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UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying the current Bryan Ferry UK and European tour with full lighting production and crew. This marks Bandit's first tour with the artist, whose hit-making career stretches back to the 1970s. Lighting designer for this tour is Graham Feast, and Bandit also worked with production manager, Jason Danter, on the project.

Bryan Ferry is performing songs from his new Dylanesque album, plus a few carefully selected classic Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music blockbusters. Ferry, a former fine art student, has some very clear ideas on visuals himself and is good at communicating these. Together, Ferry and Feast decided to make the show look totally different from a Roxy Music gig, keeping it moody, mysterious and with a definite 'sense of the unknown'.

On the first UK leg of the tour, they are playing concert halls and theatres. With no production rehearsals, j

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USA -With the installation of a new sound system featuring Meyer Sound's M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, North Point Ministries' newest satellite location, Browns Bridge Community Church in Cumming, Ga., delivers their message with the utmost power and clarity.

About 5,000 guests regularly attend Browns Bridge Community Church, which opened in October 2006. As with Buckhead Church in nearby Buckhead, Ga., an impressive, high-definition video presentation featuring senior pastor Andy Stanley's sermons highlights the church's Sunday morning programming. The recently installed Meyer Sound system ensures that everyone in the audience hears the inspirational messages with unquestionable intelligibility.

The loudspeaker system in the 2,100-seat main sanctuary is comprised of 26 self-powered M'elodie boxes configured in two arrays. "M'elodie was

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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UK - For chart topping Mika's current series of live dates, lighting designer Ian Tomlinson chose a mixture of fixtures, including: 12 PixelLine Micro Effects, 12 PixelLine 1044s, six PixelPars, six MAC 250 washes, six Mirrorballs and "lots of festoon".

The diverse rig allows Tomlinson to produce big theatrical effects, injecting visual creativity to the various characters that Mika brings to life during his shows. The Micros form an arch at the back of the stage and their high powered effects complemented the 1044s.

Tomlinson comments: "The Micros hold their own against the 1044s, I was very impressed and hopefully on the next tour we will introduce a media server. I'm pleased PixelLines are now available in different sizes, as it allows more flexibility in the rig - particularly when we are touring venues of different sizes."

All the lighting is supplie

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Italy - Three grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, three MA mediaPCs with grandMA video and two NSPs were on the equipment list for the Deutsche Bank convention in Turin. Lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, who also worked as set designer and operator, had chosen MA technology for this event, because "we wanted to integrate a lot of video. With grandMA video we got a powerful tool that is easy to handle and provides a very fast and direct access of the media server content due to the integration into the MA-Net. No other media server on the market is that comfortable."

In total, three screens were used for the videos - one screen measured 12m x 2.5m and two screens for back-projection. Pinna relates: "The aim was to create a multimedia show based on animations, video effects and projections with the possibility to interact with special Deutsche Bank content, backgr

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UK - A group of lean, fit and relatively small companies are taking the sound equipment industry by storm and showing the bigger players how it's done. That's according to business analysts Plimsoll Publishing, which says the emerging companies are increasing sales at three times the rate of their larger competitors, delivering four times the profitability, and showing five times the return on investment.

According to Plimsoll, which has 16,000 customers worldwide who rely on its regular reports on the market, price deflation is hitting the bigger companies where it hurts - in their pockets. It started with air travel, moved to electrical goods, used cars and even insurance. And now it has arrived in the sound equipment industry.

14 of the top 50 firms are losing money, while 27 are making less profit than last year. Salaries alone at the top 50 companies eat up 19% of sales.

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Europe - Audio-Technica has launched a dedicated website (www.atheadphones.com) to promote its full range of professional and consumer headphones directly to the customer, throughout the European Union. The website has been developed with two main objectives - to provide a brochure-ware site, with information on the full range of Audio-Technica headphones, and an e-commerce facility, enabling customers to purchase headphones directly by credit card, in both GBPs or Euros.

A parallel marketing campaign, to stimulate both online and offline sales, will include promotion of Audio-Technica headphones via the three major internet search engines, and advertising in the press and on the London Underground.

Commenting on the launch of the website, Harvey Roberts senior UK marketing manager Audio-Technica, said: "It is important to our growth strategy that we increase our share of

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UK - Sitaaray, a Bollywood-themed two-tier dining and corporate hospitality complex, has opened in London's Drury Lane with a sound system that incorporates JBL Control series speakers, Crown Xs series amplification and a complex BSS Soundweb London DSP routing system and mode switcher, all supplied by Harman Pro UK and installed by the Sound Division Group.

The new restaurant, above last year's much-vaunted Tamarai, completes restaurant entrepreneur Rohit Khattar's mission to combine a restaurant, 5.1 cinema, dance venue, art gallery and corporate entertainment under one roof.

The Sound Division Group was commissioned to install the complex system requirements by the restaurant's parent company Old World Hospitality. The company arrived on site in 2005, soon after Rohit Khattar purchased the former Millennium Club with a view to providing an extravagant sister operation in Lo

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Denmark - In order to provide users with "the best product documentation possible" Martin Professional has recently added a new, functional, and useful area to its website(s). The Product Resource Centre (www.martin.com/product/resource.asp) is a one-stop shop for all content related to an individual Martin product - information which users might otherwise have to click through a number of pages to find. The Product Resource Centre covers the complete Martin entertainment and Martin Architectural product lines.

At the Product Resource Centre users will find comprehensive information on Martin products such as features and description; press releases, including product news and associated case stories; videos and images; brochures and leaflets; other marketing material such as screensavers; technical data, including in-depth specifications, user manuals, instruction not

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UK - Recolight, now approved as a producer compliance scheme for gas discharge lamps and related equipment, is hosting six workshop events this spring to update and explore the impact of the WEEE Regulations with all stakeholders involved in the lamps market. The WEEE Regulations come into full force on 1 July 2007 so it is hoped that the timing of these workshops will prove very helpful to all those involved in dealing with lamps - electrical distributors, contractors, and local authorities, says Recolight.

Recolight will "seek to establish an efficient and cost effective process for recycling end-of-life lamps and related equipment, which is fully compliant with the Regulations. This will involve supporting and facilitating the development of a national network of collection points for end-of-life products and arranging contracts for the collection and recycling of such p

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UK - Wigwam Acoustics will be providing the sound equipment for George Michael's forthcoming British and European stadium tour which starts in Denmark on 18 May and includes the first two concerts to be staged in the rebuilt Wembley Stadium.

Chris Hill, director of Wigwam Acoustics, says: "We'll be using Van Damme cables for microphones, speakers and mains because they are tough enough to withstand the rigours of a tour of this size. The brand is well established and we know from many years experience that its products can be trusted to deliver great results."

Over the years, Wigwam Acoustics has provided its expertise to many high profile artistes and events touring Europe, USA, Asia, Africa and the Eastern Block. Recent tour contracts have included Westlife, Radiohead, Prince, Eminem, Björk, Blue, Moby, Ronan Keating and Barry Manilow, as well as George Michael's

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light was asked by set and lighting designer David Amos to work with him on the lighting for this year's showcase concert at Hurtwood House, one of the top higher education schools for the performing arts in the country.

Amos has been designing shows for Hurtwood House for several years, working with resident director Miles Russell and guest West End choreographers to create. This year, the designer decided to try a different approach to the show. "I persuaded Miles that rather than using the theatre in its standard end-on format, we should do the show side-on, using the full width of the theatre," he explains.

"This presented the production with many challenges in terms of audience seating, which had to be built from scratch, and the close proximity of the band to the audience. Luckily they have a great sound team at H

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UK - For the fifth consecutive year, Fleetwood Mobiles was commissioned to provide the audio from the NME Awards, which took place at London's Hammersmith Palais and was broadcast live on E4. Fleetwood director Tim Summerhayes, assisted by Ollie Nesham and Matt Wood, recorded and mixed the audio on-board the Fleetwood Two mobile.

"We had a day to rehearse, then it was all hands to the pump to make sure everything went smoothly on the night," Summerhayes says. "It was a great show with plenty of full-on rock bands, which is what we enjoy. The only tricky part of the evening was recording Jarvis Cocker and The Gossip singer Beth Ditto's electric acoustic set, which involved a few more mics and inputs than we had expected, but it all went well and the broadcast audio was delivered to E4 via CTV, which was handling the pictures."

Rock group Muse took the award

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Italy - Following weeks of intensive testing and evaluation at Prase Engineering's facilities in Noventa di Piave, Ennio and Alberto Prase met with Audica's sales director, Derek West, at ISE Amsterdam to shake hands on their agreement to distribute Audica Professional in Italy.

Commenting on the decision to add Audica to its portfolio, Ennio Prase says, "With every conceivable type of loudspeaker available in the market, it was difficult to imagine that anything new could be radically different - but Audica is just that. With MICROseries, Audica has designed a system with such style and innovation that it is a real advance, and that is a great compliment to their design capability.

Audica Professional's Derek West adds: "I have always regarded Prase Engineering as a reference distributor, for their integrity, ability and technical standards. With such an appreciatio

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USA - New Covenant Ministries in Lithona, Georgia, has a new sound system designed by Ronnie Stanford of dB Audio and Video. For years, New Covenant suffered through a sound system that provided terrible coverage to much of the main room. "Between the mix position and the first row," recalled Stanford, "there was a 25dB drop! If you got thingssounding right at the mix position, you blew the front row away. Altogether,it was a poor design filled with poor speakers.

"But New Covenant had a very sharp tech team," Stanford continued. "They knew exactly what they wanted in the way of fidelity. Pastor Billy Johnson is an amazing musician with an extraordinary voice. When we brought our first demo over, he asked us to turn it off so that he could play keyboard through the system. That was the real test."

The challenge for Stanford was to deliver 105

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UK - LD Neil Trenell specified an Avolites Diamond 4 to control lighting and a Hippotizer digital media server for Lily Allen's recent UK theatre tour which featured her largest production to date.

The D4 Elite was controlling 32 of the new Robe Series 700 ColorSpot and Color Wash fixtures, 16 i-Pix Satellites used for toning the front and rear trusses, five 4-cell blinders on the front truss, 14 strings of festoons, several hundred feet of rope light, five sets of Christmas tree lights draped over the backline, four mirror balls and two compressed air confetti cannons. All lighting and FX equipment was supplied by HSL.

The D4 was also triggering Trenell's own Hippotizer digital media server, loaded up with content driving a 10x10m Soft-LED backdrop. Trenell's lightshow for Allen has a bouncy, up-tempo carnival feel to it - in keeping with her renowned spirited and lively perf

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UK - XL Video UK is supplying 270 panels of its new stock of Barco MiTRIX screen to Nelly Furtado's UK and European tour. This was specified by lighting and set designer Bradley Wagg, who has been working with the Canadian-Portuguese songstress Furtado since last summer.

XL's account handler Des Fallon comments: "This is a great example of video elements being brought into the show as 'digital lighting'. It's good to be working with them - Nelly Furtado is an exciting and hugely talented artist and there is a real buzz about her, the show and its presentation."

Toronto-based Wagg has used video in clubs and on corporate events before, but this is the first time he has fully integrated the medium into a live show like this one. It is also his first European tour and the first time he has worked with XL Video, who came onboard through Bob Ward's new company, Safe as Mi

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Sweden / UK - Lab.gruppen has signed an exclusive UK distribution agreement with newly formed Cambridge-based Audioforce. The new company is headed up by industry veteran Guy Lewis, most recently sales and marketing director at XTA, and backed by the commercial resources of PAXT, a long-standing audio export specialist captained by managing director Tim Pollard. Audioforce will operate from the PAXT headquarters in Cambridge and will benefit from the company's well-established commercial infrastructure and support capability.

"We are delighted to have Audioforce on board in the UK. We have evolved a very close rapport with Guy Lewis and Tim Pollard in the past few weeks and it is clear to us that Audioforce will come as close as possible to having a factory-direct operation, such is the symbiosis between ourselves and Audioforce," says Lab.gruppen's European sales mana

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USA - New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music has installed a new 32-axis power flying system from Stage Technologies, making its backstage equipment "as current, sophisticated and impressive as any major new build".

During a dormant period of nearly two decades the building greatly deteriorated and suffered extensive water damage. A major restoration project in the 1980s worked to retain and dramatically enhance the building's historic appearance. Without detracting from the prime aesthetics of the building, a new power flying system has been installed to automate the theatre's existing scenery bars, enabling a much quicker turnaround for performances.

The venue is now equipped with 32 BigTow winches and controlled from an Acrobat control console. The power flying system eliminates the use of counterweight cradles, improving the theatre's health & safety backstage. Sta

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UK - ChamSys Ltd has announced that Lighting Partners has become an agent for sales of ChamSys Magic consoles and MagicQ wings for the UK. ChamSys reports heavy growth over the past few months, and believes that with the increased demand for its products, the affiliation with Lighting Partners will be a great success.

Lighting Partners has achieved success with its two website-based businesses, usedlighting.co.uk, which concentrates on the re-sale of used and ex-hire equipment and stagelighting.co.uk which sells new products.

ChamSys says that the MagicQ can be used for live events, theatre, TV, touring, architectural and installation applications and offers full-speed playback, even with all channels patched; the ability to customise and configure settings and layout; a reliable Linux operating system, with in-built UPS, industrial processor and show archiver; virtually unlim

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USA - Christian rock group Jars of Clay added High End Systems' DL.2s to their North American tour. "Every city we have gone to we get the 'wow' factor of what the DL2 can do. There are so many ways to use the fixture," says tour LD Kevin Maas of lighting contractor The Opera Shop in Denver. "I have used it to do something as simple as a stage wash for some extra color, as well as to project aerials into the crowd and on a cyc. The band has been really pleased with the fixture. Every day we try to do something new and creative. There are so many stock images and video that can be used. Using DL2 is a great part of creating the mode for each song."

Lighting contractor is The Opera Shop of Denver. TLS of Huntsville, Alabama, provided the two DL.2s on the tour, which runs until 15 April. Production manager is Mark DuFrene of Austin, Texas.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - As the largest co-educational boarding school in the UK, Millfield School in Somerset recently commissioned a fully-featured concert hall, the focal point of a newly-developed £12 million music block. The public school brought in Arup Acoustics, who became responsible for sound containment and acoustic optimisation, while Stirling Trading were awarded the contract to specify and fit out the auditorium and provide other music facilities.

Andrew Stirling managed the project personally, specifying a Nexo PS15 system to meet the diverse programme requirements, ranging from orchestral recitals to rock concerts. "The brief for the concert hall was to provide a good quality utility sound reinforcement system that would principally fulfil the vocal requirement," said Stirling. "It needed to be sufficiently powerful without being overly-intrusive, and so we opte

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Europe - UK-based automation specialist Kinesys has announced a European distribution agreement that is a joint venture between Sonoss, based in France, and Louis Reyners from The Netherlands.

The two companies have exclusive distribution of Kinesys' chain hoist related control products, including the new K2 3D visualisation and control system and the Elevation 1+ hoist controller, for Benelux, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.

Dave Weatherhead from Kinesys says that these companies were chosen because: "They are well established, have excellent reputations in their markets and both are already selling complementary products, including chain hoists, cable, basic fixed speed control and so on."

Sonoss also has a rental operation. This allows clients to test the water with new and innovative products without initially having to commit large su

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France - Sebastian Jurkowski, lighting designer at the Mix Club in Paris, has combined the power of ChamSys MagicQ and ArKaos VJ DMX to create the live visual mixes on the club screens and LED panels.

The Mix Club can accommodate up to 2000 people a night on its large dance floor, its two bars and VIP mezzanine. A total of 100 automated projectors, thousands of LEDs and two ArKaos VJ DMX MSEx media servers are controlled through Ethernet via a MagicQ MQ100 console and Dual Playback Wing which uses six DMX512 universes (nearly 3000 channels).

Thanks to the very short delay between the console and the screens, each of the 16 layers can be triggered at the tip of a finger, allowing instant access to any video or effect, says ChamSys. The MagicQ Media Engine allows for live thumbnail previews directly on the console, with separate previews for each media layer, as well as a previe

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  6. Grand Lisboa chooses Lighthouse screens
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