Martin Professional will launch a new version of its successful MAC 2000 Profile at PLASA 2001. The new version, the MAC 2000 Performance, is a 1200W profile framing spot featuring a four-blade framing system for precise stage lighting and gobo animation wheel for extraordinary theatrical effects, the ideal illumination framing tool for theaters and special effect applications. Useful for accurate illumination coverage of stage props, scenery or any object, the precision adjusting, fully automated beam framing system transforms the elliptical beam into a multitude of different shapes. Fine adjustment of the shape is within millimeters thus eliminating any excess back light and perfect for stage shows of all types.

Also new to the MAC 2000 Performance is a gobo animation wheel useful for special theatrical effects such as fire, sky and water imaging. The entire wheel can be swiveled for

More than 250 of the world's leading companies from 30 countries will showcase their products and latest technology in the 11th Consecutive Broadcast India 2001 Exhibition & Symposium. A host of leading manufacturers will exhibit a wide range of products catering to the broadcast and entertainment industry in three days of the exhibition. The Broadcast India 2001 Exhibition will be held from 1-3 November 2001 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai in three halls - Expo Centre, South Side Lobby and Centrum - spreading over 40,000sq.ft of stand space. The exhibition will be preceded by a two day Symposium from 30-31 October 2001, to be staged at the Y B Chavan Centre, Mumbai. Industry professionals will speak on various topics covering the fields of TV, radio, video, audio, film, music, lighting, cabling, satellite, multi-media, transmission, computer graphics, broadband internet and all their alli

Zero 88 chose the PLASA Show to present three Dealer of the Year Awards. Winner of the Independent Dealer of the Year Award was Stagecraft Ltd of Salisbury, while High Wycombe-based AC Lighting Ltd picked up the UK dealer of the Year Award. The International Dealer of the Year Award was presented to California-based AC Lighting Inc, and our picture shows Zero 88's Graham Eales (centre) presenting the Award to CEO Bob Gordon (left) and Mike Falconer of AC Lighting Inc.

Cork-based lighting, technical design and production specialists LDPS has further expanded its team with the addition of two new project consultants - Joe Stockdale and Michael Hurley. Their specialist areas are stage technologies and mixed/multi-media respectively. Stockdale and Hurley join LDPS founder Grant Collie and will be based in the company’s new premises in central Cork. The appointments will strengthen LDPS’s position as a market leader in the field of creating practical technical solutions based on hands-on experience.

Stockdale’s role will include venue technical design, specialising in stage systems, site installation supervision, special projects, client liaison, training and recruitment. His diverse background includes the teaching of theatre studies, set design and construction and event production. For the last nine years, he worked as technical stag

Young, talented DJ Scratch-Mo astounded music industry judges and the crowds to win the Extreme V DJ Competition yesterday at the PLASA Show 2001, Earls Court. The annual competition, sponsored by Gemini Sound Products attracted queues of young hopefuls from across the country to its stand for a chance to audition at the UK’s biggest entertainment technology show of the year.

22-year-old DJ Scratch-Mo (real name Angelo Tun) from Derby performed two superb sets to beat off stiff competition in his heat and the final winning £500 worth of Gemini DJ equipment. The music mad Media Technology graduate who has been DJing for seven years was thrilled to win and hopes that it will lead to a career in DJing.

The competition took place on the opening day of PLASA, DJ Sunday and is just part of a programme of events which included a guest appearance from super star DJ, Roger Sanchez at t

Formula Sound has unveiled its latest modular mixer- the PM-100 - at PLASA 2001. This mixer replaces the award winning PM-90 and is proving to be as popular. One important feature of the PM-100 is the single universal input module which can be configured to accept virtually any type of input source. Also featuring VCA controlled crossfade with punch; contour control and inserts at either end for connecting external signal processing equipment. With its many other facilities and its combination of sizes, layout etc. the PM-100 is the most versatile small production mixer around.

The full range or products for mixing and noise control is on show on stand E26.

In preparation for the process of obtaining official charitable status, Light Relief, the industry fund that supports lighting designers in times of crisis or personal tragedy, has chosen a board of trustees which includes some of the profession’s best-known names. Additionally, Richard Pilbrow, doyen of theatre lighting design and author of the seminal work on the art, has agreed to be Honorary Chairman.

Rick Fisher, ALD Chairman and joint founder with Tony Gottelier of Light Relief, explains: "We desperately wanted Richard to have a role, but as a non-UK resident that would have proved difficult in view of the requirements of the regulations governing charities. Consequently, we’re delighted that he has agreed to accept the position, as we know that his involvement and wise counsel will prove invaluable."

Although born in England and having worked here for man

Currently touring the UK, the Budweiser House Party, visiting the cities of Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and London among others, showcases some of the UK’s top DJs and is part of a touring promotion campaign for Budweiser Beer. The essence of ‘cool’, the Budweiser house has the statutory flying ducks on the wall, a range of retro furniture, a bath full of Budweiser and a dance-floor bed. Staging specialist Maltbury was approached to supply staging for the events. Jon Scott, managing director of Jon Scott DC, was contracted to design and construct the innovative dance floor bed for the Leeds House Party at Granary Wharf. The ‘bed’ needed to be robust enough to support the weight of partygoers whilst also creating interest and focus within the set of the Budweiser house. Maltbury was chosen to provide nine modules of Metrodeck staging, some of which were to be

Sennheiser's annual 'Industry' Golf Challenge Trophy competition, at Mill Ride Golf Club near Ascot, proved more successful than ever before, this year raising more than £25,000 for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London. Held on 6 July, a good turnout of keen, though not exclusively proficient, golfers entered into the spirit of things. This year's winner was once again Ashok Patel of ASK, just pipping Richard Bleakley from Diamond Stylus for the Stableford competition. In third place was Praful Patel of ASK who took consolation as winner of Nearest The Pin.

The day's longest drive came from LMC's John Ridley and The Texas Scramble was won by Mark Austin of Wycombe Wanderers, Andy Streets and John Hine of Synergy for the front nine, with Charles Smith, Chris Cress and Sennheiser managing director Paul Whiting on the back nine. Martin Sheehan represented Great Ormond Street

The PLASA Exhibition marks an exciting period for SkyTronic and Adastra as they launch their third catalogue in as many years. The 300-page catalogue contains over 4,000 products including 650 which are new for 2002, covering the entire consumer electronics spectrum.

SkyTronic prides itself on bringing new and exciting products to the marketplace backed up with a sales and customer care policy of which they are equally proud. The rapid growth that SkyTronic has achieved and continuing customer loyalty are testimony to this. Adastra Electronics Limited offers a comprehensive range of commercial audio Public Address products. Incorporated in 1949, Adastra has a long history of quality, performance and reliability.

Hear’Say are currently part way through their highly successful UK arena tour. The set and lighting was designed by Pete Barnes, with the lighting operated on tour by Graham Feast. In an unusual move, all the lighting gear was supplied by French Company Cote Scene. The audio elements of the tour were provided by Wigwam with rigging by OTT.

The tour’s live video requirements are supplied by XL Video. The 32 square metre central screens - which open like curtains at the start of the show to allow the band to enter - are constructed from Barco DeLite 7 LED systems. Two left and right screens are fed by Barco ELM G10 projectors mounted on the truss, and are predominantly used for the live relay images. PCM was commissioned by Mark Wade from OTT Rigging to build the customised movement system for the video screens. The resulting system, an amalgamation of a Gis tracking system

The Audio Engineering Society has announced the postponement of next week's 111th AES Convention at the Javits Convention Center, New York, until early December. The Javits is being used as an emergency services co-ordination centre in the aftermath of the recent events in New York. The organizers have issued the following statement. "We have just returned from the Javits Center where we had a meeting with their top management. We learned that the New York City Mayor's Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have taken over large portions of the Javits Center for use in coordinating emergency services. We also learned that FEMA will have complete control of these spaces and any others that they need, for an undetermined period. This obviously makes holding the event as planned impossible. However, we have been able to reschedule the conventi

Tripath Technology Inc and Alesis Semiconductor, both from the West Coast of the United States, met at this year’s PLASA Show to finalise their new distribution agreement with European audio component distributor Profusion plc. Keith Persin, managing director of Profusion told PLASA Media: "Tripath have excellent patents covering the class T switching amplifier technology, which produces true hi fi quality." With big names such as Sony using these parts and receiving awards, many companies are now looking at the class T designs. Steve Tomlinson (MD of Tripath Europe) continued: "Our parts often require application support as the technology is so different from traditional amplifier designs. Appointing Profusion was a logical choice as they have applications engineers and the facilities to offer good technical support."

Cardiff-based Theatre Vision (a Stage Electrics Group company) has kick-started its busy corporate season by providing production lighting services for the recent WHAT HI-FI? Sound & Vision Awards 2001. Hosted by the irrepressible Clive Anderson at the Hilton in Park Lane, the show is produced by Head to Head Communications on behalf of Haymarket Publishing. Theatre Vision was called upon by busy awards lighting designer Matthew Evered to provide dynamic lighting for the event. A mixture of Strand SL cool-beam profiles, parcans and Martin Mac 300 moving lights were used to help jazz up the event, now in its 25th year, and all controlled and programmed by Tim Routledge on an Avolites Pearl. Also provided were a number of low voltage lighting kits for various branding and reception areas. Truss and rigging was provided by RoadRunner while sound was sourced from Tone Ferne from Dobsons.

Twelve DHA Digital Light Curtains are set to create stunning visual effects in the production of Tintin and the Temple of the Sun, making a spectacular stage debut in Antwerp on 15th September 2001. The production will be under the direction of one of Belgium's most acclaimed directors, Frank Van Laeke, and will be lit by Jack Van de Velde. With two versions of the musical in different languages, the production team is confident of its success and plans are already underway for tours of the Netherlands, France, UK, Germany and Canada.

The main difficulty that faced the creators of this musical version of the all-time classic was how to allow the production to speak to the audiences' imagination with the same impact as the written words and in the same style as the original.

PLASA Media has heard from Brad Mackie of New Jersey-based Prism Theatrical Lighting. Brad tells us that on Tuesday his crew were working on a dance series with leading New York ballet companies at the base of the first of the World Trade Center towers to be struck, and were just beginning rehearsals at the time of impact. Brad wants to let everyone know that all the production crew members from RSA Audio, Prism Theatrical Lighting, CSS Staging and MPE Generators got out of the building safely.

The Internationale Funfausstellung, which takes place every two years in Berlin, traditionally opens with a live television transmission (alternating between German national TV networks, ARD or ZDF). ARD was responsible for this year’s opening spectacular on August 25, and while the location in recent years has been the ICC, which is situated close to the fair, this time ARD opted to use the Convention Center at Europe’s biggest hotel - the 1000-bed Hotel Estrel.

Set designer Peter Roth, the man responsible for a number of ARD shows in Germany, wanted to create something original for the network other than traditional projection and cube systems, and the show title Tele Visionen also implied the need for a modern set. Besides centre stage - where the acts performed - there needed to be projection screens in the wings, where the main interviews and presentations would take

Entech 2002 returns to its Darling Harbour home in Sydney next February. The show is one of the largest audio and visual trade shows of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. It attracts professional designers, engineers and equipment users from all over the Asia Pacific region. Each Entech boasts an extensive range of conferences, seminars, workshops and equipment training sessions. These include sessions on a range of issues, including rigging, with the ever popular DJ Bootcamp also returning. A trio of topic-related seminars will be held daily in the new Convention Centre South, nearest to the trade show halls. Pro Audio seminars include surround sound and contracting audio topics, along with a discussion on line array systems and DSP. InfoComm will present a daily session on vision and integration. Venue design is the topic of a summit style seminar, where architects, venue managers, a

In an effort to support the victims of the recent attacks on the United States, TMB is collecting donations of money and clothing in both of its US locations and encouraging employees to donate blood at their local Red Cross. On September 14, the LA office shipped out the first pallet of West Coast donations, along with a large quantity of socks, raingear and tarpaulins, to the Red Cross relief effort. TMB CEO Colin Waters is issuing a call to other companies in the lighting industry to do the same: "We are terribly shocked and saddened by the recent attacks and want to do everything we can to show our support to the victims and relief workers. I hope that all of the companies in our industry will make similar efforts. With so many caring and capable people in the lighting community, we can make a significant difference when it is needed most."

If you work in the LA or NY are

transtechnik has been awarded a contract to the value of DM 398 800 by the Theater am Stadtgarten in Winterthur in Switzerland. The order covers the complete renovation of the control elements of the theatre’s 15-year old lighting system - the venue being one of the largest in the German-speaking world to be dedicated solely to touring companies. New equipment installed includes Prisma NT, Focus and Iris NT lighting consoles, a radio control system for remote control of these, a pair of remote operating stations, an Ethernet hub to be used to network the systems, three DMX mergers to be used to merge and amplify of the DMX512 signal, a digital auxiliary console (Profibus system with programmable controller), a DMX Gateway (protocol converter, Profibus/DMX) and a range of digital dimming.

Transtechnik went on site in early summer and will complete the work this month in readiness

Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, has been commissioned by PCI LiveDesign, one of Europe’s leading live communication companies, to provide a bespoke structural solution for the launch of the new Fiesta by the Ford Motor Company, during the Frankfurt International Motor Show this month. An empty warehouse space near to Frankfurt Airport has been transformed into a multi-levelled launch venue with ESS designing two temporary grid structures, a stage platform and show control platforms within the Nexos Centre for the launch. In order to facilitate the flying elements of the launch show, two roof grids measuring 12m by 14m have been specifically designed to take in excess of five tonnes in weight. The whole structure fits inside the Nexos building and was assembled in just three days.

After many year's absence, the ISCE led range of mini seminars which took place during the recent PLASA Show, attracted over 100 people across the three workshops. Doug Edworthy, Events chair told PLASA Media: "I think everyone attending benefited from the variety of relevant subjects covered in the audio field, and many are now booking for ISCE's extended one day programmes scheduled throughout 2001/2."

Mass Audio Visual, of Burlington, Massachusetts, recently purchased two Digital Projections Lightning 15sx projectors. This acquisition further expands the company’s inventory of presentation equipment and follows their earlier purchase of the new EAW Line Array sound system. Commenting on the purchase, massAV general manager Jeff Robinson told PLASA Media: "We are now able to offer clients a one-stop-shopping solution for large event staging. This furthers our commitment to provide the latest in technology, for both high-end audio and video, to our expanding customer base."

Announcing the completion of an exclusive UK distribution agreement, AC Lighting used its presence at the PLASA exhibition to display the product range of leading German manufacturer, MA Lighting Technology. MA Lighting Technology has established an enviable reputation for its lighting consoles which combine digital technology with a control philosophy that delivers ease-of-use and maximum flexibility. This approach has led to the creation of consoles that offer sophisticated control for large lighting systems utilising hundreds or even thousands of channels - vital in large productions using high numbers of moving lights.

The grandMA console held pride of place on the AC Lighting stand at PLASA and the show was the venue for the launch of Version 3.0 software. The grandMA is the largest console in the range and is completely at home in the world of complex large-scale theatre and tou

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