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PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

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For the first time in the UK retail industry, an LVP1010 (10mm pixel pitch) LED screen has been installed in HMV’s Oxford Street store, to act as both an entertainment and advertising medium.

The screen, measuring 3.84m x 2.4m, is part of a complete audio visual installation undertaken by London-based Interactive View and forms the backdrop to a 6 x 5m stage area constructed by Rode Island. The area is designed to host an array of live events, including DJs, solo artists and bands and was heralded by a week of live events, including appearances by Grand Master Flash, Craig David, Blue and The Libertines promoted on Capital Radio throughout.

Interactive View managing director, Lee Edwards, commented: "This is the largest audio-visual installation in a retail outlet in the UK to date, and is part of HMV’s nationwide refurbishment. We’ve designed and managed this

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For the second year running, White Light is supporting the Crisis Open Christmas by supplying lighting equipment to the entertainment events which take place in the East London shelter which the charity Crisis runs during the Christmas period.

Crisis has been running their Open Christmas since 1972, with five shelters staffed by volunteers open from 23 - 30 December offering not only accommodation, warmth and food but much more, including medical services and resettlement advice. Last year, lighting designer Jenny Kagan volunteered, responding to the Crisis form's request for information about 'specialist skills' with the quip "lighting and stage management, though I don't suppose you have much call for either." A few days later she found herself organizing the backstage side of the Open Christmas' Entertainments!

"Entertainment has always been part of the Crisis Open

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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The newly launched DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing system recently embarked on its first US tour, a two-month North American odyssey with Beck, in support of the band’s acclaimed new album, Sea Change, which reached number 8 in the Billboard Hot 200.

The tour’s audio was provided by Showco of Dallas, with Jon Lemon at the front of house controls and John Shearman on monitors. A Showco Prism PA system, with a Clair Brothers IO wireless loudspeaker controller and Amcron amplification, delivered the wattage to audiences of up to 5,000. Jon also used a hard disk recording system, linked directly to the D5 Live, to record the show and perform pre-soundcheck system set-up. Showco’s Jim Ragus was FOH system technician, with Justin Hoffman as monitor tech.

Beck - supported by The Flaming Lips on the tour - comprises a five-piece band, plus Beck himself, with drums, keyboard/g

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Leading Milan production facility, Cinevideostudio, has purchased 20 Coemar iWash and iSpot 575s, to be located in two of its five studios. Run by Paolo Baraldi, the studio conducts 90% of its work for MTV Italy, who share the complex in Milan - although they also enjoy close co-operation with RAI, the state-owned broadcaster.

Cinevideostudio was established in Mantua, near Verona, back in 1983, and moved to Milan in 1997 where the collaboration with MTV Italy began. Today it employs around 80 people, and boasts a complete post-production suite - with editing and transfer facilities dedicated to Quantel and Avid - as well as transmission studios among its facilities.

Cinevideostudio’s E studio, featuring the lighting of Coemar, was used recently for a concert with international artists Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette, REM and Oasis, for the Italian MTV Live, which is shot i

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Reading-based rental company Skan PA Hire has provided a sound system for the recent Supergrass tour of the UK. The tour played venues including Newcastle University, Glasgow Barrowlands, Cardiff University and the Academy in Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol respectively, terminating with three nights at London's Shepherds Bush Empire.

Skan sub-hired an EAW KF850 system from Villa Audio to fulfil the requirements of the band's front of house engineer Mike Hornby, which it combined with its own amplifiers and control system. The front of house system included a Midas Heritage 2000 console and EAW KF853 mid-high and KF852 low boxes with SB1000 subs powered by Lab Gruppen amplifiers, together with a Midas XL3 monitor console and Turbosound TFM-450 biamped 2-way wedges. Skan also supplied manpower in the shape of full-time employees Matt Vickers and Ant Carr.

This combination of equipm

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Northampton-based event and display lighting specialists Mushroom Event Services Limited has launched a new website, which includes the first downloadable PDF format of both their sales and hire catalogues. The new site has been designed to make selection of products and services both quick and easy, with the sales and hire catalogues downloadable in PDF format at the click of a mouse.

Mushroom spokesman Paul Butler explains: "For many years we've produced a paper-based hire and sales catalogue and although this has been extremely successful for us, we wanted to move our service forward and make sure that we are instantly accessible for our clients and potential clients. The new site has been designed in such a way that every product and service is instantly available to view for anyone with internet access."

Mushroom offer an extensive range of lighting sales and rental se

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Canegreen Commercial Presentations Ltd continued a busy 2002 winter season, making sure the sound matched the quality of the winners at the Woman of the Year Awards, held at the Hyde Park Hotel Inter-Continental in London.

The awards, sponsored by O2, celebrated women’s achievements in music and related industries, with Sharon Osbourne walking away with the coveted ‘Woman of the Year Award’. Women from all areas of the music industry picked up awards in categories including lifetime achievement and special achievement of the year given by guest award presenters, from Dr Fox of Capital Radio fame, to Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Will Young.

Canegreen Commercial was presented with the challenge of achieving audio coverage to all of the 450 guests in the Grand Ballroom at the Inter-Continental, from a central stage. They achieved this by flying eight Meyer UPA-1P S

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Filipino install and live sound company, Stage Craft International, has been utilizing eight Chameleon 3700 DP/2 amplifiers at a variety of events in Manila, with venues spanning small nightclubs to major raves featuring top DJs. The first Chameleon benefactor was Decades, one of Manila’s most popular nightclubs, where a single 3700 DP/2 has been installed to power a Turbosound rig at the 300-capacity venue. "Because it plays rock to rave music, Decades was looking for a more heavy sound, so the 3700 DP/2 is currently driving the subs only. There has been a significant increase in dB level and a marked improvement in low end grunt," says Stage Craft’s Frankie Zabala.

The Gatecrasher, God’s Kitchen, Ministry of Sound and Cream raves - all staged in the 3,000 capacity NBC Tent at Fort Bonifaco - also benefited from Chameleon’s renowned power handling cap

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MC2 Audio has recently notched up its first sale of amplifiers to Malta. Light Sound Vision, a member of the ITC Group, contacted MC2 Audio via their website in early spring 2002 and a follow-up meeting was arranged for the PLASA Show. "We were very pleased to have the opportunity to meet Mario Camilleri, managing director of Light Sound Vision at PLASA in September," commented Ian McCarthy. "Their initial order for amplifiers from both the MC range and T Series followed in October and we now look forward to future collaboration with Light Sound Vision."

(Ruth Rossington)

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Fifteen months in the job, and already the Fairfield Hall’s new technical coordinator Ian Locke is beginning to make his presence felt; not least in the realms of safety. "Before I took the appointment I could already see this was a very, very busy venue; sometimes three performances a day, so I knew safe working practices would be paramount."

Consequently there has been, in his own words "huge changes", not least the recent installation of a new rigging grid above the famous Fairfield stage. "The existing grid was well past its sell-by date, so in September of 2001 I visited PLASA to see what was available. At the time I didn’t even know Total Fabrications’ T2 system existed (hardly surprising as it was barely a year since launch) so when I stopped by their stand I was more than impressed with the system."

Being a prudent shopper, Lock

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The Event Show 2003 (28-30 January, National Hall, Olympia) will see leading event professionals come together to provide a unique forum of workshops, advice clinics and seminars. Over 250 companies will be on hand to help, as well as leading professional organisations such as TESA, NOEA, BECA, and PSA.

The main programme involves a series of high profile speakers. On 28th January, Brian Blake, MBE presents a talk on ‘The do’s and don’ts of getting a licence.’ Blake has been responsible for the technical aspects of public entertainment licensing within Westminster for 27 years, and has covered a wide range of events, including outdoor concerts in Hyde Park, and the Queen’s Jubilee, where he was responsible for public safety and contingency planning.

On the 29th January, the focus is ‘Spotlight on Local Authorities.’ Sponsored by NOEA, the s

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Star Rigging joined a star line-up in December 2002, rigging the set and production for the Top of the Pops Awards, as they celebrated a successful year for the pop world. In a year that brought us Pop Idol and Fame Academy and more pop tours and radio roadshows than ever before, the Top of the Pops Awards gave its own accolades to the most successful acts of 2002. The show attracted the year’s hottest property, from Miss Dynamite, winner of the best R&B act, to Kylie and the Manic Street Preachers. Star Rigging was once again contracted to supply the rigging for the entire set, lighting, sound and screens for the awards, held in the Manchester Evening News Arena.

Phil Broad was head rigger for the show and worked with the organizers from the concept of the stage set to the practicalities of the rigging on the day. Phil worked with the client, BBC Worldwide, production manager St

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Emmy-award winning developer Rick Hutton has assembled a highly experienced team to launch a new company - InLight Gobos - which will be based in Dallas, Texas. The team has a combined 37 years invested in producing gobos for the entertainment production industry and will offer high quality glass gobos, both catalogue and custom artwork, in black and white/greyscale or full colour.

The technology to produce the gobos is licensed from Beacon AB in Sweden, which utilizes a photolithographic process on ultra-thin zero expansion glass. This glass is the thinnest stack available, producing a full colour image that is only 1.5mm thick, allowing the optical system to focus on all four layers simultaneously.

Backing the technology will be a highly experienced team. President Rick Hutton has spent more than 20 years in the entertainment lighting and laser industries: he has authored severa

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L-Acoustics has announced the addition of two new members to its global V-Dosc Network. Live Sound Agency is the first Eastern European V-Dosc Partner to join the Network. The Moscow-based company was founded in 1990 by Yuri Sokolov and now employs more than 50 people to take care of all national and international concerts, festivals and tours, corporate and governmental events, working with local partners to offer a high standard of service, ranging from sound and lighting systems, to stages, decorations and communication.

In only 12 years, the Russian service provider has become the largest sound company in Russia and on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and has already worked with artists as varied as Placido Domingo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joe Cocker, Al Di Meola, Sting, Liza Minelli and Montserrat Caballe and many others.

Meanwhile, Gearhouse LLC in Dubai has acquired a

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Screenco provided three large displays to enhance performances by a diverse array of stars at this month’s Royal Variety Performance, London. Icons and celebrities from the worlds of music, film, television and theatre gathered for the prestigious annual Royal Variety Performance in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

The who’s who of the showbiz world included Anastacia, the cast of Bombay Dreams, Enrique Iglesias, Gareth Gates, Kylie Minogue, Liberty X, Ronan Keating, Shania Twain, Will Young and many others. Working for BBC Resources, Screenco supplied a giant 15mm display - measuring 4.8m x 5.04m and positioned upstage centre - rigged on a solid truss and flanked by a pair of Barco i8 displays, measuring 2.24m square. Screenco controlled the content on screen, including the graphic content - created by Artbeat and processed by Blitz. This provided on

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Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new top of the line events centre and nightspot ‘Oasis’. Previously a run down Steakhouse, it has been transformed into a corporate events center during the day and a top of the line Nightclub in the evening. Local movie theater owner and head of Ambassador Entertainment, Bill Peebles, who takes a direct and hands on approach to the facilities, specified a state of the art lighting & sound system for the main room of his new venture.

A grandMA ultra-light runs the lighting at Oasis and is controlling 10 Martin Wizards & 8 Martin Mini Mac Spots along with an assortment of dimmers and practicals. Bill programmed the bulk of the nightclub himself, over a 3 day period, under the supervision of A.C.T Lighting's Mike Falconer. Bill chose the grandMA after an extensive period of research, looking at a number of larger nightclubs and their control sys

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The feel and flavours of the Ottoman Empire were the influences behind one of London's hottest new restaurants, the 130-seater Chintamani which recently opened in Jermyn Street. With sumptuous interiors and an eclectic menu, Chintamani also boasts a sophisticated JBL/Crown sound system, complete with DJ booth supplied and installed by The Sound Division Group.

According to Sound Division managing director, David Graham, the brief was quite clear. "They wanted the best restaurant sound system in London, and were prepared to commit the budget to do it," said David. "We were recommended to the client on the strength of testimonials from DJs who have played at MoMo’s where we installed a state-of-the-art Meyer sound system last year."

The system comprises a pair of JBL Control 29s which act as DJ monitors, and a further 12 JBL Control 25s which are distributed a

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Creative Technology (CT) produced some unusual television effects for the BBC Children In Need fund-raising marathon hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin recently. The company was contracted by BBC Resources to build on the Totaliser screen reinforcement they provided last year, as well as adding a spectacularly ‘retro’ LED dancefloor. The dancefloor dominated the stage and was in use for much of the evening. CT’s project manager Paul Holden said: "Last year we provided a flown screen over the Totaliser using Barco i6 high-brightness panels. This year we used 80 of the superior Barco i8 panels, in a 16 x 5 configuration."

The display - measuring 7.16m wide by 2.24m - was run in 16:5 format, receiving 16:9 aspect ratio feeds, to create a letterbox effect. The content mostly comprised of Totaliser-specific graphics. But the more challenging aspect of the set

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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." So is the wisdom of "The Little Prince," teaching the adults what is essential in the beloved childhood fable by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. His tale comes to life this holiday season at The State Theatre in Austin, Texas. And products from locally-based lighting manufacturer High End Systems ensure that what is essential is made visible to the eye.

Well-known Broadway lighting designer Richard Winkler (Evita & Fame - The Musical Tour) is using High End Systems' Catalyst system for the first time. He's also specified a High End rig with eight Studio Spot 575 and four Studio Color 575 automated luminaires, controlled by a Flying Pig Systems Hog 500 console.

"Catalyst is a new tool that will help revolutionize the industry - it will take us to the next l

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Professional service provider Ernst & Young greeted its newest graduate recruits with a day-long team-building event at East London's Three Mills Island Studios in November. Some 450 Ernst & Young employees, including 300 graduate trainees and their mentors, attended the day, which was spent in team-building exercises and preparing contributions to an evening of song, mime and acting.

Providing lighting for the evening's entertainment was Fourth Phase London, to the specification of lighting designer Paul Cook. "Improvisation was very much the order of the day for the trainees," said Cook, "so lighting their performances was challenging - we never knew quite what to expect!" The rig that Fourth Phase supplied included dimming, control and luminaires plus effects such as a smoke machine, a cracked oil machine and star cloths for maximum flexibility. "We had to b

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Rental Pro, the leading Czech rental company, provided a Nexo GEO Tangent Array system, supplied by MusicData, the Czech Nexo distributor, for a concert by the popular band Czechomor together with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Czechomor is a very popular band, the winner of three Czech 'Grammy' Awards. The concert took place in Obecni dum (The Municipal House), which is a very prestigious and historical music-hall in Prague, built in the first decade of the 20th century. The musical evening, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the multinational building company Skanska, was attended by nearly 1200 people.

The GEO system consisted of two arrays - six S-805s, one S-830 and two CD12s subwoofers per side. Nexo NX241s were used for processing as well as Camco Vortex-6 amps. Both the monitoring and FOH engineers were impressed by the GEO system. Even though there were many condens

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Germany-based laser specialist LOBO has reinforced its position as the unchallenged leader at this year's International Laser Display Association (ILDA) Awards Ceremony in Walt Disney World. The yearly ILDA Awards are awarded among competing companies within the umbrella organization of the laser show industry. This year, once again, LOBO received most of the prizes. Although the company only joined the ILDA eight years ago, it has already been awarded a record-breaking 57 ILDA Awards.

Art director Alexander Hennig says: "In most companies laser shows are produced by just one or two persons. In the LOBO Studios the workflow and the logistics of a show are more like a movie production, from musicians, illustrators, digitizers and 3D-animators to beam show programmers .... It took, for example, 18 persons over a period of more than two months, to implement the graphics show ‘7

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The SBC Centre at San Antonio, Texas, the new home of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, has at its technological heart a unique, tightly integrated, $6.5 million video package of live action screens, banner displays and a scoreboard system designed and co-ordinated by Lighthouse, in conjunction with a team of specialist partners. The project marks Lighthouse’s largest indoor installation contract to date, and features the company’s new M4 screen technology, unveiled in four new screen products at this year’s NAB and Infocomm shows.

The scoreboard module is four-sided and arranged on five levels, housing a total of 12 screens. At the top is a ring of eight Lighthouse LVP2056 (20mm pixel pitch/5,600 nits) screens, formatted in an unusual 2:1 ratio rather than the usual 4:3 or 16:9, for advertising and scoring. Next down is a custom-built LED digit scoreboard ri

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UK - Marquee Audio have assisted in the upgrade of Dust Bar Café, one of the original 'Urban chic' venues serving London's trendy Clerkenwell Road. The independent bar had been running as a ground-floor DJ bar on a 2am licence for the past five years - but recently decided to expand the operation onto the first floor.

According to project director, Atan Burrows, the sound system upgrade coincided with a new interior design (by owner and co- director, Raymond Brown) and the launch of a new restaurant and cocktail list. "Dust has developed a reputation on the back of breaking out new DJ talent, and so with the addition of a second floor, good sound reinforcement became a top priority," he said. He had been referred to Marquee by another satisfied client from a Shoreditch bar/restaurant, but the decision to use Marquee was only made after a competitive tender. &quo

  1. Irish Youth Foundation's Christmas Ball
  2. Carreras performs with Midas at one of Forgotten Wonders
  3. Radio City Christmas Spectacular with JBL Vertec & Crown
  4. XTA and Fearless Audio with Bob Geldof
  5. Marenghi to light We Will Rock You
  6. Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena installs Apogee ALA
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
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