The annual event is staffed entirely by volunteers. Andy Mahaffey, head of lighting at Blitz Communications has been the show's lighting designer since 2004/5: "Each year has a theme to it and, in this 25th Anniversary year, it's 'The Best of British'. Over time the show has grown both in perf
With competitors diving from a height of 27m from the top of the Pembrokeshire cliffs, XL Events needed to ensure that spectators in both of the cliff viewing areas had an excellent view of the 14 divers from nine different countries.
To achieve this, XL Events installed two Lighthouse R7 LED screens, one at the top and one at the bottom of the cliffs, and each measuring 5 x 3m.
XL selected the R7 screen for this outdoor project as it is weatherproof, robust and its high brightness and shaders make it the perfect choice for use in sunlight. The screens were installed by Sandro Bruni and Jan van Geet, who also operated cameras during the two-day event.
The co
The West London based company - which delivers cutting-edge visuals technology to some of the UK's biggest shows including X Factor, Million Pound Drop, Britain's Got Talent, and many events, conferences and award shows - is working closely with Avolites Media to offer the industry powerful solutions to push the boundaries of on-screen displays.
"Having looked at the marketplace we wanted to select a media server that would be user friendly and at the same time have plenty of future capabilities," says Anna Valley's Shaun Wilton. "The extended features combined with a familiar user interface were a great fit."
The Ai Infinity features an incredible 8 Full HD outpu
PLASA London is supported by Platinum Sponsor Robe Lighting, Gold Sponsor Martin Professional and Silver Sponsor Clay Paky.
Chris Toulmin, Head of Events, PLASA London 2013, said: "Our move to ExCeL has given us and our exhibitors the scope to truly get bigger, brighter and louder. We are very proud to unveil the AudioLab feature which brings the latest a
CT's latest innovation is a full colour, high brightness, super lightweight 10mm LED display weighing a mere 11kg per m2. At less than half the weight of previous comparable systems the G10 offers massive advantages in terms of production opportunities and reduced freight costs, says the company. The extraordinary weight saving means a native resolution HD screen measuring 207 m2 can be built weighing only 2.3 tonnes. Alternatively typical on stage effects and Imag screens for touring applications of 5x3m (16x9') will weigh less than 225kg(500lbs). Screens can now be tracked, rotated and flipped using simpler rigging and mechanics, greatly reducing production costs and increasing impact.
The light weight and low volume design has similar advantages i
Additionally MA has enhanced its MA VPU plus and MA VPU basic in comparison to the MA VPU light. All MA VPU will now offer Full-HD (MA VPU plus MK2 6 layers, MA VPU basic MK2 4 layers, MA VPU light 2 layers - which are rendered in parallel). Also MA VPU plus MK2 and MA VPU basic MK2 are now equipped with 3 x DVI-outs instead of two as with the prior version, while the MA VPU light offers 2 x DVI-outs and 1 x VGA-out.
All MA VPU have common features enabling all videos, still images and 3
Richard Turner, the tour's video director worked closely with XL's project manager Phil Mercer throughout, together with tour director Andrew Zweck and creative and video content director Sean Evans. The production featured both stadium and arena versions.
The show visuals were projected onto the wall by 36 of XL's new Panasonic PT-DZ21K 20K projectors - divided into nine screen areas - each covered by a quad stack rigged on standard Leyher scaffold platforms at FOH.
Seamless edge-blending was achieved by custom manual shutters clamped onto the scaffold towers. Physical shutter
The new version, released 3 October, will be "a ground-breaking product in the world of advanced interactive displays, providing for the first time a free set of tools to take full advantage of MultiTaction Cells' scalability and advanced object and pen tracking features". The support for third-party hardware allows great flexibility for deployment and reuse of Cornerstone-based applications on a wide range of multi-touch displays from other manufacturers.
In addition to making its updated SDK free, MultiTouch has ensured that the new Cornerstone 2 also includes a far greater arsenal of tools to build the next generation of interactiv
PLASA 2013 attendees will get an opportunity to try out the compact V276 on Mac control interface and Mbox® Studio, a software-only version of the popular Mbox Extreme® media server, both of which are available for sale. Both products are designed for use with a user-supplied Apple Mac computer. Individually these solutions are feature-ri
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The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety. During the show's opening two days, 45 new products were judged 'live' by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.
Eight awards of equal standing were presented, as well as the PLASA Award for Sustainability, to the following winners:
Clay Paky for the A.Leda B-EYE K20
The judges said, "The B-EYE had a &q
"There were no delays, but the sound was clear and very loud even 100m back from the stage," recalls Jay Neil, technical director of EHQ Projects. "Afterwards, I had people telling me it sounded like a CD on a great stereo."
In order to cover an audience of 30,000 in Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Merdeka, the two companies configured a system of 72 Milo loudspeakers, including 40 for main hangs, 30 for side hangs, and two for out-fills. Front-fill was provided by 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, and 40 7
Prices for the 2014 event had been increased by £10 to £210, plus a booking fee, but festival-goers could pay a deposit of £50 before sett
"Empowering dealers with not simply the best technologies and systems but also the best programmes and people is central to our approach here at Harman Professional," Robbins said. "This commitment requires us to evolve and, just as we have added the Martin Lighting brand to our portfolio, add quality and value wherever possible."
Brian Friborg joined Martin Professional in 1999 and
Fifteen awards were announced on the Theatres Trust stand in the midst of the PLASA hubbub.
Sponsored by AVW Controls, dbs Solutions, Load Cell Rental, Mayflower, Philips Entertainment, PLASA, Production Resource Group (PRG), StageBitz, Stage Jobs Pro, The Fifth Estate Ltd and Triple E, the TTAs are also very kindly supported by Lighting&Sound International and The Theatres Trust.
Host for the evening was prolific multi award-winning lighting designer Rick Fisher, perhaps best known for his work on Billy Elliot the Musical and An Inspector Calls. Recent credits include Great Expectations at Bristol's Old Vic, The Herd at The Bush Theatre, and Inside Wagner's Head at the Linbury Stud
For C venues, one of Edinburgh's leading independent venue producers, curating and hosting the Fringe's largest theatre-based programme, equipment was deployed in eight venues across three sites - C venues' Chambers Street base, C nova and C Aquila.
For The Pleasance, 34 shows featured video elements in 15 different performance spaces.
All of this was project managed for XL Video by Ed Cooper and overseen on site by three hard-working technicians who kept pace with the lively mix of drama, dance, physical theatre, musicals, cabaret, circus and v
Opera's consultant specified that the theatre must be multi-functional, and that the technical system needed to offer standalone use by anyone, trained or not, without the assistance of the college's AV department. As a result, A&T was required to design a system which allo
Amongst the symbolic locations selected for the 2013 editon of the festival - which includes the Loujniki Olympic complex, the Tsaritsyno Park and the Manege - there is a particularly iconic one that evokes all the cultural influence from the Russian capital: The Bolshoi Theatre.
Cosmo AV was tasked with elaborating the content projected on the façade of this building, which acted as a screen, playing the audiovisual creations from the Cosmo AV teams.
Onlookers witnessed two dream-like shows which lasted for a total of 12 minutes, with mixed video and computer generated images, supported by a soundtrack revisiting masterpieces from some of the world famous classical music comp
The awards which were celebrating their 15th year were open to any company involved in the AV industry across Europe, from media production companies to manufacturers of any kind of equipment or software used in AV communication; so for this small firm from the North East this is an amazing achievement.
The Live event of the year category was awarded for utilising the newest technical ideas and was open to a wide range of corporate events, awards ceremonies, experiential events, sponsored events, sales conferences, product launches, exhibition events and more. Judges were looking for examples of absolute excellence in lighting, sound, project
Blitz Communications delivered a complete set, staging and audio visual package for leading agency Four Colman Getty. Lisa Perkins, event manager, commented, "Tuesday night's event was a huge success and we are absolutely thrilled how the evening progressed. All the suppliers from the Guild Hall to AV company Blitz and Carly Rogers Flowers, were brilliant throughout and came together really well on the night."
Munir Samji, executive chairman at Blitz added, "It was our pleasure to support this prestigious event for
Hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Reggie Yates, the concert was part of the SL20 Campaign which is celebrating Stephen's life with a series of awareness-raising events throughout the year. It was recorded and broadcast on BBC1 and an album of the live performances is also due to be released.
XL Video was asked onboard by promoters AEG Live to supply video production which was co-ordinated for them by project manager Gareth Jeanne. He worked closely with the AEG Live production team led by Kahren Williams and Keith Wood.
The s
There was a great reception to the worldwide launch of the new Vision LED family, which features a 16° Par, a 1 metre batten and a zoomable moving wash each using 10W RGBW Multichip LEDs and delivering powerful and consistent performance. The LED range offers real value for money without compromising on performance, build quality or reliability, and provided dynamic illumin
The annual Pukkelpop festival, held at Kiewit near Hasselt, is one of Belgium's largest alternative music festivals, attracting over 60,000 festival-goers and second in size only to Rock Werchter.
This 'progressive and contemporary' musical event plays host to around 200 bands on its eight stages over the three-day festival and showcases a wide variety of music that encompasses rock, pop, electronic, dance, hip-hop, punk and heavy metal. The eclectic line up for 2013 included top artists Eminem, The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails and world-class DJs including Mark Ronson, The Magician and Boys Noize.
The opening night party to the 28th Pukkelpop was the ideal event for ArKaos, Belgian media server and software manufacturer, to show off the p
"James Valpy's nickname is 'The Hippotech', but he's not a hi-tech game ranger. This South African born, English trained, lighting and video technician trots the globe providing stunning visuals with Green Hippo Media Servers. I caught up with James backstage at the Johannesburg leg of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour.
"Born in Cape Town in 1988, James left South Africa for England when he was four. He studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and completed his BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice. James initially specialized in production lighting but soon gravitated to video as a medium. The knowledge of both proved invaluable.
"James was working as an associate to the production designer Tupac Martir, when he met Ed Prescott on the Be
The Hyde Park Ballroom is the main room which can be divided, via operable walls, into four smaller rooms, or any combination thereof, if required. The Manhattan and Avenue Rooms are smaller meeting spaces often used as pre-function rooms.
Fredon designed, supplied and installed all of the audio visual requirements for the venue working closely with inhouse AV company Microhire to design and develop a solution that would not only meet the needs of Doltone House's banquet staff but also Microhire.
When designing the system, Fredon took into account the venues main markets; weddings at the weekend and corporate events
