UK - Visitors to PLASA Show 2015 are invited to attend this evening's PLASA Awards for Innovation ceremony, taking place at 6pm in the Sennheiser Audio Showcase seminar theatre on the show floor.

Sponsored by Lighting&Sound International, the PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise and reward new product ideas. Nominated products have met at least one of the Awards' criteria for 'Innovation' - to offer a new style of thinking, an improvement in existing technical practice, a new or improved aid to safety, a new commercial advantage, use new patents or unique intellectual property, or introduce new technology, materials or manufacturing techniques.

The final assessment of those claims is taking place at the PLASA Show, where an independent panel of industry experts are busy judging the entries, based on the strength of their innovation alone. Respected for their impartiali

UK - Lighting and video control specialist Avolites has gone all out for PLASA Show this year with a brand new stand designed to echo the coherence of the current Titan and Ai product ranges.

The stand features two specific areas, focusing on Network functionality and Lighting and Video integration. Avolites' stand D10 is promoting a compatible family of products which all work intuitively together. Highlights of on-stand products include the new Arena console with Optical Titan Net Switch, both of which are shipping on the date of the show. In addition, new software in Titan version 9.1, featuring enhanced pixel mapping functionality, fully custom Key Frame Shape engine and fully featured theatre functionality.

Avolites' Koy Neminathan comments: "Day one has gone very well - a lot of people have been complimenting our new stand design; we produce professional products an

UK - ArKaos PRO, pioneers in interactive video technologies, is exhibiting at PLASA Show 2015 on the stand of its exclusive UK distributor, White Light (C30). ArKaos PRO is demonstrating the latest version of its MediaMaster software which has consistently remained at the forefront of the industry's creative projection and LED applications. MediaMaster 4.2 which was released earlier this year, adds an integrated Cue Player for reliable, accurate playback of visual sequences, and 4K support which enables three layers of 4K video to be played on servers with a Core i7 processor. MediaMaster 4.2 is available as a free upgrade to existing MM 4.x users.

An impressive ceiling of LED light sources is being used to showcase MediaMaster 4.2 on the stand, alongside ArKaos LEDMapper, its all-in-one LED show control solution. LEDMapper delivers LED show control in three easy steps, working

UK - Amongst the highlights on TMB's stand at PLASA Show 2015 is the PLASA Award for Innovation nominated Solaris LED - SoLED W840 strobe. The unit provides 92,000 lumen output at one-fourth the power consumption and half the size of conventional strobes and boasts a linear array of Cree LEDs and advanced driver software which provides "the punch and feel of xenon," says TMB.

Also showing is the ProPlex EZ-LAN Unity 20. Also nominated for an Innovation Award, TMB says EZ-LAN makes today's complex show networking easier and accessible for everyone. "These simple to operate yet powerful Gigabit Ethernet switches distribute up to four discrete networks - lighting, audio, content, server, console, or communications - quickly, effortlessly, and simultaneously. Users untrained in the complexities of managed networking can easily isolate networks and access and change VL

UK - RC4 Wireless is showcasing its RC4Magic-DMXpix at PLASA Show 2015. A nominee for the PLASA Awards for Innovation, the RC4Magic-DMXpix is a tiny wireless DMX driver for pixel LEDs. It runs two separate pixel strings with customizable multi-channel profiles to create beautiful pixel effects utilising up to 3000 output channels.

Using RC4MagicPC software or RDM, users can specify the string type, DMX start channel, and various effects parameters for each driver. "Control the magic from your DMX console in real time," says RC4. Also on-board are a standard DMX data port, and an I2C interface for use with Arduino and more. Only 61mm x 36mm x 20mm, the DMXpix is the future of portable, spectacular pixel displays.

Jim Smith, president and chief product designer at RC4 Wireless, says: "The DMXpix is a pixel driver which is portable, wireless and updatable to accomm

UK - ArKaos PRO, pioneers in interactive video technologies, is exhibiting at PLASA Show 2015 on the stand of its exclusive UK distributor, White Light (C30). ArKaos PRO is demonstrating the latest version of its MediaMaster software which has consistently remained at the forefront of the industry's creative projection and LED applications. MediaMaster 4.2 which was released earlier this year, adds an integrated Cue Player for reliable, accurate playback of visual sequences, and 4K support which enables three layers of 4K video to be played on servers with a Core i7 processor. MediaMaster 4.2 is available as a free upgrade to existing MM 4.x users.

An impressive ceiling of LED light sources is being used to showcase MediaMaster 4.2 on the stand, alongside ArKaos LEDMapper, its all-in-one LED show control solution. LEDMapper delivers LED show control in three easy steps, working

UK - At PLASA Show 2015, Jon Driscoll, Paul Pyant and Peter Mumford will today present a seminar session entitled 'Lighting and Video Design' as part of PLASA's popular seminar stream.

The seminar will discuss how a lighting designer and video / projection designer create an understanding and language of collaboration and how a working relationship develops to successfully combine the two disciplines of manipulating the use of light in live performance.

The session takes place today at 10.15 in the Lighting showcase theatre at PLASA Show 2015.

For more information about PLASA Show or to register please visit www.plasashow.com/seminars.

UK - Elation Professional is hosting several world premiere product launches at PLASA Show 2015. Joining the world premiere of the Satura Profile LED-based colour-changing moving head is the ACL 360 Roller, a unique moving head luminaire in Elation's ACL Series of high-output narrow-beam LED effects; and the world premiere of the Platinum HFX, a new mid-sized addition to Elation's hybrid family of beam, spot and wash luminaires.

Also showing is the European debut of the Emotion moving head digital luminaire; Elation's powerful Platinum FLX hybrid moving head; and the high-output ACL Series of narrow-beam LED effect lights.

The new ACL 360 Roller is a unique moving head luminaire in Elation's ACL Series of high-output narrow-beam LED effect lights. It houses 20x 15W RGBW 4-in-1 LEDs positioned equally across four bars and features fast and precise 16-bit continuous 360° pan

UK - Philips Entertainment Lighting is showcasing the eagerly anticipated 'PL Refresh' range at PLASA London which sees the Philips Selecon PLprofile1, PLfresnel1 and PLcyc1 reinvigorated with brand new features.

Joining valued dealer A.C. Entertainment Technology Ltd on stand F30, Philips will also be demoing the latest products from Philips Vari-Lite, Strand Lighting and Showline, which have enjoyed global success since launching this year.

A much-loved range of workhorses, the PL1 MK II Series now offers boosted colour benefits such as colour consistency across the family of matched products, increased colour rendering and no colour fringing. The MK II luminaires will also have a higher output balanced with reduced operating sound.

"We are really excited to demo all the fantastic additional features of the PL MK II range to PLASA London visitors," says Philips E

UK - The eighth Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) ceremony was held on Sunday 4th October at London's glamorous art deco Troxy to sparkling success.

Once more it saw representatives from the professional entertainment lighting and video industry come together to celebrate the creative achievements of lighting and video professionals working on shows across the UK.

The ever-popular awards, organised by The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Fifth Estate Ltd and Clay Paky, was established to offer public recognition for outstanding achievements in touring, television and theatre lighting and video design.

The evening was hosted by prolific international lighting designer Mark Jonathan and the winners were announced as:

Theatre

Dance: Lucy Carter for Woolf Works, Royal Ballet.

Musicals: Amy Mae Smith f

UK - Lighting company, ELC Lighting, has unveiled a brand new identity at this year's PLASA show, symbolised by a revitalised logo that reflects the key essence of its product range.

"The launch of our brand new logo kicks off a new era at ELC Lighting that speaks of who we are as a company and portrays the ease of use and efficiency of our products", said Silvio Cibien, sales manager, ELC Lighting.

"We are proud to always be ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving industry and our new brand identity will illustrate not just who we think we are but how our customers regard our products - straightforward, unpretentious and dynamic."

The new logo which can be seen on the company's stand D60, is bold, easy to read and contemporary. "It is just how we see our products," says Silvio. "We do not need to package them up with bows and gimmicks. EL

UK - Lighting and visuals rental company, HSL based in Blackburn, UK has announced that GLS Lighting is joining The Group in an exciting and invigorating new partnership that further expands the dynamic reach of HSL's operation.

The union sees GLS's very successful and well-established business - celebrating its 20th year - based in Southampton continue to function exactly as it is ... now having access to HSL's vast resources of equipment, personnel, knowledge, expertise, backup and support. The GLS day-to-day operation will further benefit from sharing HSL's administration infrastructure.

"It's fantastic to welcome GLS as part of our healthy and growing family," says HSL's MD Simon Stuart. "We are all like-minded individuals, passionate about what we do, dedicated to providing the very best and highest quality services and solutions for all our clients worldwi

UK - Award-winning creative technical event production expert, Hawthorn, has unveiled its new brand at PLASA 2015 this week.

Named by the London Stock Exchange this year as one of the '1000 Companies to Inspire Britain', and after nearly 30 years in the business, Hawthorn has never stopped growing. With the acquisition of Core Creative, renowned drapes brand Rex Howard and the hugely admired creative technical production business Anagram, it was felt the time was right to amalgamate all of these respected brands under the one name: Hawthorn.

Hawthorn was the brainchild of Martin Hawthorn, who in 1987 spotted a gap in the market for a good quality equipment hire company, to support theatres, dramatic groups, schools and colleges. With great customer service front of mind, he promptly set up shop in his garage in Leicestershire and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Hawtho

UK - Twelve Clay Paky Mythos fixtures projected text and images onto the Tower of London in September as part of a star-studded charity event honouring wounded armed forces veterans.

The initiative was launched to raise awareness of the Haig Housing Trust, which offers housing assistance to ex-service people and the week culminated in a fundraising event, For Queen and Country, to mark the charity's centenary.

London-based Lightning Events was tasked with projecting the messages onto the side of the tower, and specified the Mythos fixtures, rigging them in weatherproof Flight Domes around 30m from the tower walls and near to the moat.

Production manager for the event, Lightning Events' Tom Foster, explains, "We liaised directly with the Haig Housing Trust for this project. Their initial brief asked to project along all sides of Tower, which would have been extrem

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation & Sustainability 2015 and the Gottelier Award, sponsored by Lighting&Sound International, were presented at the PLASA Show at London's ExCeL yesterday evening.

This year, 31 products were nominated for the Awards for Innovation & Sustainability, with eight awards presented, including a final Gold Award for Innovation.

The winners had to satisfy the judges that they demonstrate a new style of thinking, that they improve technical practice, have introduced new technologies, materials or techniques, that they feature patents or unique intellectual property, offer a new commercial advantage, or improve safety.

This year's Gottelier Award winner was David Cunningham, an early pioneer of computer lighting systems who developed a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and 80s, including the Multi-Q memory lighting system, the Mi

UK - For the first time at PLASA, ETC is using a second stand hosting their rigging products, which are new to Europe, in combination with their now famous upside down stand, where two fencers battle on the ceiling.

On stand B40, the company's award winning range of Source Four LED fixtures are joined by the new, budget-friendly ColorSource line. Source Four LED fixtures are available in full colour, and both cool and warm whites; with their exceptional colour rendering and flicker-free output, they are quickly becoming the luminaire of choice for TV studios and theatres alike.

Meanwhile, the ColorSource range is ideal for venues which need good quality basic colour, but whose finances may already be stretched to their limit. The fixtures take the basic RGB emitters, and add a lime green to help fill in gaps in the colour spectrum which would not otherwise be reachable.

The

UK - Now in its 36th series, the long running BBC show Watchdog gives the public a chance to 'name and shame' once and for all.

LD Chris Kempton designs the lights - provided through RML - for the studio show and his simple, yet effective rig comprises of 26x Pixel Par 90s, MR16 Kits, Batten 50's, Choma Flood TC's and Stage Bars. In recent years Watchdog has been filmed at The Hospital Club studio.

This new eight-part series will cover topics such as ill-fitting baby car seats, eye surgery and inadequate after care. They also set up teams of undercover investigations identifying rogue traders including a group of intimidating gardeners who would march old and venerable pensioners to the bank to withdraw money.

You can catch the first episode this Thursday, 8 October on BBC1.

(Jim Evans)

USA - One of the last of the season's major US music festivals takes place this month in Austin, TX. Syncrolite returns to the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) in a big way by providing SXL automated skylights that will be filling the night sky over Zilker Park with dancing beams of light and ArenaColor wash fixtures illuminating the stage scrims.

Syncrolite's appearance at ACL caps off a summer of festival appearances in North America that included: Made in America, Outside Lands Festival, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Osheaga, Squamish Valley and Ilesoniq. Additionally, a fleet of Syncrolite fixtures made their annual appearance as a big part of the Dark MOFO Festival in Tasmania, Australia.

"We enjoy partnering with producers and lighting production companies to be a part of the explosion of festival popularity around the world and look forward to doing more of them

UK - Today at PLASA Show 2015, expert Media Trainer Ian Hider will present two sessions on the Lighting Showcase as part of PLASA's popular seminar stream. The sessions entitled 'How to use lights' and 'Top Tips on Lighting an Interview' are presented by Ian Hilder who worked for the BBC for 29 years as a cameraman and comes to PLASA to share his tips on efficient, effective and creative interview lighting, as well as to impart invaluable advice on BS7909.

The first session focuses on the BS7909, the BSI British Standards 'code of practice for temporary electrical systems for entertainment and related purposes' - the lighting equivalent of the 'Highway Code' how everyone using mains lights in the UK should work. Ian Hilder will give an outline of the code, advice and top tips for small shoots wanting to use mains lighting.

The second session 'Top Tips on Lighting an Interview'

UK - Italian lighting manufacturer Clay Paky is delighted to once again be a Gold Sponsor of PLASA Show. This year, the company joins its UK and Ireland distributor Ambersphere Solutions on stand B10, where the team are busy showcasing two brand new additions to the Clay Paky range - Scenius and Spheriscan - both nominated for the prestigious PLASA Awards for Innovation.

"Scenius is our new, extremely silent moving head spotlight at the top of the Clay Paky range. Its advanced optical unit and the new 1400W - 6000K OSRAM discharge lamp provides a much higher light output than with previous generation 1500W lamps. Scenius can count on a CRI>95, which is very unusual for a metal halide light source," says Clay Paky.

"Spheriscan is a revolutionary scanner with a modern twist - its mirror goes on turning endlessly beyond 360 degrees, which creates an absolutely orig

UK - Wireless LED lighting manufacturer CORE Lighting are at the PLASA Show 2015 on Stand C24, part of UK distributor White Light's 'Village' and where they are displaying a range of their latest innovations. CORE products are known for the high quality and excellent engineering that comes with the 'Made in the UK' marque. As an independent company, CORE can also react quickly and decisively to market demands and ensure its products stay at the forefront of the fast-moving live events industry.

Featured products at PLASA include CORE's new StripPoint which is prominent on the stand together with the flagship ColourPoint, which has become an industry standard product for the live event industry. The tiny PinPoint also has a major presence with an array of PinPoints controlled by CORE's new LightDesk phone App, and CORE's industrial strength FLOOD30 will also make an impact.

COR

USA - The Jacksons and the Temptations both are Motown legends. Both are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Both are multiple Grammy winners - and both bring an infectious sense of sheer joy to every perfectly hit note in their musical performances. Yet for all that they share in common, the two iconic groups have very different musical styles.

Lighting designer Jason 'Blends' Ayala of ProSho (New York) supported each group with a lightshow that fit its individual sound like a visual glove at the recent Motown Legends Show in White Plains. He accomplished this feat using a single rig anchored by a collection of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

"It was the same stage, the same event, but musically it was two very different shows," said Ayala. "The Jacksons were thumping high energy all the way. The Temptations, on the other hand, were more mellow with a slow,

ETC is morning the loss of Pontus 'Bullen' Lagerbielke, who passed away following a battle against cancer. A professional lighting designer, console programmer and media server wizard, he loved working in this industry.

He was an extremely valued member of the ETC Cobalt development team, and was also involved in the development of Congo.

Sarah Clausen, who was a close personal friend as well as colleague, says, "Bullen has been an incredibly valuable contributor to the development of ETC lighting control products. He brought real-world production experience to the table every time we discussed the further development of both families, and through his wisdom affected every Congo and Cobalt user's experience in a positive way.

"He was well known as a teacher and as a support resource for all users in Sweden. Bullen was a pioneer among European lighting designers in embraci

UK - Robe took a completely different approach to the 2015 PLASA London expo this year, creating a fully immersive piazza environment in their 'Arena' space - the largest stand on the exhibition floor - which became a showcase for the latest products built for theatres from the Czech manufacturer, including the new DL7S Profile, the latest DL4 range and the BMFL Blade, amongst others.

The stand design was inspired by the magnificent decorated marble and painted stucco of the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) in Mexico City, the seat of the federal executive which is located on the city's main square, El Zócalo. Much of the current Palacio's building materials are from the original palace that belonged to Moctezuma II during the Aztec Empire.

To replicate this as practically and effectively as possible at the ExCeL Centre, Robe collaborated closely with drapes specialists J&C

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