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UK - Mike Lethby, co-founder and director of Gasoline Media alongside Sarah James, has formed a new entertainment technology-focused PR, copywriting and marketing consultancy, MLM (Mike Lethby Media), while Sarah James will remain at Gasoline Media in the role of managing director.

MLM, which opened its doors on May 1, will work within the entertainment technology, production services and events sectors, and will also provide clients with photography, design and technical authoring facilities. Startup clients include Renkus-Heinz, the Ampco/Flashlight Group and Richmond Studios. A new office address will be announced soon. Gasoline Media will continue to represent DiGiCo, Lighthouse, MC2/Quested and XTA, among others, from its Leatherhead, Surrey offices.

Lethby comments: "After three-and-a-half successful and exciting years together, Sarah and I have different ideas on h

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians' annual showcase - The ABTT Theatre Show, staged in London's Royal Horticultural Halls on 16-17 June announced that it is 15% larger than last year's event - filling three halls to capacity for the first time.

With over 127 companies exhibiting a broad cross section of products and services, this year's show has expanded into three halls underlining its position as a technical showcase for professionals involved in theatre and auditoria. A host of new companies are exhibiting for the first time from the UK and mainland Europe, including theatrical video experts, XL Video, PA/VA specialists Millbank Electronics, Harman, Duran Audio, Ben-Ri Electronica, Alcons Audio and Turbosound. New lighting companies include Enlightenment and Associated Lighting. New exhibitors from the rigging side of the industry include: Metalworx, Tomcat

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UK - This industry - and in particular PLASA members and exhibitors at the PLASA Show - are being consistently targeted by online trade directories which approach companies about free online listings, but are actually being somewhat economic with the facts.

The companies send out a highly misleading mailshot to exhibitors asking them to update their free listing, but in reality, simply by updating and returning the form, exhibitors are actually signing a contract binding them to a three-year agreement, costing a significant amount per year. All the legal essentials and prices are hidden away in the small print - and the contract is then self-perpetuating unless cancelled in writing.

The companies will then refuse to cancel the 'order' and will aggressively pursue payment and threaten legal action. They apparently operate on the '10% Rule' - based on the fact that when threaten

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PLASA members and exhibitors are being targeted by online trade directories which are being somewhat economic with the facts. The directories send out misleading mailshots (associating themselves with PLASA or the Show) inviting companies to update a free listing. However, by returning the form, companies are signing a contract binding them to a costly three-year agreement. All the legal essentials and costs are hidden away in the small print.

The directory company will then refuse to cancel the 'order' and will aggressively pursue payment. They operate on the '10% rule' - in other words, that 10% of people will cave in and pay up. If any member has found themselves in this situation, e-mail info@plasa.org and the PLASA team will do all it can to help.

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The PLASA Awards for Product Excellence are being relaunched as the PLASA Awards for Innovation, with the focus on products which genuinely advance the industry. All nominees for the Awards - which take place during the PLASA Show in September - will feature in the Innovation Gallery (pictured right). Unlike previous years, the awards will not be categorized according to sector, but will be judged on the grounds of innovation alone. Eight Awards will then be presented at the Awards Ceremony on Monday 13 September. Call us if you want to know more.

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USA - Techni-Lux, Inc. of Orlando, Florida has expanded its team to include Rose Crowe as its marketing and media coordinator. Crowe brings with her a diverse background including theatre, web design, retail product placement, a B.F.A. in Sequential Art, and a great interest in entertainment technology. Some of her most recent work has been involving innovative web and graphic design for local production companies in the area.

Crowe will now work on enhancing the company's information channels, visually and technically. "Ms. Crowe's talent will be put to good use at Techni-Lux", states vice president, Alex Gonzalez. "We are very eager to enhance the many projects that we are continually developing, and we knew they required a focused and dedicated person like Ms. Crowe."

"Techni-Lux is growing in many industry directions," says Crowe "and I'm

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Japan - Jere Harris, Chairman and CEO of Production Resource Group (PRG), has announced the establishment of an Asian subsidiary - PRG Asia Inc - to be headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and dedicated to supporting PRG's many clients in the Asian marketplace.

"We've been serving clients throughout Asia for many years from our offices in North America and the UK," Harris explained. "The establishment of an Asian subsidiary is an important step in the expansion of our client support services in Asia."

PRG has more than a decade of experience serving clients in Asia in projects including theatre installations, theme park attractions, concert tours and corporate and special events. PRG Asia Inc will be engaged in business development and client support for all types of PRG products and services.

Makoto Yamazaki will serve as president of Asian Operations for t

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USA - Further to the news from Color Kinetics, two key PRG executives, Joe Schenk and Anne Johnston, will take over the management of PRG's Integrated Solutions Group to take over from Bill Groener, the group's former manager.

Schenk will lead the group's West Coast operations while Johnston leads the East. "Assumption of Bill's responsibilities by Joe and Anne will be a natural transition for us," says Michael Tomkin, president of PRG. "Each is intimately familiar with the operations of the group. Each also has unique expertise that will help the group's clients capitalize on important new trends in the evolution of entertainment technology."

As President of PRG's Nevada operations, Schenk has overseen some of the Integrated Solutions Group's most important projects in Las Vegas, including the Masquerade in the Sky at the Rio, Star Trek at th

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USA - A new insight into the trends in buying and specifying habits of a broad cross-section in the entertainment industries will be revealed with the publication of a significant new study entitled How Customers Specify and Buy Expendables, Equipment and Systems in The Entertainment Industries. The study is sponsored by ESTA, North America's Entertainment Services and Technology Association, and is believed to be the first study of its type ever conducted by a non-partisan, non-profit sponsor in the entertainment industries.

The study was managed by an ESTA committee of industry volunteers supplemented by the technical skills and guidance of a well known market research firm, Stiernberg Consulting. The database of customers and specifiers prepared for this study is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging ever used: utilizing its member resources, ESTA assembled the data

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USA - Though as with all of these awards ceremonies, the voting is supposed to be completely impartial and independent from category to category, there is a sense that the technical Tony Awards, presented on 6 June at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, went to some productions that had perhaps done less well than expected in the show awards.

In particular, the spectacular musical Wicked, an alternative take on The Wizard of Oz story, was generally considered the favourite in the Best Musical category. Instead that award, and also the awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, went to Avenue Q, the hilarious show perhaps best described as Friends meets Sesame Street, complete with human and puppet stars. Only the humans were nominated in the performance categories, though there they were beaten by Idina Menzel from Wicked<

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USA - Roadcases, the company established to chronicle the history of road exploits through the eyes of backstage touring personnel, has joined with TV documentary experts, Incue Productions. Incue is a Los Angeles-based production company specializing in HBO First Looks, behind the scene making of specials, and was created by brothers Scott and Dave McVeigh.

Recent credits include the 25th Anniversary Special Edition of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Pumping Iron, American Pie Revealed and a behind the scenes look into NYPD Blue, where Scott and Dave were granted phenomenal access to the show's set and actors.

Incue had already been looking to develop their own concept about life on the road until they heard about Roadcases from their other brother Greg McVeigh, VP of operations at Meyer Sound. "Greg was instrumental with the introduction of Roadcase

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Industry maverick John Jones is leaving Pfaff-Silberblau after 21 years service to pursue other professional and personal interests. Jones is probably best known as the MD of lifting, moving, turning and flying specialists PCM, the entertainment and leisure division of the German owned Pfaff.

He set up PCM in 1993. The company was responsible for establishing the CM Lodestar motor as the UK and European concert touring industry standard motor in the 1990s. Another major achievement for Jones was the establishment of a comprehensive infrastructure of motor and rigging training programmes based at PCM, and open to all. Training is one of the many areas he is passionate about.

Jones comments with trademark Liverpudlian dryness: "I've had a fantastic time with the company, but the time was right to move on - or I was in danger of becoming part of the furniture!" Jones is also a

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UK - "It's all about putting a face behind the brand," said Mark Miller, Selecon UK's new man in London and the South of England. He was talking about his role with the company which, from 1 June, will be to develop relationships with clients and discuss their lighting requirements.

"Mark will visit end users such as lighting designers, dealers, architects and theatres to find out what they need from our products, what we're getting right, and, importantly, what we might be getting wrong," said Mike Goldberg, Selecon's European sales director. "The information will be fed back to our designers and salespeople. It's all part of our continuous drive to maintain the high quality of Selecon products and ensure we develop products people want."

Miller will also play a key part in the upcoming UK Workshops that Selecon is holding around the country, det

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South Africa / Denmark - Four members of the South African Roadies Association (SARA) will spend two weeks engaged in on-the-job training in Denmark as technical and production on-the-job trainees. The famous Roskilde Festival will host the four SARA technicians as part of a skills exchange project between SARA and Roskilde Festival. For Relebogile Thapayo (23) from Mofolo (Soweto), Weziwe Mpande (22) from Ngqamakhwe (Eastern Cape), Vincent Mahlalela (24) from Chaiwelo (Soweto) and Johnie Tsotetsi (24) from Frankfort (Freestate) this will be their first chance of international travel.

The highlight of the visit is the Roskilde Festival, arguably one of the biggest festivals in Northern Europe with seven stages and more than 160 bands performing with an expected attendance of more than 70,000 people. The four will enhance their technical and production skills with some of the bes

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UK - Snifferdog is a new company which aims to provide intelligent and relevant research material for theatre designers, directors, production managers - indeed, anyone who ever wished they had a research assistant! Snifferdog was founded by Ros Morgan-Jones, a stage manager of ten years' experience who has worked on shows ranging from the fringe to the West End to the Royal Shakespeare Company. She left stage management to complete a two-year university course studying Furniture and Design History. "During that time, designers I knew started asking me to research projects," she explains. "That proved so successful that it has now grown into this new business."

Amongst the first to use Snifferdog's services was set designer Tom Pye, then designing the new Broadway production of Fiddler On The Roof. Snifferdog gathered together hundreds of images of Ea

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UK - The Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA Show have been a popular feature of the event for many years, highlighting the significance of the show as a focus for new developments for the industry. To reinforce this role, the awards are undergoing an important change for the 2004 event (12-15 September), with the focus being much more on genuine innovation. To reflect this, the feature area will also be redesigned.

This year, the awards will be repositioned as the PLASA Awards for Innovation. The previous assessment criteria, which segmented the nominations into sectors, has been removed so that products will no longer be judged within category lines, but on the grounds of their innovation alone. The judges will be looking for products which advance the industry, demonstrate a new style of thinking, represent a key step forward in safety terms, or improve technical practices

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USA - The Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) has announced that Production Resource Group (PRG) - one of the world's leading suppliers of entertainment technology equipment and solutions - has accepted a seat on ESTA's Certification Council. PRG provides lighting, projection, audio, video, scenery and labour services for theatrical productions, trade shows, corporate events, sporting events, special events, television and film productions, themed attractions and environments, concert tours and automotive industry events.

The ESTA Certification Council is the governing body, which is managing the development and implementation of the Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP), a new industry-wide program, which will grant credentials in specific disciplines to entertainment technicians.

Jere Harris, chairman and CEO, will serve as PRG's princi

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South Africa - Four Roadies from South Africa will spend two weeks engaged in on-the-job training in Norway this July. The famous Quart Festival, in Norway, will host the four SARA (South African Roadies Association) technicians as part of a technical exchange program (now in it's fourth year) between SARA and the Quart Festival.

SARA raised the necessary sponsorship from MMINO, a South Africa-Norwegian education and music program, to enable young South Africans to spend the 29 June to 13 July 2004 period in Norway. There they will spend an intense 15 days gaining technical training from some of the best in the world, learning the latest methods and techniques in sound, staging, power, lighting and related live music/entertainment industries.

Every year the Board and organizers of the Quart Festival choose one deserving socially responsible role player on a global basis, and d

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UK - Following its demerger from the InvestinMedia Group earlier this year, Avesco plc, the specialist service provider to the corporate presentation, entertainment and broadcast markets, has announced its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2004.

In his Chairman's statement, Ian Martin commented that the past twelve months represented the third difficult year in succession for the Group and pointed out that within the period covered by the results, Avesco had only been trading as an independent company for a short time. Also, significant additional costs were incurred to achieve the demerger and Avesco's subsequent listing on the AIM (Alternative Investment Market), together with the provisions required for the reorganization, relocation and restructuring of the demerged company. However, he described the results as, at best, only satisfactory.

Group turnover fro

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USA - D-Tools, a leading system integration software company, has appointed Randy Green, the former vice-president of Stardraw, to its senior management team. Green will head up a new team within D-Tools aimed specifically at the commercial system integrator market.

"We are very pleased about the addition of Randy Green to our team," said Adam Stone, president of D-Tools. "His knowledge of the commercial system integrator's software needs in the United States is second to none, and we look forward to his spearheading our charge into this market."

Green's appointment coincides with a major expansion of D-Tools' proven Si Software into the commercial market. Amongst the newest features being shown at InfoComm, will be a product data library featuring over 140 commercial manufacturers as well as the company's newest add-on, the Business Manager module, used f

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PLASA's mid-June AGM in Wales proved an excellent opportunity for members to learn more about the work of the Association and offer feedback on some of its ongoing initiatives. It also turned out to be one of the best social events of the year for members, and part of the credit for that must go to PLASA insurance providers Allan Chapman & James, who kindly sponsored the pre-dinner drinks.

To find out what else took place during the day, you can read a more detailed report in L&SI. We are now looking at the options for 2005 and will announce details shortly.

Members had an opportunity to ask anything they liked during the open Question & Answer session at the AGM.

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Following a detailed review of its Technical Standards office, and a consultation meeting with members, PLASA has refocused its role and relaunched it as the Technical Resources Office. Key initiatives already in place, or to be introduced shortly, include:

The creation of a PLASA Standardization Programme utilizing PLASA member interaction to develop industry-specific technical standardization (not BSI/European standards), codes of practice and guidance.

Increased availability and accessibility to British Standards, industry codes of practice and guidance documentation.

Databases of testing facilities and other member technical support functions.

An online forum open to all in which the more common problems discussed could be the trigger mechanism for deciding if a subject is a candidate for involvement in the standard or guidance writing process.

Downloadable forms (risk as

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PLASA's mid-June AGM in Wales proved an excellent opportunity for members to learn more about the work of the Association and offer feedback on some of its ongoing initiatives. It also turned out to be one of the best social events of the year for members, and part of the credit for that must go to PLASA insurance providers Allan Chapman & James, who kindly sponsored the pre-dinner drinks.

To find out what else took place during the day, you can read a more detailed report on page 38. We are now looking at the options for 2005 and will announce details shortly.

Members had an opportunity to ask anything they liked during the open Question & Answer session at the AGM. Andrew Bishop, Diane Grant and Matthew Griffiths provided the answers.

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UK - 70 members attended PLASA's recent AGM and Association Day, held on Friday 11 June at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. This was a significant event for the Association, coming at a time when PLASA has reset some of its key objectives and launched a number of major new initiatives.

The first part of the day - the AGM - was opened by chairman Diane Grant, who welcomed members before handing over to vice-chairman Andrew Bishop to present the final accounts for 2003. He highlighted the Association's pre-tax profit of £45,249, despite difficult trading conditions, and covered some of the key investments of the preceding 12 months, including those in member services, training, technical resources and market research. He also addressed the issue of the Association's reserves, informing members of the committee's determination to ensure that there would be investment in

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