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PLASA Awards for Innovation

The winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation were announced on Monday evening, 12th September, during a well-attended awards ceremony held on the main show floor at Earls Court. The Awards, which focus on the best design and development work going on across the industry, came at the end of a day that reaffirmed PLASA's reputation as a forging ground for future innovations.

The Awards, which are judged by a panel of professionals, attracted 66 nominations, leading to eight technical awards and an additional award for environmental impact.

The winning products were:

Artistic Licence's Visual Patch is going to prove the ultimate time saver for converged lighting and video applications. It creates an on-screen geographic map of two or three-dimensional pixel array, whilst automatically also assigning DMX512 start addresses. Described by the judges as another first from an innovative company, the Visual Patch is destined to save hours of programming time in an industry exploding with LED light fixtures.

Carlsbro's Liberty Wireless System WP-100 is a high quality audio system that can be used for connecting multiple powered speaker configurations without any loss of quality. Thanks to a receiver system built around two antennas, the signal remains strong and stable at all times. The system picked up an award for its application of modern wireless technology in the field of audio distribution.

The D8++ chain hoist from Hall Stage is a product specifically designed for the event rigging sector. It features a dynamic irreversible worm gear that prevents a load from slipping - even with extreme overload. The judges felt the D8++ represented a significant advance in its market by employing a mechanism that made it ultra safe and virtually silent.

The SpectraConnecT5 from LDDE is a fluorescent tube characterised by high luminance and compact design. It features the newly developed smooth_operator technology which offers continuous control from 0-100%. It picked up an award because it has finally delivered "a dimmable tube that dims" using existing technology.

Outline's COM.P.A.S.S. is the first robotic speaker enclosure: it can be used alone or combined with other elements to form a vertical line array. Thanks to a sophisticated mechanism moved by five motors, the system can adjust vertical and horizontal directivity simultaneously from 60-150 degrees on the horizontal plane and from 0-15 degrees on the vertical plane which can be operated via remote software. The judges marked it out for its high level of innovation and that fact that it had delivered a solution long overdue.

The FogScreen from PSCo is a penetrable projection surface, consisting of dry fog, made from pure tap water. The fog feels dry and cool to touch, and can be walked through, taking only seconds for the images projected upon it to reform The judges believe the FogScreen to be a genuine first, offering a unique effect.

Stage Technologies' BeamHoist is an easy to install cost-effective automation hoist system for lifting scenery and lighting bars. Described by the judges as beautifully engineered, the view is that it will have many more applications than originally conceived.

A versatile operating system that is destined to set the benchmark for installation controllers won the Pharos from Pharos Architectural Controls (world-wide distributors TMB) an award. A control system for entertainment and LED lighting in an architectural setting, the Pharos supports DMX or DALI colour mixing fixtures, dimmable ballasts and automated lighting. The judges felt that this was a beautifully engineered lighting controller.

With the demand for energy efficient technologies growing, an award for environmental impact was re-introduced. In the current climate of impending legislation concerning waste recycling and material use, Osram's development of the aluPar - a family of lamps which are 66% lighter and up to 10% brighter - proves that the message has been taken on board. Using an aluminium reflector instead of a glass reflector, the lamps also feature a mechanically linked reflector and front lens, ensuring that the aluPAR can be easily disassembled and its components disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

During the ceremony, the £10,000 raised from the entry fees was presented to three charities - the International Committee of the Red Cross, The Live Music Forum, chaired by Feargal Sharkey, and the Elizabeth Foundation. Both Feargal Sharkey and Shirley Metherell, founder of the Elizabeth Foundation, attended the ceremony.

For further details on the awards and a list of nominations, visit the PLASA Show 2005 website - http://www.plasashow.com

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PLASA Awards for Innovation

14th September 2005

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