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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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UK - CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association), the trade association representing the fast-growing home automation industry, has announced that Michael Eden is to be its new education facilitator. This new appointment further underlines CEDIA's on-going commitment to delivering the training and educational structure required by the industry it says.

Michael Eden has most recently served as a head teacher at a large secondary school in Surrey. In this role, he was responsible for developing training programmes, as well as teacher induction and assessments. He has also worked with several government departments on training and education related issues.

"Michael brings to this role considerable experience in many areas of education, which will be a great asset to CEDIA in the UK," said Stephen Gough, chairman of CEDIA. "In his previous roles he h

InfiLED - Banner - August 25

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UK - It seems that the UK sound equipment industry is finally turning the corner, according to industry analysts Plimsoll Publishing. The latest Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis -Sound Equipment reveals signs of sustainable improvement in the industry. Some of the most interesting findings taken from the analysis include 23 companies which have seen sales increase by over 15%, 29 companies which have doubled profit and 54 companies which have halved their debts.

David Pattison, senior analyst at Plimsoll Publishing, says: "After the last few years of uncertainty, the UK sound equipment industry is experiencing a positive upswing. I am delighted that many companies are getting it right by addressing the issues that have constrained them for years. Profits are improving, sales are up and debt issues are being resolved."

However, Pattison is quick to point out that n

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L&SI has learned of the death of Hugh Laver, on 4 May in Adelaide, Australia. Laver, a well-known figure in the UK's lighting industry, had suffered with Multiple Sclerosis for 15 years.

Simon Corder writes: "In my life there have been a few people of great importance; mentors and teachers who have inspired and taken the time to share their experience. Hugh was my chief at the Bubble Theatre in 1979; we toured London in a big yellow tent. He was a good man who is fondly remembered."

Jon Cadbury of VLPS adds: "Hugh and I had worked together for the Joint Stock Theatre Company, where he always had the clearest view on the right way to service and support theatre and entertainment technology. He was a teacher and an inspiration to everyone who came into contact with him. He will be missed by many people.

"Paul Turner had started Zenith Lighting to service the conce

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UK - Big Gay Out - the official Pride Party - staged in Finsbury Park on 3 July was presented by Faceparty, in association with Virgin Mobile. Over 20,000 festival-goers attended the event, where over 160 artists performed live across 11 stages between 1pm and 10.30pm, including Fun Lovin' Criminals, Jamelia, Sugarbabes and Mark Almond on the main Big Mutha stage.

Celebrated as best party organizers in 2002 and 2003 by Mixmag and FHM, Faceparty is famed for its high production levels and decadent parties. In true style, Faceparty's Dave Bamforth inspired the design and concept for Big Gay Out, transforming London's Finsbury Park into a feature-packed wonderland. In addition to 11 stages, beach bars, splash pools, a funfair, jacuzzis, and a teepee village ensured a good time for the party revelers.

Faceparty's executive producer, Martin Heap, coordinated the event, appointing L

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USA - Friday 11 June saw 'opening night' of ETC's new corporate headquarters near Madison, Wisconsin. The theatrical terminology was apt, as the lighting company's new $21m building is all about theatre and lighting magic, in a space that rethinks the rules on corporate architecture.

Town Square is the heart of the 250,000sq.ft facility. A theatrical replica of a 1940s city street scene, it's based on Edward Hopper's New York paintings. The centrepiece is the Nighthawks café itself (the company's reception area), while an old-time cinema flashes its neon 'Century' sign, and serves as entrance into ETC's product demonstration and staging area. Across the way, the 'Kelly Insurance Agency' is the company's Human Resources department. Other façades - a bank, an office supply store, a travel agency - crowd around the space of Town Square, overshadowed by an Empire State Building-like skys

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USA - PRG and VLPS Lighting Services International have jointly announced the completion of the merger announced last month, which has created the leading equipment and technology company in the entertainment industry. The merger has been approved by VLPS stockholders, and the regulatory review period has expired. As of now, a newly-formed subsidiary of PRG will be merged with and into VLPS, with VLPS becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of PRG. The combined company will operate as PRG Lighting, PRG Audio, PRG Scenic Technologies and Showpay, and will maintain its headquarters in New Windsor, NY.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, VLPS stockholders are to receive $8.32 per share in cash immediately, with up to an additional $.50 per share payable from an escrow account established to pay for any indemnification claims. VLPS shares, heretofore listed on the OTC pink sheets, w

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UK - As part of its Professional Development Programme (PDP), PLASA, the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, has organized two half-day sales workshops, to take place in London on 5 August. Presented by Mike Southon, author of the best-selling business book The Beermat Entrepreneur, the focus of the sessions will be on the technical aspects of selling, with opportunities to discuss issues faced by those attending. Due to the popularity of the event, there are now only four places available in the afternoon. The cost to PLASA Members is £40.00. To register email Nicky Greet at the e-mail address below, or call on 01323 410335.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Software provider Stardraw.com has launched a new online service. Stardraw Forums offer a freely accessible platform on which to exchange ideas, ask questions and share experiences. Forums have been established for all Stardraw products, and each forum is continuously monitored by Stardraw experts to ensure that replies to postings will be timely and accurate.

Stardraw's marketing director Rob Robinson says that Stardraw Forums represent yet another way in which Stardraw users can make their feelings known about the applications they are using, as well as sharing hints and tips with other users. "The web is by far the most important way in which we, as a software company, communicate. We therefore go to great lengths to ensure that our own website is always up-to-date and contains everything the Stardraw community could possibly wish for to make their lives easier, an

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UK / Austria - Software provider Stardraw.com has appointed leading Austrian pro audio sales, distribution and systems specialist, Audiosales Vertriebs GmbH, as resellers throughout Austria for the entire range of Stardraw's design and documentation software packages.

Located 15km south of Vienna, AudioSales specializes in four areas of business activity: recording and post-production, fixed installations, broadcast, and professional live sound. The company also has an impressive portfolio of brands under exclusive distribution, including Audix microphones, Drawmer and Klark Teknik signal processors, Midas and SSL mixing consoles, Peavey MediaMatrix, Samplitude hard-disk recording, and L-Acoustics and Work loudspeakers.

AudioSales sales manager Reinhard Brummer is pleased to number the Stardraw product range among these brands. "We have a long history in digital recordi

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UK - ChainMaster of Eilenburg, one of the world's market leaders in the manufacture of chain hoists and chain-hoist controllers for the stage, has now become a member of the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA). Frank Hartung of ChainMaster commented: "We applied for admission to the Association in order to be able to drive forward the international dialogue with colleagues, customers and users. With its considerable influence, the PLASA represents an attractive platform."

At this year's PLASA show in London, ChainMaster will again be presenting its latest products. The venue for the fair, as in previous years, is the Exhibition Centre in Earls Court. ChainMaster can be found on stand C79.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - To complement Bulgin's Buccaneer range of waterproof Ethernet connectors is a new in-line cable joiner providing a robust, economic, sealed connector for in-line network connections. Dust and waterproof to IP68, the tough body houses a RJ45 coupler. Supplied with a choice of three couplers; the PX0777/UTP has an un-shielded (UTP) coupler, the PX0777/STP a shielded (STP) coupler and the PX0777/CAT5ESTP a shielded coupler to Cat5e. This format allows any standard patchcord, RJ45 connectors and most Ethernet cables to be used.

Moulded in a black UL94V-0 rated material the connector is supplied with cable glands to suit cables from 3.5 to 8mm diameter. Designed for easy field termination, the PX0777 offers an effective, low cost cable joining solution for LAN cables in harsh industrial environments.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Germany - Three years ago, as Showlight 2001 drew to a close in Edinburgh, members of the organizing committee were left wondering how they were going to better that event. However speakers promised for Showlight 2005 so far include at least three award-winning lighting designers and speakers from Holland, Germany, Australia, North America, Austria and, of course, the UK.

In a slight change of format, Showlight 2005 will feature several discussion groups: lighting education will be reviewed by a panel of students, lecturers and employers under the eye of England's Ian Dow; developments in light sources affecting lighting designers will be discussed by a small panel of senior engineers from the international lamp industry; and a discussion between international lighting designers will be chaired by the inimitable Mark Jonathan, previously with the UK's National Theatre.

Keynote

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UK - PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association) will host a session titled Managing the installation - Device Interoperability and Control Protocols - A current perspective at this year's PLASA Show (12-15 September 2004, Earls Court, London).

The session will include input from leading players in the development of entertainment industry control protocols - Peter Willis (Howard Eaton Lighting), Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence), Philip Nye (Engineering Arts) and Richard Lawrence (Strand Lighting) - who will present an update on their involvement in the ESTA Control Protocols Working Group and associated task groups, and chair a discussion forum on whether we are all heading in the same direction!

This session is targeted at manufacturers and engineering managers who have the responsibility of making things work together. Participation is by invitation, and l

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UK - Charter, one of the UK's largest broadcast television equipment rental companies, has recently supplied its OB facilities at both Euro 2004 for ITV Sports in Lisbon, and Formula 1 circuits for German broadcaster RTL in Hockenheim. For each event Charter provided equipment including master control and switching centres, production hubs and edit suites.

Steve Jones from Charter says: "We spent over £2 million last year investing in new technologies and in 2004 we plan to invest a further £3m. This substantial investment ensures that our customers, including RTL and ITV Sport, have access to the latest equipment. The bespoke outside broadcast production facilities that we offer can be flown to any part of the world and rigged on-site in order to meet ambitious timescales. With the broadcast and production industry still facing a tough economic climate, we try to ensure

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UK - A new government-led initiative to help the UK's Creative Industries sector brings together key players to discuss how to best meet the opportunities and threats that rapid technological developments is creating for the sector. The Creative Industries Forum, which had its first meeting in July, is jointly chaired by Arts Minister Estelle Morris and Science and Innovation Minister Lord Sainsbury.

The 'Creative Industries' broadly includes those involved in film, music and the performing arts. The forum will address key issues such maximizing opportunities in a digital environment, business models, education and awareness raising, and challenges such as file-sharing and piracy.

To co-incide with the launch of the Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property, Creative London is announcing a free IP service to ensure London's creative community actually profits from its innov

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Germany - After its success in Hamburg, the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! is now being performed in the Palladium Theater in Stuttgart, also since 18 July, Stage Holding will be presenting the musical in Schwaben as well.

Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA explained: " We are absolutely enthusiastic about the success we have with Mamma Mia! in Germany. Although we always knew that we have a lot of fans here in Germany, we did not expect such euphoria for our music. With the new show in Stuttgart we would like to thank all our fans and those who are still waiting to get a ticket - Mamma Mia! at two locations in Germany is our biggest challenge."

Working with only a few stage settings Howard Harrison's lighting has an important function - and features more than 100 Rainbow colour changers, ETC Source Four fixtures and Vari-Lite moving heads. A grandMA lighting c

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) is sponsoring (and thoroughly recommends) one of the key workshops at this year's PLASA Show (12-15 September, Earls Court 1, London). Presented by Chris Higgs of Total Fabrications who will be leading on from last year's seminar about slinging trusses, this hands-on session will deal with how proprietary equipment can and should be used to create suspension points on an existing structure.

Higgs is a nominee for the forthcoming ABTT Council elections. An experienced speaker on rigging, he founded Trapeze Rigging in 1989, providing rigging services throughout the UK and Europe. In the mid 90s, he started to provide rigging training, the course notes subsequently growing into some of the most respected books on the subject. Since joining Total Fabrications Ltd in 1998, he has devoted the majority of his time to training r

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UK - Hebden Sound was originally created by Keith Ming in 1994 from the foundations of Calrec Audio, a name once synonymous with high-end microphone production and a long-standing tradition for producing high quality microphones aimed at the professional audio market.

Calrec had made the decision to concentrate on the development of its mixing console business leaving a gap in the market, which Ming sought to fill. Under a licensing agreement with Calrec he continued to build the microphones as Hebden Sound.

Sadly he passed away in 2000 and the company became available to interested parties and was ultimately taken over by the former head of microphones at Calrec Audio, David Anderson, an acoustic consultant with a wealth of experience and a long standing reputation for his meticulous approach. He decided to further develop Hebden Sound by re-working the package significantly.

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UK - Spirit Design Limited has appointed James Hamilton to its design team. Hamilton, who has been living abroad for the past two years, joins the company as a lighting designer. After graduating from Croydon College School Of Art, he was employed at Midnight Design for a number of years, and then worked freelance as an LD for two years before going to the Far East, where he hosted discussions on lighting design in Kuala Lumpur for a performing arts seminar, and worked with Chameleon Touring Systems in Sydney, Australia where he worked on the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony, amongst other events.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - At the forthcoming AES exhibition in San Francisco, the APRS (the Association of Professional Recording Services), in collaboration with British Consul General in San Francisco Martin Uden, will be holding a reception at the British Consulate on the evening before the show opens, Wednesday 27 October, at 6.00pm. The idea behind the reception, say APRS, is for exhibiting companies to identify key customers they expect to visit them during the show and invite them to enjoy some British hospitality and to mix with friends and colleagues from the UK industry. In addition to key clients and potential new customers, the APRS will be inviting many familiar industry faces based in the USA, including well-known producers and engineers, to the reception.

Due to space limitations, numbers are limited to a total of 80 guests, so tickets will be issued on a first come, first served bas

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UK - ShowCAD will again be exhibiting at PLASA, demonstrating new features of its Artist show control system. Artist is now linked with Cast Lighting as a Registered WYSIWYG Developer, enabling users to program/visualize lighting plots virtually using their WYSIWYG software. ShowCAD has also linked up with Pathway Connectivity to utilize the Pathport Ethernet DMX distribution system. This powerful system is also ACN-ready, and gives Artist up to 32,000 DMX channel capability.

Automaton is a new product - ShowCAD's long awaited low-cost stand-alone show controller which can be programmed from a computer on or off-site using a web browser, and will then replay the programmed shows without the need of a host computer. ShowCAD will also be demonstrating how to integrate Artist with IP commands, as well as the standard MIDI, RS232, and digital connections. Also, the company reports,

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USA - Loud Technologies Inc has announced a cross-licensing agreement with Echo Digital Audio, which will see Loud Technologies license FireWire audio technology from Echo, while Echo licenses Mackie-branded application and plug-in products from Loud. "This partnership leverages each company's strengths," commented Tony Rodrigues, business development manger at Loud. "Echo is a recognized leader in the development of high-quality audio devices for computer-based audio workstations. Combining their expertise with Mackie's exceptional analogue and digital audio technologies will result in a new generation of high-performance audio I/O products that will bring a host of innovative features and capabilities to the desktop and professional recording markets."

As part of this agreement, Echo will begin bundling Mackie-branded software products with their PCI and F

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UK - The Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA Show has 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 PLASA Awards have undergone an important change for the 2004 event (12-15 September), in order to focus on genuine innovation.

For the re-branded PLASA Awards for Innovation, 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. There will be eight Awards for Innovation at the judges' disposal and currently over 60 nominations have been received, with just three weeks before the deadline of Friday 3 September. Exhibitors who still wish to nominate a product are urged to submit their applications as soon as possible. Nominees w

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