The software does it all virtually, enabling producers and ot
JHS Event 2001
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The company’s huge, purpose-built office and warehousing complex spreads over a four-acre site and ensures that the company, now the largest family-owned independent musical merchandise distributor in the UK, has an effective base for demonstrating the product lines from its extensive catalogue. And I do mean extensive - for the catalogue carries some of the music industry’s biggest names, including the innovative roundback guitar range from Ovation, for whom JHS are sole UK and Eire distributors and the famous Danelectro guitars and amps, back in the music world with a vengeance.
An early de
grapevine Goes Online
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Created by specialist recruitment consultants, Searchlight, the service will be free for jobseekers, with only a minimal cost to advertisers. A year in the making, the site can filter out jobs that aren’t likely to be of interest to a particular user and will monitor new job postings and send an e-mail alert if a relevant job comes in.
Beautiful Result
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Company director Steve Hicks decided to turn the situation to his advantage by investing in new IT equipment. Clients can now expect greatly reduced modelling and rendering times during design development and final presentation. Through the use of ‘bi-directional drawing linking’ and parametric modelling, designers will be able to easily manipulate and modify elements in a 2D or 3D environment.
Association News - PLASA @ PLASA
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The move from the usual spot at the very front of the hall on stand F1 has been made in order to provide more room for the PLASA stand - which will now incorporate the PLASA Technical Bookshop - and also to allow us to develop the PLASA Clinic, which will run adjacent to the PLASA stand, on J52 (see below).
Equally importantly, the move puts us right next to the busy after-show bar (inside the new Pizza Express restaurant), which will be open every evening after show closing, allowing everyone at the show a little extra time to continue those all-important conversations!Upstairs, meanwhile, Lighting&Sound International is sponsoring the New Technology Showcase - a major display of every product nominated for a 2001 PLASA Award for Product Excellenc
Association News - PLASA Industry Research
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- Free overview (for anyone who participated in questionnaire)
- Product sector reports (lighting, pro-audio, staging, AV) at £125 (plus VAT) each
- Detailed market sector report at £250 (plus VAT)
- Free Global report (for anyone who purchases any of the above)
Qualifying members can order all of the above reports at a special price of £500 sterling (plus VAT) - an overall saving of £250.
Members who did not participate can still gain access to all the above invaluable information by completing a questionnaire and undertaking to participate in the equivalent survey next year.
Any queries on the research project should be directed to research@plasa
Firepower!
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The attraction was designed by Event Communications, whose main challenge was to overcome people’s discomfort with the reality of war. They tackled this by highlighting the role in the fight for democracy and freedom played by the armed forces, especially the Royal Artillery, which has been present at all major theatres of war involving the British Army over the last 300 years.
The centrepiece of Firepower is the ‘ground-shaking’ Field of Fire - a spectacular multimedia presentation that recreates what it feels like to be in the middle of a real battle. On entering, visitors are surrounded by various pieces of artillery. Suspended above these are four 5m wide front projection screens. Projecting onto each screen is a Barco 6300 LCD Vid
Robot Wars
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Thousands of eager fans were treated to over two hours of destruction and mayhem, all carefully choreographed by director Hugh Wooldridge. "It’s an amazing mix of old and new cultures," he explained. "We’re acting out the ancient idea of gladiatorial combat, but with cutting-edge robot technology. In fact, almost the entire show is controlled - our job is to make the audience think that it’s not.
Even under controlled conditions, the sheer power of the robotic stars of the show (some of which weigh in excess of 150kgs) meant that humans were excluded from the combat area. "Not only do we have to keep our distance from the action, but we’re also shooting through thick Macrolon sc
