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PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

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When Inflight Studios recently opened a multi-format transfer and archiving facility, dealing mainly with the format copying and archiving demands of the UK record labels, they simultaneously decided that a Soundcraft Ghost mixing console would be the best vehicle for expediting their audio transfers.

The facility is run by producer/engineer, Tony Taverner, and ex-Dreamhire general manager, Keith Knowles. Ex-Dreamhire chief copyroom engineer, Nick Kirkland, is handling and overseeing the day-to-day transfers and archiving, with a staff of a further two engineers. Explained Keith: "We are able to accommodate all the formats used in today's (and yesterday's) recording processes - ranging from multi-track analogue through to the very latest hard disk formats. We also have an on-site tape incubator allowing our engineers to safely bake any tapes that are in danger of shedding, or show

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Italy’s longest-running TV event, the annual five-day Sanremo Festival of Italian Song, now in its 52nd year, featured a stage set with one of the largest video screens ever seen in Europe. Produced by state-owned broadcaster RAI, artists included Michael Bolton, The Cranberries, Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Kylie Minogue, Alanis Morissette and Britney Spears.

The high-technology show featured an all-digital fibre optic linked audio set-up using a Stagetec Cantus/Nexus control system and a JBL Vertec PA. For the first time, the show’s set was designed around an LED screen, with no less than three Lighthouse LVP1010 screens. Stefano Montesi, RAI’s technical head at Sanremo, says the idea for the LED screens was set designer Gaetano Castelli’s. They were supplied by Eurovideo, a Lighthouse rental partner based in Casarsa Della Delizia, who also handled inst

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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The Burswood International Resort Casino in Western Australia is one of the most popular and long-standing facilities in the country. Since opening in late 1985, Burswood has made several additions to its lighting infrastructure, with Coemar-DeSisti Australia (CDA) involved in several of these additions.

The latest redevelopment saw changes made to several areas. The tender documents included the reuse of several existing products in the nightclub area, amongst which were a range of Coemar products including Mini UltraScans (compact 200MSD moving mirror units) and Synchros (club effects lighting) - a testament to their quality and longevity. Additional specifications for the nightclub area included reference to the popular Reel EFX DF50 Diffusion Fogger - one of the world’s most popular effects units.

The lighting of the Atrium area, the large glass dome that is a major visual

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Millions across the world tuned in to the BBC's live coverage of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother's funeral on Tuesday 9 April, while in London itself over a million people turned out to pay their respects. Live audio coverage of the funeral service along the length of the route from Westminster Abbey to the end of The Mall was provided by Dobson Sound, under contract to Westminster Sound, who have been responsible for audio relay at events such as the Remembrance Day Parades and the funeral of Princess Diana.

Westminster Sound has been involved in the planning and design of the event, codenamed ‘Tay Bridge’, for over two years. According to Paul Dobson, who was responsible for much of the design, the system itself was reasonably straightforward. Nevertheless, it involved some 96 d&b loudspeakers along the route, and literally miles of cable, none of which could be run at ground

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Creative Technology North America provided display technology, screens and technical expertise for the recent 74th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, better known as the Oscars. ABC aired the live event nationwide to an international audience of approximately one billion viewers.

Creative Technology was responsible for an impressive quantity of display devices including large scale projection equipment, screens, LED panels and plasma displays. Using a total of 14 Digital Projection and 11 Christie Digital projectors, CT displayed the evening’s images onto a variety of screen sizes and shapes. For the extremely bright ‘Best Picture’ screen, CT utilised Digital Projection technology, including two 15 SX and one 25 SX projected onto a 16ft x 29ft Stewart screen. The ‘Cinerama’ screen consisted of a massive 18ft x 72ft Stewart Aeroview 100 screen that was masked

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) has been commissioned to provide the staging for another major Royal event, this time to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in June 2002. The Queen will host two major events in the grounds of Buckingham Palace on 1 June and 3 June this year to celebrate her Golden Jubilee. These two unprecedented events will be held in front of 12,000 people on each day. The format involves an audience drawn from all over the UK. The events will be broadcast live by BBC television and radio around the world as well as over the internet.

The first event is a classical concert, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, with Mstislav Rostropovich, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir Thomas Allen, amongst others, providing a repertoire of opera and musical theatre pieces. The second event, the Party at the Palace, brings together a roster of familiar artists including Eric Clapton, Phil Collin

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Leading manufacturer DPA Microphones, based in Allerød, Denmark, marks its 10th anniversary this month. Founded in 1992 by Morten Støve and Ole Brøsted Sørensen, DPA Microphones traces its origins back to the Pro Audio division of Bruel & Kjaer, and the two companies enjoy a mutually productive working relationship to this day.

DPA Microphones has recently moved into stylish new premises in its home town of Allerød, some 30 miles north of Copenhagen. The 1600sq.m facility houses the R&D team, led by Ole Brøsted Sørensen, all sales and marketing, service and dispatch, and a work force of 30 people. DPA’s engineers and visiting customers enjoy the luxury of an in-house recording studio. Purpose-built with a 30sq.m live room, the studio is equipped with a digital console and outboard electronics from fellow Danish companies, such as TC Electronics, DAD and TubeTech. It is us

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The Avesco Group has secured a major contract to supply AV services to Manchester 2002, for this year’s Commonwealth Games events. Negotiated by Group Business Development Director, Dave Crump, it will become one of the largest single projects ever undertaken by Avesco, and has earned the company the status of ‘Official Provider of Audio Visual Services to the Manchester 2002 XVII Commonwealth Games.’

Few UK companies have the resources to be able to service such a wide range of venues and sporting activities simultaneously, and Dave Crump confirmed that the implementation should require participation from almost every company within the Group - notably Screenco, MCL Manchester and Dimension Audio. Crump himself will be co-ordinating the overall project as well as the Screenco activity, while Jamie McAffer will be project managing for MCL Manchester and Mark Boden for

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Tony Swayne, a new face in the industry, a qualified electrical engineer and an experienced businessman is the new owner of Andolite Limited, the manufacturer of internally wired lighting bars, standard and custom panels and power distribution.

Swayne is taking over from Alex Collister who, following a handover period, is retiring. Both will be attending this summer’s ABTT (London and Leeds) and PLASA shows and look forward to meeting old and new customers there. Swayne will continue to develop the company as a manufacturer of products tailored to the needs of the expanding industry.

(Ruth Rossington)

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The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) recently officially welcomed its new joint Presidents, Richard Pilbrow and Robert Ornbo, at a dinner held in their honour at Kettners, in the heart of London’s theatre district. The dinner, which was made possible by a bequest from Michael Northen MBE, the previous president who passed away last year, was attended by some 25 members and guests of the ALD. Richard and Robert, together with Chairman Rick Fisher, have an enormous amount of combined experience and the ALD will benefit greatly from their knowledge, not just of the theatre but of all the other various sectors in which lighting designers work today.

(Ruth Rossington)

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In a move designed to better serve the growing market, Bandit Lites has purchased additional facilities in Nashville, Tennessee. Michael Strickland, CEO, explained the rationale behind the move: "In order to meet our client’s expectations, we needed an additional facility - with this space we will be able to quadruple our output in Nashville." While the current property will continue to serve as the main base of operations, the new warehouse will serve as an overflow storage facility and a suitable space for preparing multiple shows to the Bandit Standard, while still allowing for expansion.

Bandit’s Vice President, based in Nashville, Michael Golden explains: "Our plan will involve a fully staffed facility to build and prep systems while our current facility will become more of an administration and pre-rehearsal programming facility. It is our intention to

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Conventionally, sponsors at the Royal Opera House have a physical corporate presence at the venue. But in a complete break with tradition on April 4, Audi became the first sponsor to light the outside of the building with its corporate brand at a performance of the ballet Giselle, with Darcey Bussell dancing the title role.

In addition to lighting the exterior of the Royal Opera House, two Audi cars, one a vintage 1930s model and the second, the latest A4 convertible, were also on display. In support, Fourth Phase London and DHA Lighting joined forces with Pandemonium Events to make sure the evening was a success. To light the two cars Fourth Phase London used Source Four Pars and a Source Four profile. The cars were lit in open white, whilst the profile was equipped with a DHA monochrome gobo and projected the famous Audi rings onto the pavement between the cars. Two Mac 500s, also f

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Lighting and sound specialist Hawthorn Theatrical has recently supplied lighting, trussing, rigging and drapes for the UK and European leg of the current Chemical Brothers tour. Lighting designer for the tour is Andy Liddle, who has been working with Hawthorn Theatrical since last April. He has specified High End Studio Beams, Martin MAC 300s and Atomic strobes, Clay Paky Stage Scans, Avolites dimmers and a Wholehog 2 control desk.

Hawthorn Theatrical's main challenge was to produce a circular revolving structure which could be used as a projection screen and then flip over to its reflective side at the end of the show to form the centrepiece of a breath-taking finale. In addition, the screen had to be lightweight and modular as it was to travel with the band for the whole of the World tour. As an approved Prolyte dealer, Hawthorn Theatrical provided 4.5m circular truss from the H30V r

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Bucharest, the capital of Romania, witnessed a dramatic new development right in the heart of the city earlier this month. Communications company Orange was inspired to use a live concept to bring a part of their current marketing strategy to life, and in doing so engage their audience directly.

Park Avenue, based in London, worked closely with Orange’s Global Corporate Articulation team to devise the concept, a simple structure as the device to house a series of events for Orange. Park Avenue turned to Edwin Shirley Staging’s (ESS) London office to realize the concept. The entire project was installed and commissioned on site at the first attempt in less than one working week and remained in place for events scheduled between 5 April and 9 April.

(Ruth Rossington)

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The first of the Dixons Group’s ElectroWorld stores in Budapest recently opened its doors. To impart the core ‘value for money’ message effectively and dynamically, the store uses a 10m2 Lighthouse LVP1010 (10mm pixel pitch) LED screen installed above the home cinema section of the store. The screen sits directly above a room that has been designated for customers to sample these high-end consumer products.

"Originally, the store was going to use a combination of conventional projectors and projector cubes," says Lighthouse’s Dave Gunn. "But once they saw the brightness of LED screen, they were bowled over by its dramatic effect, which also meant that they would not have to reduce the levels of ambient light in that part of the store, which would have been the case with projection."

Lighthouse has developed a number of strategic alliances w

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Autograph Sound Recording has just completed its third theatre sound workshop for LIPA's sound technology degree students. This year the workshop took place at the Manchester Palace Theatre, where Miss Saigon has been playing to a full house for the past six months, its first stop on a two year UK tour.

Prior to seeing the show, the students were invited to meet two of Autograph's leading sound designers, Terry Jardine, the company's managing director and Nick Lidster, sound designer for the UK touring production of Miss Saigon. Terry talked them through the roles of a theatrical sound team, from designer to production crew, while Nick explained his design for the touring version and its development from the original West End production, which premiered just over 12 years ago at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

The workshop then moved into the auditorium, were the students met Miss

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Martin Audio has supplied a large club sound system through its Irish distributor Rea Sound, to fulfil the exacting remit of club owner Peter Collins at his new venue, Club One in Cork. Collins and partner Denis O’Mullane have spared no expense in converting a former lap-dancing venue into an 800-capacity House/Garage dance club. They reckon to have spent around €1 million euros (£750,000) on the work - without the cost of the building - having brought in interior designer John Duffy, and Cork-based audio consultant Chris Tyler to ensure the venue achieved both aesthetic and acoustic perfection.

It was the latter who introduced Rea Sound to the contract, as the quest began for a system that could reproduce the hard R&B-flavoured music favoured by the clientele. Visits were arranged to Fabric in London - as well as premium Martin Audio sites in Northern Ireland - by Rea Sound&rs

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Audio Sound Advice of Blackpool have supplied a complete audio system for the new production of Funny Girls, which re-opened recently at its new home in the old Odeon Cinema in Blackpool. The Funny Girls concept is to entertain the audience with famous show songs and arrangements, all performed by men in drag.

The refurbishment of the art deco theatre - complete with gilt adornments and deep carpets - included work in the private members club, nightclub, restaurant, main bar and feeder bars.

Audio Sound Advice’s Peter Bawden designed the theatre audio system and he and business partner Kevin Jones spent three months working closely with Phillip Holmes, project manager for venue owners In The Pink Leisure to ensure that it met all the venue’s needs. (ITPL was founded over 20 years ago by Basil Newby and now operates many of Blackpool’s most colourful venues.)

The

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BarcoEvents receives orders for over 5000 square feet (450 square meters) of its award-winning LED displays during the first quarter of 2002, posting a growth of over 50% over the same period last year. The division, one of the fastest growing within the Barco group, boasts several substantial orders this year, including orders by US-based wholesale rental giant VER (Video Equipment Rentals), multi-national event engineering companies PSL Group (USA & UK), the Avesco Group’s Screenco & Creative Technology (USA & UK), as well as VPS (France), Imag -Video (USA) and AV Teknik (Sweden). BarcoEvents has already received LED orders in excess of US$25 million during the first quarter of this year.

According to industry market research data, BarcoEvents counted over 60% market share (by value) of the total global LED rental market during 2001. The recently-released growth figures indicat

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The enclosed photos are from the Caracas Pop Festival where UV/FX designed and painted 2 large scenic pieces that fit on the 30' x 50' main speakers. The promoters wanted the logo of the festival to become visible at opportune times and have control over when the logo appeared and disappeared. The art was created to match the rainforest like setting of this festival and painted on sound transmitting linofilled scrim. The much-anticipated musical extravaganza started on 13 March and ran until 17 March, just outside of Caracas, Venezuela. The five-day concert features many favorite artists on one stage and was attended over 30,000 people. UV/FX has also recently completed custom designed and painted scenic projects for Shaggy, The City Of Science Museum in Paris and many more projects worldwide.

(Lee Baldock)

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A new multi-storey themed café bar in London’s chic Mayfair area, Café Grand Prix has been developed by a consortium of Monaco-based financiers at a cost of nearly £10million. Now London’s largest bar and restaurant, it takes its style and name from the famous venue located on the legendary Rascasse bend at the Monaco Grand Prix race circuit in Monte Carlo.

Onyx Projects were asked by architects Smith Caradoc-Hodgkins (SCH) to design an integrated AV solution after the two companies had worked together on developing the Rainforest Café concept. There are three individually styled restaurants contained within the vast 22,000sq.ft footprint on the site for the former Thomas Cook head office - occupying the ground floor and two basement levels. The feature area - La Rascasse Restaurant - is a large, 170-cover banqueting room, which is also available for corporate functions

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Since its debut in 1999, when it won both the PLASA Award for Product Excellence and the EDDY Award - City Theatrical’s AutoYoke continues to find more favour as designers and production managers see how its versatility and reliability make their work easier.

AutoYokes play a starring role in a planetarium show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, CT, where a 150ft-wide planetarium dome rises about three stories into the air. Each AutoYoke is fitted with a mirror system and paired with a Vicom Wega 1200 slide projector. Images of clouds, stars and moons are projected onto the mirrors, and the mirrors move as the AutoYokes pan and tilt - making the clouds drift, the stars shoot, and the moons rise and fall.

"We installed 17 AutoYokes in August, and they are working very well," says Hank Forrest, senior associate principal at Fisher Marantz Stone, the show’s m

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Grandmaster Flash, founder of modern hip hop, is touring Europe using a specially customised Rane TTM 54i mixer. Flash’s set is a combination of retrospective sounds from his block party roots in the 1970s, presented in a contemporary style and atmosphere using the latest technology from Rane. His set sounds every bit as fresh and original as ever, creating positive energies and vibes plus a distinctive 21 century sound via the art of scratch mixing.

Flash has always customised his gear, right from the start. Originally, he explained, this was because the equipment simply wasn’t designed for the creative style of mixing he pioneered. He has now used Rane equipment for a couple of years: the first time he heard a Rane mixer - whilst playing at the New York club Life - he fell in love with it’s clear sound. "Rane is simply the cleanest mixer I’ve found,"

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Show Presentation Services (SPS) has just completed a number of events for children's charities, including the Microsoft NSPCC Ball, Scene and Heard's fundraising event, the Rhys Daniels' Trust Valentines Ball and the Children of Achievement awards, all of which took place in London.

Microsoft corporate social responsibility manager Sarah Foxall commented: "SPS was able to proactively think through the difficult issues presented by the event, and come up with solutions that allowed us to put on a great evening for our guests. With the generous support of our suppliers like SPS the Microsoft Charity Ball has been able to raise over £360,000 for the NSPCC over the last eight years." Ray Lowton, SPS's head of sound, said: "We try to make these events as painless for charities as possible. Working with charities is always rewarding and we like to feel that we can find time

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  4. Martin Exterior 600s on Dubai’s Fairmont Hotel
  5. ARX appoints KEM as distributor for Greece
  6. Beverley Knight gets up with Shure
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