Following a second hectic day at PLASA London 2013, a packed audience gathered yesterday evening in the AudioLab Arena to congratulate the winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by Lighting & Sound International magazine. The winner of the prestigious Gottelier Award was also announced at the ceremony.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety. During the show's opening two days, 45 new products were judged 'live' by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

Eight awards of equal standing were presented, as well as the PLASA Award for Sustainability, to the following winners:

Clay Paky for the A.Leda B-EYE K20

The judges said, "The B-EYE had a &q

Malaysia - Two of Malaysia's leading rental companies came together this summer to ensure Metallica's first-ever concert in the country would be a memorable event. By merging their Meyer Sound inventories, Kuala Lumpur-based EHQ Projects and Selangor-based SES Sound & Lighting created a massive, 146-loudspeaker system based around Milo line array loudspeakers.

"There were no delays, but the sound was clear and very loud even 100m back from the stage," recalls Jay Neil, technical director of EHQ Projects. "Afterwards, I had people telling me it sounded like a CD on a great stereo."

In order to cover an audience of 30,000 in Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Merdeka, the two companies configured a system of 72 Milo loudspeakers, including 40 for main hangs, 30 for side hangs, and two for out-fills. Front-fill was provided by 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, and 40 7

Record Sales - Tickets for next year's Glastonbury Festival have sold out in record time, according to organisers. Michael and Emily Eavis issued a joint statement confirming all 120,000 remaining tickets had been sold in just one hour and 27 minutes. They said they were "blown away" by the numbers logging on and were "genuinely sorry" that so many had missed out. Ticketing website See Tickets had earlier apologised to customers on Twitter for "technical difficulties". The site, which had been managing the sale of tickets for Glastonbury, wrote that the issues had led to "a very difficult half an hour" before the site stabilised, later adding that it was selling 3,000 tickets a minute.

Prices for the 2014 event had been increased by £10 to £210, plus a booking fee, but festival-goers could pay a deposit of £50 before sett

USA - Harman Professional has announced the appointment of Brian Friborg to lead US sales, group-wide as USA vice president of sales, Harman Professional. Friborg, who previously held the position of president, Americas for Martin Professional, immediately assumes responsibility for sales and support of Harman Professional audio and lighting technologies in the United States. He will report directly to Scott Robbins, Harman Professional Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales.

"Empowering dealers with not simply the best technologies and systems but also the best programmes and people is central to our approach here at Harman Professional," Robbins said. "This commitment requires us to evolve and, just as we have added the Martin Lighting brand to our portfolio, add quality and value wherever possible."

Brian Friborg joined Martin Professional in 1999 and

UK - The first ever Technical Theatre Awards (TTA) - celebrating the best of 'behind the scenes' skill and talent - were presented at a well-attended ceremony at the PLASA Show at London's ExCel.

Fifteen awards were announced on the Theatres Trust stand in the midst of the PLASA hubbub.

Sponsored by AVW Controls, dbs Solutions, Load Cell Rental, Mayflower, Philips Entertainment, PLASA, Production Resource Group (PRG), StageBitz, Stage Jobs Pro, The Fifth Estate Ltd and Triple E, the TTAs are also very kindly supported by Lighting&Sound International and The Theatres Trust.

Host for the evening was prolific multi award-winning lighting designer Rick Fisher, perhaps best known for his work on Billy Elliot the Musical and An Inspector Calls. Recent credits include Great Expectations at Bristol's Old Vic, The Herd at The Bush Theatre, and Inside Wagner's Head at the Linbury Stud

UK - XL Video was again highly active at the ever-vibrant Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, reflecting the increase in productions and imaginative ways to integrate video into the plethora of inventive new performances. This year video and projection systems were again supplied to The Pleasance, and for the first time to C venues.

For C venues, one of Edinburgh's leading independent venue producers, curating and hosting the Fringe's largest theatre-based programme, equipment was deployed in eight venues across three sites - C venues' Chambers Street base, C nova and C Aquila.

For The Pleasance, 34 shows featured video elements in 15 different performance spaces.

All of this was project managed for XL Video by Ed Cooper and overseen on site by three hard-working technicians who kept pace with the lively mix of drama, dance, physical theatre, musicals, cabaret, circus and v

Italy - Widely regarded as the educational, scientific, financial, and political hub of Northern Italy, Trento is proud to boast of its excellent college - the Opera Universitaria. Ranked as first in the country by the Ministry of Education, Opera's mission is to ensure that a student's full potential can be realised - whether that stems from sport, academic work, or the arts. After enlisting the help of AV integrators A&T Multimedia, and distributors, Adeo Group, the college's new theatre has been equipped with a comprehensive technical installation, enabling complete control over audio, lighting, and video.

Opera's consultant specified that the theatre must be multi-functional, and that the technical system needed to offer standalone use by anyone, trained or not, without the assistance of the college's AV department. As a result, A&T was required to design a system which allo

Russia - Cosmo AV, a specialist in the creation of video mapping images, participated in the third Moscow International Festival The Circle of Light which took place from 4-8 October 4-8, 2013.

Amongst the symbolic locations selected for the 2013 editon of the festival - which includes the Loujniki Olympic complex, the Tsaritsyno Park and the Manege - there is a particularly iconic one that evokes all the cultural influence from the Russian capital: The Bolshoi Theatre.

Cosmo AV was tasked with elaborating the content projected on the façade of this building, which acted as a screen, playing the audiovisual creations from the Cosmo AV teams.

Onlookers witnessed two dream-like shows which lasted for a total of 12 minutes, with mixed video and computer generated images, supported by a soundtrack revisiting masterpieces from some of the world famous classical music comp

UK - Newcastle and Yorkshire based event production company R&B Group scooped two medals in London's AV Awards, beating off competition to take home 'Live Event of the Year' and the overall accolade of the evening; the 'Grand Prix Award'.

The awards which were celebrating their 15th year were open to any company involved in the AV industry across Europe, from media production companies to manufacturers of any kind of equipment or software used in AV communication; so for this small firm from the North East this is an amazing achievement.

The Live event of the year category was awarded for utilising the newest technical ideas and was open to a wide range of corporate events, awards ceremonies, experiential events, sponsored events, sales conferences, product launches, exhibition events and more. Judges were looking for examples of absolute excellence in lighting, sound, project

UK - Now in its 45th year, the Man Booker Prize continues to celebrate the best in fiction writing. 500 distinguished guests from the literary world gathered at London's Guild Hall on 15th October to attend the awards ceremony, where New Zealand's Eleanor Catton was the youngest ever recipient of the £50,000 prize for her novel 'The Luminaries'.

Blitz Communications delivered a complete set, staging and audio visual package for leading agency Four Colman Getty. Lisa Perkins, event manager, commented, "Tuesday night's event was a huge success and we are absolutely thrilled how the evening progressed. All the suppliers from the Guild Hall to AV company Blitz and Carly Rogers Flowers, were brilliant throughout and came together really well on the night."

Munir Samji, executive chairman at Blitz added, "It was our pleasure to support this prestigious event for

UK - Some serious talent rocked up to support Unity the Stephen Lawrence Memorial concert at the O2 Arena in London including Rita Ora, Jessie J, Emile Sande, Beverley Knight, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran, Plan B, Tinie Tempah, Labrinth, and Jamie Cullum. The stars performed to help mark the twentieth anniversary of the teenager's death in south east London.

Hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Reggie Yates, the concert was part of the SL20 Campaign which is celebrating Stephen's life with a series of awareness-raising events throughout the year. It was recorded and broadcast on BBC1 and an album of the live performances is also due to be released.

XL Video was asked onboard by promoters AEG Live to supply video production which was co-ordinated for them by project manager Gareth Jeanne. He worked closely with the AEG Live production team led by Kahren Williams and Keith Wood.

The s

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd received a great reception to cutting-edge new technologies showcased on their stand at PLASA London 2013 from the many brands the company distributes exclusively in the UK and certain international territories. "This year's show was the biggest and best yet for AC-ET," says the company. Key lighting, video, rigging and audio product innovations were represented from AC-ET's portfolio of over 200 premium brands and four specialist sales divisions.

There was a great reception to the worldwide launch of the new Vision LED family, which features a 16° Par, a 1 metre batten and a zoomable moving wash each using 10W RGBW Multichip LEDs and delivering powerful and consistent performance. The LED range offers real value for money without compromising on performance, build quality or reliability, and provided dynamic illumin

Belgium - ArKaos Stage server was recently employed to create a spectacular 3D overhead video wall at Belgium's famous Pukkelpop Festival.

The annual Pukkelpop festival, held at Kiewit near Hasselt, is one of Belgium's largest alternative music festivals, attracting over 60,000 festival-goers and second in size only to Rock Werchter.

This 'progressive and contemporary' musical event plays host to around 200 bands on its eight stages over the three-day festival and showcases a wide variety of music that encompasses rock, pop, electronic, dance, hip-hop, punk and heavy metal. The eclectic line up for 2013 included top artists Eminem, The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails and world-class DJs including Mark Ronson, The Magician and Boys Noize.

The opening night party to the 28th Pukkelpop was the ideal event for ArKaos, Belgian media server and software manufacturer, to show off the p

UK - 'James Valpy - The Hippotech' by Bruce Schwartz (Electrosonic SA's Entertainment Lighting Manager) . . .

"James Valpy's nickname is 'The Hippotech', but he's not a hi-tech game ranger. This South African born, English trained, lighting and video technician trots the globe providing stunning visuals with Green Hippo Media Servers. I caught up with James backstage at the Johannesburg leg of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour.

"Born in Cape Town in 1988, James left South Africa for England when he was four. He studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and completed his BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice. James initially specialized in production lighting but soon gravitated to video as a medium. The knowledge of both proved invaluable.

"James was working as an associate to the production designer Tupac Martir, when he met Ed Prescott on the Be

Australia - Situated on level 3 of the Tattersalls Club, Doltone House Hyde Park is a new meeting and events venue boasting 5m high ceilings with an abundance of natural light via floor to ceiling spectacular windows and uninterrupted views of Sydney's Hyde Park.

The Hyde Park Ballroom is the main room which can be divided, via operable walls, into four smaller rooms, or any combination thereof, if required. The Manhattan and Avenue Rooms are smaller meeting spaces often used as pre-function rooms.

Fredon designed, supplied and installed all of the audio visual requirements for the venue working closely with inhouse AV company Microhire to design and develop a solution that would not only meet the needs of Doltone House's banquet staff but also Microhire.

When designing the system, Fredon took into account the venues main markets; weddings at the weekend and corporate events

USA - Two Avolites Media Ai Infinity 8 Servers and one Ai T8 server have powered the video mapping, projection, and LED screens for the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami - watched by more than 30 million people.

Avolites Media Developer Ciaran Abrams worked closely with US-based lighting design and media presentation company DMDS7UDIOS on the 2013 Awards, held at the 7,972-seat BankUnited Center.

"Avolites Media's Ai kit was used to run every bit of video that was seen at the event - including the projection on the triangles and the video mapping for the 4 LED Screens placed in unusual geometry around the stage. We also video mapped MiStrip Led Strips at the back of the stage and several thousand MiPix designed into the set," says Abrams. "There were multiple systems outputting to 10 HD projectors and 4 HD LED setups, all controlled from one lighting desk. T

UK - Avolites Media's industry-leading Ai Servers and Sapphire Media consoles have exhibited their flexibility and processing power handling multiple live input streams alongside playback of custom designed media content for this year's Secret Garden Party - main and second stages.

Almost 30,000 revellers attended the popular independent music and arts festival in Abbots Ripton, Cambridgeshire, to see headliners including Faithless, 2ManyDJs, and The Ladykillers.

Two Ai Infinity Servers with two black magic capture cards in each were stationed on the main stage (one for service, one backup) and controlled by the Sapphire Media console. A second Ai server was placed to serve the second stage.

"The festival organisers wanted something different from the standard wall of LED screens," says design company Immersive's Ralph Lambert, who was in charge of all main stage v

UK - Sennheiser has won the coveted Audio Installation of the Year at this year's AV Awards for its contribution to the audio system for the David Bowie is exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This latest accolade follows hot on the heals of being honoured for Temporary Installation Project of the Year at the inaugural Pro Sound Awards for the V&A's fastest selling exhibition to date, David Bowie is which ran for five months between March and August this year. The exhibition was one of the museum's most successful exhibitions with around 312,000 visitors and pre-booked ticket sales reaching more than 67,000 prior to opening. The exhibition was the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie, exploring his creative processes as a musical innovator and cultural icon.

The sound experience was integral to the exhibition desig

UK - Christie reports that AVC Live, a leading technical production company based in the UK, have invested in a number of the latest Christie Mirage WU20K-J 3-chip DLP projectors and a Christie Spyder X20 video processor.

AVC Live provide production services to corporate clients, event agencies, production companies, PR & communications agencies, hotels and venues. The company's reputation is based on quality and experience. They propose, design, plan and execute innovative live event solutions across numerous sectors irrespective of size and scale.

For almost two decades AVC Live have had a close partnership with Christie (formerly with Electrohome). Past purchases have included many Christie Roadster HD10K-M projectors and Christie MicroTiles. Due to the tough environments associated with staging large events, quality and reliability are of prime importance to AVC Live, and

UK - PLASA secured a significant lobbying success last month when the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee published its report into 'Supporting the Creative Economy'. The Committee roundly endorsed PLASA's position regarding the Olympics 'No Marketing Rights Protocol'.

The report was the culmination of an inquiry which was launched just over a year ago with a call for evidence from the Committee, which is made up of MPs from across all political parties. PLASA made a detailed written submission as to how the creative industries can be better supported, with a particular emphasis on the value and importance of the Entertainment Technology sector. PLASA's evidence focussed on issues around allowing companies to promote their involvement in the Olympics, tax relief for apprenticeships, improving protection for intellectual property and helping SMEs in the sec

Germany - CT's recently introduced lightweight LED system has been used on three spectacular projects since its introduction in September.

The first application saw 363m2 installed as an LED ceiling for the Audi booth at the Frankfurt IAA car show. The ground-breaking stand design featured an inverted city with buildings, trees and other architectural elements suspended within the purpose built exhibit hall. The LED ceiling displayed graphical content representing traffic and movement on the roads between reflected tower blocks.

This project would have been impossible with any other LED product as the entire 363m2 system weighed less than four tonnes including purpose built super modules which allowed the display to be transported and installed in pre-fabricated sections each measuring 1.5m x 3m and weighing around 100kg.

Immediately following the Frankfurt show the system w

South Africa - An Avolites Titan Training Course was hosted at DWR Distribution's new premises in Laserpark, Johannesburg, from 21 to 23 October 2013. Due to high demand from rental companies in and around the Durban area, the same workshop will be held in KwaZulu Natal from 28 to 30 October.

24 delegates attended the Johannesburg event and DWR Distribution's Nick Britz, presenter of the Avolites Titan Training, was delighted with the response.

Topics covered included workspaces, patching, groups, controlling fixtures, palettes, playbacks, basic timings, chases, shapes and running the show.

Interest in the training event was heightened thanks to Avolites' Emma Thompson presenting a similar seminar in South Africa in 2012. As Britz and his assistant Gareth Chambers regularly train Avolites users on a one-on-one basis and provide daily technical support, the workshop was infor

UK - Window on Wild Lindisfarne, run by the Holy Island Community Development Trust, presents visitors with an introduction to the island's wildlife. In particular, it highlights the migration of light-bellied brent geese to the island every year. The building itself offers a unique vantage point to observe the geese and other birds through a 7m wide full height window.

With the need for the display to include audio visual content, exhibition designers Conibear Design Associates (CDA) commissioned Integrated Circles to find the best solution.

Given the large amount of light streaming in through the large north facing window, Integrated Circles' technical director, Simon Beer, opted for a high grade front-projected dnp Supernova Blade, provided by the Danish manufacturer's UK distributors, Paradigm AV. He explained, "The choice was really driven by contrast ratios a

The Netherlands - Vivitek Corporation has announced four new projectors to the D5000 range, which was introduced in 2012. The large screen projections are suited to the simultaneous display of video conferencing, presentations and graphic data such as charts and graphs.

The Vivitek D5010 features native XGA resolution, the Vivitek D5110W comes with WXGA and the D5380U with WUXGA resolution. The Vivitek D5190HD offers Full-HD resolution. With a contrast ratio of 2000:1 and a brightness ranging from 4,700 to 6,000 ANSI Lumens, the new D5000 models effortlessly light up boardrooms, auditoriums as well as conference halls. Due to the integration of the Texas Instruments DLP BrilliantColor chip technology, they also all deliver crystal-clear pictures, with deep blacks and rich engaging colours.

The new models are designed with the installer in mind. The four large venue projectors

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