USA - Three new sessions have been added to an already stellar line up of speakers due to take the stage at PLASA Focus: Nashville, a new style of regional event taking place, for the first time, at The Nashville Municipal Auditorium, on 11-12 July 2012.

Joining other exhibitors, such as Clay Paky, Barbizon Lighting, Robe, and Martin Professional, PLASA Focus: Nashville is proud to announce the recent additions of 4Wall, Drape Kings, The Light Source, Interspace, IATSE, SeaChanger, Techni-Lux, and ZFX, to its growing floor plan.

As well as the raft of exhibitors on show at PLASA Foc

UK - "When one of the UK's biggest TV shows sets up in your back yard and say they need to equip the largest lighting rig that's ever been seen on prime time TV....it would be rude not to help them out." Says ELP project manager Barry Denison with a wry smile on his face.

He continues. "It's been brilliant having The Voice based here at Elstree as we've been able to instantly provide LD Mark Kenyon and his head rigger Dave Morrell with all the gear they need right from our Elstree office. We worked closely with them on-site throughout the whole process, from crea

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light is enjoying a busy spring-to-summer season supplying new theatrical productions, as the West End defies the predictions that it would suffer in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.

Recent openings include Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Apollo Theatre, starring David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf with lighting by Mark Henderson; two acclaimed transfers from the Chichester Festival Theatre, Sweeney Todd also lit by Mark Henderson and the double bill of South Downs and The Browning Version lit by Neil Austin; th

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) will use the opportunity of its forthcoming Theatre Show (13-14 June), to present a seminar discussion on the future of industry training, at London's Old Truman Brewery, on Wednesday 13 June, 12:45pm-2pm, in the venue's Seminar Room. Speakers include: Robin Auld, operations director, National Skills Academy Creative & Cultural; Chris Parry-Jones, head of Gallowglass Training; and, Bryan Raven, managing director, White Light.

Throughout the last year, the Association has continued to develop and promote its Technical Access Pa

At The Cinema - The farewell concert by Irish pop band Westlife is to be screened live to cinemas in the UK and Ireland and across Europe. The group, who announced last October they were splitting after 14 years, are set to bow out with a final concert at Dublin's Croke Park on 23 June. The event will be screened at more than 200 cinemas in nine countries including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Norway. There are also plans to screen the gig in Australia and South Africa. The band, whose 14 UK number ones include 1999 hit Flying Without Wings, have sold more than 44 million records world

UK - At The ABTT Theatre Show, the team from Philips Vari-Lite will be on hand to show off its recently launched, super bright range of Spot and LED Luminaires and catch up with end users and dealers.

The Philips Vari-Lite team will present a showcase from the latest1500W platform of Spot Luminaires, launched earlier this year at Frankfurt ProLight and Sound. They include the VL3015and the VL3015LT, as well as the VL3515 Spot luminaire. With the VL3015 andVL3515 Luminaires, Philips Vari-Lite has substantially increased light output while maintaining the popular features of existing Va

UK - Hot on the heels of its success at PLASA Focus Leeds and ProLight and Sound, Frankfurt, the team at Philips Entertainment Lighting is gearing up for yet another high-energy trade event in the form of the annual ABTT Theatre Show in June.

Philips Selecon and Philips Strand Lighting promise to deliver "an exciting showcase of pro-lighting products". These include the recently released PLCyc1 LED, which combines LED source technology with an asymmetrical reflector, which delivers consistent light distribution without having to compromise performance with spreader lenses.

UK - Over 80% of floor space for PLASA 2012 has now been filled with many companies eager to exhibit for the first time. Joining companies such as pro audio manufacturers Allen & Heath, Avid, Bose, CUK Audio, Funktion One, KV2 Audio, Martin Audio, Midas, Roland, Sennheiser and Yamaha, will be:

EMD SA is launching the new Stagg SMSDP700 digital powered speakers and Stagg Pro Lighting range as part of its expanding Pro Audio range. UK sales manager Tom Robinson adds,"After 16 years of growth in the musical instrument market in the UK and 45 years of experience in distribution throu

UK - PLASA are proud to announce the Sponsors for this year's event at Earl's Court from Sunday 9 - Wednesday 12 September.

Platinum Sponsor is Robe Lighting, the Czech Republic-based manufacturer of moving lights and digital lighting products. General manager, Josef Valchar, is looking forward to PLASA 2012. "It is a very exciting time to be involved in lighting manufacture with the increasing convergence between the mediums of lighting and video into one integrated visual tool. Environmental concerns and the importance of developing energy efficient and sustainable technology f

UK - The third Annual PLASA Rigging Conference takes place London 2012 on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September 2012 at the Earls Court Conference Centre in London.

Confirming that the PLASA Rigging Conference maintains a truly international profile, this year's key-note speaker, Roy Bickel, one of the original 'Disney Riggers' from the USA is followed by speakers from both sides of the globe.

Looking at Ground Supported Structures will be Malcolm Richards, a chartered structural engineer with extensive experience in all forms of entertainment industry structures. Supported by a panel

South Africa - For the fourth consecutive year, AV Unlimited were commissioned by VWV as the preferred technical supplier for the SAB Marketing Sales and Distributors Conference. This annual event was held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

An estimated 1 600 people, all South African Breweries internal staff, attended the convention, business sessions and the new brand experience - a networking area where delegates gather after various sessions. Here all SAB brands were displayed in an exhibition-type fashion and complemented with lighting and background music.

AV Un

USA - There's a grandMA2 in the house for Wicked, the Broadway musical about the untold story of the Witches of Oz. The long-running show at the Gershwin Theatre recently switched to a grandMA2 full-size console for lighting and special effects control.

"It was time to replace our previous system due to its age, and it made sense to update to a grandMA2," says Brendan Quigley, show electrician. "All of the Wicked shows worldwide are on the grandMA platform, so it was our turn to move up. The grandMA2 is proving to be both agile and rock solid."

USA - In the last few weeks PLASA Focus: Nashville 2012 has gone from strength to strength as new exhibitors and new seminar speakers join the party. Now the second regional event to be held in North America, PLASA Focus: Nashville 2012 takes place on 11-12 July, 2012 at the Municipal Auditorium, in Nashville, TN. and follows in the wake of the successful PLASA Focus: Austin, held in February 2012. The show will also run prior to the annual Summer NAMM event, bringing together industry professionals from around the world.

PLASA Focus is proud to announce the addition of several n

Australia - After Aussie rock legend Cold Chisel's rapturously received best-of arena shows of last year, they played a few intimate shows at venues such as the Festival Hall in Melbourne where sound engineer Greg Rosman utilised the in-house JBL VerTec PA system.

Not exactly big news except Rosman had a powerful new weapon in his arsenal - JBL V5 VerTec presets courtesy of the new Crown VRACK, a complete amplifier management rack system solution. The VRACK features three built-in Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, immediately providing an easy-to-configure, plug-and-play solution that

Ireland / UK - Irish electronic act, The Japanese Popstars, selected an Allen & Heath ZED-420 USB mixer as the permanent mixer in their tour set up.

"Allen & Heath is a music industry stalwart and well trusted by many producers and performers. We have previously used the MixWizard with great results, one of which was our first BBC Radio One live performance as part of 'In New DJ's We Trust', so you could imagine our excitement when we got our hands on the ZED-420," explains band member, Gary Curran.

The Japanese Popstars have toured with the ZED mixer for the past year, pl

UK - Mt Pro Ltd will be exhibiting at the ABTT show at the Old Truman Brewery in East London this month. On show on stand 65 will be a selection of professional audio and LED lighting products developed by MilTec (UK) Ltd.

"We have been very busy over the last year, developing new products and expanding the ranges of existing products," said David Faulkes, sales director. "We have also extended our manufacturing base to include Germany."

One of the products to be featured at the show will be an LED cyclorama wash. Based on the powerful LEDHead Batten2, it uses 18

UK - Having just reported its best month of trading ever, Ambersphere Solutions is preparing to exhibit at the ABTT Theatre Show, taking place at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, London on 13-14 June.

The ABTT exhibition will provide a platform for visitors to see the recently launched, time-saving battery powered LED GlowUp fixture and the feature packed Alpha Spot QWO800 from Clay Paky.

"We are delighted to be showcasing these products to the theatre industry at ABTT," comments Glyn O'Donoghue, MD of Ambersphere Solutions. "Our experienced team will be on hand

UK - ShowTex returns to London next week for the ABTT Theatre Show where several new product developments will be presented at stand number 39.

The Acoustic Baffle from ShowTex proves ecology and noise level control can go hand in hand, says the company. The new acoustic fabric panels are made from 100% recycled material compressed together to optimize sound conditions. The flame retardant Acoustic Baffle comes in two sizes (2m long and 3 m long) and can be installed modularly for extra flexibility.

By combining the two standard formats, nearly any height or area can be covered. The

UK - With more than a hundred exhibitors preparing for the first ABTT Theatre Show to be held at the Old Truman Brewery in East London, many are taking the opportunity to demonstrate new products to the technical theatre community. Visitor registrations have exceeded the previous two years, and the choice of the new venue seems to have increased the excitement of the Theatre Show, which will be celebrating its 34thyear on 13 and 14 June, say the organisers.

The ABTT 2012 Theatre Show has attracted exhibitors from all areas of technical equipment supply and service provision. The promi

USA - Chauvet has confirmed its participation in PLASA Focus: Nashville 2012. The Chauvet Professional booth number during the two-day event, held at The Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., is 302.

Chauvet will show case the latest members of their Legend and COLORado families withLegend 412 and COLORado Zoom Tour, as well as the newest member of their Q-Series with Q-Spot 460-LED. Also featured, are Q-Wash 560Z LED moving yoke, MVP modular video panels and the wireless fixture WELL.

(Jim Evans)

UK - At this week's ABTT Theatre Show, newly relocated to the Old Truman Brewery at Brick Lane in London's East End, entertainment lighting specialist White Light will be showing some of the very latest advances in lighting technology - some brand new, some already put to use on recent high-profile events.

The highest profile of these was the Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace, which featured the new i-Line battens from i-Pix. Building on the success of the renowned BB range, the i-Line 600 and i-Line 1200 RGBW battens are incredibly bright with beautifully smooth output, a

UK - Doughty Engineering is launching two new products at ABTT, as well as previewing others before their official launch later in the year.

Debuting at ABTT (stand 35) is Doughty's 35mm Atom clamp, a "perfect fit for 35mm speaker stands". The smallest of Doughty's clamp range, Atom clamps are slotted to hold captive a nut or bolt head, have a SWL of 100kg and are suitable for lightweight truss as well as the majority of stands.

New additions to the Doughty catalogue are Reutlinger Cable Holders. Available in two different sizes to suspend loads of up to 130kg and up to 33

UK - Moving Light Assistant has joined the City Theatrical family of professional lighting software which includes Vectorworks and Lightwright 5. Moving Light Assistant simplifies the complex task of organizing and documenting moving light rigs.

Visitors to City Theatrical's stand #50 at ABTT 2012 at the Old Truman Brewery can see a demonstration of the programme from its author, professional designer/programmer Andrew Voller.

Moving Light Assistant can be used from the pre-production phase for planning and designing the moving light rig right through to producing the final document

If you had the chance to mould the future, what would you do? The Audiothinktank is designed to spread new and radical sonic ideas. It is built as a forum for you and your fellow audiophiles to gather together and talk about the future; where our industry should be going, why it should go in that direction and how it can be achieved.

The Audiothinktank will be presented by Dave Swallow (La Roux, Imogen Heap, Amy Winehouse), Chris McCarron (Biffy Clyro, Maximo Park, The Pigeon Detectives), Chuck Knowledge (Dizzee Rascal, Jay Sean, Modestep, Nero, Tinchy Stryder, Tony Andrews (Funktion-One), L

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