UK - As booking opened at 9am this morning, strong exhibitor numbers, record breaking pre-registration figures and a new focus on content provision were creating a buzz about PLASA 2012. With four brand new theatres and 80 free-to-attend sessions split into nine new themes, these exciting developments underpin PLASA's commitment to providing an unparalleled experience for visitors and remaining a leader in the provision of education, professional development and knowledge sharing across our industry.
PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths comments, "PLASA runs events to provide quality business opportunities, education and thought leadership. The PLASA Show in London is the only entertainment technology event to reinvest its revenue back into the industry it serves - anything that is not invested back into the show is used to help develop technical standards, certification and qualifi
Italy - The Chieve plant, in the Cremona province, is the location chosen by Faital to install the manufacturing operations of its FaitalPRO division. This modern manufacturing facility is dedicated to energy savings and reducing Faital's Carbon footprint, the company says.
Initially opened in 1978, the Chieve production plant has continuously been updated following - and at times even anticipating - technological trends, including the installation of highly automated production lines.
The Chieve plant roof presented the ideal layout and orientation for the solar panels planned for this latest project: this new power generation system was designed and built to achieve outstanding production efficiency - thus significant savings - and at the same time to continue Faital's pursuit of more "ecologically conscious operations, guaranteeing FaitalPRO's ever 'greener' signature&
UK - Mark Flanagan has been appointed to the position of marketing manager for TC Group's install, touring and residential brands - responsible for international marketing activity (outwith North America) across all channels for the Tannoy, White Acoustics, Lab.gruppen and Lake brands.
Reporting directly to VP of marketing, Tim Chapman, Flanagan moves into the expanded remit having spent the past four years working within the Coatbridge, Scotland-based marketing team specifically in a communications capacity - initially for Tannoy and more recently with a cross-brand remit after the marketing function for Lab.gruppen and Lake was consolidated from Sweden.
"Having created a multi-disciplinary marketing team serving the broad needs of our brands, it's become increasingly logical to consolidate the project management of these resources. The creation of the marketing manager
UK / Rusisa - GearSource Europe has appointed Irina Gromova as an area consultant for Russia and CIS countries. Irina has a long and varied background in the entertainment industry, having specialised in foreign trade for leading Russian companies over the last 10 years.
Gromova comments: "The offer made by Garry Nelsson was a challenge for me, which I accepted with enthusiasm. I have known Garry for many years, and was excited by the chance to join his professional team. The first task was to take over the existing operations of GSE in Russia and other East European and Asian countries of the former USSR, as well as to develop sales and increase exposure to the product range in this territory. I am totally committed to using this chance to develop the GSE business here, and make it of benefit for both the company and our customers."
France - Parisian entrepreneur Raymond Visan's Buddha-Bar recently installed new Meyer Sound systems to present its wide-ranging musical atmosphere with consistent, crystal-clear quality.
"At Buddha-Bar, our sonic signature is a subtle combination of world and electro-ethnic music," observes Franck Fortet, vice president for development at George V Eatertainment, the parent firm of Buddha-Bar. "It's an infinity of sounds that requires the perfect sound system, and the effect as distilled through the new Meyer system has made a remarkable difference at Buddha-Bar Paris."
The Buddha-Bar systems were designed and installed by John Pouzet of Paris-based Sonosystem, with design assistance from Cyril Ubersfeld of Meyer Sound's French distributor, Best Audio. Resident DJ is Ravin.
"I specified a Meyer system to realize a particular sound quality with detail
USA - Sensaphonics has announced the hiring of Joe Tessone as the company's new audio engineering consultant. In his role as Sensaphonics sound guy, Tessone will advise customers on the implementation of in-ear monitoring, handling questions ranging from the basic to the highly technical, helping ensure a positive IEM experience.
Joe Tessone, 27, is a 2007 graduate of the Audio Arts and Acoustics programme at Columbia College Chicago, with specialties in Audio Design and Production. In addition to his duties at Sensaphonics, he owns a commercial studio, Mystery Street Recording Company, and is the audio archivist at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. He is also a performing musician, most recently as singer/songwriter for the eclectic punk band Behold!, and as banjo/ukulele player for an Americana music group, the Rust Belt Ramblers.
Germany - In a move to strengthen the service network across Martin Professional's German-speaking markets, Martin has announced the hiring of Sabine Jörg as Martin Germany's new head of service.
Sabine, an engineer who has been working in the field of technical service for the past 15 years, including at General Electric, comes to Martin from solar panel manufacturer Sungrow where she managed the company's European service department. She heads the service department at Martin Germany and started in her new role on 15 June.
"We're committed to raising the level of service across our German-speaking markets and Sabine's hiring is an important step in that direction," states Torben Kaae Poulsen, regional service manager at Martin EMEA. "She is a highly competent engineer with an impressive technical background and the leadership skills to really make an impa
UK - L-Acoustics certified provider SFL Group has supplied a Kara WST line source system to C3 Productions of Brighton. SFL Group also demo'd the system for C3 prior to purchase in several London venues and provided training at its Reading premises.
The south coast-based production and hire company has added 12 Kara cabinets with eight SB18 subwoofers, three LA8 amplified controllers and flying hardware to its inventory.
This is C3's first L-Acoustics purchase, and the company chose Kara because it needed a medium format high quality line array to use across live music, performance arts and corporate live events. "Our mission statement is to provide our customers with the latest and highest performance technology and this system enables us to deliver that," says C3 director Jon Crawley. "We investigated all the systems currently available on the market and felt
UK - XL Video supplied production company Ear To The Ground and the band Elbow with LED screens, PPU / cameras, a Catalyst media server system and crew for a sold out performance at the Jodrell Bank Observatory & Centre for Astrophysics near Manchester.
The majestic 76m wide Lovell Radio Telescope was also used during Elbow's performance as a projection screen, with Pod Bluman Associates also taking a feed from XL's PPU system and projecting onto the Telescope using 6 overlaid 20K projectors.
Additionally, XL - whose Paul Wood is project managing - is supplying a touring video package spec'd by video director Jon Shrimpton for Elbow's festival itinerary.
Onstage at the Jodrell Bank event, Pixled F-11 LED screen was arranged in five upstage columns of three different sizes - designed by Shrimpton - who mixed the IMAG cameras using a Grass Valley Kayak switcher.
UK - Shure Distribution UK has announced several extra measures designed to help customers during the UK's sporting summer, whether they are directly involved or not.
From the end of July until mid-August, Shure UK's offices will be manned from 8am to 8pm daily, with an extended last order deadline for next day delivery and a wider window for collections from the company's headquarters in Waltham Abbey. As an additional measure, Shure Distribution UK's applications team will be on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with technical support and advice, on- and off-site.
"No-one can predict the exact impact of the games on trade," comments Peter James, managing director of Shure Distribution UK. "However, there is little doubt that we will all experience some form of disruption. Our customers expect prompt and predictable delivery of items from UK stock, togeth
Finland - "Each Ilona restaurant has five rooms, a bar, karaoke, a live stage room, a quiet room, and of course the restaurant." Perttu Pesonen is manager of the Ilona restaurant in Tampere. Pesonen is a former production manager in the rock and roll industry. "We get a lot of demand from groups who want to play here because we make the sound good; the fact is music industry people come here to socialise and hear new bands at the same time."
The recipe is the work of Restamax management group; the largest independent restaurant chain in Finland they have over 50 locations nationally. The Ilona chain is a relatively new development, the first two opened in 2011, the Tampere venue being the first, three more are scheduled this year. "Part of that success is the great sound, "said Pesonen. "I f you provide the quality in everything you do, food, d
Switzerland - As a reaction to the continued growth of the company in Switzerland, Riedel Communications has expanded its Swiss office with the appointment of video and broadcasting specialist Erwin Engel, who will take care of the sales and rental markets in western Switzerland.
"I'm looking forward to developing new markets and expand our buisness in western Switzerland with Riedel. Riedel is a company that always amazed me in regards to technological innovations and I'm thrilled to contribute to this vision", said Engel who has more than 20 years of experience in the professional broadcasting market and was responsible for sales engineering broadcast at John Lay Electronics until recently.
USA - The Kauffman Centre for the Performing Arts is the centrepiece of Kansas City's downtown revival. The futuristic 285,000sq.ft, $413m project links the city's downtown centre with its landmark Crossroads Arts and Power & Light Districts, and is home to the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
The two performance spaces - Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall - were designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. Both were created using ultra-modern, sound-isolating building-within-a-building construction; a foundation, walls, and roof surrounded by fully independent foundation, walls, and roof.
The 1600-seat Helzberg Hall, home to the Kansas City Symphony, offers seating in a semi-circular 'vineyard-style' configuration that surrounds more than 270 degrees of the massive 2700sq.ft stage, placing no seat more than 100ft away.
Spain - XL Video supplied LED screens, cameras/PPU, mapping and projection for the recent International Music Summit in Ibiza. Working together with The Shop Ibiza & IMS, XL Video provided two Barco O-Lite 510 curved LED screens which greeted delegates in the reception of Ibiza Gran Hotel, Marina Botafoch, as they arrived for the conference.
For the Gran Finale show, XL Video was tasked with providing a spectacular projection on to the Cathedral above Dalt Vila.
Unlike the usual preparation for a projection mapping project, the mapping had to be done based on photographs and on-site measurements, and then line-up and programming were done on location in Ibiza by XL Events' technical director, David Mulcahy.
Special permissions were required to turn off the architectural lighting on the buildings and a set of custom masks were applied to ensure the projections didn't spread t
Israel - Waves Audio has announced that it has become a new member of the AVnu Alliance, an industry forum dedicated to the advancement and certification of Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) devices. As part of this relationship, Waves will be a presence at AVnu events and will encourage industry adoption of AVnu's standards campaigns. By associating with AVnu, Waves is joining Avid, Cisco, Dolby, Gibson, GM, Harman, Intel, Meyer Sound, Sennheiser, Texas Instruments, Yamaha and many more.
AVnu promotes the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB), and the related IEEE 1722 and IEEE 1733, standards over various networking link-layers. The organization works to create compliance test procedures and processes that ensure AVB interoperability of networked A/V devices, helping to provide the highest quality streaming A/V experience.
Hot Tickets - Roger Waters' tour has topped worldwide concert ticket sales for the first half of 2012. The Wall Live, based on Pink Floyd's hit 1970s album, took $158.1m (£102.3m), beating Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. Waters sold 1.4 million tickets according to Pollstar magazine. Springsteen, whose ticket sales stand at $79.9m (£51.7) currently, could overtake Waters by the end of the year.
"While Waters still has a few Walls left to build on his itinerary, Springsteen also has a long way to go before the end of the Wrecking Ball tour, and still could finish with the year's top outing," wrote the magazine.
In the US so far this year ticket sales for the 100 largest concerts are up 1.2% thanks to big stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna and Paul McCartney all touring there. However Pollstar said "today's economic realities"
Malaysia - Resorts World Genting, the Fun City above the Clouds and a popular destination for entertainment, welcomes over 20m visitors annually to the highlands of Malaysia. Its primary entertainment centre, the 45,000sq.ft Arena of Stars amphitheatre, has just commissioned a new Nexo Geo T line array installation, replacing its original Nexo Alpha sound reinforcement system from 2000.
Genting's Arena of Stars, a 5300-seat venue, has staged over 1300 concerts since its conception 12 years ago. The venue has welcomed top international performers such as Sir Elton John, Sir Cliff Richard, Kenny G, Black Eye Peas, Vienna Boys Choir from Austria, Kitaro, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Sam Hui and Sammi Cheng.
When it was first opened in 2000, one of the first venues of its kind in the region, the amphitheatre was equipped with a state-of-the-art audio system from Nexo - the
Switzerland - Barix AG has appointed Frank Frederiksen as vice-president, product marketing and strategy, effective immediately.
Frederiksen has held a variety of senior management positions in programme and technology management, which has given him broad experience and insight on how to develop and market products. Among other positions, he has served as strategic marketing and innovation manager for Philips, and product and technology manager for ST-Ericsson.
"I have been involved in the development side, but have also had time in front of customers. I hope to bridge the two sides at Barix," said Frederiksen. "What is important in any market is to bring innovative technology to the customer at the right time and price."
UK - The multi-million pound retailer QVC made its first broadcast from its new purpose-built Media and Commerce Centre in Chiswick, London on 7 June. The company has invested £33.6m in the move from its previous base in Battersea. Six hundred Staff made their last broadcast from the Battersea building at 2am and then had a quick turnaround to be on time with the first broadcast in Chiswick at 9am.
QVC UK is the largest TV shopping channel in Britain, and broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with 17 hours of live programming each day from two studios.
UK company Light Emissions were chosen by LED design consultancy LED Poison to supply a dynamic video visual product for this unique install, while LED Poison also provided and installed all LED lighting and visual elements for both studios.
Managing director of LED Poison, Simon Deary, comments: "The area in w
USA - Two days of packed seminars, a host of new product launches, and buzzing booths established PLASA Focus: Nashville as a triumphant landmark event for Tennessee - 668 attendees and over 50 of the biggest brands were boosted by an additional 20% of sign ups on site.
New products making their regional debut at Focus Nashville included: Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX; MAC Viper Profile; M2GO, M2PC VC; d&b audiotechnik's E4 and E5 loudspeakers; Elation Professional's IP65-rated RGBW wash; Clay Paky's A.LEDA LED moving head range; Chauvet's new PVP S7 high-res video panel, new moving yokes Q-Spot 360-LED and Q-Spot 460-LED, Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yoke lights and MVP 12 modular video panel - and many more.
The free to attend Professional Development Programme attracted over 1000 registrations for sessions that ranged from The Green Scene: Recycling Sets
Germany - Sixty Four Robe MMX spots were used on the largest show of the German Neonsplash Paint Party tour, a new concept from Miami that fuses the best dance sounds and DJs with the visual spectacle of dancers stilt walkers, aerialists, all wrapped up in one super adrenalized party vibe.
The highlight of the evening comes when the audience - in white dress code - are splattered with UV-active paint via a series of compressed air canons placed around the room to provide the colour as the scene changes from monochrome to glorious Technicolor.
Event producers for the German leg of the tour included Whateversclever from Hamburg and technical solutions provider Rec-Tec SFX & Technic Solutions from Sinzig who joined forces to present Nonsplash at the 10,000-capacity Essener Grugahalle.
Taking the party out of clubs and into large arenas called for a completely different concept
Mexico - L-Acoustics certified provider distributor VARI Internacional, based in Mexico, has supplied a Kudo system to the Pepsi Centre, a new multipurpose arts venue owned by WTC Mexico City and operated by PRG Mexico and OCESA. The two production companies have worked together for several years to provide L-Acouistics systems for their events.
PRG and VARI Internacional collaborated as technical advisors to the Pepsi Centre, which will host national and international productions including concerts with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez Bob Dylan, Megadeth, Yes, Meat Loaf and others. The 14,000sq.m, 7,500-capacity venue was constructed with flexibility in mind, with the option of functioning in auditorium or arena mode. As well as hosting musical concerts and performing arts, the venue is also suitable for conventions and sporting events.
UK - Sapsis Rigging played a pivotal role in the aerialist event held in London on 5 July, 2012. The event, titled One Extraordinary Day, was commissioned by the Mayor of London and involved performances by Elizabeth Streb and her Action Heroes troupe at the Millennium Bridge, City Hall, Trafalgar and Paternoster Squares, the National Theatre and the London Eye.
Sapsis Rigging provided design consultation and rigging equipment for all performer harnesses. Sapsis also provided onsite supervision at all venues.
"It was, to say the least, a very exciting day," noted Bill Sapsis, president of Sapsis Rigging. "Each of the locations provided a unique set of challenges, but it was the London Eye that demanded the most attention."
The performance on the Eye, which began at 10:15 pm, involved performers completing a serious of acrobatic manoeuvres while han
USA - Fans of the NFL's Tennessee Titans will return to LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee, this season to find a completely renovated stadium featuring a new distributed sound system using all EAW components. What they won't realize is that the entire system was specified, manufactured and delivered in record time, only months before scheduled completion of the renovation in mid-July, just in time for pre-season games.
Basing the system on the design by Dallas, Texas' Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams, Inc.
(WJHW), EAW worked closely with WJHW to provide the customised system for LP Field, meeting an extremely tight deadline. The WJHW-designed distributed system replaces the stadium's former point-source PA.
Over the course of the project, EAW was able to schedule manufacturing and delivery of components, including 96 TT12Si-T64-PL-WP custom-engineered enclosures; over 36