USA - In a ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Centrelast week during the LDI 2015 tradeshow, Live Design recognised the new ProPlex EZ-LAN Unity 20 with an LDI 2015 Best Debuting Product of the Year Award.

ProPlex's EZ-LAN makes managing today's complex show networking easier and accessible for everyone. These simple to operate yet powerful managed Gigabit Ethernet switches distribute up to four discrete networks - e.g. lighting, audio, content, server, console, communications, etc. - quickly, effortlessly, and simultaneously. Users untrained in the complexities of managed networking can easily isolate networks and access and change VLAN assignments with one button.

"Managed Ethernet switches are very complicated to use," explains TMB product specialist, Ashley Simper. "The ability to distribute up to four discrete networks with a single button makes life easi

USA - The 139th AES Convention in NYC saw Genelec unveil the new flagship 1236 Smart Active Monitoring (SAM) Main Monitor System. The 1236 and its individually calibrated 3U-high Remote Amplifier Module RAM-XL provide the highest performance possible in a large format, flush-mounted main monitoring system, says the company. The new design is based on the high-efficiency proprietary double-18-inch bass driver design of Genelec's 1036.

The 1236's frequency response extends from 17 Hz to 26 kHz and it is capable of delivering 130 dB SPL referred to 1 metre through a combination of modern digital signal processing and efficient Class D amplifiers, providing 2 x 1000 W, 800 W, and 400 W of short-term power into woofer, midrange and tweeter channels, respectively. The H 960 x W 1180 x D 650 mm (37 ¾ x 46 ½ x 25 5/8 in) enclosure features two 18-inch high-linearity woofers, two Genel

USA - After many years of requests for an API line amp, the company has announced that the 535-LA Line Amplifier is the newest addition to the 500 Series collection. Modelled after API's console-based 325 booster cards, the 535 can both amplify and attenuate incoming and outgoing signals for ultimate flexibility - all while providing API's trademark API warmth and tone.

The 535 is useful anywhere signal levels need adjusting such as inputs from keyboards, audio playback devices, or from mic preamps or audio processing devices that do not have their own level control, says the company. The 535 excels at adding warmth to digital signals such as DAW outputs, and features an LED clip indicator.

The 535-LA also includes a balanced input, a polarity switch, a 20dB pad for incoming signal attenuation and a three position toggle switch, which allows for different output gain levels fr

South Africa - The Calibre LEDView530 scaler/switcher is now available from Penmac, live event, staging and multimedia specialists, based in Randburg, South Africa.

"The LEDView530 has a strong feature set, unrivalled functionality and competitive edge. It is the perfect tool for switching, scaling and processing video wall content and has performed extremely well in projects we have been involved with," explains Malcolm Finlay, managing director at Penmac. "The LEDView530 is supported by our experienced technical experts who are available to demonstrate the LEDView530 technology as required."

The LEDView530 is a multi-input scaler/switcher that is designed for combining HD and SD video sources on to LED video walls. Four-sided picture edge Features also include genlock capability and low latency.

Pauline Brooksbank, managing director at Calibre adds: &qu

UK - Equally versatile in both portable and installed system configurations, and with its four channels delivering up to 5,000W, neatly packed into 1U weighing just over 7kg (16lb), Martin Audio's new MA5.0Q is billed as a flexible, cost-effective solution for small to medium sound systems.

Benefitting from core technologies found in Martin Audio's flagship amplifiers, the MA5.0Q sets a class standard in efficiency, leading to low power consumption, and consequently to substantial cost savings on electricity - all in an eco-friendly way. Minimum heat dissipation makes the MA5.0Q suitable for hot or otherwise challenging environments.

The target markets for the new amplifier include stage monitoring, hotels, restaurants and bars, visitor attractions, houses of worship, auditoriums, educational facilities, live sound and night clubs.

(Jim Evans)

USA - The 2015 edition of LDI revealed a lively market, and was yet another success for the Clay Paky. In addition to gaining the visitors' approval for its new products, Clay Paky also won two significant international awards.

Clay Paky's innovative new scanner the Spheriscan won the LDI Best Debuting Product award "for making the scanner fixture relevant again and moving the state of the art in reflected beam fixtures by several orders of magnitude". Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky's sales manager for the Americas, and Ben Saltzman, president & CEO of ACT Lighting, accepted the award from Marian Sandberg, content director of Live Design and LDI.

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky's CEO, commented: "We are truly satisfied the market has appreciated the effort we have made to re-invent the scanner using the latest technology. A moving mirror can still be very useful owing to i

UK - FBT UK has announced the introduction of the FBT Muse 118FSA, a true reversible flyable cardioid subwoofer. The 1200 Watt RMS Muse 118FSA is an active subwoofer hybrid loaded with an 18'' B&C neodymium subwoofer, designed to be suspended from the Muse flybar, facing in either direction.

When flown facing rearward, the sub's user removable grille can be moved by the user to the new "front" of the enclosure and the amplifier module can be moved to the new 'rear' of the enclosure, thus obtaining aesthetic consistency when flown with additional forward facing Muse 118FSA's. This simple adjustment means that users creating a cardioid sub package require no additional hardware to achieve sleek visual continuity. The model MUSE 118FSCA comes factory preconfigured as rear-facing for cardioid applications.

The Muse 118FSA features a large area laminar-flow port to ensure

USA / Europe - Ayrton has returned triumphant from its annual visit to LDI show in Las Vegas, where it was exhibiting with exclusive US distributor, Morpheus Lights, to promote its six new product releases, all of which were extremely well-received by the viewing public.

"This year's LDI show was clearly the best ever for Ayrton," says Ayrton's Valère Huart-Gyors. "We found LDI visitors really intent on discovering our new fixtures and they were more than satisfied by what they saw. All our new releases were incredibly well received and the ambiance on the show floor was fantastic with enthusiastic, smiling people all around the booth."

Ayrton introduced six new fixtures at the show, which were shown to full advantage in a new light show designed specifically for the LDI booth by lighting designer, Stéphane Migné:

MagicDot-R is the first pr

UK - Allen & Heath has launched three new mini mixers from its ZED analogue console range, including the first ZEDi hybrid mixer / interface. The ZED-6, ZED-6FX and ZEDi-8 are designed with all the features and quality required by musicians, recording artists and for AV work, in a compact, portable format.

"The new ZED models deliver Allen & Heath's renowned build and audio excellence in a small format, making it the ideal choice for quality conscious musicians, singer / songwriters and venues. Whether it's bouncing ideas around at home, performing live or recording tracks to share on YouTube and Soundcloud, they are versatile companions for every step of the creative journey," comments Allen & Heath product specialist, Harry Garcia.

All the new models feature two mono channels with separate XLR and TRS jack sockets and two stereo channels. The mono channels include

USA - When Rachel Miller, an LD and project coordinator for Kinetic Lighting, was contacted by Chauvet vice-president Berenice Chauvet to create a design for the company's LDI booth, she instantly grasped the nature of her mission.

"There's obviously a great deal going on with lighting at LDI," said Miller. "Every exhibitor wants to do as much as possible to attract attention. My mission was to create a design that would get people to stop in their tracks as they passed the Chauvet Professional booth. I imagined it like we were in the proverbial 10-second elevator, where you meet someone on an elevator and they ask, 'What do you do?'

"You have 10 seconds until you reach the next floor to tell them. Chauvet Professional has so many great products. I often use them myself as a designer. I wanted to create a design that very quickly gave visitors an idea of th

Europe - Global flightcase and loudspeaker component manufacturer Penn Elcom has launched a tough new low-noise 3U heat extraction unit which can be fitted to the front or back of any 19 inch racking unit to quickly, efficiently - and silently - suck the heat out of an enclosure.

This is good news for any environment e.g. conference and presentation spaces, theatres, concert halls, lectures theatres, interactive AV displays, boardrooms and demonstration facilities, etc. utilizing AV equipment where noise is a potential issue, distraction or annoyance, says the company.

Penn's R 'n' D team has pooled its considerable experience and practical knowledge of the racking market and produced an ultimate and well-engineered solution.

The versatile FP02-Q-3U fan unit emits 22.5 dB(A) - with a Sone (loudness) value of 0.3 - and can be fitted to any existing 19 inch racking unlit. At t

UK - Showlogix, a developer of show and media control software, has released its version 1.6, designed for producing multi-display shows and interactive attractions in museums, visitor centres, trade shows and live productions.

The new Timeline Object includes numerous layers of videos, images or sound, synchronized to one centralized timecode. This is done across displays and computers. Several timeline objects can be added and can run simultaneously.

While this object requires loading all media files in advance before running a timeline, you can still load and play videos, images, texts and external inputs on top of a timeline. Moreover, it includes the option of fading smoothly between two media files on a single layer across displays, all while the timeline is running, says the company.

"There is a rise in demand for interactivity in typical time based show applicat

USA - Elation Professional has launched the Satura Profile, an energy-efficient CMY colour-changing moving head in the company's popular LED-based Satura Series. The Satura Profile features intense output from a 440W cool-white LED engine and houses a host of creative design tools, including zoom and internal framing.

The luminaire's high-performance LED engine delivers a total of 20,000 lumens, a level of power comparable to a 1200W discharge lamp. A flexible four-blade rotating framing shutter system is included that allows the beam to be shaped and angled as required for precise highlighting of set pieces and performers. Designers can also use the flexible framing system to create outstanding projection or mid-air effects.

A full-range CMY colour mixing system with variable CTO offers a wide palette of colour shades while an extra seven dichroic colours provides added colou

USA - Novalight returned to LDI this year, where it was exhibiting with DNJ Pro, their exclusive distributor for North America, to showcase their entire line-up of products and present the industry with their newest moving light, the Nova-Scope.

"This was a great year at LDI," said Doug Brown, president of DNJ Pro. "We met a lot of people who were excited about the kaleido effect of the Nova-Scope and also a lot of people who were just excited to the other Novalight products again."

Nova-Scope is a 2KW weatherproof moving light that implements an innovative reflector design to "deliver stunning effects in mid-air". With seven gobo options, a kaleido wheel effect, shutter, dimmer, and strobe effects combined with six colours, white, and CMY colour mixing, dramatic effects can be achieved.

The Super-Nova incorporates outstanding lighting power, vi

Europe - ETC will be travelling across Europe this month to showcase some of their latest products. In Paris, the company will be working with distributor AVAB France at JTSE on 24-25 November; in Helsinki with Studiotec Oy at AVITA Audiovisual on 18-20 November; and in Serbia, with AVL ProJekt for an open day on 12 November.

LED will be star of ETC's demonstration offerings, with the always-popular Source Four LED Series 2 being shown alongside the recently-introduced ColorSource range. The ColorSource PAR, which earned the Lighting Product of the Year award at the ABTT Theatre Show 2015, will be joined by the new ColorSource Spot, making a range of great quality LED lighting available for the first time on productions with limited budgets. Demonstrations will also be available for the ETC Source Four LED Fresnel and CYC adapters, as well as the extensive range of lens tubes, s

Europe - Panasonic is set to release the world's lightest and most compact 3-Chip DLPTM laser projector featuring beyond 4K resolution.

First previewed at ISE 2015, the 10,000 lumens PT-RQ13K has a Quad Pixel Drive that produces detailed, film-like, 4K+ images.

The optical axis of the projector is shifted both horizontally and vertically at a high frame rate of up to 240 Hz, to create four different pixels from a single pixel - effectively quadrupling the pixel density of the image.

A new generation of detail clarity processors analyses the requirement for extra pixels and optimise the output for fluid, detailed, high-contrast images, says the company.

Hartmut Kulessa, European projector product marketing manager at Panasonic, said, "Panasonic has traditionally been very popular with the rental and staging market because of the build quality and compact nature of its

UK - After the genuinely remarkable success in the last few years of their single-channel, standalone REDDI valve Direct Box especially among bass players, A-Designs now offers the dual-channel REDDI v2 model in a 19 inch 2U rack mountable cabinet. With exactly the same circuitry as the REDDI, the v2 model uses a single 6N1P dual triode tube for each channel along with a gigantic, custom-wound Cinemag output transformer.

Inside the all-steel case is an overspecified toroidal transformer within a shielded and regulated power supply section, with both valves securely mounted in ceramic sockets. The front panel has a Switchcraft 1/4" Thru jack, gold-pinned Neutrik XLR output and Combo input jacks. The rear panel houses the IEC power socket and a ground lift switch.

With the same Ampeg sound as the original REDDI unit, it's 1 meg-Ohm input impedance preserves the sound of gu

France / China - Astera's wireless range will feature at the JTSE exhibition in Paris on 24 and 25 November. Stands 102 and 103 will be occupied by Astera's French dealer, La-BS. Accompanying La-BS will be Astera's R&D director, Simon Canins, who will be available for technical questions about Astera's complex control system, and also for demonstrations.

Commenting on the exhibition, Sebastian Bückle, sales & marketing director at Astera, said, "It is really great to be exhibiting for the first time at the JTSE tradeshow. Astera is growing every year and this is the latest chapter in our success. In 2015, we attended a record nine exhibitions, and 2016 looks to increase yet again."

Immediately after the JTSE, from 26-29 November, Astera's wireless range will be shown at the CISD Chinese Stage Design Exhibition in Beijing. Astera's dealer for China, Beijing Etch, wil

UK - British company Formidable Audio is all set to unleash their MkIII Turbosound Flashlight system to the live arena.

Since previous a/b testing took place at Millennium Studios' A Stage in private, further modification and improvements have been made and the system is now ready to thrill listeners at Troxy, 490 Commercial Road, London on 23 November.

The new "3 wide" fly bar designed and manufactured by Formidable will also get an airing. This will facilitate the ability to fly a narrower horizontal dispersion system whilst still maintaining the ability to provide extended vertical dispersion if required.

The event will take the format of an a/b shootout between the upgraded Flashlight system and an independently supplied and set up line array system.

The emphasis of the event will be to give listeners the opportunity to decide which system they believe delive

Europe - Roland has announced the launch of the V-1HD video switcher, an easy-to-use, compact and portable switcher that can accommodate up to four HDMI audio/video sources with resolutions up to 1080p and features a host of professional compositing effects and creative video switching capabilities.

"The new V-1HD is ideal for supporting both live events and presentations, as well as small broadcast setups for enterprise video users, schools and house-of-worship environments. It is also an amazing creative tool for visual artists or musicians who want to add video switching to their performances, create YouTube videos, mix content for online streaming and more," said Christian Delfino, vice president of sales and marketing for the Roland Professional A/V Division in the USA.

"It's the most affordable four-channel HD video switcher that includes a hardware interf

USA - Emulation Touch from Elation Professional is a new generation lighting controller that turns your tablet into a powerful lighting console, says the company.

Easy to use and budget friendly, Emulation Touch is designed exclusively for use with the Cuety app, the intuitive Emulation Touch programmer software. Available now for iPad from the Apple App Store and available soon for Android tablets from the Android app store, the Cuety user interface enables users to take full advantage of your tablet's mobility and multi-touch display.

Two hardware interface versions are available - Emulation Touch 1 and Emulation Touch 2. The Emulation Touch devices contain the powerful engine that runs a show, calculates fade times and renders dynamic effects. A standard cuelist-based system for control of up to 64 fixtures with 64 playbacks and 48 cues per playback, it includes a powerful

UK - The Aurora Group, the global manufacturer of energy saving, smart LED lighting solutions, is unveiling its new catalogue, Lighting 2016 Edition 1, to coincide with the opening morning of LuxLive 2015 this week.

The catalogue reveals the new products that Aurora will be releasing in the new year, and demonstrates how the company intends to deliver 'Value Beyond Illumination' in 2016 and beyond. For the first time, the catalogue represents the entire Aurora Group branded portfolio, including the recently rebranded retail lighting specialists, Microlights - with over 30 years' experience in assisting customers enhance their retail sales through lighting.

The 2016 catalogue presents Aurora Group's combined expertise and products under one holistic brand, as Richard Sells, group managing director, explains, "With a consolidated approach we can offer a complete rang

UK - Cloud Electronics is now shipping refreshed models of the MPA-120 and MPA-240 mixer amplifiers.

Having established track record for standing the test of time in retail, hospitality, leisure and commercial applications, it is anticipated the new MPA's will continue to build upon a legacy that is consistent with reliability and quality, says the company.

The MPA-120 and the MPA-240 provide output of 120W and 240W respectively at low impedance, 100V, 70V and 25V. In addition to the features of the previous models which include six-line inputs, four microphone inputs with VOX priority over music signals, remote music mute triggered via a NO or NC contact and compatibility with Bose, Amina and Active Audio EQ cards, the new MPA models provide a new balanced auxiliary output, a new utility output and a music-on hold output, both with mic/line level controls. In addition MIC 1 i

USA - Elation Professional's hybrid Platinum FLX moving head luminaire has received more industry recognition, winning a Worship Facilities New Product Award in the Best Moving Light category at the WFX Show.

The award, which recognizes the best new technology products for the church market, comes on the heels of a PLASA Award for Innovation and a Best Debuting Product honourable mention at the LDI Awards, both held in October. The Best Moving Light Award was chosen by the editors of Worship Facilities and Church Production magazines, the WFX Advisory Board, and WFX management.

"We're thrilled to have won another award for the Platinum FLX which has again been acknowledged for its unique innovation," stated Elation sales director Eric Loader. "It's a truly versatile hybrid that has raised the quality level of multi-functional lights and the respons

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