PLASA Show 2015 (October 4-6) is set to be most successful since the move to the modern ExCeL exhibition center 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. The pro audio sector continues to support the show and this year’s audio exhibits are expanded with many well-known audio manufacturers and distributors.
Owned and organized by PLASA, the international trade association for entertainment technologies, PLASA Show, now 38 years old, is the annual exhibition that connects the international live entertainment technology industry and ranks as one of the premier shows of its kind. It presents ground breaking technology and exciting new launches by the world’s greatest designers and engineers to an international audience of pro audio, lighting, broadcast, AV and stage technology experts.
PLASA Show’s move to ExCeL London in 2013 has seen the beginning of a new chapter for the event with a world class modern venue providing outstanding facilities with plenty hotels, shops, bars and restaurants within a close proximity.
PLASA Show 2015 will feature a series of audio specific sessions for the pro-audio community covering live sound training and theory, manufacturer-led panel sessions discussing current technical issues and a look at sound design for global, large-scale events. The AudioLab will also offer a unique program of seminars, demonstrations, and interactive experiments designed to test pro audio theory.“We are seeing a definite shift from audio manufacturers and distributors towards PLASA as a viable event to launch a variety of new products, with the PLASA Awards for Innovation being a great place to showcase new technology,” says Christopher Toulmin, Director of PLASA Events. “This year we have over 50 leading brands joining us from the pro audio sector with many new names joining that list.”
By the beginning of September, pre-registration data for PLASA Show 2015 was tracking at 10% up year on year over the past two shows, with 62% of those registered being either final decision makers or equipment specifiers. In addition visitors from 94 countries have pre-registered, against those from 74 countries who attended in 2014.
“The PLASA Show moved to ExCeL in 2013 and we have fine-tuned the layout to best suit the industry’s needs and to enhance the visitor experience and facilitate better networking,” adds Christopher Toulmin. “Having acted on the extensive research undertaken after the 2013 and 2014 shows to find out exactly what our audience wants, we are very pleased that this year’s pre-registrations have already shown a significant increase. The fact that we have pre-registered visitors from 20 more countries than attended last year also demonstrates that PLASA Show is reasserting its position as one of the most important global events for the live entertainment technology industry.”
A key part of PLASA Show 2015 is the Professional Development Program seminars, which offer an unrivaled educational resource and cover a huge variety of highly informative topics, addressing subjects for everyone from the most experienced practitioners through to those just starting in the industry.
Several key seminars have recently been announced, which will be of particular interest of those involved in the visual art of production. In a session titled “What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Planning the Eurovision Song Contest 2016”, Eurovision 2016 technical director Ola Melzig and lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson will discuss the challenges of planning the production of the world’s biggest televised music event, with a global audience of 200 million, and the way that the technical and creative processes drive each other forward.
In “Making Music Look Good”, Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher of Block 9 will discuss their work creating radical stage sets, large-scale immersive artworks, installations and live events, using recent examples including the Dismaland Castle at Banksy’s massively successful Dismaland theme park in Weston-super-Mare, Utopia at the Roundhouse, the Block9 area at Glastonbury festival and stage designs for Lana Del Rey and Skrillex.
Pro audio products and features at this years show include d&b Audiotechnik debut of its V-Series point source loudspeakers. Launched just a few weeks earlier, the V7P, V10P and V-GSUB will be on the d&b stand alongside other touring and installation products. Adam Hockley and Steve Jones of d&b GB Education and Application Support also contribute to the line up of Pro Audio seminars taking place at the show.
Educational support for the audio sector comes in the form of a dedicated Pro Audio seminar stream. Taking place on all three days of the show, the program covers a wide range of topics, from the future of wireless audio to the preservation of hearing – an essential guide for sound professionals and taking in a wide variety of mixing, production and sound control topics along the way.
The wealth of seminars and panel discussions is delivered by senior figures from the likes of Sennheiser, Soulsound, The Institute of Professional Sound, Britannia Row Productions, Martin Audio and Yamaha.
Audio Exhibitors at Plasa 2015 include: A.C. Entertainment Technologies, After Dark, ASD, Association of British Theatre Technicians, Autograph, Cadac, Consultancy Team Ltd., d&b audiotechnik, FBT Audio UK, Flare Audio Limited, Hawthorn, Institute of Professional Sound, LMC Audio, Miltec Distribution, Mountainview Academy of Theatre Arts, Neutrik United Kingdom, Penn Elcom, POLARaudio, Protonic Software, Raycom, Sommer Cable, SSE Audio Group, Ten 47, Unity Audio, White Light, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, A.C Special Projects, JAMES, Soulsound and Rose Bruford.
The 2015 PLASA Awards for Innovation, recognizing and rewarding new product ideas will be announced at a special ceremony on Monday 5 October, including the PLASA Award for Sustainability, awarded to any product which offers a significant reduction in power usage, makes effective use of renewable energy sources or provides a significant reduction in its environmental impact during its lifecycle. Flare Audio’s Flare Zero loudspeaker is one of the nominees (the only audio product nominated this year).
Finally, PLASA 2015 will see the presentation of the Gottelier Award, named after Tony Gottelier, the renowned industry innovator who passed away in 2006. This annual award recognizes those product developers who have made a significant long-term contribution to the entertainment, installation technology or presentation industry in the fields of audio, lighting, rigging or staging.
This year’s nominees are co-founder of High End Systems Richard Belliveau; David Cunningham, an early pioneer of computer lighting systems and developer of a number of landmark products for Strand during the 1970s and 80s; and Dr Christian Heil, founder of loudspeaker manufacturer L-Acoustics.
Previous winners have included Tony Andrews of Funktion One, John Stadius of DiGiCo/SoundTracs, John Meyer of Meyer Sound, Fred Foster of ETC and Jim Bornhorst of Vari-Lite. Last year’s winner was Pasquale Quadri, the admired innovator and founder of Clay Paky, who sadly passed away shortly before the 2014 show. His award was presented posthumously, by the unanimous agreement of his fellow nominees.
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