South Africa / UK - Two South African Roadies Association (SARA) female members; Itumeleng Motswaledi from White City, Soweto and Mmaphefo Kefilwe from Naturena - Johannesburg South will be attending PLASA 2011 (Earls Court, London 11 - 14 September 2011).

The PLASA Show is the leading show-piece of new technology within the entertainment, live event, corporate, architectural and installation industries. This international event delivers the latest in new technology, hundreds of breaking-product launches, unrivalled networking opportunities and an acclaimed educational programme; maki

UK - The National Skills Academy is heading to the Norwich Playhouse/The Garage on Tuesday 11 October for the Norwich leg of this year's Offstage Choices programme, which introduces young people to the variety of career options available 'offstage', through workshops and tours backstage in industry venues.

Join them from 5.30pm in the Playhouse bar for an evening of informal networking and the opportunity to discuss topics including:

* How the Skills Academy can benefit you

* How the NSA can support Norwich's creative and cultural industry

* What opportunities are available with

UK - As part of the PLASA Education and Training Programme, Artistic Licence Engineering will be holding a training seminar on the DMX and RDM protocols during the show's 'Skills Wednesday'.

This Artistic Licence Engineering sponsored training event will focus on the understanding and use of the DMX and RDM protocols.

The three-hour course will cater for product designers, systems integrators, lighting technicians, artists and students who seek to expand their scope of these two industry-standard lighting protocols.

A step-by-step approach on how the protocols communicate will pro

UK - As sponsors of PLASA 2011, Clay Paky would like to welcome customers onto its stand 1-E36 for a preview of next year's innovations and a chance to win one of the company's most sought-after products.

Visitors to the stand will be invited to play one of their slot machines and perhaps win a Sharpy. Everyone is entitled to a spin of the wheels, but if you turn up with a voucher you can double your chances with one extra play.

Joining the ranks of the Alpha range is the Alpha Spot QWO 800, a new 800W spotlight packed with features: a self-focusing zoom with a 7° to 55° ran

UK - Red for warn, green for go. Most live event cueing systems currently used in theatres, opera houses and for concerts rely on separate networks of discrete wiring or dedicated data networks and proprietary protocols, sometimes with complex and expensive central management equipment. GreenGo is an all-new communication system that simply plugs into any available Ethernet network.

ELC has been at the forefront of lighting data networking for over 15 years, supplying theatres, TV studios, opera houses and touring events with Ethernet and DMX data networks.

ELC developed GreenGo to

UK / USA - As part of its ongoing merger activities and in response to the end of year departure of Ruth Rossington, executive director in Europe, PLASA has taken the opportunity to restructure its management team to ensure it continues to move the organisation forward while progressing a wide range of projects of benefit to members.

With effect from 1 October 2011, a new company structure will be put in place which sees CEO Matthew Griffiths heading up the association, whilst also temporarily overseeing the Events divisions in the UK and North America. Finance director Shane McGreevy

USA - PLASA has announced the finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2011. The PLASA Rock Our World Awards were created to honour groundbreaking achievement by its 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 fourth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

83rd Annual Academy Awards - Green Hippo, PRG, TMB

ALEXA Digital Camera System - ARRI

coolux Widget Designer 3.0

UK / Czech Republic - Showlight 2013 takes place in ?eský Krumlov in the Czech Republic and the town's 13th century Gothic castle, with its connected theatre and conference centre which will be the main venue for the presentations and exhibition.

The organisers are beginning their search for speakers for Showlight 2013 and will be at at PLASA 2011 on stand 1-C25.

"If you're a manufacturer, installation or rental company, Showlight offers the perfect environment in which to network with lighting designers from all disciplines. As an exhibitor, you'll have three days in which to

UK - ShowTex is sponsoring all stage drapes and masking fabrics for the Theatres Trust Ecovenue feature at PLASA 2011.

Located in Earls Court 2, the stand will display ShowTex Oeko-Tex 100 standard certified velvet velour ecological theatre curtains in its theatre-in-miniature, complete with 'auditorium', 'stage', 'backstage', 'foyer' and 'box office'.

In support of the long term efforts undertaken by the Theatres Trust to demonstrate proven sustainability techniques for theatres and to help bring ecology into focus at PLASA 2011, ShowTex custom made a variety of classic theatre cur

UK - PLASA 2011 continues a busy year for the Czech Republic based manufacturer which launches two new LED products - the Robin 1200 LEDWash, and the Robin DLX Spot, and previews the upcoming Robin 'Sniper' - a mega-bright beam fixture.

All are in line with the company's ongoing Think of the Future - Consider Nature commitment to producing genuinely more sustainable and greener technology which takes up less truck space, reduces weight loading on trusses, is quicker and simpler to rig and draws significantly less power than conventional light sources - without compromising on b

UK - Batman Live tour directors will join leading Tait staff to reveal production secrets behind the astounding Batman Live show at a seminar during this year's PLASA exhibition in Earls Court, London, at 5pm on Monday 12th September.

Tait is widely considered as global leaders in the design, manufacture and tour logistics when it comes to scenic motion, and were an obvious choice for production director Jake Berry (who was in charge of all technical elements) and set designer Es Devlin as they conceived one the most ambitious live touring productions ever seen.

Berry

PLASA 2011 sees Cooper Controls show a host of new products from its leading UK brands - architectural LED manufacturer Cogent and lighting control manufacturer LightProcessor.

Among the main new architectural orientated products is the Cogent XC LED controller, which will be shown with its latest software.

This increases the number of operational modes from 12 to 20, which can be directly accessed via an RS232 port, with the colours also recalled by region via RS232.

This is one of the most straightforward and flexible 'environmental' LED control systems on the market. It is set up in '

UK - Entertainment lighting designers are increasingly looking to LED lighting solutions to take advantage of more compact luminaire designs, unparalleled energy efficiency and dramatically lower heat signatures. At the same time, they demand solutions which light the stage and people on that stage with brightness, rich colour and precision focusing. With this in mind, Philips will launch the StagePainter D60 2000 system at PLASA 2011.

"The StagePainter goes beyond existing LED stage lighting capabilities to provide superior control over colour consistency and brightness, creatin

UK - Midas has announced the latest additions to its PRO Series of digital consoles: the Midas PRO2 and PRO2C live audio systems. In something of a departure for Midas, which has always produced gear for the top of the line, the company says the PRO2/PRO2C takes the audio quality, performance, and values of the top-end Midas XL8, and makes them available at a price point well below the general-purpose mixing console average. The consoles are currently on display at the PLASA Show, September 11-14, at Earls Court, London.

Despite being the smallest and least expensive Midas digital con

UK - Martin Professional have launched a new LED moving head - the MAC Aura - at the PLASA Show. "The MAC Aura is the first compact LED moving head wash light with zoom that offers never-before-seen eye-candy aura effects plus functions as a highly capable single-lens wash with fully pre-mixed colour," says Martin Professional.

The Aura's ground-breaking optical system combines two illumination systems in one luminaire - multicolour beam LEDs and a backlight LED lens array - to produce an all new visual palette that "takes the synthetic look out of LED wash lights for t

UK - ETC is showing a number of new and updated products at PLASA 2011, including the newest control desk in the company's award winning Eos line: Gio.

Officially launching at PLASA, the ETC Gio is designed to fill the mid-range position in the Eos family, between Eos and Ion. It offers the power of full Eos functionality, but in a smaller footprint. Features include integrated, articulating multi-touch displays and helpful backlit keys. The look of the desk itself is elegantly polished and minimalist.

ETC controls product manager Anne Valentino says: "We first showed Gio to cu

UK / Germany - Cloud Electronics, UK-based manufacturer of high-quality pro audio products, has announced S.E.A. Vertrieb & Consulting GmbH as the exclusive distribution channel for the full range of Cloud audio mixers, zoners, multi-channel amplifiers, and audio distribution systems throughout Germany, effective 15 October 2011.

S.E.A is a distributor of audio solutions for commercial installation, broadcasting, live sound reinforcement and studio products, employing a very enthusiastic and dynamic team of professionals in Emsburen, Germany.

The Company has been distributing audio

UK Rental company, Production Services Ireland (PSI), supplied lighting equipment and crew to the popular 2011 Belsonic Festival, staged at Customs House Square in Belfast.

It's the fourth year that the Belfast and Dublin based company has been the festival's lighting contractor - since it started in fact - and this year the event was expanded to 10 days, showcasing a line of leading international artists including 30 Seconds To Mars, Tiesto, Primal Scream, Dizzee Rascal, Beady Eye, Elbow, Tinie Tempah and many more.

PSI was working for the event's co-producers MCD and Shine, and a

UK - Green arts organisation Julie's Bicycle has launched its new UK-wide Better Batteries campaign at PLASA 2011. The campaign aims to bring together the music and theatre industries in a drive to switch over to rechargeable battery systems, particularly for portable sound equipment, and increase the rate of recycling for both disposable and rechargeable batteries. Focused on venues and individual productions the campaign is backed by scientific research and case studies from commercial theatre productions which prove the reliability of the technology, environmental benefits and cash s

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which has just closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events Manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products bein

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which last week closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products bei

UK - LumenRadio announced their support for Art-Net 3, the latest release of the public domain Ethernet protocol from Artistic Licence Engineering. As of PLASA 2011, Art-Net 3 will be supported in all of LumenRadio's Ethernet enabled products.

Art-Net is supported by 200-plus international manufacturers, and is one of the protocols of choice in LumenRadio's smart and adaptive CRMXTM wireless lighting control system.

"By upgrading to Art-Net 3, we can be confident our products stay way ahead of the data demand curve," explains LumenRadio's Senior R&D Engineer, Michael Karls

UK - GDS has reported "phenomenal success" at this year's PLASA show held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. GDS reported a high footfall over the four day event with particular interest being paid to the newest addition to the successful LiteWare Range, LiteWare Satellite and the new ArcSystem, LED Auditorium Lighting System.

Sunday saw the eagerly awaited launch of the LiteWare Satellite, following a successful teaser ad campaign customers flocked to the GDS stand to see its latest offerings. LiteWare Satellite is the newest member of the LiteWare family and provides a

Poll Toppers - Coldplay have been voted the best festival headliner of 2011, in an online poll conducted by BBC 6 Music. The band - who headlined Glastonbury and T In The Park - topped the survey with 22.7% of votes cast, breakfast show host Shaun Keaveny announced. US rock band The National came in second with 14.2%, while Muse were third with 13.9%.

Coldplay's drummer Will Champion told 6 Music playing festivals gave the band "a chance to win people over". He added, "There's also a strong possibility that people have already made their mind up about you - and no matte

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