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From ports to PLASA might seem like a bit of a leap, but the Cavotec Group's range of industrial motor driven cable reels and lifts is finding an interested audience in the theatre industry. Although this was the company's first experience of the show, the fact that it has offices in 25 countries worldwide means that it's well able to support the entertainment industry across the globe. A steady stream of international visitors proved that Cavotec may well establish itself as a major force in the stage motorization market.

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Another of the many French exhibitors this year was MH Diffusion from Paris, at PLASA for the first time - after many years as visitors. The company showed its new range of LED theatre lighting fixtures called 'LED Projector', available in 16-, 30-, 36-, 54- and 64-LED options. They also showed a new laser product - the MAC VI - a 100mW DMX-controlled green laser for discos. The company also produces its own brand of sound products including amps and speakers.

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Safety Ring Switch from Sonoss is, as the name suggests, an Ethernet switch used in a ring configuration. For big events where double ring Ethernets are often employed, the switch has a response of less than 35 millisecs to an interruption. Luminex Products, who make the switch, also showed a prototype lighting desk - Hummingbird - a 'soft' desk where any function of the desk can be subordinated to any module in an Ethernet system.
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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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Three products from DiGiCo - a new Aviom card, an EtherSound card, and a Mini Rack. The Aviom card allows the Aviom self-mixed 'musician' monitoring system to be routed direct from the console - a useful facility that reinforces what Stanley Miller asserted was 'the way forward' on Neil Diamond earlier this year, "self-mixing for musicians is perfectly acceptable for live rock and roll".

Using the EtherSound control protocol puts the engineer is directly in control of running the loudspeakers - especially useful with self-powered PA system and separately amplified systems from the likes of Nexo and Camco. Could be useful for dialling out parts of the system when you find an upper balcony fails to fill with people, and saves a lot of running down to stage to achieve the same effect.

Mini Rack really capitalizes on the post-digital transfer syndrome in that where once enginee

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Now the biggest stockist of Meyer Sound PA systems in Europe, Procon continues to lead the European rental market in terms of scale. LED video screens are also increasing in the Procon inventory, particularly Barco D series screen modules, and they now stock 7,000 Mi-Pix modules. The company also has quantities of Pulsar Chroma Panels, and i-Tiles from Color Kinetics. Procon says it is currently bidding on the Winter Olympics in Turin (LD Durham Marenghi) and the Beijing Olympics.

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Australia's Enttec was showing new add-ons to its Lightfactory PC-based, open architecture lighting control software. These included the Shortcut and the Playback, Ethernet-based hardware controllers which can also function as stand-alone ESP or Artnet units. The Shortcut features 62 buttons, while the Playback has 10 faders with three buttons and Flash assigned to each.

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Ayrton showed its moving LED heads and its eye-catching LED 'DreamPanel' (see entry under Lighting Effects Distribution). The Ayrton Dreampanel has 256 pixels per 500mm square panel and a 16 x 16 resolution. New was the modulated 318 3 x LED bank and the Slimled 54 directional wash panel, and for programmers, the Conger IR remote pocket-sized remote controller.

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Belgium-based Goboland has just opened a London office and was highlighting this at the PLASA Show. This gobo manufacturer specializes in one and two-colour products, which are great for company logos.

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Swedish company Wireless Solutions showed a new IP65-rated wireless repeater for its wireless system. The repeater allows the elimination of "dead spots" in wireless coverage, making for a more dynamic wireless network.

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Chamsys now offers three different sizes of PC Wing to its existing range of DMX lighting consoles. Maxi Wing can control up to four DMX universes, the Normal runs two, and the Mini just one. The Maxi Wing is also offered with an in-built PC.

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Anytronics displayed its new range of wall-mount dimmers. There are 12 models currently available and they feature RS232 as well as DMX and analogue control options. Also new was the fluorescent ANYColour range of IP65-rated colour changing fittings, including 1200 x 1200mm ceiling panels, which the company claims are five times brighter that similar LED products!

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Green Hippo, newly merged with Scenechange, launched its new versions of Hippotizer at PLASA. Features included new Dual Output with Pan mode option, PDoom MPG2 engine with ultra smooth slo-mo, and improved playback quality. In addition, new effects include edge blending, crop and trim, shifter and many more. Over the last year Hippotizer units have been out on tour with Basement Jaxx, Destiny's Child and the Foo Fighters amongst others.

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There were two elements to PRG at PLASA this year. For one of the biggest companies in the room, one of the two stands occupied by PRG was remarkably small. Here, Phillip Hesleton was offering PLASA visitors a free shuttle service to PRG's Greenford HQ to view a multitude of automated and conventional lighting products, including top-line control desks, ready for re-sale. Most were barely two or three years old, but PRG's relentless drive to be current makes them past best. An attractive package to many visitors, the popularity of this service says much about the durability of products made by many of the manufacturers who exhibit at PLASA.

On the main stand, the big news was the VL500, the new wash fixture from Vari-Lite, available in four versions, all effectively modelled on the well-known Vari*Lite VL5. On show were the 1000W tungsten with on-board dimmer, which can also be run off

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B&K Braun showed the Sirius and Sirius Pro, which the company is now distributing. The highlight was the new range of Sirius DXP mixers, designed for operation in studio, live FOH and monitoring applications. Each audio channel has a three-band EQ, a DSP effect processor and phantom power. The mixers are also available in both passive and active versions, the latter delivering 250W into eight ohms (12-16 channels) or 300W into eight ohms (20-24 channels).

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Shown last year as a prototype, the production version of the Swefog Live T26 smoke generator was on display. Using water-based fluids, the unit delivers smoke at up to 1,800sq.m/min and is controllable via DMX, remote and standalone. Two new cracked oil hazers were also on show, the Ultimate 200 and 300, the latter having ultra-low noise technology built in.

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UK - PSCo were awarded the AV Award for Rental Company of the Year at the ceremony in London last week. The judges commented: "PSCo's commitment to technical training and industry certification, allied to its use of customer surveys and performance measurement, helped it win this category - as did its introduction of new products to the trade rental sector."

Stuart Holmes, Director of PSCo added: "The 2004/2005 period for PSCo has seen a complete change in our business strategy which has set us apart as an innovative and service led company. The CASVP Gold Award recognised the work the whole team has put in to improve their technical knowledge and this award is a brilliant accolade for all their work this year."

PSCo will be showcasing its whole portfolio at Tech Event 2005 held at Reading Football Stadium Conference Centre on October 27.

(Jim Evan

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A large, flightcased, 400A mains distro' dominated the stand of Rubber Box. The first time the company has attempted to mould something so large, the box was in prototype form but will be in production soon. Maintaining the usual Rubber Box ethos of double insulation, this box safely keeps all electrical connections one layer away from any of the penetrating pop rivets used to attach standard flightcase fittings like latches and handles. Also new to the range, the 185 is a 185mm wide breakout box, at this size capable of accommodating three-phase 32A in to 3 x 32 single-phase out, or 6 x 16A out.

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This was the first time at PLASA for Network Lighting Designs which has taken on a new product - Holographic Film - made by Holo-Wall. The company has been making illuminated dancefloors for 15 years - including LED ones - and think the Holo Wall products will be great for clubs as well as for architectural applications. It's a plastic film with a reflective surface that interacts equally well with sunlight and natural lighting as well as artificial light to create all colours in the spectrum. Holo Wall featured on Coldplay's Twisted Logic tour (see L&SI September 2005).

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Sunbaba Screens is manufacturer and also distributor for the 'Austronet' brand which was highlighted at PLASA. It's a polyethylene material knitted into different grades and used for scrims and scenic applications of all types. For PA scrim work, there's a wide mesh option to let the sound permeate as much as possible. Austronet 204 is for projecting onto with light, while the white and grey versions are for lasering. Sunbaba showed digitally printed Austronet for the first time.

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Although it's been around for a while now, PLASA 2005 was the first UK public outing for L-Acoustics new Kudo system, which, incidentally, was used just last week for the Mercury prize awards. L-Acoustics chose PLASA to complete the deal to add Midlands-based audio hire company SSE to the V-Dosc network.

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Audient recently sold its second Aztec console to Hawthorns - the first double Aztec owner in the UK. Two brand new products were on show from sister brand LA Audio: the Can-D headphone amplifier and the PC90 phase checker. The Can-D is a headphone amp specifically designed for any live application. The rugged device incorporates a delay unit as a well as the amplifier to ensure time coherency for headphone wearers.

The PC90 is a neatly designed device composed of two parts that slide together forming a neat little package. When separated, the emitter and receiver modules can connect via XLR or the emitter can utilize its built-in loudspeaker and microphone. The PC90 can detect polarity inversion regardless of time delay or distance by way of its unique broadband pulse.

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