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PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

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Malta - A performance by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli accompanied by the Maltese National Orchestra launched the new Malta Fairs & Convention Centre (MFCC) as a concert venue. The show was attended by 7,500 people including Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and President Edward Fenech Adami.

The new 27,000 square metre MFCC venue is located on a purpose built site at the centre of the Island, with a large parking area and easy access from all directions. It's the largest performance/convention/exhibition space in the country and the only indoor venue offering full production facilities to accommodate medium to large concerts, tours and shows. It is intended to generate a whole new level of commercial fairs, concert, conference, corporate event and live music business in the county, attracting world class performers and leading destination management companies.

The structure is th

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UK - Blackburn-based HSL has purchased a 16-way Kinesys automation system, including 15 1-tonne Liftket vari-speed motors, converted to work with the Kinesys kit and Elevation 1+ hoist controllers, which went straight out on the Snow Patrol pre-Xmas UK arena tour.

Lighting designer Dave Sherwin wanted to move some of his trusses, while video director Blue Leach's design was based on having five differently shaped moving high resolution video screens (supplied by XL Video), so HSL decided it was the right time to buy a system.

"We'd been looking into this for some time," says HSL's technical director Howard Dean. "We explored the options and reckoned that it's the best automation system on the market, so it was really just a question of 'when?'."

Kinesys, complete with its proprietary PC-based Vector software, seemed to be the most flexible and user-friend

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, large-format projection specialist E//T//C UK projected 40 giant portrait images depicting 'Dreams of London' onto the Shell Tower for London's New Year's Eve 2006/07 celebrations.

The spectacular public event organised by the Mayor of London and Visit London, included a memorable pyrotechnic, lighting and visual extravaganza designed to capture the spirit of London at the start of 2007. The event took place along the Thames, encompassing the South Bank between Jubilee and Westminster Bridges, including iconic landmarks like the London Eye and Big Ben. It was enjoyed live by 200,000 people on the streets, and broadcast live on BBC 1 to several million viewers.

The eye-catching black and white photographs by Mark Livemore illustrating the dreams and aspirations of selected pupils from the Johanna Primary School in Lambeth - were projecte

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UK - The Unsigned Heroes contest, sponsored by microphone company AKG, has been a great success so far, with over 1100 entrants in the first two months. The competition, which is run by AKG's distributor in the British Isles, Harman Pro UK, aims to find the best unsigned band in the UK and Eire. It was launched at the Music Live show in Birmingham in early November.

Over 370 bands have entered, sending their tracks to be assessed by the Harman judges. The rules of the competition forbid bands with fewer than three members from entering, so over 1100 band members are currently awaiting the results of the final.

The winning band get to play at the prestigious Koko club in London, to record for a day with a name producer in a top studio, and to play at one of the UK's Summer 2007 outdoor festivals. They'll also net a PA rig from Harman Pro UK with a total value of £1

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UK - Drapes specialist J&C Joel has completed the installation of a set of motorised acoustic drapes for the new Music School and Concert Hall at Millfield School in Street, Somerset. Millfield is one of the UK's most famous independent schools. Set in the fabulous undulating Somerset countryside overlooking Glastonbury Tor, it's renowned for the sporting achievements of many of its pupils.

The opening of the new Music School and Concert Hall demonstrates Millfield's ongoing commitment to the Arts, and incorporates a 350-seat concert venue, rehearsal areas for all their ensembles, six classrooms, 25 teaching/practice rooms, recording studios and specialist percussion rooms.

J&C Joel was consulted by main contractors Cowlin, who were working directly for DK Architects. The new main performance space has been designed to offer both acoustically correct music or drama performance

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UK - SPS, one of the UK's largest live event companies, is extending into the IT rental market with the launch in January of its 'Event IT' division. In the build-up to the launch, the company has invested significant financial resource in the latest technology which it believes will enable it to compete aggressively against those currently leading the field.

To head up this new division SPS has appointed Robin Fell from Hamilton Rentals, where he was instrumental in helping develop the company to become the current leader of this sector. Fell will become head of Event IT and will responsible for devising and implementing a sales strategy that will meet the company's considerable sales target assigned for 2007.

Fell is highly well known within this sector, working for Mircorent before moving on to become PC/AV sales team leader at Hamilton Rental.

The new division has been s

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Taiwan - The central library of Fo Guang University has completed a complex project of Mipro's wireless in-ear monitoring systems. The MI-808 system is a professional UHF-band stereo receiver and transmitter. The system is frequency-agile over a 24 MHz bandwidth with 16 selectable pre-programmed non-interference frequencies. 100 MI-808R receivers, eight MI-808T transmitters, four customised AD-808 Antenna Divider Combiners and 100-set of E8S earphones were installed.

Fo Guang University is a unique institution of higher learning dedicated to providing a traditional liberal arts education of global outlook in the grand Buddhist spirit (students are neither required nor expected to study Buddhism or practice it's tenants). The university belongs to Fo Guang Shan, built in 1967, it is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan today with over 1,000 monastics. Presently Fo Guang Shan

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UK - Status Quo have had more hit albums (33) in the British Albums Chart than any other band apart from The Rolling Stones. 2005 was the band's 40th year and they show their determination that they are not stopping yet, by launching into another UK & European tour in 2006.

They are currently near the end of the UK leg of Just Doin' It tour, playing to a mixture of theatres and arenas, which will then continue in July 2007.

Pat Marks, who has been lighting designer to Status Quo for the last 18 years says: "I'm usually given 'carte blanche' when designing Quo rigs, so I'm never given a brief, as such. However, I fancied going 'retro' this tour as I'd been dabbling with some high tech stuff over the last few years. I'd played around with loads of PixelLine and Pixel Pars last year and felt I was losing sight of the archetypal Quo rig i.e. big and brash!"

Mark

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UK - Primal Scream's three-month UK tour mounted an aural assault on fans across the nation. Headed by former Jesus & Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie, this is a band that truly rocks, needs an audio system that truly delivers and front of house engineer Tim Sunderland's choice of Britannia Row's Turbosound Aspect system certainly hasn't disappointed.

Sunderland wanted to use a point source system because of the nature of venues the tour visited, which ranged from the 10,000 capacity SECC in Glasgow through to the 1,800 capacity Bristol Academy. "A line array system's dispersion just wouldn't work for these venues," says Sunderland. "In some of them you're right on top of the band and the stage, so a line array would have been too much of a compromise."

This is Aspect's first extended foray into "really loud rock band territory" as Sunderland pu

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UK - Live music venues in the West Midlands are being offered funding to help improve their acoustics in response to a recent report carried out by Digital Central. The report, which looked into audiences' views on the quality of live music venues in the West Midlands found that a high percentage of people (82.3%) felt that the venue having a good PA system is the most important aspect to a great music venue. The report summary also indicates that 78% of audiences questioned felt that layout of the venue was important and considered good acoustics/sound, cost of drinks, quality of atmosphere and view of the stage as the most significant aspects to a great live music venue.

The survey gained responses from audience members with a wide range of music tastes and live music experiences, one of the respondents felt that the most important factor in a great music venue was: "Good

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USA - Crown International has ensured its on-going reputation for high quality products by establishing a Strategic Quality Team and upgrading its factory in Elkhart, Indiana, to incorporate a Reliability Test Lab equipped with the industry's most sophisticated and rigorous testing equipment.

Crown has always operated its own test equipment but in recent years its own testing criteria has become more stringent, which meant that some items had to be sent to outside laboratories for evaluation. By establishing its own comprehensive lab in-house, the company can now accelerate testing during the early phases of product development and conduct quality audits on lines already in production.

Heading up the Strategic Quality Team is Crown senior director of engineering Bob Chadderdon, who says: "This initiative has replaced older equipment and supplemented our existing tools wit

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USA - Effective immediately, Ableton Inc. will assume distribution of Ableton products to the US dealerchannel. Sales will be made via Ableton Inc., located in New York. To support the US sales and marketing effort, Ableton has established a new office in New York City managed by Dave Hill Jr.

"This is an important stage in Ableton's growth," said Hill. "We look forward to working closely with dealers on how to best sell Live in their markets. For the last few years, I've worked closely with M-Audio in the US market and feel honoured to take this next evolutionary step for Ableton."

"Since 2001, when we began selling Live, we have experienced tremendous growth in the US dealer channel. We are confident that our increased investments in the US market, combined with a dedicated end-user focus, will result in even more growth for our sales partners and ou

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UK - UK cable specialist VDC Trading is supporting anew live audio training initiative being established by Wigwam Acoustics inconjunction with the School of Sound Recording in Manchester.

The Charlie Jones Scholarship Scheme, which was launched at the end of 2006, isin memory of Wigwam engineer Charlie Jones who died earlier this year. Charlieplayed an important part in the growth and development of Wigwam over the pasttwenty years and was widely regarded as one of the industry's best live soundengineers, as well as a teacher and mentor to many young, up-and-comingengineers. Charlie not only recognised the importance of education in theindustry, but also enjoyed investing his own time to inspire and develop traineeengineers.

The Charlie Jones Scholarship is linked to SSR's Audio Engineering Course and isintended for young people who would otherwise not be able to afford this

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USA/UK - Lighting designer Rich Locklin was called upon to light the 2006 Paul Simon tour, his first time working with America's seminal singer-songwriter. "Paul Simon is an American icon," says Locklin. "You don't go to one of his shows for the lighting; you go for the songs, so I wanted to complement the music in a tasteful way. I tried to program each song as a story. When you think of a particular Paul Simon song you just know what type of lighting goes with it."

Locklin spec'ed an all MAC 700 Profile rig with a handful of conventionals available for support. Lighting control is from a Martin Maxxyz. "I wanted to take out the latest fixture and learn a new console; it's been a good exercise."

Specifying a rig that is all spot fixtures is unique in the world of show touring. "A wash fixture, that's all it can do, but a profile can do so mu

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Qatar - Bruce Jackson, audio director for the 15th Asian Gamesheld in Doha, Qatar in December, utilised 10 Dolby Lake Processor, sevenLake Contour and seven Lake Mesa Quad EQ units in the sound system employedduring the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies. The digitalloudspeaker processors, supplied by Australian sound contractor NorwestProductions Pty Ltd. were networked using Ethernet and were used tooptimise large ground-stacked L-Acoustics and flown Adamson delayloudspeaker systems at the recently renovated Khalifa International Stadiumduring Doha 2006.

"The comprehensive remote control over Ethernet of the Dolby Lake Processormakes it invaluable," says Jackson, who utilised similar widely distributedsound systems for the opening and closing ceremonies at the most recentCommonwealth and Olympic Games. "What's nice is that you can prioritise theinputs. T

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UK - If you use or work for a small business which you think is worthy of an award, then the organisers of the British Small Business Champions (BSBC) 2007 would like to hear from you. And, if the business you nominate is selected as a regional champion you will receive a bottle of champagne.

To let BSBC know about the business you think is great all you have to do is e-mail: bsbc@fsb.org.uk or write to BSBC 2007 PO Box 335, Lymington SO41 6WJ giving the name of the business, its address, a line or two about why you think it is outstanding, and your name and address. An entry form for British Small Businesses 2007 will then be sent to the business.

The business you nominate must not employ more than 50 people and have been trading for five years or more. Closing date for entries is 31 January 2007.

The annual British Small Busin

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UAE - Eid el Fitr marks the end of the 30-day fasting period of Ramadan and is a great celebration throughout the Muslim world. Celebrations take place all over Dubai and on the evening of Eid el Fitr it is common to get together with friends, families and loved ones for a huge feast.

Middle East Vari*Lite distributor Sultan Thomas, has been involved with the festivities for a number of years. And this year in collaboration with Music Plus Television, two shows were hosted in Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah Arena Hall.

Lighting designer Amir Touma specified 20 VL3000 Spots and 20 VL3000 Washes to provide the dynamic core of the lighting, supported by an assortment of other fixtures all controlled by a Jands Vista. The stage concept was created by Resources Stage Technologies who provided the stage, sound and lighting.

Sultan Thomas states: "Vari*Lite fixtures are very muc

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USA - In a city known for great entertainment, The Pearl, the new theatre at Las Vegas' Palms Casino Resort, is destined to become an attraction in itself. Scheduled to open in the spring of 2007, the venue features innovative stage and seating designs and state-of-the art performance technology. PRG engineered the lighting, dimming and control systems and provided all the lighting fixtures for The Pearl and a nearby ballroom.

"When we set out to build the most advanced live performance space in Las Vegas, The Palms naturally turned to PRG, the world's leading entertainment technology company. Their expertise in theatrical lighting and rigging is apparent in The Pearl concert theatre," said H.C. Rowe, entertainment director at The Palms Casino Resort.

Flexibility was key in lighting The Pearl's stage, which will serve as a luxury showcase for top-flight events, rangi

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UK - Ex-public relations professionals Duncan Stirling and Charlie Gilkes have teamed up with designer Ed Godrich to open the exclusive Kitts nightclub in Chelsea's Sloane Square - complete with a sound system largely supplied by Fuzion plc.

Since the bijou, 160-capacity club is situated in the basement of the new Sloane Square Hotel; the operating team knew they had to make every square metre count.

While Goodrich and his team of collectives have provided design inspiration around the perimeter wall, with a million hand-drilled holes, LED backlit to create a kind of pointillist fresco, complemented by silver leaf flecked flooring, a curved bronze bar and discreet booths, Duncan Stirling has come up his own piece of sonic magic.

His father Andrew Stirling is a highly-experienced pro audio design consultant, with a rich pedigree in the studio world. While Stirling Senior does

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Belgium - AED Rent Belgium, one of Europe's largest dry-hire rental support companies with headquarters in Willebroek, Belgium and subsidiaries in the Netherlands, France and Germany, has just taken delivery of six Innovason digital consoles packages from Innovason's Belgian distributor, A. Prévost.

AED Rent opted for a total of four Innovason Sy48 Evolution stand-alone packages and a custom configuration of two Sy80 consoles complete with Stage-Box and DioCore that will form one of AED Rent's signature P.A. Kits, capable of handling FOH and monitors for large scale events.

According to AED Rent CEO's Glenn Roggeman and Eddy Van Nuffel, the acquisition makes perfect sense under today's market conditions. "There is no doubt that the digital era has arrived," remarked Roggeman, "and as a service company, we have to ensure that we cater for the demand. Innov

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Spain - Stonex SA, MA Lighting's distributor in Spain, continued its workshop tour through Spain and held another successful workshop in Granada recently. 30 operators, lighting designers and associates from rental and theatre companies joined the training in the Centro de estudios escenicos de la junta de Andalucia. Miguel Angel Valera of Stonex used four grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, two grandMA ultra-light, three grandMA micro and grandMA video cosnoles to show the participants the extensive abilities of the grandMA system. In addition everyone had a laptop with grandMA onPC and grandMA 3D in use. "Everyone enjoyed the training. The grandMA has become very popular," Valera adds.

(Lee Baldock)

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Spain / Italy - Spanish loudspeaker designer and manufacturer Vieta has announced the appointment of Sisme S.P.A to represent Vieta's products in Italy.

Sisme is one of Italy's most distinguished pro audio companies, representing Shure, L-Acoustics and Celestion amongst other internationally recognised brands. Well-known as a distributor of sound reinforcement systems and pro audio products, Sisme has gained an excellent reputation as a partner for equipment dealers, installers and rental companies, say Vieta. The company was formed in 1967, and is located in Ancona, near Bologna.

President of Sisme Claudio Bugari welcomed the appointment, saying: "Vieta's Do Line speakers complement perfectly our existing range of high-quality installation lines, and the new, wireless So Line speakers are a perfect solution for the intelligibility problems associated with corporate prese

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Norway - Soundcraft's Vi6 digital audio console has found acceptance at the very heart of European dramatic theatre, installed at the distinguished Nationaltheatret in Oslo, popularly thought of as the spiritual home of Norway's most famous playwright Henrik Ibsen.

Soundcraft's Norwegian distributors LydRommet AS secured the prestigious order through quick reactions: when the theatre's existing digital console failed, spectacularly taking out all the HF drivers on the house PA system, LydRommet's Espen Andersen was able to supply the 32-fader Soundcraft Vi6 within days, according to sound engineer Roy Knudsen.

"LydRommet brought in their demo console on Friday, we had preparation time on Monday, we soundchecked on Tuesday. We exchanged the demo desk for our permanent new Vi6 on Wednesday and started rehearsals that very day."

The six-man sound team at the Nationalt

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Belgium - Located in Zwalm, a municipality in Belgium's Flemish province of East Flanders, Calypso Event Production provides sound for a variety of applications, including corporate functions, shows in theatres, and outdoor events. Calypso CEO Serge Cosijns was looking to grow his company and set out in search of a line array system that would meet his needs. His search ended at Meyer Sound, where he placed an order for a complement of self-powered M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.

"I was present the first day M'elodie was shown at the Frankfurt Pro Light+Sound Exposition," Cosijns says. "I was immediately impressed by the product and the Meyer Sound philosophy. Later, when I attended the first European demo of M'elodie together with the people of Meyer Sound Belux, I became convinced about the system and decided that my business exp

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  2. PRG at Las Vegas' newest concert venue
  3. Martin Pro for Durban's Playhouse
  4. Stage One at Mercedes-Benz World
  5. London's SmarT New Year
  6. A.C supplies Mobile Gaming Pro Circuit
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