UK - Stage One, working with Cricket, a brand communications agency, helped to create a new photographic exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London to celebrate Land Rover's 60th Anniversary.

The exhibition of 60 images, entitled Portraits of Adventure, consisted of 50 regular sized photographic images along with 10 specially commissioned four-metre high portraits by photographer Alastair Thain.

"We enjoy a close working relationship with both Cricket and Land Rover and are delighted to play a part in Land Rover's celebrations," said Simon Wood, sales director, Stage One.

For the exhibition, Stage One was asked to construct a number of different items including several plinths, two of which were designed to take a Land Rover vehicle and one used to display an Alastair Thain camera. In the main gallery area four double-sided aluminium walls

Show News - Loudspeaker manufacturer Tannoy makes a welcome return to the PLASA show after being absent for a couple of years. The company will be using the Earls' Court event as the platform for a first UK demonstration of its newest pro-audio product lines, VQ and QFlex, as well as exhibiting some of the existing V-Series loudspeaker range.

Executive News - Bandit Lites has announced that Peter M. Heffernan, a 30-year veteran, has been named president of the firm. Effective immediately, Heffernan will take the reigns and serve as both president and C.O.O., a role he has held for the last 15 years. This move comes at a time of growth for Bandit and is the logical step in taking the firm to the next level, says the company. Heffernan began his full time relationship with Bandit Lites in 1978 and he has risen through the ranks. He served as lighting director and/ or production manager f

UK - Stage Electrics has appointed Ben Stephen as its new business development manager for London and the South East. He joins divisional sales manager Chris Patton and fellow BDM's Darren Beckley, Mark Burnett and Paul Roughton.

Stephen previously worked at Stage Electrics' Birmingham branch where he was responsible for hire and sales enquires.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Heavy rockers Def Leppard and Whitesnake specified Mojo Barriers crowd safety facilities for their latest UK tour. Mojo Barriers supplied 50m of its aluminium barrier system as well as barrier corner units which allowed the barrier to entirely surround the bespoke stage shape.

Leon van der Velden was Mojo Barriers' project manager, responsible for planning and installing the barrier system at the bands' 10 UK shows.

He said: "Def Leppard and Whitesnake are obviously two big artists for one line-up. So, with enthusiastic arena crowds, they were keen to work to the highest possible safety standards. This was a very well organised tour, with production manager Rocko Reedy switching between the UK tour indoor venues and outdoor European festivals. At this busy time of year, logistics were all spot on."

(Jim Evans)

UK - PLASA Media has revealed this year's short-listed nominees for the prestigious Gottelier Award, and opened up the online voting form at the PLASA Show website.

The voting is open to industry professionals worldwide, and will remain open until 12.00 midday (UK time) on Friday 29 August 2008. The winner will be announced at the PLASA Show on Monday 8 September.

Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise the tireless product developers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Last year's inaugural Award was won by Tony Andrews of Funktion One for his decades of dedi

UK- Sunbaba worked with production company Sledge to supply branding for the innocent Village Fete in Regents Park on 2 and 3 August 2008.

The innocent Village Fete has a range of diverse activities suitable to keep all the family amused including musical performances headlined by the James Taylor Quartet, Son of Dave and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Interactive activities to take part in included alfresco dancing, duck herding and ferret racing as well as face painting, a funfair and giant game of boggle.

Sunbaba's signage was designed to fit in with the light hearted atmosphere of the fete. They produced 198 correx signs which included 10 'things to do while queuing for the loo' information signs, signage for the 'VNP (Very Nice People) secret garden party' and 42 x 'innocent facts'. They also provided 36 PVC signs including directional signage, central tower bran

UK - Serious Stages supplied three staging structures at the 2008 Latitude festival - one floating - and a pontoon walking bridge across the large lake to link the two main areas of the site. The Festival Republic event is set in the grounds of Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, and has become one of the UK's most sought-after boutique festivals. The Serious team of 16 was led by crew chief Gavin Harper.

Latitude's main stage was one of the new Serious 22m, four-bay Supernova structures, which was covered in white skins for the first time, and decorated around the front with Latitude's signature funky daisies.

This version of the Supernova was constructed with round trussing for a generally gentler and more spherical appearance. The stage space was 22m wide and 14.4m deep, with 11m of headroom and with a backshed at the rear for rolling risers, backline storage and to help facil

UK - The promise of new technologies and applications, plus a dramatically expanded educational programme, has helped drive the PLASA Show to its highest-ever pre-registration figures, with a record total of over 10,000 industry professionals already registered to attend.

With the show a year on since its redesign, the one-floor, two-hall layout has been refined and expanded to allow for new and returning exhibitors, say organisers PLASA Events Ltd.

And with new products topping the 'wish list' of the majority of visitors, there's no doubt that PLASA08 will definitely deliver, according to show director Nicola Rowland. "There's a real buzz building around the wide range of technologies and expertise on offer at the show and how these can be applied across the industry. It's a unique chance to see how projects are being delivered, how lighting, sound and AV systems are bei

UK - Serious Stages continued its 19 year relationship with the WOMAD (World of Music Arts & Dance) Festival, supplying three main stages for the 2008 event held at Charlton Park, Malmesbury in Wiltshire. Serious supplied the main open air arena with a stage and roofing system, and indoor stages for the festival's Siam and the Big Red tents. WOMAD 2008 featured over 70 live acts from 35 countries.

The Main Stage consisted of one of Serious's 15.6m, four-arch Supernovas - their new steel framed heavy load bearing structure launched earlier in the year. The Supernova offered 16m of stage depth, a trim height of 11m and six tonnes of weight loading per arch for sound, lighting and video production.

Serious also supplied all the stage decking for this, plus two 3.6 x 2.4m 'cowshed' extensions stage left and right, to house monitors and dimmer areas. They built 12m high satellite P

UK - The London Mela - a lively and colourful fusion of traditional and modern South Asian music, arts, culture and food - is a free event held in the London Borough of Hounslow's Gunnersbury Park on 10 August, attracting crowds in their tens of thousands. This blend of cultural diversity requires a sensitivity and awareness when it comes to ensuring crowd safety - a task carried out by AP Security.

"Our staff was given a comprehensive briefing, so they knew what to be aware of and how any occurrence should be handled," explains AP's national sales manager, and head of security for the event, John Phillips. "We had a highly experienced management team on site and with the implementation of certain road closures in the area, the entrances to which were manned by our staff, the likelihood of unwanted factions gaining entry was immediately limited so the public could

UK - Over 85,000 fans enjoyed the biggest ever V Festival at Chelmsford's Hyland Park August 2008, with Power Logistics supplying power and site lighting to the 12,000 acre site.

The expanded thirteenth V Festival sold out in hours and the public encountered a new look site, with five stages and a new main stage arena featuring headliners Muse and The Verve. Promoters Maztec worked with production management Nine Yards to reconfigure the event and accommodate the additional 10,000 fans.

Power Logistics has supplied the event since the company started, but this year Project Manager Dave Oxley worked particularly closely with production manager Claire Sampson planning the site months in advance to ensure the increased power requirements were met in all of the new areas.

Oxley managed a team of 14 staff who over the two week build period installed a huge temporary power infrast

UK - Lift Turn Move Ltd launches the banner lift at PLASA 2008. This is a twin rope electrical winch system built to German BGV C1 safety regulations. It has been supplied for several large installations in Germany for raising and lowering signs in railway stations and shopping precincts. A wireless controller is available for operating multiple units.

The Guardian controller range has been extended and six of these units will be displayed. A briefcase controller has been developed for direct control hoists with 4 or 8 channels. Local controls are fitted into the brief case and an optional pendant with Go and Emergency Stop is also available.

LTM have manufactured motor/ hoist controllers for many years, constructing systems for both direct control and low voltage controlled hoists. The Guardian controller range has steadily grown from the first simple 4 channel units to incor

UK The first three day Sound Island Festival held at Quex Park, Birchington in Kent, featured an eclectic mix of music, with rock and pop on the Friday, reggae on the Saturday and opera / classical music on the Sunday.

Promoter Coz We Can enlisted the services of AP Security for the event. "Since first working with AP four years ago, we have built an excellent relationship," says Coz We Can's Dave Suter. "I get on very well with AP's national sales manager John Phillips and that good relationship is mutual between the companies - our staff works very well with theirs and vice versa.

"Most importantly, their approach to health and safety dovetails very neatly with ours and we have complete trust in each other."

(Jim Evans)

UK - For the London Red Bull Air Races over the River Thames, Arena Seating provided three temporary spectator viewing areas, built either side of the river. Temporary seating was installed at the David Beckham Academy Coach Park and O2 Car Park 4 on the south side of the river, with a third installation north of the river at Peruvian Wharf.

As well as the seating, Arena Seating supplied a 24m wide public staircase, 20m long, and provided the main big screen scaffolding support.

Arena Seating's project manager Martin Clark was responsible for a build which saw over 10,000 plastic tiered tip-up seats installed next-door to the O2 Arena (5,169 in the Coach Park and 4,974 in the Car Park, with an additional 50 wheelchair positions). A further 9,226 seats were built at Peruvian Wharf on the opposite bank; in all a temporary venue of nearly 20,000 capacity was installed for spectat

UK - FogScreen, Inc will feature a seamless 3 x One projection screen installation. The FogScreen One and Inia both utilise patented technology to create a thin layer of fog that is dry to the touch and environmentally safe. The 1m wide screen provides the option of seamlessly linking with additional FogScreen One projection devices to create a fog-canvas "as large as the imagination desires". Visitors to the stand will be invited to take part in a competition to create the most visionary FogScreen projection screen installation.

FogScreen is offering AV Rental companies a special incentive to purchase the FogScreen One projection screen. The PLASA 08 show offer is a 2 x One projection screen at a reduced cost, together with Partner Program Gold membership in a chosen territory. For integrators, FogScreen One is especially interesting since it enables the creation of l

UK - The 2008 Kylie X tour once again saw The Rigging Partnership provide the Automation effects for this show. TRP has previously provided flying effects on both the Kylie ShowGirl and Homecoming tours.

TRP were commissioned by the Kylie tour management to provide all the flying effects for the show which sees three different sections of performer flying and a six-screen LED back wall. TRP provided a 14 winch system to automate all the moving pieces which was specifically designed for this high demanding European tour.

Kylie herself flies in twice during the show, the automated screens parting to reveal her descending onto the stage on huge flying set pieces. With a complex rig of both static and tracking systems the whole solution completed a mammoth 33 venues in just over 3 months.

Gavin Weatherall, director of The Rigging Partnership comments: "

The Q2Q Group reports that it has secured the exclusive UK distribution rights for worldwide lightweight truss manufacturer, Eurotruss. Q2Q has long been an established event management company, and after a recent takeover, has further expanded its group outlook to include sales, hires, installations and planning within its client portfolio.

Managing Director of The Q2Q Group Koen van Geene stated that he was" thrilled to be able to take on the sole UK distribution rights for such innovative and modern products".

Eurotruss is one of the leading suppliers of aluminium truss systems on the international market. It offers a wide range of aluminium truss systems Both Eurotruss and Q2Q will be present PLASA 08.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Automation specialists Kinesys is showing two new products at PLASA 08 - Libra, a loadcell system and Pulse, a powerful but easy to use pendant controller.

Libra comes in the form of a Crosby shackle with a load sensing pin. Currently 3.25 tonne and 4.5 tonne versions are offered, both with a 5:1 safety factor. A Libra loadcell can either be connected directly to a Kinesys Elevation 1+ giving feedback about the motor being controlled by the Elevation, or daisy-chained together with other Libras and connected to an interface unit positioned on the floor.

A PC is connected to the interface via USB or Ethernet, and all the loads can be clearly viewed onscreen using Libra's free software. The software package also contains numerous other features including the logging of weights, warning and overload settings for both underload and overload, multiple grouping options and the

UK - Draping specialists J&C Joel won a competitive tender to supply all buildings within the new Arena & Conference Centre Liverpool (ACCL) with theatrical curtains, stage tracking systems, portable chain hoists and truss units, plus a selection of ancillary equipment.

Totalling nearly 200 drapes of varying sizes, it's the Sowerby Bridge based company's largest single contract to date, with the work being delivered in four phases.

J&C Joel project manager Tony Griffiths, worked closely with ACCL production manager Gail Wroth to design curtain requirements for the various areas.

In the main 10,000 capacity Arena itself, the space needed to be turned into a variety of flexible formats including a complete 'black box', the traditional end-on stage D-shape format, in-the-round and sub-divided as a series of individual smaller performance spaces - all with curtains.

The main c

UK - Having previously run the successful installation company, Xtreme Audio Visual, Craig Wiggins has set up a new event production company from his base in Clacton-on-Sea, in partnership with Essex Sound & Light's Mike Glover.

MRL Productions will specialise in providing a complete sound, lighting, video and staging technical service to the corporate event, theatre, fashion show and concert sector.

Their biggest contract to date has been with Great Leighs, the first new racecourse that has been set up in the last 80 years.

John Holmes' new venture - situated between Braintree and Chelmsford - hosts night racing as well as a large number of corporate functions for which MRL has been providing sound and lighting. This includes the opening night when Alexander O'Neal performed in front of an audience of 600.

The company has already developed a cutting-edge hire fleet. This

UK - Stage Electrics has recently provided all technical support, arc roofing for the festival dance house, power distribution, lighting and crew for the annual Towersey Village Folk Festival.

Once a year the little town of Towersey in Oxfordshire, with a population of 400, becomes engulfed with festival-goers, keen to soak up the five-day festival's atmosphere. Towersey is now in its 44th year, and has again attracted the cream of folk and acoustic music artists including The Commitments, who opened the show during the August Bank Holiday weekend. The festival also includes a showground, a wide range of trade stalls and catering venues. Daily visitors to this year's festival topped 2,500, with a further 3,500 choosing to camp.

Stage Electrics has been heavily involved with the festival for 15 years, and is also a main sponsor. Steve Heap, director of the festival comments: &q

UK - Stage Electrics provided staging, lighting, power distribution, sound and crew in support of the annual Trafalgar Square Festival over a three week period from 7 - 23 August. Trafalgar Square Festival is London's annual programme of street arts and performance, set in the heart of the capital.

Part of the festival included a giant screen installed at the foot of Nelson's Column, which played scenes from the Beijing Olympics. The screen showed everything from the opening ceremony in Beijing to the closing ceremony, and the handover to London and captured all of Team GB's successes. The festival had plenty of Chinese inspired performances to accompany the Olympic theme with acts and performances from the Flying Dragon Circus and the Yellow Earth Theatre. Many of the artists taking part in the festival used digital imagery and art as part of their act.

Stage Electrics worked

UK - Harlequin has opened an office in Hong Kong to serve countries in the Far East. Headed up by area sales manager, Kasper Nyboe, Harlequin has taken the decision to set up the facility to serve its fast growing markets in the area supported by locally held stock.

The newly formed Harlequin Asia Limited, a subsidiary of British Harlequin, is based in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

(Jim Evans)

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