UK - Northern Light was responsible for the complete production lighting and sound and communications at London's legendary Young Vic - which is due to reopen on 11 October following a major renovation managed by architects Haworth Tompkins.

After winning the tender to provide their expertise in ensuring that the technical aspects of the production lighting and sound were installed to the highest standards possible, Northern Light went on site in January 2006.

In addition to the efforts of Northern Light's drawing office, project management and technical staff, the company's manufacturing division had a tough challenge to face on this project. Due to the performance space and very nature of the Young Vic's artistic direction, Northern Light was called upon to custom make various aspects of the technical requirements.

Simon Cooper, head of projects at Northern Light, said: &q

Australia - On Friday 17 November, Allen & Heath, 3D World Publishing, andSydney's Home Nightclub will present Australia's longest running, biggest and best dance music awards, the Australia Dance Music Awards (DMA's).

"The DMA's are all about celebrating and acknowledging Australia's achievement in the dance music industry. The artists who perform will be reflecting the industry and where it is at today," commented Hayley Conn, producer of this year's Dance Music Awards. "3D World Publishing is really excited to be once again presenting this year's event."

The event will be hosted at Sydney's superclub, Home, and the club's 2500 capacity gives the DMA's the opportunity to open the event to the public for the first time. Home will open its doors at 7:30pm for the 2006 awards ceremony, where fans and industry VIP's will witnessperformances from the co

With 30 years' industry experience, Gemini has re-aligned itself as GCI Technologies to market its own Gemini, Cortex and i-KEY branded products. The company concentrated on Cortex at the show because its Digital Music Controller represents real innovation - in the form of a digital USB controller that can manipulate files (via a CD player) held on any USB device without the need for a computer.

Cloud Electronics showed the complete range of products on stand, while promising the release of new additions in the near future. From the current range, the recently-introduced CXV-225 transformer-less 100V line two channel amplifier was on display, while the launch of the CXV-425, a four-channel 250W version, is still to come.

"We can expect a micro line array by Christmas '06, or January '07", said L-Acoustics, to whet our appetite. However, already available are the new-ish self-powered speakers 108P and 112P. The 108 is just 2kg heavier than its un-powered forebear, yet offers 500W to the low end, 250W to the highs. The slightly larger 112 is rated at a total 1000W. Both boxes are two-way coaxial, both conical dispersion (100° for the smaller box, 90° for the larger). A matching sub, the SB15P completes the system. "Expect the usual high quality performance from these, but - this is not the start of a trend to self-powered systems," said a spokesman.

Audica had the worldwide launch of its new range of tiny Micro Series loudspeakers at the show. The range, consisting of the ceiling mountable Microdot and wall mountable Micropoint and Microline, can all be used in conjunction with Microsub providing a frequency response from 40Hz-20kHz. The wall-mountable brackets are fully articulated, enabling the speakers to be focused easily - and used in conjunction with the Microzone digital Class D amplifier and EQ, the entire system can be controlled remotely via a hand-held remote control.

Tannoy took a bit of a backseat this year. After their live band rocking stand of 2005, the company brought out the sofas and comfy chairs in the quieter upstairs level at Earls Court. From his soft four-seater, sales director Simon Sinclair detailed the company's first foray into ceiling loudspeakers with the introduction of the CVS Ceiling. The 4" and 6" versions are available now, as are the CMS 401 Eyeball ceiling loudspeaker. The 401 is designed in the same tradition as eyeball light fixtures, allowing the speaker to be angled around the room.

A long-awaited addition, plug-in effects are now implemented on InnovaSon consoles, with direct development between InnovaSon and Wave and the slightly less well-known VB-Audio. All Sy80 and Sy48 consoles are compatible immediately, and older consoles will require a software upgrade, but otherwise are still entirely usable, making a welcome extension to their utility. Also shown, in late development prototype form, was a remote tablet-to-desk controller that enables the manipulation of two parameters simultaneously: this should be released next year.

A new DSP system management processor from the Audient brand (exhibited by LA Audio), DLX 2000 is suitable for sound reinforcement and installation applications. Key features of the SHARC-based DLX200 Series include 96kHz sampling rate, 20Hz - 40kHz frequency response (+/- 1dB), 8 bands of EQ on every input and output, Hardman progressive filters and 45 user and ready-made presets.

Turbosound was another of the companies to enter this year's Innovation Gallery, with their new TA500DP wide dispersion box that complements the existing Aspect modular point source system. At the other end of the spectrum, Turbosound introduced a new product in a new area in the form of the TCS-C50T full-range ceiling loudspeaker. The 5" low/mid driver and 1" neodymium soft dome tweeter gives wide dispersion with high power handling and is suitable for use on 70 and 100V line systems, say the company.

Infinium has produced a low-cost, long-life contact-free fader for DJ mixers, lighting consoles and other devices. It's smooth, noise-free and has a lifespan of over five million cycles, the company says. The 'feel' can be adjusted according to user tacticity requirements, without dismantling the device, via a magnetic system.

VME were showing a wide range of Kling & Freitag loudspeakers on their stand. Used and distributed by VME, this German manufacturer's loudspeakers are renowned for their high quality and ease of use, and the company says it is unique in the industry for its use of special passive filters that optimise phase coherence.

Void Acoustics do manufacture the coolest-looking loudspeakers. Alex Skan, general doer of everything, detailed Void's new AirTen mid/high unit for club installation. Sitting on a prototype sub, the ParaPod, the pair were also entered into the Innovation Awards. Void were also showing remodels of the Stasis 3 touring mid/high featuring their own proprietary waveform technology. Most of the Void range could also be heard in their demo room, which Skan described as 'The wonderful world of Disney'. Sounds like the rest of PLASA really!

Made in Germany, the GAE brand of speaker systems is known in the UK but not yet widely used: GAE UK Ltd aims to change that and showed the latest product, Director Waveline. A 100° by 10° line array box (minimum three boxes for the coupling effect) that weighs just 45kg, Waveline contains a pair of 10" for low end down to 80Hz. Each plywood cabinet has an aluminium chassis that allows for very close coupling on the front plane - one reason perhaps why just a six-box-a-side system was man enough for the Expo Islamia at the Manchester Evening News arena.

Proel announced the introduction of the JTS in-ear monitoring system. The UHF PLL technology provides excellent stereo separation and advanced circuit design to ensure excellent signal to noise ratio, say the company. Also on the stand, Proel launched the NEOS range of loudspeakers. Available in both active and passive versions, the cabinets come in 10", 12" and 15" two-way passive and active versions and there are both 15" and 1" active and passive sub-woofers, capable of delivering up to 1,800W each. Additionally, Proel showed new products from B&C, FBT and Alto.

The V4 software upgrade for DiGiCo's desks, and D5T (12) are both welcome additions. The (12) variant adds 12 master faders or groups, yet maintains a smaller footprint than the D5T plus wing (achieving the same operational surface) saving four theatre seats. The V4 software adds a hardware element as well - a new, non-volatile random-access memory board, an up-rated processor board and brand new, high-density mini drives.

Software improvements include a redesigned hardware configuration panel; refined networking with graphic interface; auto-route inputs; improved auxiliary architecture; a channel presets recall scope; effects presets; and many more. A major overhaul.

DiGiCo TV - or more correctly www.DiGiCo.tv - answers the problem of console operation familiarisation DVDs becoming rapidly obsolete as DiGiCo issues the next software improvement: desk users can go online and find the

Crest Audio used PLASA to launch a brand new mixing console. The CV20 is a large-format FOH console available in 24-, 32-, 40-, 48- and 56-channel frames. The desk, due to start shipping in January was so popular that sales representative Bob Harrison told us that 10 desks had already been sold at the show.

In addition to the CV20, Crest showed the Ci20x4 and Ci20x8 power amplifiers providing four or eight channels respectively. Both amps are capable of running from 4 ohms through to 70V line switchable per channel and can run 100V system with an optional unit. Other modules allow the amplifier to sit on a CobraNet-8 network providing a fully monitored and controlled solution.

XTA were celebrating the 10th year of AudioCore, and released a new version of the audio management system as a free download. Version 8.30 is now unrecognisable from its original incarnation way back in 1996: the latest release features Array Control and Ganging for the DP448. As part of the celebrations, AudioCore was renamed AudioCare for the four days of the event and the ladies of Urban Chill provided a much-needed Indian Head Massage for any lucky visitor to the stand or the After-Show bar.

Interspace Industries provides talkback and cueing solutions for a range of areas and at PLASA announced the 'Traffic Light' live event signalling system, the MicroCue wireless cue light system, the MasterCue V5 presenter cueing system and, finally, the CiO Comms Audio Adapter. The latter allows any audio signal to be combined with a Comms feed, negating the need for two sets of headphones. The CiO allows personal balancing of the two signals in the headset and is fully isolated to avoid hum or earth-loop issues.

Turkish sound and lighting rental company Playback Music Istanbul exhibited at the PLASA Show for the first time, reflecting their increasing levels of work across Europe. Their subsidiary company, Focus, also distributesa number of leading brands including L-Acoustics and Space Cannon, which was receiving a lot if interest at the show.

Having recently announced its move to a new HQ in Harrogate, UK, speaker system manufacturer KV2 Audio showed upgrades to the ES Series which are largely about about packaging - better handles, new front grilles, and neat, magnetically-located cabinet wheel boards with profiled rims that take the strain of maintaining positive attachment when the speakers are moved over rough terrain.

KV2 Audio was also representing other lines (distributed in the UK under its 'Resolution' company banner), not least Apex Intelli-X and Intelli-Q, two audio DSP units. Also from Apex, Argos measures real-time SPLs to control sound levels, and used in conjunction with Hera, records sound system performance (good for site noise control measurement) and will activate external equipment, e.g. mains switch-off in the event of system abuse.

The Vieta So Cube is a production version of an

UK - The Barbican, Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue, has invested in a new 32-channel Midas Heritage 2000 console with 16-channel stretch, all flight-cased and fully mobile. The desk makes its major debut in the main Theatre auditorium for the first shows in the special season celebrating the work of American composer Steve Reich. During the Reich festival, the console will also be used in the Pit Theatre for other events.

Steff Langley, the Barbican's head of sound, ordered the desk from Richard Nowell Sound Services with a brief, "to keep us as mobile as possible. All our outboard is also flightcased, as we move systems not only between the various venues here at the Barbican, but also outside the theatre, to other locations. There's no point in spending £50K on a console, but not spending £1K on a flightcase."

The Barbican's 2006 progra

DMC were promoting the hugely popular concurrently running two-day World Mixing Championships, staged up the road at Hammersmith Palais. They are also a DJ agency, so were at the PLASA Show to meet DJs and alert them to their latest subscription services and Technics merchandise, for which they are licensed dealers.

Highlight International's diverse range spans over 6,000 products, but at PLASA this year the stand majored on the new Dark Shade range of DJ mixers and amps and the new Xcaliber range of cables and adapters. The latter come with a lifetime warranty, which is attractive for installation work. Highlight was also buzzing with the news that they have just sealed the deal to be the exclusive UK distributor for Antari smoke machines and effects

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