The doors have opened for day two of PLASA Show 2019 at London Olympia, with Platinum Sponsor Robe, Silver Sponsor d&b audiotechnik and Technical Sponsor Hawthorn. The show floor is already brimming with business as visitors explore the latest products and solutions from 220+ brands from across audio, AV, lighting, rigging and staging.

The show’s platinum sponsor Robe have unveiled an expansive theatrical stand based on the classic 80s movie, Back To The Future. Live performances run every 90 minutes, with a viewing area on the show’s gallery level for visitors to watch from above. The creative duo behind the stand, Nathan Wan and Andy Webb, comment:

“Robe’s stand this year features a fully time coded show called ‘Return to the Future’ which is centred around a time travelling DeLorean car. During th

USA - The deadline for ordering 2019 Behind the Scenes Holiday Cards is just two weeks away. These cards were created especially for Behind the Scenes and are a great way to spread holiday cheer while bringing help and hope to your colleagues in need. The order deadline is 30 September. Orders may be placed at behindthescenescharity.org/holidaycards.
Three card ordering options are offered: card packs of 10 with a standard greeting, personalized cards with a company logo and custom message (minimum order 250 cards), and electronic versions for delivery by email. All proceeds benefit the Behind the Scenes charity which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured. Six new designs are featured this year.
All proceeds benefit the Behind the Scenes charity which provides financial assistance to entertainment techn

USA - Sensaphonics recently educated three audiologists in the art of working with musicians at a Gold Circle Seminar in Chicago. This two-day event covers a wide range of insights on the specific needs of musicians, whose workplace requires ongoing exposure to damaging levels of loud sound. Sensaphonics president, Dr. Michael Santucci, designed the seminar to teach audiologists the realities of today’s music industry, with a focus on the proper use of in-ear monitors and hearing protection.
“When it comes to in-ears, most musicians do not know how to protect their hearing, and most audiologists have no idea what stage monitoring is like,” notes Dr. Santucci. “The Gold Circle seminar is designed to share the knowledge that both groups require in order to create a great performance experience for musicians while still protecting their hearing.”
Three audiolog

UK - The team behind the six-minute immersive mental health installation Blackout will be running a pioneering industry evaluation alongside their exhibition experience at this year’s PLASA Show at London Olympia from 15-17 September 2019.
Bringing academic analysis to the exhibition, research director in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey Dr Paul Hanna has devised a questionnaire to undertake the first evaluation on mental health awareness specifically within the UK technical backstage entertainment industry. Dr Hanna has worked closely with the Blackout creative team since the project launched at Guildford School of Acting (GSA) in May.
Mig Burgess, GSA tutor and creator of Blackout, said: “This is an extremely important first step to address mental health awareness in the UK technical backstage entertainment industry and we are delighted th

Australia - Aveo Systems has announced the appointment of Jands as its exclusive distributor in the Australia-New Zealand region.
“Mira Connect, from Aveo Systems, is an impressive innovation that further complements our existing AV conferencing product portfolio,” says Phil Muffet, national sales manager at Jands. “Jands is committed to providing the best solutions for our customers and partnering with strategic vendors who complement our integrators’ existing solutions.”
“Jands is one of the strongest AV companies in the ANZ region and is well respected by integrators and users,” comments Paul Roberts, Aveo Systems’ director of sales. “We think they will be the perfect partner for promoting Mira Connect to corporate, educational, and other users in the area.”
(Jim Evans)

Europe - From The Road to the Billboard Music Awards with NBC Universal, to the Thanksgiving Parade Celebrations in New York City, and a recent show in Las Vegas, Production Zync Entertainment are cementing their partnership in the world of design and production, and PRG has supported a diverse range of productions for them across the world.
Over the last seven months PRG has been working closely with newly formed Production Zync Entertainment, on the delivery and execution of a range of television, music, sport and live projects, from studio to arena across Europe, the US, and the UK.
PRG has provided Production Zync with a fully supported ‘one stop shop’ technical production solution across multiple territories, including equipment, crew, transportation, logistics, and pre-visualisation support.
With sites in London and Los Angeles, Production Zync combin

UK - James Eade, LSi columnist and leading consultant in electrical safety for the event production industry, has created a new course covering BS 7909 - the Code of Practice for temporary electrical systems for entertainment and related purposes.
BS 7909 Temporary Power for the Events Industry has been developed by Eade in consultation with industry experts to ensure the most up-to-date and relevant guidance for this rapidly changing discipline. Unique in the event production market, the course is only available from James Eade.
The course is up to date with the new 18th Edition of the Wiring Regulations (BS 7671:2018) and the new IET guidance on the use of generators and covers a broad range of areas including multiple sources of supply, RCDs, earthing and bonding, inspection and testing as well as the management of temporary electrical infrastructure.
Attend

UK - PLASA Show 2020 is moving to London Olympia's Grand Hall, PLASA has announced. A scheduling change has also been made, with the 2020 event taking place on 6-8 September 2020.
The Grand Hall is the largest exhibition space at Olympia and the Show's move highlights its return to form since returning to west London in 2016. PLASA reports that the event has grown year-on-year both in terms of exhibitor and visitor numbers, and this latest decision has been taken to ensure the ability for future expansion of the show.
Sophie Atkinson, PLASA head of events, comments: “With the exciting redevelopment happening at Olympia over the next few years the opportunity has arisen for us to move the PLASA Show to the Grand Hall from 2020 onwards. This is a great oppor

UK - Good times mixed with valuable insights at the grand opening of the ChamSys UK head office in Southampton's Brooklands Courtyard.
On 2 September, over 150 lighting programmers and designers from throughout Europe attended the inauguration of the new office, training facility and product development centre. Visitors participated in informative classes, think tanks, and training sessions focused on the new MagicQ and QuickQ software from ChamSys.
Adding a light-hearted touch of drama to the proceedings was a short skit presented by company team members on the history of ChamSys. The skit recounted how company cofounder Chris Kennedy developed his first console at the age of 10. Telling the story of a young man with big dreams, it showed how Kennedy achieved something beyond even his wildest imagination years later when an award-winning ChamSys console was used by A

Austria - The Austrian AV technology manufacturer AV Stumpfl recently announced that its US projection screen and media server distributor Evolve has invested heavily in the AT64-Shift screen system legs.
Orlando, Dallas and Las Vegas-based Evolve distributes and rents out video equipment for the live events industry and also provides industry training programmes. The company is now working to convert its entire inventory over to the AT64-Shift system by the end of the year.
"Our customers know that we are passionate about developing new ideas and products that deliver the best quality possible for their exciting projects around the world," comments AV Stumpfl Inc. MD, Todd Liedahl. "The AT64-Shift is such a truly exciting product that allows AV professionals to adjust the height of large mobile projection screens in record time, without them having to disassemble

USA - Distributor Stampede is hosting eight Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series stops in the United States and Canada, one US national sales meeting, and three summits for its United States, Canadian and Latin American vendor partners.
The Fall 2019 Stampede Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series will make stops in San Diego, California, 19 September; Montreal, 17 October; Chicago, 24 October; Toronto, 13 November; Houston, 21 November; Miami, 5 December and Vancouver,11 December. Complete details on the fall tour can be found at www.bigbookofavtour.com.
The United States Vendor Summit will take place on 7-8 October at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Centre in New York, following on the heels of its United States national sales meeting on 5-6 October. The Canadian Vendor Summit will take place on 12 November at the Holiday Inn Toronto International Airport

Germany - State Automation has announced that BDL-KG in Germany is now a certified service centre for State Automation Lighting equipment. All European customers (excluding Scandinavia, where Bright Norway is the point of contact) should contact the company’s Wolfgang Kunwald to request repair services. BDL KG is also the point of contact and organises handling and logistics.
Repair and maintenance will be provided by BDL KG’s partner IBT Theatres and Broadcast Technology GmbH.

Australia - Expressions of Interest (EOI) are open for Vivid Sydney’s Ideas programme, encouraging innovative and thought-provoking individuals and businesses around the world to submit their ideas and concepts to be part of Vivid Sydney 2020.
Attended by over 2m people each year, Vivid Sydney is the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere. Vivid Ideas brings together leading thinkers, creators and innovators to share their insights across technology, design, entertainment and culture to explore how they are tackling some of the biggest global issues in front of a live festival audience.
Minister for Tourism, Stuart Ayres, comments: “Vivid Ideas is a truly significant part of the Vivid Sydney programme and for the creative industries, it places Sydney and New South Wales as the creative industries hub of Asia Pacific.
“Vivid

UK - Entertainment Technology Partners has announced the launch of its new European division. Based out of the United Kingdom, ETP Europe will provide support throughout Europe to bring AV solutions to clients.
Industry veteran Paul Hutton will be joining as president of European operations. Paul has spent the past three decades creating and spearheading Blitz, one of the leading AV staging companies in Europe.
“We couldn’t be more excited about expanding ETP’s operations to Europe, especially with Paul coming on board to help lead the way,” said Les Goldberg, chairman and CEO of ETP. “We have been looking at a number of opportunities in Europe and expect to have more announcements of new brands joining ETP in the very near future.”
Entertainment Technology Partners was created in 2014 with the idea of like-minded owners joining together to continue

Europe - DPA Microphones has appointed AVL Projekt and LAV Projekt as its distributors in Serbia and Croatia respectively. The two companies are distributors and integrators of professional audio, light and video solutions and can support customers from the initial point of contact through to the delivery and installation.
AVL and LAV address DPA market segments through a network of system integrators, installers and dealers active in the theatre, broadcast and touring.
Slobodan Veckalov, managing director of AVL Projekt, comments: “We are very excited to be representing such a great microphone brand. We have worked with DPA in the past on various projects, and we advocate for top-notch quality product in the portfolio of brands that we distribute.”
Davor Vujic, managing director of LAV Projekt, adds: “It is both a great privilege and obligation to introdu

Glastonbury Records - Kylie Minogue's decades-spanning greatest hits set has become the most-watched Glastonbury performance ever, according to BBC figures. An average audience of 3.2m people tuned in to see her play the festival's legend slot, beating previous highs set by Ed Sheeran and Adele. Viewership peaked at 3.9m during the closing minutes of Kylie's set, as she played Dancing and Spinning Around. The emotional show came 14 years after a cancer diagnosis forced the star to pull out of a planned headline slot.
This year's Glastonbury saw a significant shift in viewership, with audiences increasingly choosing to catch up with performances online. The total number of online requests, including YouTube views, iPlayer requests and live streams, reached 37.5m - an increase of 86% from 2017 (Glastonbury took a year off in 2018). However, TV viewership was

UK - Unusual Rigging's Tom Harper will lead a session hosted by SiPA at PLASA 2019 which aims to explore how 'circular' the live production industry really is.
The session which takes place on 15 September at 14.00 will look at how the industry needs to decouple 'show business' from the highly wasteful, energy intensive and inefficient consumption of finite resources.
Tom, a director at Unusual Rigging as well as the company's circular economy lead, recently completed his MBA in circular economy innovation and is passionate to drive forward system shifts to ensure an effective transition towards an economic model that is regenerative by design.
"This isn't just about what we at Unusual Rigging can do – although we are very much trying to lead by example. It's about working with the entire industry in order to radically reduce consumption levels. We are locked i

UAE - Dubai-based AVenger Electronics has been appointed RCF distributor for UAE/Oman.
“Since RCF had the entire range of professional audio products in its portfolio, catering for the installation, touring, MI and Evacuation segments, we considered them as our preferred choice for servicing the markets in the UAE and Oman,” stated AVenger sales manager, Joseph Ninel Rebero. “This would range from small portable PA to large stadium installations. We knew it was well established in both the touring and MI market.”
Rebero will lead a team that will be focused on brand promotion throughout the UAE and Oman. “Our mission will be to focus more on the integration market to bring RCF up to the next level in this segment,” he says, forecasting that initial impact is likely to be created through the Live & Pro Series as well as the new business music solution pr

UK - Taking place today, Tuesday 10 September, World Suicide Prevention Day hopes to raise awareness for the cause. Each year, death by suicide is listed in the top 20 causes of loss of life globally for people of all ages and is responsible for over 800,000 deaths. That’s a lost life every 40 seconds - and the impact can be catastrophic.
According to World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) research, “For each suicide, approximately 135 people suffer intense grief or are otherwise affected. This amounts to 108 million people per year who are profoundly impacted by suicidal behaviour.”
People working within the music industry are three times more likely to experience a mental health problem, at a rate of approximately 36,000 people per year, putting both musicians, road crew, artist managers and multiple occupations in between at risk.
Road crew worldwide exp

The doors of PLASA Show 2019 open in just a few days from 15-17 September at Olympia London, where thousands of visitors will experience the leading edge of live entertainment technology. With 220+ brands, 55+ educational sessions and a plethora of immersive features, this year’s show is ready to serve industry professionals from all sectors.
PLASA’s Managing Director Peter Heath comments: “Last year’s edition of PLASA Show was heralded for its high footfall and vibrant atmosphere. We have worked hard to build upon this by offering more brands and new features for a show that is both enjoyable and productive.
Of course, we couldn’t do it without the exhibitors and their technology which has developed at a dizzying rate over the years – PLASA is proud to provide a platform for such innovation, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store.”

Europe - Showlight, the quadrennial lighting colloquium, has launched a new website (www.showlight.org).
The next event is taking place on 22-25 May 2021 in Fontainebleau, France.
The website contains useful information to help visitors plan their attendance, as well as details on how to become a speaker, a sponsor, an exhibitor or a sponsored student. Once confirmed, speaker and exhibitor listings as well as details of the programme will become available on the website.
Video clips of the last Showlight - which took place in 2017 in Florence, Italy - offer a tantalising taster of the kind of things you can expect at Showlight 2021 - this time with a little French flavour added to the favourite ingredients: an entertaining programme of conference papers and networking, mixed with pl

USA - Three new or revised standards are available for public review on the ESTA TSP website at estalink.us/pr.
Those materially affected by the proposals is invited to review them and to offer comments before the deadline.
BSR E1.62, Minimum specifications for mass-produced portable platforms, ramps, stairs, and choral risers for live performance events is being offered for a fourth public review. The proposed standard covers mass-produced portable platforms, stair units and ramps used with those platforms, and choral risers, designed to be used for the presentation of music concerts, dramatic plays, fashion shows, and other entertainment and special events. The units covered by this standard are of a size and weight that allows them to be moved an

UK - With thousands of performers taking to hundreds of stages across the city, this year’s Edinburgh Festival and Fringe proved to be the busiest ever for full technical production provider Hawthorn, who supplied equipment to performances across both festivals.
Having headed to Edinburgh for their 29th festival season, this year saw Hawthorn provide lighting, rigging and power distribution to the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF).
The International Festival presents a programme featuring performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre. Hawthorn was tasked with providing equipment to an array of performances in Festival Theatre, Kings Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, The Studio and Usher Hall as well as providing kit to the opening ceremony which took place at Tynecastle Park.
As well as supplying equipment to EIF, Hawthorn was also kep

UK - Claypaky has appointed A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) as its distributor for the UK, while AC-ET sister company A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ireland has become Claypaky's distributor in the Republic of Ireland.
The agreement came into effect on 1 September.
Marcus Graser, designated CEO of Claypaky, comments: "We are honoured by AC-ET’s decision to dedicate special resources and commitment to the distribution of our products. The collaboration between our two companies started back in the '70s, but this new agreement - based on a shared vision of a more modern relationship - marks a decisive change that everyone will benefit from."
Jonathan Walters, AC-ET’s UK sales & purchasing director, remarks: "We are delighted to be working with Claypaky. The brand has been a leader in stage lighting for decades, producing some of the world’s m

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