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14 March 2016

"ITN recently won the Channel 5 News contract back from Sky. To accommodate the contract it needed to refurbish its news rooms," explains key account manager at Architainment, Bryan Kelly. "As part of the refurbishment project the lighting team was keen to improve presenter lighting. The Channel 5 news room is now entirely lit with Philips Selecon and ColorKinetics LED luminaires including Selecon PL1s, ColorKinetics ColorBlastTRXs and ColorKinetics iW Blast units."

One of the biggest challenges is that the news room has a very low ceiling so there is little space for dimmers. Architainment's solution has been to specify distributive eS21 bars into the trussing system with built

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14 March 2016

The new order is built around a 36-enclosure MLA system, comprising of 22 MLA top boxes, 12 MLX subs, and two MLD down-fill enclosures. It also includes 22 x Martin Audio W8LC Compact line arrays (and two W8LD down-fills), 10 x W8LM (and two W8LMD down-fills), 20 x WS218X 2 x 18" subs. Controlling the systems will be six new MA18K and 12 MA5.2K amplifiers, along with a pair of DX1.5 dedicate digital system controllers.

CitySound has also upgraded their floor monitors, adding 16 x Martin Audio LE1200, eight LE1500 and eight LE2100 low-profile wedges to their hire fleet.

This represents a massive investment and huge leap of faith in the British manufacturer. The order was supplied through Martin

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14 March 2016

Driven by the Le Mark team of Leanne Baker(head of UK Sales) & Steve Marshall ( DR project manager) they believed the XS Lady Grip line, with its bright pink decals and logos, is the obvious choice .

"As a company Le Mark has always tried to support relevant charities as much as possible," says Baker. "Last year we were able to product link and donate to the PSA's StageHand Appeal. This year we have chosen something , I think, closer to home and relevant to all 'us girls' in the entertainment industry"

Steve Marshall adds, "2012 is Le Mark's 30th anniversary and throughout the year we will be looking to say 'thank you' to the Industry that we all love working in . It's great to be able to link Dirty Rigger g

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14 March 2016

White Light, which supplied the lighting equipment to the ceremony and many of the nominated shows, as well as sponsoring the Lighting Design Award, would like to congratulate all of this year's winners.

In the lighting category, the award went to Bruno Poet for his work on Frankenstein at the National's Olivier Theatre. A central part of his design was a dramatic wedge-shaped light bulb ceiling made up of 3100 assorted light bulbs driven from just over 1000 dimmers allowing the creation of spectacular waves of light over the heads of the audience. White Light was proud to be involved with creating this effect (with a number of the exposed filament lightbulbs supplied by

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14 March 2016

With a recently opened York office, alongside its London headquarters, Mojo Barriers provides services to live events across the country including festivals, tours, sporting and cultural occasions, premiers, and council events. Its UK team is at PLASA Focus to discuss the extensive range of Mojo stage barriers, crowd barriers and fencing along with post and rope and cable ramp.

Mojo Barriers UK director Jim Gaffney comments, "People's safety at events and venues is the primary concern of Mojo Barriers and our team is at PLASA Focus to discuss and demonstrate the importance of crowd safety. We are looking forward to meeting venue owners, festival organisers and production managers to discuss how we can offer a bespoke service

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14 March 2016

JET by Ohm is a range of British-made speakers at affordable prices, which can be seen at PLASA Focus on the Ohm/Impact stand RA-A17. To celebrate the partnership, Impact is running a competition throughout the show to win five pairs of Ohm BR-5 loudspeakers, requiring visitors to answer a simple question correctly to enter.

Impact, which has just announced the opening of six new branches across the UK, can arrange auditions for trade customers anywhere in the country, and will be happy to arrange demos of the entire Ohm range.

"We had been looking for a very special distributor to spearhead our UK sales activities for some time," says O

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14 March 2016

Special awards were presented to lyricist Sir Tim Rice and to Dame Monica Mason, who is shortly to leave her post as director of the Royal Ballet after 54 years with the company. Sir Tim attributed the longevity of his career to "good stories and good tunes" and said "an awful lot of it was [down to] luck".

Golden Oldie - Sir Bruce Forsyth is to share a stage with Bob Dylan, Suede and Primal Scream at a music festival in Ke

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14 March 2016

AED Rent account manager Koen Conaerts cites a number of different reasons for the investment, including this year's large-scale sporting events such as the 2012 Olympics and UEFA Euro 2012 football championship and, in general, to support their AV clients through a busy summer.

"This year is a special one, and there are a lot of L-Acoustics users that need more equipment," says Conaerts. "We can now provide them with that extra equipment. We specifically bought the LA-RAKs as we're updating our stock to the K-Standard; with a huge st

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14 March 2016

They have been lit by lighting designer Steven Bewley of Box Fresh Lighting, ably assisted by MA's grandMA2 desk, and a host of Clay Paky Sharpys.

A long time user of MA consoles, Bewley explains his reason for his desk choice. "I've progressed through the ranks of MA consoles, and the grandMA2 is easy to use, and allows you to programme a spectacular show quickly. It just works, and it does it seamlessly alongside the other kit we use on the show - for video and for sound. It's powerful, and the size of the desk makes it adaptable to smaller venues as well. It's a console I'm falling in love with as it's so configurable."

Bewley specified 40 Sharpys for the lighting

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14 March 2016

At the core of the system is a digital communications link that enables multiple units to be daisy chained together. The units will automatically assign channels according to their position in the daisy chain. The high resolution OLED displays offer comprehensive channel feedback including channel number, status and load cell information.

The DigiHoist platform has been designed from the ground up to be upgradable. Options include encoder inputs, as well as Ethernet and LibraCELL connectivity.

The digital link incorporates self-healing emergency stop connections eliminating the need for shorting plugs in the system. Safety features include hoist presence indication, limit monitor

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14 March 2016

It stood out among a large suite of innovative LED based products on the stand of the Chinese manufacturer, where visitors praised its brightness, its speed of execution and the sleek design of the housing.

XLED 336 is a 36-LED fast moving, compact and economically priced head, with 18.15° dispersion angle. It generates its power and RGB colour mix from 36 x 3W Osram Oslon LED's (12 red, 12 green, 12 blue). With a power consumption of just 140W it outputs close to 250W.

The spot has a beam angle of dispersion of 18.15° and lens angle of 8°. Head movement includes 540° pan and 270° tilt, with auto position correction, pan and tilt swap and invert function. It also offers 12 DMX control channels (16 channels in extended mo

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14 March 2016

"In the past we have been frustrated by the limited sound quality of traditional cinema loudspeaker systems," comments Paul-Henri Wagner, owner of 44.1. "Now, with EXP, we have a modern speaker system that we really enjoy listening to."

Meyer Sound EXP cinema systems will be available through EXP dealers, including the Acheron screen channel and low-frequency loudspeakers, X-800C cinema subwoofer, HMS-10 surround loudspeaker, and Galileo loudspeake

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14 March 2016

Key to the Company's aggressive growth plans are two new distribution partners: Bangalore-based E&E Systems India Pvt, who will handle exclusive country-wide distribution for the Mackie brand; and Mumbai-based Vardhaman, who will handle exclusive country-wide EAW distribution. E&E and Vardhaman join Musik City, the exclusive Ampeg distributor, to complete Loud's sales force in the rapidly growing Indian market.

"The Indian market is every bit as dynamic as the country's rich musical culture and requires both innovative products and world-class service," explained Mark Graham, Loud's CEO. "We are honoured to add E&E and Vardhaman to our Indian market team and know they will invest significa

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14 March 2016

With volume control for each channel, 6.3mm output for mixed signal and 16 selectable frequencies the TXS-2402SET offers the capability to use two system simultaneously, allowing up to four microphones to be used.

Neil Clayton, managing director of Monacor UK commented, "It is great to be able to offer our customers a route into the digital microphone market at an affordable price point. The TXS-2402SET offers an excellent sound quality that you simply can only get from a digital unit."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Giddens may be a musician and owner of a bicycle company but he freely acknowledges the concept of combining the two was not down to him. "In 2010 the American pedal power band, the Ginger Ninjas toured Europe bringing their own system with them. This system worked fine but it was heavy and it was hard to pedal enough energy to power the so

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14 March 2016

"Powercubes deliver tremendous capabilities to owners of EAW mobile production line array systems," Rocha said. "Red Certification ensures that Powercube owners get the most out of these exciting, new products."

The Red Certification training seminar was designed by EAW technical training manager Bernie Broderick, a long time mobile production and concert touring veteran as well as an experienced instructor. Broderick will deliver the training seminars in North America and will work with EAW's world-wide Application Support Group members to deliver

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14 March 2016

Inductees included Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, Laura Nyro, The Small Faces/Faces, Beastie Boys, The Crickets, The Famous Flames, The Midnighters, The Comets, The Blue Caps and The Miracles. Freddie King received the Early Influence distinction. Non-performing honourees included Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns. The show will be broadcast on HBO on Saturday, 5 May 2012.

Audio-Technica's Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System was used with the AEW-T5400 handheld microphone/transmitter for frontline vocals on per

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14 March 2016

The entry that is deemed most in need of, or having faced the biggest issues in their lighting, will be awarded the prize at the PLASA Show in September.

Entrants are encouraged to explain how the Coemar products will benefit them in their day to day use. The lighting package on offer includes Coemar's Reflection LEDko Full Spectrum, Reflection LEDko VariWhite 3000/7000 K and Reflection LEDko White3200 K with an option of one the following optics: Reflection Soft profile12/30° F Lens, Reflection Soft profile 12/30° PC Lens, Profile zoom 18/40° HDLens.

Submission deadline is 17Augu

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14 March 2016

At the centrepiece of this visual display are 38 Platinum Beam 5R moving head beam fixtures from Elation Professional. The Platinum Beams occupy a central position in the defining structures on the Brit Floyd set: a 16.5ft vertical circle of truss, flanked by a gigantic 84ft truss arch. Sixteen Platinum Beam 5R units are mounted on the truss circle, while anadditional 22 units hang from the arch. With this positioning, the Platinum Beams can shoot white or coloured beams in all directions, project gobo images, multiply their effects with the prism, or even wash the stage with the application of Frost. A dozen units of another Elation fixture, the Design Spot 1200C compact moving hea

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14 March 2016

When it comes to protecting workers at height, Gravitec knows the value of education. Curriculum is designed to prepare workers and empower them to use available equipment and implement systems to protect themselves. Fall protection training provides riggers with the knowledge they need to perform their job safely. Gravitec offers a full range of fall protection and rescue courses, from basic fall hazard awareness to advanced climbing and rescue techniques, designed to address safety issues commonly faced by riggers and entertainment technicians in the field.

Participants enrolled in Gravitec courses will lea

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14 March 2016

The one day course focuses on how - and why - the IET Wiring regulations and BS 7909 apply to temporary events and delves a little into why they are relevant and more importantly how compliance is not necessarily difficult. As well as looking at how to implement them correctly it also examples where current practice is not always best practice, showing where potential dangers exist in a typical event. It will also be of particular use to rental companies as the course gives the delegate a sound understanding of the importance of portable appliance testing.

The content is aimed at those with a reasonable appreciation of electrical systems and covers areas such as multiple sources of supply, RCDs, earthing and bonding, i

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14 March 2016

Le Mark, maker of the Dirty Rigger collection, announced that 10% of proceeds from the sale of their Ladies XS range of gloves for the coming year would go towards the Breast Cancer Care Programme.

To maximize the reach of this initiative Le Mark has teamed up with WiSE (Women in Stage Entertainment), a not-for-profit networking group for women working in the industry.

Sarah Rushton-Read, co-founder of WiSE says, "We were delighted to be asked to team up with Le Mark to promote this valuable initiative and we really hope we can help. WiSE has nearly 600 female members and a vast network of supporters working in the industry worldwide. Not only do we hope th

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14 March 2016

Over the past year PLASA has embraced a completely different governance structure, expanded its portfolio of events in North America, and introduced a range of new services and benefits. Members at the AGM will also learn more about PLASA's proposed global strategy and the crucial role played by the respective Regional Boards and Governing Body in the planning process.

The PLASA Members' Lunch will be followed by a very special guest speaker in the form of Iron Maiden front man, Bruce Dickinson. Well known as the lead singer of one of

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14 March 2016

South Africa is increasingly becoming a regular fixture on the international touring circuit. Combined with an increase in the domestic market, Gearhouse felt the extra investment in L-Acoustics was necessary to service the largest of these events. The company also wanted to update its amplifier platform with the LA-RAK and LA8 platform.

Gearhouse feels the new ArcsII is a perfect extension for the L-Acoustics range it already owns. "The small footprint and options in stacking and flying make it an extremely versatile product