USA - In six weeks, the highly regarded PLASA Focus events series will open at the Kansas City Convention Centre, 20-21 May. Once again, over two days, PLASA Focus will offer hands-on, up close views of products and services from over 35 leading manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and industry leaders and offer over 15 top seminars, including hands-on training, all completely free to attend.

Says PLASA Events show manager Laura Hoepker, "As a trade organization by the industry and for the industry, PLASA looks forward to another successful Focus show in Kansas City and providin

South Africa - Wild & Marr will be hosting a Shure product seminar at the APSO Training Facility in Isando, Johannesburg in May. Various sessions will take place over four days between 5-8 May 2015 and be conducted by staff from the Shure MEA office in Dubai.

"We are excited to host this event that will cater for various vertical markets for System Integrators, Retail and the Professional Audio markets," says Andrew Sorrill who is sales and marketing manager for Shure distributors Wild & Marr.

"Shure continuously strives for perfection in our product offering to the m

UK - With entries for the 2015 Event Technology Awards now open, organisers have announced an opportunity for innovative businesses to impress the industry with the launch of a new People's Choice Award.

The Favourite Event Technology Supplier award, for companies that have developed an innovative technological solution which can be used to deliver, monitor, analyse or improve events, will face a public vote before gold, silver and bronze winners are revealed. Potential applicants need to demonstrate how their solution benefits the sector and why the industry should vote for them.

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China - Continuing from the success of last October's show, Prolight + Sound Shanghai will return to the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from 14-17 October 2015. In 2014, the fair provided a business platform for 500 exhibitors and 24,017 visitors from 88 countries and regions.

Fiona Chiew, deputy general manager for Messe Frankfurt Shanghai Co, comments: "We conducted an industry survey last December and the result reviews that the participants expect and recognise the show as an effective means to reach international markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Korea, Russ

Germany - ETC is celebrating another successful Prolight&Sound show, in which they had their biggest stand space ever, spread across two areas.

On one of their stands, visitors were able to get an exclusive preview of the Eos console family software version 2.3, which is due for release in summer and adds a number of new options for controlling colour. Anne Valentino, ETC's Eos product manager, says, "Among the changes are multiple colour space options, which can be used for any type of mixing system and improved gel matching and new display options. Tinting tools - such as warme

UK - Pearce Hire has confirmed their participation at the upcoming PLASA Focus trade show, taking place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 May 2015. Pearce Hire has become a regular exhibitor at the show and will once more be promoting their production services and rental business.

"We recognise the significance of this regional event and it has now become an important date in the diary for us to network with industry colleagues and clients," observes Shaun Pearce, MD Pearce Hire. It will be the third year running that the Cambridgeshire based com

Germany - At Prolight+Sound 2015 in Frankfurt, d&b audiotechnik introduced the newest four channel, two rack unit (2RU) amplifier: the D20. The new amplifier features proven, intuitive user interfaces and offers fast, responsive remote control and monitoring via Ethernet through the Open Control Architecture (OCA) protocol

The D20 amplifier has four independent 1600 Watt channels, each with two 16-band equalizers which feature parametric, notch, shelving and asymmetric filters and up to 10 seconds of delay. The digital signal processing (DSP) power of the D20 means that external syste

Germany - DiGiCo's new compact 2U Orange Box is a simple-to-use audio format converter with multiple options, allowing you to use DiGiCo Multichannel Interface (DMI) cards to create audio paths over a variety of interfaces.

With two PSUs for redundancy and two slots to accommodate any of the ten current interfaces available (DANTE, HYDRA2, BNC, CAT5, Optocore, Aviom, ADC, AES, DAC and SoundGrid), the 'anything in, anything out' Orange Box allows conversion of almost any audio format to another.

"The Orange Box is our first technology release borne of the pro audio group we have

Germany - Following the successful ISE launch of Liviau R, the new, all-in-one conference room control system from Apex, the company has unveiled the latest in the series, Liviau S. Based on the same sleek, yet robust hardware platform as Liviau R, S offers all the same audio functionality as R but with greatly enhanced video and lighting capabilities for bars, clubs, retail, houses of worship and corporate applications.

Seen for the very first time at ProLight & Sound 2015, Liviau S features a fully integrated DMX controller for powerful and sophisticated lighting control. As well as

China - With a lot to show and a lot to say, d&b audiotechnik (China) Ltd took care to focus their product displays at this year's PL+S Guangzhou and at InfoComm Beijing, placing the professional concert systems of J, V and Q-Series together in one area, with the more installation oriented systems from the xS and xA-Series placed discretely elsewhere.

"We chose to differentiate the systems in a clearly visual sense," said Freddie To, director, d&b China, "but with the emphasis firmly on how the many elements of the d&b product range can be integrated in any combination.

Germany - Bose Professional has drawn acclaim from end users and venue owners for its L1 portable array systems. At Prolight+Sound 2015, Bose expanded its portable P.A. offerings with the introduction of the F1 Model 812 flexible array loudspeaker and F1 subwoofer. Designed to serve an even broader set of applications than L1 systems, F1 Model 812 is the first powered portable loudspeaker that lets users optimise sound by creating up to four different vertical coverage patterns.

Offering exceptional power and clarity, the F1 system provides versatility for a wide range of applications

Germany - Alcons Audio is celebrating its most successful Prolight+Sound ever, with two new pro-ribbon line-array systems, the LR28 and LR16.2, taking centre stage.

"This was our most successful Prolight+Sound to date," says Alcons co-founder Tom Back. "The LR28 created an incredible buzz. During the show, Norwegian rental company Trondheim Lyd was happy to announce the purchase of the first system in the world - a complete package of 32 LR28s, plus BC543 triple 18" cardioid subs and Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers."

The LR28 larger-format line-

Germany - Prolight+Sound 2015 was a great success for Clay Paky. The 60 demos that were held one after the other in German and English during the four-day fair were seen by more than 10,000 people, with an average of 150-200 spectators at each.

The Clay Paky stand was designed to look like a large cinema where the Clay Paky lights were the stars of the show, thanks to a high resolution LED wall provided by Unitech Digital Media.

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CEO, comments, "In my memory, I cannot recall another ProLight+Sound that was so busy and so full of visitors. Our demos were lite

USA - PixelFLEX, the leading provider of flexible and lightweight LED video screens, will be returning to PLASA Focus at the Kansas City 2015 trade show with its new FLEXCurtain HD LED video wall, a physically lighter video product designed for a new variety of needs.

Displays for the FLEXTile, FLEX Lite and FLEXCurve will also be featured for the two-day convention that takes place 20-21 May at the Kansas City Convention Centre. This will be PixelFLEX's fourth time attending a PLASA Focus event, following the successful PLASA Focus in Orlando in February of this year.

"PixelFL

Germany - French LED lighting manufacturer Ayrton surprised visitors and clients with the launch of no less than seven new products at Prolight + Sound 2015. The newest developments added three fixtures to Ayrton's Creative Solutions line, two specimens to its Imaging Displays portfolio and a further two additions to its Automated Luminaires range.

Heralded as the A61 Project prior to the show, Ayrton revealed a totally new technology that combines the first 94mm diameter narrow beam angle collimator with the latest generation high-power (40W or 60W) Osram multichip LED. Together thes

Germany - The launch of Green-GO's new wireless extension of its Ethernet based multi-channel digital intercom system at this year's Prolight+Sound has been hailed a huge success by the company's sales manager Silvio Cibien.

He explained "We chose to début the new wireless system in Frankfurt as the event is always a highlight on our calendar and we are aware of the calibre of people that are drawn to the show. It is a truly international event and we wanted to introduce our new product to the world. It really is a remarkable development for the Green-GO system and as pred

Germany - Robert Juliat served up an extremely well received menu of new products at Prolight + Sound 2015, starting with the presentation of its new asymmetrical LED cyclorama light, DALIS. The new 300W batten proved the hit of the Lightpower Village: DALIS stunned everyone with its powerful, smooth coverage and the huge variety of pastel and saturated colour generated by its 8-colour LED sources. "The spread and density of the light produced combined with the silent fanless operation makes it ideally suited to theatre and television," says sales director, Claus Spreyer. &quo

UK - Visitors to the upcoming PLASA Focus Leeds (12-13 May, Leeds Royal Armouries) will get the chance to see Meyer Sound's brand new LEOPARD and 900-LFC for the very first time in the UK.

Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems, Meyer Sound's official partner for the North of England and a long-term supporter of PLASA Focus, will be showing the brand new Meyer Sound Leopard and 900-LFC loudspeaker products on their stand (N-A18) throughout the show. Leopard and 900-LFC are the latest members of Meyer Sound's LEO family, and also by far the smallest and lightest, delivering extraordinary pow

Germany - Philips has secured yet another successful year at Frankfurt's Prolight+Sound expo. The company launched a wide range of industry-anticipated new products from its entertainment lighting brands, including the Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash, Strand Lighting 500ML console and an array of innovative Showline luminaires, which garnered much excited feedback from visitors.

A dedicated Philips Vari-Lite booth was situated in the Lightpower village, where the VL4000 Spot and VL4000 BeamWash were product highlights.

"The new Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash gained much attention and a lo

UK - Following a hugely successful Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt, ETC is getting ready to head to northern England, where its most popular new and updated products will be on display at PLASA Focus Leeds.

The new Source Four LED Fresnel adapter is set to take pride of place in the lighting area, alongside ColorSource PAR - the new addition to ETC's LED range which perfectly suits budget-starved venues without sacrificing the output quality or customer service levels that people have come to expect.

Source Four's miniature sibling, Source Four Mini, will also be on display, proving tha

Germany - MDG, the manufacturer of premiere fog, haze and low fog generators, celebrated its 35th anniversary at Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt with the release of three new fog generators.

The Me Series has been designed as the next stage in MDG's evolution of fog and represents a new family of generators with a higher degree of controllability and a powerful output from a compact chassis.

Me1 is the smallest of the Me family with a single nozzle output that can produce up to 100m3 (3,521 ft3) of fog per minute. It is unique in offering a MAX 3000 configuration setting.

Me2 is the pow

UK - Artistic Licence, the experts in lighting control, invite visitors to stand N-B23 at this year's PLASA Focus Leeds. Making its debut is versaSplit mini, a multi-functional modular DMX distribution system that promises to be the lighting control industry's equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.

versaSplit mini is housed in a compact metal case, suitable for desktop or truss mounting via an adapter. It comes with an inter-changeable input module, allowing the user to select between DMX/RDM, Ethernet (Art-Net, sACN & KiNET) or CRMX wireless DMX input.

The product features six splitter

USA - Creative Stage Lighting is bringing its High End Systems Hog 4 training programme to PLASA Focus Kansas City 2015. As part of PLASA Focus Kansas City, CSL will hold a Hog 4 training course before the show at Harvest Productions, 18-19 May.

The ETC Ion Console May 18th training at XS Lighting is now sold out.

The PLASA Focus: Kansas City show floor and two days of additional Professional Development Programme seminars will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center 20-21 May.

The Hog 4 two-day hands-on training session will be taught by CSL sales engineer Phil Heid. Student

Germany - UK based motion control specialist Kinesys launched its new Pathfinder system at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt which was a great success.

The energy levels in Hall 9 of the Messe exhibition centre and specifically on and around the Kinesys booth were definitely up on 2014, and once again, the brand attracted a lot of interest from multiple market sectors and visitors from all over the world.

The launch of Pathfinder reinforced Kinesys' confidence in the exhibition as a major international gateway for the entertainment technology industry. It also built on the last 12 months'

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