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PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Events

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Clay Paky America showed the new members of the Italian manufacturer's Alpha range: the Alpha Spot 700, Alpha Spot 1200 and Alpha Spot HPE 1200. The first features a 15-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and 14 gobos, plus an animation disk. Alpha Spot 1200 is 1,200W effects projector with a 15-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and 14 gobos plus animation disc. The HPE edition has 10-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and a seven-colour wheel.

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Sweden - Lighting specialist Spectra supplied creative design and production management services, plus all lighting and AV equipment to the prestigious 2005 Nobel Prize Awards Banquet, staged at the Blue Hall of Stockholm's City Hall.

Sweden's highest profile event of the year was attended by the King, Queen and other members of the Royal Family, a host of Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and VVIPs - around 1,400 guests in all. The entire evening was broadcast live on Swedish National television's SVT1.

Spectra instigated several important technical firsts for the occasion, including stunning roof projections, created using the new Catalyst Version 4 digital media server. The event was also the European debut for Wybron's new Nexera tungsten colour-changing wash fixtures. Spectra also utilised SGM's latest Giotto Synthesis 700 moving lights, Barco R18s for the project

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Strong Entertainment Lighting's Jack Schmidt is now officially retired, but he's still very much in evidence in his consultancy role. The company showed a new followspot featuring an 850W DC (and thereforeflicker-free) metal halide Ushio lamp source, which Schmidt says produces an output equivalent to a 1600W Xenon. Latest developments to the Super Trouper include a new ammeter on the back of the unit which is compatible with either 220V/50Hz or 110V/60Hz operation, allowing the units to be toured between regions without switching meters.

Schmidt's successor, Jack Gallagher, was keen to reinforce the company's reputation as a leading innovator: on display was a list of the company's innovations in followspot technology dating back to the first carbon arc Super Trouper in 1948, and the first Xenon Super Trouper in 1971; it also mentions the Super Trouper being immortalised by pop legend

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Products at the Coemar booth included the Mini-Cyc, the Parlite LED, the iWash Halo, and the iSpot S.

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As we reported in the news last month, Stage Technologies' main announcement at LDI was the opening of a permanent US office in Las Vegas, to be headed by Kevin Taylor. Having contributed extensive stage automation expertise to the major Cirque du Soleil show KA at the MGM Grand (see L&SI May 2005), and with other major projects ongoing, the US office is a timely move for the company. John Hastie commented that the US office is also involved in some film work (the UK office has too - the latest Harry Potter movie being an example). As to LDI, 'pretty quiet' was the verdict.

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City Theatrical continued its line of power supplies for Color Kinetics LED fixtures. The PDS-750-TR provides power and DMX-control capability for the ColorBlast. Also, the AutoYoke is now available with WDS wireless DMX technology, say the company.

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Martin Professional's international stage, studio and event segment manager, Mark Ravenhill, had just settled into his new Florida home, following his move from Denmark, and was having an "absolutely great" show.He showed us the company's latest prototype moving head, the Mac TW1 ('Tungsten Wash') - its first incandescent fixture, following many requests, said Ravenhill. The idea, he explains, was to achieve "everything in one fixture": no small aim. It consists of a new, magnesium-bodied head on a Mac 2000 yoke sitting on a Mac 700 base, sensibly taking advantage of tried and tested components. It features a twin-lensed zoom system, an internal dimmer (various dimming curves are available), plus a connection for external dimming; it also includes full CMY colour mixing, very precise movement, a quarter-turn lamp access door and is 110/230V compatible. Its patented (a

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XLNT gave the official US debut of its Cyberhoist/InMotion 3D motion control system, winning LDI's Rigging Product of the Year Award in the process to add to its PLASA Award for Innovation, won in 2004. The system's two main elements are the InMotion 3D programming and control software and an unlimited number of CyberHoist intelligent motors. The dedicated DataMotion Ethernet network and PowerMotion power distribution system complete the package.

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Show Distribution revealed that it has supplied to Tait Towers the biggest Chainmaster Variolift system in the world, for the current Jon Bon Jovi tour. The company also has gear out with the Foo Fighters (due to be covered in depth in L&SI, February 2006) and other music acts.

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Seen earlier at PLASA, but hotly anticipated in the US was the return of Vari-Lite's VL5 in its updated guise as the VL500. There are four versions: the VL500 has the option of a 1,000W or 1,200W lamp and uses a conventional dimmer circuit for intensity control. The VL500D has a built-in IGBT dimmer but is otherwise identical to the standard VL500 - right down to the 12.5-to 20° beam angle. The VL500A is the arc-source version, with the option of either a 575W or 700W source. The VL500A is significantly narrower than its tungsten cousins, at 7.5 to 16.5°, and uses an external ballast. The VL500 80V uses an 80V/1,200W incandescent lamp, an external dimmer, and has a beam angle of 11-16.5°.

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Apollo Design Technology showed its new collection of gobo patterns for 2006. A neat new product was a tapered top hat for conventional fixtures. These can be stacked on top of one another, taking up just a tenth of the space of a normal collection of top hats.

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Pathway Connectivity has incorporated DIN-rail mounting, popular in industrial controls, into its new line of eDIN DMX distribution and interface products. They include four-way DMX opto-splitters, 12-way DMX contractors, and 16-way DMX demultiplexers in eDIN modules, with additional products on the way. Pathway also introduced the new DMXManager Plus! This product provides four ports that can be user-configured as any combination of inputs and outputs.

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A.C. Lighting's main announcement was the introduction of the Chroma-Q Color Web - a transparent, modular LED matrix developed by Artistic Licence (as Pixi-Web). Featuring a unique modular design, each flexible 1sq.m panel provides 16 individually addressable colour mixing LED cells with a pitch of 250mm. Panels clip together on all four sides and can even be joined over distances using separately available interlinking cables, giving users complete control over the size and shape of their display area.

As only 20% of the surface area is taken up by the lightweight, flexible webbing, it offers unparalleled transparency for double hanging or multi-layering at distances. Color Web can be lit through for integration with set and other lighting elements. The product is also extremely cost-effective: 10 x 1m panels with PSU would weigh less and be size and cost comparable to a moving light,

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Rosco showed several new products, including Infinity Effects, a new gobo animation device offering kinetic lighting effects combined with simplicity of use and low cost; Keystroke, the hardware/software solution for running PowerPoint projections directly from your DMX control board; and the upgraded X-Effects projector, which now has onboard DMX and a mechanical dowser. New colours from Rosco include Hemsley Blue, designed by Mark Stanley, lighting director for New York City Ballet, in honour of his mentor, the late Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr., and Pale Bastard Amber, created by Michael Chybowski to warm the light of an ETC Source Four to enhance skin tones.

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Sunlite showed the 2006 suite package of its Easy Stand Alone system. This version adds a new stand-alone Ethernet DMX 512 interface (IP version) to the already existing USB-DMX interface.

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Element Labs displayed the new Versa Pixel system, which allows a video wall to contain any shape or size of pixel. Also on show was a new mounting system for the Versa Tube system.

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Something new in LEDs is Selador's X7, which uses seven colours - red, green, blue, amber, red-orange, cyan, and indigo - for a more sophisticated form of colour mixing. The company offers its LEDs in a number of strip and block configurations for different uses.

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Pulsar had recently appointed Jerry Colmenero as their dedicated sales manager for the Americas, and LDI was our first opportunity to meet him. Based in Texas, he will help to develop Pulsar's business in the Americas and also offer support for the company's distributors in Canada, USA, Mexico, and South America.

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ESP Vision's pre-visualisation software has reached V2.0. It includes physically correct light-field rendering, true rigid-body simulation for moving truss and set pieces, and reflective and translucent surfaces. To celebrate this new release, ESP Vision's world-wide distributor, Zzyzk, Inc., announced that it is sponsoring a contest to find the best lighting design to a song.

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New from Lee Filters were holders and louvres in silver or black for MR16 fixtures. The screw-on holder fits directly on to the lamp and can hold any two accessories (colour, diffusion, or louver). The honeycomb louvres come in 45° and 60° versions.

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Probably the most talked-about product on the show floor this year was the Kapas II lightweight LED display from Japanese company Komaden. It's a full-colour LED display system for permanent outdoor installations - but although drawing plenty of interest, it was too early for information on pricing or availability to be available.

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Columbus McKinnon had its new manual inverted chain hoist, the Hurricane. Available in one-ton capacities, the Hurricane's hand wheel cover rotates 360° for hoist operation in any direction. Also new from CM was the ProCommander Control System, which offers motion control of electric chain hoists, with up to 96 motors, which can be controlled singularly or simultaneously.

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DiGiCo was one of a handful of pro audio regulars at LDI. Dave Webster's time was split between the stand and the ET Live demo area behind the halls, where a number of live stages were set up to demonstrate show technology in real, live situations. "It has been really useful for us," said Webster. On stand, DiGiCo had new Aviom and EtherSound cards. The former allows the Aviom self-mixed musician-monitoring system to be routed direct from the console. The EtherSound protocol puts the engineer in control of running the loudspeakers, which is especially useful with self-powered PA systems.

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Swisson showed the 12-channel, rack-mountable, sinewave dimmer 12 x 2.5kW and its high-speed five-to-one DMX merger, as well the single-channel, DMX-addressable/ manual 2.4kW dimmer.
  1. Barco
  2. Mach Audio
  3. SGM
  4. Philips
  5. LDR
  6. Martin Audio
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