UK - PLASA Events has announced the launch of the 2013 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which will be presented in the new AudioLab Arena during PLASA London at ExCeL on Monday 7 October at 6.00pm.

The PLASA Show is regarded as a major international launch-pad for new products. During its history, it has seen hundreds of product innovations introduced to the market - a trend which we expect to see continued at the 2013 event. The PLASA Awards for Innovation aim to emphasise this focus on true innovation. The procedure for entry ensures that all nominated products are vetted to show that they offer something new to the industry:

"The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products which advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety."

All successfully vetted products are judged a

UK - Named in memory of Tony Gottelier, the industry innovator and commentator who passed away in 2006, the Gottelier Award aims to recognise product developers who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related field.

The shortlist of nominees is generated from invited suggestions from a panel consisting of PLASA team members, PLASA Regional Board & Governing Body members, regular contributors to LSi and LSA magazines, and past winners of the Gottelier Award.

All PLASA Members and pre-registered visitors to PLASA 2013 are eligible to vote, and will receive an email inviting them to place their vote at the PLASA Show website. Voting closes on Friday 20 September and the winner will be announced at the PLASA Show on Monday 7 Octobe

The Netherlands - Milestone AV Technologies reports that its Europe office in Weert, Netherlands, has a new state-of-the-art product showroom showcasing the latest AV solutions. After joining together the EMEA operations for its Chief, Da-Lite and Projecta brands under the same roof in October 2011, Milestone has made significant enhancements to the facility, including the addition of the state-of-the-art showroom for demonstrations and hands-on training opportunities. More than 40 installed solutions are on display, including mounts, racks, screens and other AV accessories.

The showroom demonstrates a wide range of vertical market applications, including digital signage, education, rental and staging, video conferencing, video walls, workstation, interactive, home entertainment, broadcasting and corporate.

"It has been exciting to connect our brands and bring our compreh

UK - Live video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied a full camera, vision mixing and control package to the Lion's Den stage at the 2013 Boomtown Fair - the UK's Maddest City - festival at Matterley Estate near Winchester in Hampshire.

The festival - under the artistic direction of Lak Mitchell and Chris Rutherford - is one of the UK's most and vibrant events and the Lion's Den Stage is acclaimed for its awesome line up of established reggae artists and emerging talent.

Boomtown is the world's biggest pop up city with over 1km of set/scenics and over 40 individual themed venues of which the Lion's Den is the largest.

CPL's Nick Diacre was on-site as production manager for the Lion's Den, coordinating all technical production, site management and related business in this area, including Health & Safety.

The stunning 16m high Aztec temple themed Lion's Den pe

Germany - The HDMI connection cable series from Sommer Cable and Hicon have seen a complete rework and some additions.

From late summer 2013 the all new HIMM series will be available. It is fitted with a highly flexible and super thin line - only 4mm in diameter - and extremely compact all-metal connectors (only 18.5 x 9 x 15mm). This compactness lets the user experience previously unknown possibilities in the cable management on the desk, at the lectern or in the conference hall. The series is available with a maximum cable length of 10m, whereby the 5 and 10m lines are equipped with an integrated signal repeater.

The updated HD14 series now represents the optimised standard with HDMI connection lines. The cables are available in pure white or black and covered with a nylon mesh which increases the mechanical resilience and gives them a more high-grade look. The connectors ar

UK - International LED specialist displayLED has appointed Paul Langridge as business development manager to help expand the company's presence in public display signage.

Langridge has worked in the display business since 1990, initially with a US-based company which manufactured LCD tablets for the presentation market, before moving into the AV business where he provided bespoke video solutions. His role at displayLED will include developing relationships with highways and retail clients.

"displayLED's success in global markets allows me to look at business opportunities on a much larger scale, as well as within the UK," says Langridge. "I'm looking forward to researching the needs of international clients and providing them with effective solutions."

Guy Horrigan, commercial director of displayLED, adds, "Paul has a long and proven track record of

UK - PLASA London 2013, which takes place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013, is proud to reveal the first audio sessions in its hotly anticipated Professional Development Programme. The packed programme offers four days of free sessions that give visitors a glimpse of the technology behind the world's most spectacular live shows and most talked about events and venues.

All sessions in the audio streams are presented by leading experts in audio technology, with separate programmes on Live Sound and Installed Sound in the new AudioLab Theatre, and a pro audio laboratory - AudioLab Interactive - that will push audio technology to its limits - and beyond. Visitors can register their interest in their preferred sessions at www.plasashow.com/education

The AudioLab Theatre features programmes on Live Sound, Installed Sound and The Sound Business. Highlights in this theatre includ

UK - Audiences were wowed at The Transmissions Live From Jodrell Bank this weekend as the iconic Lovell Telescope was transformed into a spectacular backdrop in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Sir Bernard Lovell, founder and first director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Managed by production company Ear To The Ground, the event was the final weekend of The Transmissions series, taking place on the 30-31 August.

The 2013 Live From Jodrell Bank series featured a spectacular finale with performances from Sigur Ros on Friday and Manchester's internationally renowned symphony orchestra Hallé on Saturday. Conducted by Stephen Bell, Hallé's performance was inspired by the stars playing a selection of intergalactic film music including Star Wars, E.T and Doctor Who.

Bluman Associates managed the video content production and in

UK - Christie has launched the Christie Virtual Remote projector app, providing an alternative to the standard IR remote control. Designed for the Android operating system, Christie Virtual Remote provides wireless control of all Christie 3-chip DLP projectors in the popular Christie M Series and Christie J Series projector families.

Christie Virtual Remote is suitable for applications including live events, trade shows, and projection mapping. Users in fixed installation applications such as boardrooms and classrooms, houses of worship, government facilities, and museums will also enjoy the convenience of controlling one or more projectors wirelessly from their Android smartphone or tablet.

"The Christie Virtual Remote app provides a Wi-Fi projector control alternative, while maintaining all the capabilities of the standard IR remote. The app also offers a visual interfa

Belgium - ArKaos PRO has announced the expansion of its distribution network across a further t12 European countries as it develops its successful collaboration with the A.C. Group of entertainment technology resellers.

With immediate effect, ArKaos PRO will be working with A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's regional sales representatives in Sweden, Lithuania and the UK, who will look after ArKaos customers in Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Latvia.

AC-ET will be responsible for promoting, distributing and servicing ArKaos PRO's Stage and Stadium media servers as well as the ArKaos MediaMaster Pro software across these twelve countries. The new arrangement will ensure that Arkaos products will be directly accessible to lighting designers, rental companies and all ArKaos customers.

UK - The organisers of PLASA London 2013, which takes place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013, have revealed the first entertainment lighting and stage technology sessions in its hotly anticipated Professional Development Programme. The packed programme offers four days of free sessions that give visitors a glimpse of the technology behind the world's most spectacular live shows, and most talked about events and venues.

All sessions in these streams are presented by leading experts in entertainment technology, with two new theatres dealing exclusively in entertainment lighting and stage technologies, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Theatre, and an inside look at the extravaganza that is Eurovision. Visitors can register their interest in their preferred sessions at www.plasashow.com/education/

In a tribute to the National Theatre, which celebra

USA - With less than a week until the doors open at PLASA Focus: Austin, taking place at the Palmer Events Center, on 10-11 September, 2013, exhibitors have been busy releasing details about the products they will have on display at their booths.

Martin Professional will have two new products on their booth; the MAC Viper Quadray and the Jem Ready 365 Hazer. The MAC Viper Quadray, the latest addition to the award-winning MAC Viper family of moving heads, allows for the projection of one, two, three or four individually-controllable rays of light. The Jem Ready 365 Hazer uses advanced water-based fluid which produces a haze ideal for large venues.

Group One will host a trio of Avolites' top-end consoles: the Titan Touch, Titan Mobile and Sapphire Touch. ElektraLite fixtures, including the eyeBall family of products, Dazer, ML601, eyeKandy, and ElektraFog+, and DiGiCo's SD11 dig

Aberdeen-based events and rental company, Granite City Events has invested in Highlite Internationals DMT P12.5 Pixel Mesh Video Screen. Company owner Barry Sheriffs says: "We have been looking at video/pixel wall screen products for a while now; it was brought to my attention about the new Highlite DMT P12.5 Pixelmesh, which is priced within the budget we had to spend, so a demo was requested".

Malcolm Burlow and Dave Drane of Highlite UK brought eight panels of the P12.5 screen to the Stonehaven warehouse to do a full demonstration. "It was great to see and also for us to use our current vision mixer and our HD cameras with it. We were very impressed with the quality, brightness and picture output for a Pixelmesh - it's exactly what we have been looking for."

Granite City Events has invested in 24 panels, with flightcases, rigging and Arkaos software. Sheriffs s

USA - PLASA has announced eight finalists in the sixth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2013. The Rock Our World Awards were created to honour ground-breaking achievement by PLASA members and to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of the technology and the designer or integrator who applies it in a real world environment.

The finalists for the sixth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

GBLOCK - Gallagher Staging and Productions, Inc.

GCT (Guy Cable Tensioner) - Tomcat USA.

Mbox Extreme Media Server as used on Oblivion - Production Resource Group.

TiMax2 SoundHub and TiMax Tracker - Out Board.

AsteraTouch - Astera LED-Technology.

dmXLAN v4 Software - ELC Lighting.

Royal Opera House Muscat - Theatre Projects Consultants.

London Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

W

Denmark - During those cold winter months, the people from Denmark and wider Scandinavia can escape to the warmer climes of the Western Caribbean at The Reef Hotel & Resort.

The attraction located just meters away from the ferry terminal in Fredrikshavn, Denmark uses the latest audiovisual technology to immerse visitors, thanks to Swedish systems integration company Mediatec Solutions Sweden AB. Mediatec provided all audio, video, lighting and control including Watchout multi-image display and presentation software. Content was designed and created by award-winning hospitality and exhibition designers, Stylt Trampoli AB.

Erik Nissen Johansen, creative director and founder at Stylt Trampoli AB created The Reef concept said,"The Reef is the former Stena Line 'Badehotellet'. We have created a unique adventure for the whole family who are treated to sound, scents, lapping wav

UK - Sarah Cox, a well-known member of the AV industry, starts her new position at Green Hippo Ltd. within the company's sales team as technical sales manager for several European territories including France, Italy and Spain. Additionally, she will also spend some of her time as a HippoSchool trainer, working alongside head of training Simon Harris.

Previously Cox spent three and a half years with TMB, Green Hippo's exclusive Hippotizer distributors in the Americas.

Working closely with TMB's clients in the UK, Sarah spent a great deal of her time on the road, providing demonstrations and training whilst also attending open-days and tradeshows.

Furthermore, she spent some time as a business development manager for West End Theatre, before returning to her distribution roots with White Light as their European division sales manager.

Green Hippo's VP global sales, Samantha

UK - Kent- based creative event specialist Eclipse Presentations has expanded with the addition of three new key personnel.

Charles Steward has been appointed as head of managed services, to head-up and drive the fast-growing Eclipse Services division of the company.

John Michaels and Martin Worman join as area managers, who will help co-ordinate Eclipse's dedicated site teams working across the 18 high-profile central London venues for which the company provides event services, technical production and AVL equipment.

Steward's background includes 10 years of operational experience in the professional AV industry including as a director of Impact Marcom. He also brings a wealth of knowledge in the contractual and finance sectors garnered working nationally and internationally.

His role at Eclipse Services will include building the portfolio, managing investment and equipme

The Netherlands - Christie will be celebrating its 10th year at IBC 2013 (13-17 September, Hall 9 Stand C17) with the first European presentation of a number of new products.

The company will be supporting IBC TV and the IBC conference programme, and is once again the supplier for digital cinema projection at the IBC Big Screen experience.

First up is the Christie Brio - a presentation and content sharing solution which enables meeting participants to share across multiple locations, running audio and video presentations from their own smart devices wirelessly without the need to install any third party software. Brio features a whiteboard which can be shared in real-time for comment, note-taking or drawing - all of which can be saved, shared or recalled for later editing. As a result, participants are able to share information much more easily and leverage critical knowledge

Belgium - September sees the launch of ArKaos GrandVJ 2, the latest version of the highly successful ArKaos GrandVJ software for VJs, DJs, clubs and musicians.

The new software brings "sparkling new features that answer the demands of customers in the forefront of the action". Two versions are available: GrandVJ 2 and GrandVJ 2 XT which includes a VideoMapper feature.

New Features for GrandVJ 2: new interface; VideoMapper module (XT version); new software activation system; improved performance; new effects plus support for audio files.

GrandVJ 2 comes with a new interface, making it even more user friendly and straightforward, while integrating all the new functionality.

Simple colour coding (orange for layers, blue for cells) makes editing faster and more intuitive. Existing features, such as panel locks, have been moved and grouped under the mixer for convenie

UK - Lighting design and rental company Siyan chose Avolites consoles for this summer's Lovebox musical extravaganza in East London's Victoria Park. This year saw the company step up to the Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch Pro for the main and second stages respectively.

"Historically, Avolites consoles have been Siyan's first choice at Lovebox," explains project manager Jez Johnstone. "For the past few years we've used the D4 range for FOH at the main stage, with the Expert on the smaller stages. With technology moving forward, it was a natural progression to spec the Sapphire Touch at main and the Tiger Touch Pro at stage 2."

At the controls of the Sapphire on the main stage was lighting designer Paula Trounce, taking care of artists including headline act Azealia Banks as well as Tinchy Stryder, Jurassic 5, D'Angelo, Rudimental and Charlie Wilson, among ot

UK - The David Bowie is exhibition was one of the most successful and technically complex shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. Opening to rave reviews on 23 March 2013 it was the best selling exhibition in the museum's history. David Bowie is is now on world tour starting at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada this month.

Design and Production company,59 Productions and interiors and exhibition designers Real Studios collaborated on the David Bowie is exhibition design. Expert systems integrator, Sysco AV configured the museum's existing inventory of technology and Dataton Watchout powered the multi-image display and presentation software in two areas of the galleries including a 7m high video wall display and TV displays throughout the exhibition. Sysco AV has worked with the V&A for many years on several exhibitions. Watchouit is support

UK - XL Video UK have again supplied all video elements to the Icelandic band Sigur Rós for the latest UK and European festival leg of their World tour, supporting their new Kveikur album. XL has been constantly involved with supplying the band's visual requirements for the current 18 month worldwide tour.

Sigur Rós's provocative and interesting live visuals are a collaboration between LX and stage designer Bruno Poet, the band's artistic director Sarah Hopper, Damian Hale the editor for Third Company and video director/Catalyst operator Ray Gwilliams, all working towards creating a visual look that both reflects and adds to their musical style for live shows.

Gwilliams has been supported on the road by Robyn Tearle, the two of them forming the tour's core video crew.

Both of their roles have evolved since starting in May 2012, reflecting the fluidity of the video e

UK - XL Video are the multi-award winning AV experts responsible for the projection of video director Richard Turner's innovative video display on Roger Waters' The Wall Live concert tour.

To help XL Video bring the shows to life, forty units of Panasonic 20,000 lumens PT-DZ21KE and PT-DS20KE projectors are being installed into the grand scale stadiums and arenas, as the musician delivers 27 electrifying rendition performances across Europe running until autumn 2013.

Roger Waters comments on the technology of the show, "This wide wall stadium show couldn't have been done 40 years ago. We couldn't have filled the space in a way that would have been emotionally, musically and theatrically satisfying. Technology has changed. Now we can."

The Panasonic PT-DZ21 models project exceptional brightness levels and crystal clear imagery onto the colossal 20,000 sq.ft o

UK - Projection and digital art specialist Ross Ashton collaborated with Russian artist Maria Rud to present Dark Matter a dynamic 'AniMotion' live performance painting projected in giant format on to the Institute of Astronomy library in Cambridge. The event embraced painting, music and projection mapping It was the world-wide launch of this concept, complete with live music from flautist David Heath, vocalist Fay Fife and DJ / producer Dolphin Boy (Andy Levy).

The one-off event also coincided with the launch of the 2014 e-Luminate Festival in Cambridge - which in February will celebrate the fusion of lighting and technology to show the city literally 'in a different light' - with a fundamental emphasis on eco-sustainability.

Ashton was approached by Rud, who had heard about his work and wanted to take AniMotion to a different level.

Ashton immediately saw the potent

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