USA - Production Resource Group (PRG), the world's leading provider of entertainment and event technology solutions, today announced it will extend its branding in Germany and the UK to integrate the brand of the recently acquired XL Video Group. The integrated companies will be known as PRG XL Video for a transition period while the operations are being merged.

PRG will continue to use its brand name in all other countries across Europe and North America. XL Video teams in those territories will be immediately transitioned into the PRG family.

"Part of our decision to acquire

USA - Behind the scenes at one of the most popular talk shows in North America, five Straightpoint load cells monitor the weight distribution of Dr. Phil's video wall. Advanced Industrial Solutions, a distributor for the force measurement, load monitoring and suspended weighing load cell manufacturer, supplied five bolt type anchor load cell shackles with wireless transmitters to the studio.

Straightpoint's wireless load shackle is supplied with an update rate of 3Hz and can be configured to run up to 200Hz. Data is transmitted wirelessly utilizing the latest in IEEE 802.15.4 (2.4 GHz

UK - With just under a month to go until PLASA Show 2015, pre-registrations are up 10% compared to 2013 and 2014, making this year's show already the most successful since the move to ExCeL in London's Docklands.

Featuring over 300 brands, with many showing new products and services, a major new initiative for this year sees PLASA Show adopting the successful 'Focus' model of a sector-specific, zoned layout, which will facilitate easier networking and make navigation around the show much easier than in previous years.

By the beginning of September, pre-registration data for PLASA Sh

Azerbaijan - The European Games opened in Baku, Azerbaijan earlier this summer to a sell out crowd at the National Stadium and closed to equally great aplomb 17 days later. The ceremonies, brought together by world -leading artistic production and technical teams proved themselves to be historic event, not just for Azerbaijan but the entire European sporting community. With over 2000 volunteer performers involved in the ceremony and more than 300 production staff behind the scenes, the ceremonies were streamed, worldwide on Baku2015.com.

Such prestigious events demanded an expert team

UK - S+H Technical Services supplied over 2000sq.m of their classic Pea-light starcloth and a rigging crew to Chinnick Theatre Services (CTS), which was used to wrap a special event space at the 2015 Royal International Air Tattoo staged at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

CTS supplied full technical production for the event area created in one of the aircraft hangers. This was draped off and used to present a high profile gala dinner on the Friday evening and an after-show party for RIAT staff and behind-the-scenes workers on the Sunday.

RIAT is geared to offering a great family da

UK - Experienced sales specialist Susannah Rushden has joined VDC Trading in the role of sales manager.

Susie has worked in a sales management, development and training role for several major UK companies.

"My main areas of expertise include motivation, training and sales psychology," says Susie, "So, even though the company has super levels of after sales service, my efforts will be aimed at working on improvements which relate to the sales message and the morale of the team. My objective is to raise the energy levels of the team and to provide a better service from

Vietnam - Using exclusively Van Damme cable supplied by VDC Trading in London, AVE ASTS-Series column speakers have been installed in the Tan Thinh Church in the Hoc Mon District of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, as part of a construction project that saw the demolition and complete renovation of the worship venue in the effort to accommodate a larger congregation.

QV Sound worked alongside the project management team during the construction phase to establish optimum speaker positions and cable runs, as well as providing audio equipment from which the entire sound system installation c

UK - Now the summer season is over, regular LSi contributor James Eade is running more temporary electrical training courses around the country. The popular industry-backed Creative Skillset Certificate in Temporary Power Systems has several new dates for later this year and into January 2016, including a new venue in Salisbury in November.

With nearly 600 candidates having completed the course to date, the feedback is continually proving positive: visit bit.ly/scites to read more and find

USA - All three ETCP examinations will be offered at LDI in Las Vegas, NV on the morning of Saturday, 24 October, 2015. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than 30 September, 2015. The ETCP office is located at 630 9th Ave, Suite 609, New York, New York, 10036.

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP website (http://etcp.plasa.org/ldi2015.html). Materials can also be mailed by contacting Meredith Moseley-Bennett, ETCP Certification Manager,

World - Flight case and speaker component manufacturer Penn Elcom has invested close to two million pounds in new manufacturing plant and technology across the group's international operations in China, Mexico and the UK.

Over a million dollars alone has been ploughed into upgrading the powder coating lines at all sites, part of a planned reinvestment strategy in Swiss made Gema spraying equipment designed to increase efficiency and output worldwide for Penn to keep abreast of the current growing demand for its products.

The powder line installed at the factory in Guangdong Province

UK - TSG Policing's first major contract saw the company play a pivotal part in keeping the 600-acre, 200,000 capacity Great Dorset Steam Fair safe this month.

Brought in by the event's operations director, Julian Hubbuck, late in the planning process, TSG built a fast, fluid relationship with Dorset Police. The company's skill set, developed by a former senior training officer for the Met, clearly distinguished its role from conventional show security.

Over the Steam Fair's five days, TSG worked on a number of operations with the local force, cutting the event's impact on core poli

UK - PLASA has announced the first of its nominees for the 2015 Awards for Innovation, which recognise and reward new product ideas. Nominated products should meet at least one of the Awards' criteria for 'Innovation' - to offer a new style of thinking, an improvement in existing technical practice, a new or improved aid to safety, a new commercial advantage, use new patents or unique intellectual property, or introduce new technology, materials or manufacturing techniques.

The final assessment of those claims will take place at the PLASA Show, where an independent panel of industry e

UK - trackingThis has launched a new shackle labelling solution that solves the headache of identifying loose rigging items in the events industry.

LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) specifies that lifting accessories should be inspected every six months and that detailed records are kept. The problem is most small rigging items, such as shackles, don't have unique identifiers or serial numbers. Unless you can identify each item, it is not possible to maintain the detailed records required.

Traditional labels have not been suitable because shackles lac

UK - Launched last September, Current RMS has been working hard building new features into the system, now being used in over 400 event rental businesses worldwide.

To celebrate a year on, the Current team has launched a new website as well as the release of the new Resources Module. Now, Current not only manages all of the renting and sale of products but also the services that go with these jobs too whether that be crew, transport, venues or rooms.

Key features of this new Module include: View all your bookable resources and any job with unallocated services; Flexible service char

UK - Star Events returns to Showman's Show on the back of a phenomenal season in 2015, which saw it providing infrastructure and ingenuity on grass, on tarmac and on water.

The Star stand, at the corner of Avenues B and G, will be focussed on the company's seating and fencing & barriers portfolio, the latter a component part of events from Cyclo-cross to Latitude Festival.

In the spirit of a taste test, at Showman's, visitors will have the opportunity to directly compare the industry's traditional, uncomfortable folding chairs with Star Events' tip-up, flat floor system, which comes

UK - Triple E's ModTruss is being deployed as the 'universal building system' for the Theatres Trust stage, the Technical Theatre Awards/USITT stand and the Technical Theatre Awards stage at PLASA this year.

Triple E launched ModTruss - best described as full size Meccano - in the UK market at the ABTT Theatre Show in June 2015. It was immediately recognised as 'Engineering Product of the Year' at the ABTT Awards.

ModTruss was Triple E's most ambitious launch since the company was formed in 1984. The product is set to revolutionise theatre staging, set building, stage machinery, con

UK - Flightcase, loudspeaker component and 19-inch rack manufacturer Penn Elcom highlights two exciting new products at the 2015 PLASA London expo - a brand new, super cool LED rack light, and the robust and innovative MOL3 latch with patented automatic cantilevered action.

These and a selection of other current Penn Elcom products will be prominent on stand L26 at the ExCeL exhibition centre, 4-6 October.

A seriously stylish and efficient rack lighting product to hit the market, the new Penn Elcom RADM-23 1U Raclite is designed to be fitted to any 19-inch equipment rack providing a

UK - Unusual Rigging is proud to announce that it is now meeting over 50% of its annual on-site power consumption with renewable energy via a solar PV system.

The 100KW solar PV system is installed on the roof of Unusual's new 1,056 sq m warehouse, which opened in June this year, and was energized on September 3.

Tom Harper, resource and sustainability manager at Unusual Rigging, explained: "This really is the icing on the cake in our drive to become a green business. Over the past few years, we have been implementing the key concepts of a circular economy - ensuring that all m

UK - Bend it like Beckham the Musical, which opened to rave reviews this summer, is a striking tale of female footballer Jess, based on the 2002 film of the same name. The musical takes the audience on her journey as she struggles with a big decision - live up to her family expectations of university and marriage or chase her dreams and follow in the footsteps of her hero David Beckham.

When production manager Gary Beestone realised the show would throw a number of interesting challenges at him, he asked Unusual Rigging to provide the entire rigging at London's Phoenix Theatre.

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UK - A powerful load cell monitoring system with improved coverage, increased security and a range of up to 800m will be showcased by leading load cell brand BroadWeigh at PLASA 2015.

Development engineers at BroadWeigh's parent company, Mantracourt Electronics, have developed a new radio module giving four times the range of the previous system. Improvements in the omni-directional antenna have provided increased performance in more challenging environments such as high concentrations of truss or wall. The system will be on show on the stand of BroadWeigh's exclusive UK distributor,

UK / USA - To allow PLASA to refocus and concentrate on the needs of their respective membership bases, the PLASA Governing Body announces that PLASA's North American and European Union Regional Boards will end their cooperation agreement and return to functioning as separate associations.

A statement from PLASA reads: "This move will allow the associations to set strategic direction to meet their individual demands. It affords more focus of resources in each market toward the activities that are most relevant and pertinent to members and it will allow for more agility and decisi

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., a leading one-stop provider of professional equipment to the entertainment industry, will showcase a selection of the very latest lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from their vast portfolio of over 200 leading brands - in their large exhibition Zone (Stands F30 - F38), which also includes stands for their sister company, A.C. Special Projects Ltd., industry-sponsored 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Cars Championship (BTCC) racing driver, Jack Goff, and a number of leading lighting marques.

Staff from AC-ET's Light

UK - PLASA Show 2015 is just a few days away, but the organisers are working right up to the wire to bring in the best speakers for the PLASA Professional Development Programme. Four new sessions have just been announced, respectively addressing lighting, sound and video.

Emmy Award winning lighting designer Al Gurdon, of Incandescent Design, will discuss his design philosophy in State of the Art Today, Passé Tomorrow, covering what is lighting for, what should it do, why do we need it, as well as taking a look at whether your lighting is relevant and focused now, and if

UK - At PLASA Show 2015, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., a leading one-stop provider of professional equipment to the entertainment industry, is showcasing a selection of the very latest lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from its portfolio of over 200 leading brands - in a large exhibition zone (stands F30 - F38), which also includes stands for sister company, A.C. Special Projects Ltd., and industry-sponsored 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Cars Championship (BTCC) racing driver, Jack Goff.

Staff from AC-ET's Lighting sales division are present thro

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