UK - Le Mark produced and printed the iconic London Street Map floor on to their high gloss black 'Harmony' performance stage flooring.

This stunning floor was printed and installed by the Le Mark team and revealed to a global audience of over 4 billion people during the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

Many will remember the 'Pandemonium' section of the ceremony and how this floor was slowly revealed . The jagged design bounced and reflected the light of the molten rings being formed . An image captured by both TV and photographers and transmitted worldwide ,proving that Britain could host the world's most emotive and stunning events.

Le Mark are very proud to welcome visitors to their stand 1- D4 and offer the opportunity for PLASA visitors to take home a FREE A4 piece of this Olympic 2012 memorabilia.

Each piece of Harmony 2012 printed stadium floor is totally unique , th

UK - At this year's PLASA Show in London's Earls Court, Le Mark will introduce two new compression sprung floors, both of which have already received high praise from professional dance establishments throughout the UK.

Le Mark's expanding dance floor installation team will also be showcasing the new Nocturne dance vinyl, a multipurpose floor covering that is fast becoming the standard for theatre and performing arts venues.

A major feature to the stand this year will be a specially commissioned printed floor using Le Mark's unique Coda flooring system. Members of this year's London stadium floor fitting team will also be on hand to help and provide advice on large scale image installations and project management.

A major feature to the stand this year will be a specially commissioned printed floor using Le Mark's Coda flooring system. Members of this year's London stadium f

UK - CAST is pulling out all the stops for PLASA 2012 with the debut of not one, but four new products, plus an educational seminar. PLASA will be held at Earls Court in London, 9-12 September and CAST will be exhibiting in Stand 1-E27.

The latest wysiwyg release, R29, has so many new features and improvements, your job instantly becomes more proficient, more professional and more profitable, says the company. New features in R29 include the ability to touch select fixtures and manipulate in Shaded View, create camera flies in 6D, a new six degrees of freedom camera system, drawing purge, truss end indicators, multi-rotate, enhancements to the Layer Database Window, gyroscope, world grid and more.

BlackTrax V1 is an Ethernet-based, powerful, fast, and accurate solution that tracks objects or people in a defined 3D 'space' and "delivers the dynamic positional data in realt

UK - Le Mark's Dirty Rigger team chose PLASA 2012 to launch four new PPE and accessory items, including the Glowman LED glove range.

Steve Marshall Dirty Rigger project manager commented, "Strongest sales on day one came from the new fully EN rated Tool Lanyard system , in particular the interchangeable clip and carabiner system. This allows for tools to be pre connected before commencing work. Strong export interest has come from the new pulsing or fixed beam LED Radio and accessory front of body radio and equipment carrier.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by AED Rent and Lighting&Sound, were presented at the PLASA Show in London yesterday evening, along with the announcement of the prestigious Gottelier Award.

During the show's opening two days, 47 products were judged 'live' in front of a crowd of show visitors and camera crew by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

John Meyer of iconic pro audio brand Meyer Sound was honoured with this year's Gottelier Award in recognition of his life as one of the pioneers of the modern sound reinforcement industry.

Eight Awards for Innovation were presented - including a final Gold Award for Innovation - along with a special Award for Sustainability.

Nominees are asked to demonstrate a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, an aid to safety, energy-s

UK - 5 Star Cases reports yet another successful PLASA exhibition in London.

5 Star highlighted samples of its most popular product ranges for the entertainment industry, concert touring, television and theatre markets. Over the four days of the show these all attracted plenty of interest, with some deals also completed on the stand. 5 Star's MD Keith Sykes comments that visitor quality was "Generally very good".

5 Star's latest Drawered Racks attracted plenty of interest and were a prominent element of the stand display.

Three types of Drawered Racks are offered as 'standard' - two hinged versions and one with removable doors.

There's a choice of two dynamic styles for the hinged option - one with a fixed top and one with a hinged top, complete with very cool gas strut supports to prevent accidental closure.

The hinged top version also features a workstation a

UK - At PLASA 2012 in London, Sommer Cable - alongside its established catalogue of products -exclusively presented the NL4FX-SOM cable socket, a special version designed in close cooperation with Neutrik.

Peter Rieck, key account & distribution manager for Sommer Cable commented, "This year the PLASA show was again a big success for Sommer Cable. We were able to reach many customers and attract new customers. Next year the fair will move to the Excel Exhibition Centre and we have already confirmed stand space."

(Jim Evans)

UK - London's Royal National Theatre has invested in two new eight-channel Kinesys DigiHoist controllers for its Cottesloe Theatre venue.

The DigiHoists were specified by the National Theatre's rigging resources supervisor, Matthew Wheeler.

The National Theatre (as it is generally known) is one of the UK's two most prominent public funded theatres, and is located on the South Bank of the Thames in central London.

It has three theatres: the amphitheatre-shaped Olivier seating 1100; the 900-seat proscenium arch Lyttelton; and the Cottesloe, an adaptable studio space designed by Iain Mackintosh, holding up to 400 people depending on the seating configuration.

The sale follows on from the purchase of a 21-channel Kinesys Elevation 1+ motor system - supplied in two phases comprising 14 half tonne Liftkets and seven one tonne Liftkets plus Kinesys Vector control - which is used

UK - Global aluminium trussing, roofing and staging specialist Milos enjoyed a highly successful PLASA exhibition at Earls' Court in London, where it previewed its new Mobiltechlift range.

It was the first time that the Czech Republic headquartered Milos has presented itself at an exhibition in its newly expanded format, following the recent acquisitions of premium brands Litec from Italy and Tomcat in the USA.

The key international sales and marketing teams from the main Milos brands were all present on the stand, meeting new contacts, touching base with existing ones and gathering plenty of information and feedback.

Collectively, they represented the future of MIlos which is now the largest aluminium trussing and staging manufacturer in the world, with major manufacturing bases in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, the US, Mexico and China.

The contemporary 'universal'

UK - PLASA 2012 saw a successful final chapter of the show's history at Earls Court, with high quality visitor attendance, a hugely popular Professional Development Programme and a vibrant out-of-hours social schedule - a fitting end to an era before the show begins anew at ExCel London in 2013.

Although the show attracted fewer visitors than last year, following a quiet - and gloriously sunny - Sunday, numbers picked up again for Monday and Tuesday, and after an unusually busy final day the overall visitor attendance reached 11, 500 (subject to ABC audit). Despite anecdotal reports of reduced international turnout, the overseas attendance was in fact a robust 25% of the total footfall, compared with 26% in 2011. The overall response from exhibitors, however, was vintage PLASA - excellent quality visitors and good levels of business - plus a strong sense of the buzz returning to

UK - Flightcase and speaker cabinet solutions specialist Penn Elcom showed its latest ideas and technologies at PLASA 2012 for the first time with all key brands in the group based on a single booth.

In addition to the latest ideas from Penn Elcom, the newest products from Pro Audio Stash, Rackz and CLD Distribution all attracted interest over the four day show.

Penn Elcom chairman Roger Willems states, "It was a good opportunity to meet many of our existing customers from the UK as well as make some new contacts."

The integrated stand also highlighted Penn's quality metalworking and manufacturing capabilities in the UK, and how this and other synergies help fuel the development of innovative and cost-efficient product lines across the sister companies.

"Overall this enables us to offer a very 'joined-up' range of complimentary products," confirms Wille

UK - Drawing in interest from some of the world's most renowned dance venues and dancing professionals, the official launch of Le Mark's new vinyl & sprung dance floor range resulted in the highest level of interest ever recorded in Le Mark's exhibiting history, says the company.

Le Mark's technical flooring manager Dave Cartwright said, "The progress Le mark has made over the last few years is phenomenal. Originally supplying floors to professional TV & Film studios, Le Mark has steadily grown and developed its range into what has now become one of the UK's most trusted brands in the professional dance industry too.

"With the honour of being selected to provide the flooring for the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics, new installation contracts for some of the UK's largest dance venues and record levels of interest for our new Woodland Spring sprung floors

Australia - MDG has confirmed the appointment of ULA Group as its new exclusive distributor for Australia.

For over 30 years, MDG has created fog and haze generators for entertainment, industrial, firefighting and military customers. Based in Montreal in Canada, the company's philosophy is to develop and produce the best generators on the market.

"We chose ULA Group as our distributors because their degree of dedication to our industry matches MDG's own," says Martin Michaud, president & CEO of MDG. "Coupled with ULA's unsurpassed knowledge of the Australian market, we believe this to be a very exciting, effective combination."

ULA Group marked the new appointment by introducing the MDG fog generators during Entech Connect show in Melbourne (18 - 19 July 2012), where they received positive feedback from visitors.

The MDG machines are well respected and

UK - David Essex is back on the road in the David Essex Rock Tour 2012. Supporting the rigging and production team throughout the 34 venue tour will be Le Mark's MagTape Professional Gaffer Tapes.

"A tape with such diversity allows us to carry one roll for everything rather than a stock pile of hundreds, it's marvellously sticky and the perfect tape to carry when on tour" Says Richard Linford, associate producer & general manager for the tour.

Le Mark's Sharon Marshall adds, "I've grown up hearing David Essex songs, it's so strange to be supplying our products to a childhood icon. If you read this David - I'd love some tickets."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Track solutions specialist Triple E has launched a new motorised curtain track system in the beautiful surroundings of the King's Theatre, Southsea - and marked the occasion by donating one to the venue.

Triple E's managing director David Edelstein, who formed the company in 1984 to supply the entertainment industry with mechanical products to aid the assembly and construction of stage scenery, unveiled SDRIVE, a track mounted motor for moving stage curtains, on Monday 24 September.

And in a generous offer, Triple E presented the King's Theatre, which is relying on the kindness of volunteers and businesses to help restore it to famed architect Frank Matcham's original vision, with the motor. The theatre is now the first in the UK to have the system installed.

"SDRIVE is the result of demand from the industry and our distributors for a budget motor aimed at smaller

UK - PLASA Members worldwide have begun voting in the Association's yearly elections, which commences this week.

The month-long ballot will decide places on PLASA's European and North American Regional Boards, together with a single seat on its over-arching Governing Body.

The role of the Regional Boards is to represent the interests of members affiliated to those regions, ensuring that PLASA offers strong on the ground support to members. Both the North American and European Regional Boards are looking to fill a number of places for 2013.

For the European Regional Board, Martin Hawthorn of Hawthorn's has put his name forward for a second term as Treasurer, Chris Parry-Jones of Gallowglass and Mark Surtees (incumbent) of Outback Rigging have put their names forward to represent Production Services members, Gerry Francke of Creative Technology and Noreen O'Riordan of Entec So

UK - On Sunday 30 September, a full scale 'emergency' training exercise took place at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester. The stands were filled by volunteers playing the part of the panicking crowds. Fake smoke, mock injuries and people looking for loved ones set up a challenging role for the Greater Manchester Firefighters and Police.

The VIGIL voice alarm system was activated, triggering pre-recorded messages to inform and guide the crowds. The systems emergency and fire microphones were used to broadcast live information ensuring everyone was up-to-date with the situation and how they should react.

Dave Unsworth, Northern sales person for Baldwin Boxall, was at the event and, seated in the control room, had a full view of the unfolding exercise and reports, " I took part in a staged major disaster at the Etihad Stadium home of Manchester City FC and can report that the

UK - Training centre Backstage Academy reports a successful exhibit at its second annual PLASA Show, where it celebrated a year of growth with several initiatives.

The Academy took many enquiries for its Foundation Degree in Live Events Production, for which there are still places for this November. It also had a lot of interest from overseas companies wanting training delivered in their home country.

Said sales & business development manager Sara Gleadhall, "What was surprising this year was the number of enquiries we had from companies and professionals abroad who are desperate for us to take our training overseas.

"We are currently looking at developing packages of training in essential backstage skills and certificates to deliver in foreign countries."

The Academy launched a student competition to win a week's work experience on the set build of a major

USA - MDG will be returning to LDI, Las Vegas this year (Booth 701) with its latest product, theFAN.

Released amid celebrations at Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt in March, theFAN is a digital, fully DMX/RDM operated stand-alone unit. Its appearance at LDI 2012 will mark theFAN's first showing in the USA.

theFAN has a very low power consumption of only 100W so benefits from very economical running costs. Nor is it channel hungry: the velocity of its three-bladed rotor is controlled via DMX (1 channel) or RDM, or locally using a discreet 4-button controller with LSC panel on the base of the unit.

A surge-protected, universal switching power supply covers the full range of 100V - 240V, 50/60Hz ensuring theFAN can be used anywhere in the world at the flick of a switch.

Also on the LDI stand will be the latest version of MDG's revolutionary dual mode Digital Atmospheric Generator, T

USA - At the LDI show in Las Vegas, J. R. Clancy will unveil a series of new rigging control systems that will address the entire range of performance venues - from the most complex flexible performing arts space, sporting complex or Broadway show to the stages of high schools and colleges.

Clancy has partnered with Niscon, Inc., creators of the Raynok Motion Control System, to develop the SceneControl 5000 Stage Automation Control System. SceneControl 5000 brings unprecedented capability and flexibility to Clancy's bestselling SceneControl brand.

SceneControl 5000 answers the call for a single common control platform across the multitude of stage machinery found in many venues. The SC5000 system offers multi-level cueing, sub-master control, free and locked groups, and unlimited numbers of axes in a system. There are no restrictions on the quantity of cues in a performance, o

UK - PLASA Skills is set to take part in TheatreCraft at the Royal Opera House, London (30 November) and is looking to promote work experience initiatives in place at PLASA Member companies on its stand throughout the event.

TheatreCraft is open to anyone between the ages of 17 and 25 and provides a unique glimpse into the behind the scenes world of theatre - from stage management to wig-making, lighting to marketing and writing to designing.

PLASA Skills will be present at the event to give young people advice about getting the skills and experience they need to give them a head start towards an enjoyable career in theatre.

PLASA Members are welcome to promote their own work experience initiatives through the PLASA Skills stand. Anyone interested in this opportunity should email Michele Enright with details.

(Claire Beeson)

UK - Stage Technologies has been contracted by Radiohead production manager Richard Young and Richard Kent of Aerial Rigging Techniques to provide a 60 axis 'pod' system running 12 free flying video screens on the Radiohead tour in Europe, New Zealand and Australia this autumn. Following a well-documented roof collapse earlier in the summer the tour's automation system had to be replaced. Despite being in the midst of its busiest year to date the Stage Technologies rental team created a new bespoke system within 30 days.

Stage Technologies provided control for the band's existing winch system including: 10 AU:tour control racks, a 60 axis system, plus new motor looms racks, desks and programming tools. Each pod in the system contains 4 point hoist winches each lifting a corner of the screen. Each is able to rotate to create multi-dimensional movement within the screens.

Stage

USA - British motorised track solutions specialist Triple E is gearing up to launch its pioneering SDRIVE system at LDI Las Vegas with Rose Brand, Triple E's American distributor.

Triple E's Managing Director David Edelstein will unleash SDRIVE, a track mounted motor for moving stage curtains, for the first time outside of Britain at the annual LDI show on the Rose Brand booth number 1029, 19-21 October 2012 at Las Vegas Convention Centre.

The American launch follows a hugely successful UK premiere of SDRIVE at Portsmouth's magical King's Theatre in September.

"SDRIVE is the result of demand from the industry and our distributors for a budget motor aimed at smaller venues," says Edelstein. "It's easy to specify and easy to install, and is designed to motorise both straight and curved systems and will be available off the shelf."

It's thought the SDRIVE,

USA - This year's LDI exhibition will mark 21 years of business for Southern California based truss and structure manufacturer Total Structures.

In order to celebrate the achievement the Total Structures LDI booth (number 126) will have a celebratory theme throughout the show and they will also be personally acknowledging the 'Top 21' customers who have helped them establish their market leading position during that time.

Making his LDI debut for Total Structures will be Eastern sales executive Don Halchak, who joined the company from Mountain Productions earlier this year. Halchak is based in Wilkes Barre, PA and supports all of Total Structure's north eastern customers as well as developing their growing sales of Columbus McKinnon and associated lifting products.

As well as exhibiting at the Las Vegas Convention Centre event Total Structures are also holding an outdoor str

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