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Industry innovators honoured at PLASA 2007

UK - The 2007 PLASA Awards for Innovation, announced last night in a special presentation ceremony at the PLASA Show, reflect the ever-more dynamic, diverse and creative health of the global entertainment and installation technology industries.

65 products from 10 different countries were entered this year, and covered a broad range of lighting, audio, rigging and staging, AV, effects, software and accessories - amply reflecting the industry's diversity and global nature.

"The energy, ideas and innovation that feature at PLASA start from the imaginative minds that make up the industry," said PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "The talent in this business is formidable, and it's that talent that we're celebrating."

During the ceremony, attended by special guests from across the industry, eight awards were presented. These went to:

beyerdynamic (GB) Ltd - Headzone

Beyerdynamic's Headzone is the world's first professional, portable 5.1 surround sound headphone monitoring system and features ultrasonic Headtracking and Binaural Acoustic Modelling. The product will bring more flexibility to content producers, enabling them to create the perfect 5.1 studio.

ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls) - Eos

Eos is ETC's most advanced lighting control system, designed to handle complex, multimedia-filled lighting rigs. It allows multiple programmers to work on the same show file, comes with either 8,000 or 4,000 outputs and will provide an excellent user interface for both programmers and designers.

Fuzion plc - Coemar Infinity Wash XL

Coemar's latest moving-head is an extremely bright, automated washlight with a revolutionary colour mixing system, radical zoom range and an integrated effects wheel for stunning beams and projection. Its output can be varied from 800W to 1400W via DMX and the patented CMY-S colour mixing system produces colours never seen before on a moving head.

Litec Srl - EXE-Lodestar 650C1 + Datalogge

The EXE-Lodestar electric chain hoists, conceived in association with Columbus McKinnon, have independent on-board intelligence that governs and controls operation and safety functions. Control via external console units is optional: EXE-Lodestar is self-sufficient. This is a product that will advance safety in a very neat package.

Marquee Audio - Revolabs Solo Executive

The Revolabs Solo Executive wireless microphone system is a boardroom-friendly, flexible cost-effective solution to audio conferencing. Available with either 4 or 8 channels, Solo Executive connects seamlessly to a telephone system and other AV conferencing equipment and can be easily managed from the room.

Protonic Software Corp - easyjob 4.0

Easyjob rental and sales management software was developed by rental and staging professionals and is based on the latest Microsoft .NET technology. Its contemporary look and feel makes it easy to learn and navigate a wide variety of features, and there's built-in integration with office programmes. This is an enterprise level product at an entry level price.

Unusual Rigging - The Revolution Winch

The Revolution winch fits standard 52cm x 52cm truss and travels in conventional flightcases. A comprehensive accessories and diverter kit enables it to be included within truss runs, mothergrids and truss legs, with the wire leaving the unit at the required angle. The design allows for single or multiple use within truss runs at 3m per second with a 300kg safe working load.

Vertigo Rigging Ltd - Vertex

Billed as 'the only simple to operate, joystick-operated 3D flying system' Vertex is designed and engineered to fly people, cameras and objects across large areas in real-time without complicated programming. This is a product that is easy to implement and features an intuitive user interface with simple drag-and-drop set-up.

The money raised from the entry fees had been presented earlier in the day to a number of industry-connected charities: the Vision Charity, Starlight Children's Foundation, the Mary Hare School and Shooting Star Children's Hospice.

The Awards for Innovation were followed by a further special award - the Gottelier Award - introduced this year in memory of the leading designer Tony Gottelier, who died in 2006. Following an open industry nomination process, the Award was presented to British loudspeaker designer Tony Andrews, founder of Turbosound and co-founder of Funktion-One.

The Awards Ceremony also featured the presentation of Certificates to the first candidates to achieve the PLASA National Rigging Certificate - receiving its live launch at the show - as well as a presentation of A1 Awards to the new assessors for the scheme. Also featured during the ceremony was the new National Skills Academy, a major new project backed by PLASA, which, in simple terms, will be a 'Fame Academy' for technical skills in the creative & cultural industries.

PLASA's Matthew Griffiths added: "It's fitting that in the year when we inaugurate a special award in honour of one of the industry's best-known innovators, there's an abundance of fresh ideas to keep the industry on the cutting edge of technology."

PLASA would like to add its sincere thanks to the judging team who gave up their time to make this year's Awards for Innovation process possible. Led by Awards for Innovation judging chairman James Eade, this year's judging team comprised Andy Hayles (theatre consultant, Charcoalblue), Andy Voller (lighting designer & programmer), Mike Le Fevre (television lighting director), Roland Hemming (audio consultant), Bryan Grant (Britannia Row), Richard Northwood (audio consultant & installer, COMS UK), Blue Leach (live video director), John Hooker (XL Video), Charlie Kail (staging consultant) and Ron Bonner (PLASA technical resources manager).

(Lee Baldock)

www.plasashow.com

(11 September 2007)