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Highly Successful AC Lighting North Tradeshow

A.C. Lighting’s North Tradeshow is now firmly established on the industry’s exhibition calendar. Held at the Leeds Armouries on 11th and 12th May, this year’s show was extremely well received by both visitors and exhibitors alike, with exhibitor stand numbers reaching the hall’s maximum capacity and over 50% more visitors attending the show compared to 2003.

Feedback has been excellent, report A.C. Lighting, with visitors commenting on the high number and quality of manufacturers exhibiting, the range of new products showcased, the choice and relevance of free guest speaker seminars, and the overall organisation of the show. Relocation of the seminars to the Bury Theatre, to accommodate additional exhibitors in the main hall and provide further seminar seating capacity, was also welcomed.

Unique seminar talks this year included Ron Bonner from PLASA discussing how to comply with new legislation when working at height, sound guru Dave Bearman de-mystifying digital audio distribution, top LD Tom Lesh explaining how he overcame the hurdle of lighting the cartoon band "Gorillaz" with shadows, Nigel Sadler of Scene Change exploring the creative world of mixed media lighting production, A.C.’s own Neil Vann bringing visitors up to date with lighting control networking, and A.C.’s Glyn O'Donoghue discussing developments in LED's and their practical application in entertainment lighting.

In the exhibition hall, over 30 new products were being shown in the UK for the first time - proving how highly the event is now regarded by the entertainment technology industry as a serious platform for promoting to customers in the North of England.

Clay Paky showcased their new Alpha range of innovative 575W moving body professional projectors designed for any professional, architectural and show business environment. The range consists of the Alpha Spot HPE, Alpha Spot and Alpha Wash models. There was also the new Mini Scan HP3 effects projector, which updates the specificiation of the popular Mini Scan HPE.

The new fader wing for Maxxyz from Martin Professional provides an extra 20 motorised faders. Also shown was the Maxedia, a powerful media server.

Selecon showed their new Pacific Followspot, which delivers the cool beam and heat management advantages of the Pacific technology in a low cost followspot ideal for smaller theatres, schools, churches and clubs. There was also a new lower voltage version of the Pacific 80V Power System, an 80V 1200W lamp which delivers onto the stage as much light as a traditional 2.0/2.5kW luminaire.

Pulsar showcased the new Outstation OS1 - a compact 12 Scene 54 Channel DMX programmable control desk that is ideal as an architectural controller and as a remote for the Pulsar ChromaZone. The OS1 is ideal for any situation where an easy-to-use and programmable DMX lighting control desk is required.

Zero 88 presented their new Diablo lighting controller, a cost-effective and flexible lighting controller for use with moving lights suitable for use in small theatres, schools, TV or clubs. Also on stand was the new Rack 6 and Install 6 DMX 6x 10amp circuit dimming modules, which offer great value and a choice of compact 2U 19” case (Rack 6) or easy onsite installation and maintenance (Install 6).

Avolites demonstrated their new eDMX system, which transfers DMX data across a Wi-Fi radio link – completely removing the need for DMX data cables. There was also the new ART2000s dimming module – a cost-effective, stand alone professional dimming module designed for distributed dimming systems.

Jands, exclusively distributed in Europe by A.C. Lighting, showcased, courtesy of the inimitable Neil Vann, the Vista lighting console – a totally new approach to lighting control which dispenses with cuelist, touchscreens, keyboards and tedious number-crunching in favour of timeline based software, a pen and a huge colour pen tablet.

Chroma-Q products, which are exclusively distributed worldwide by A.C. Lighting, showcased the new 4Play – a fault tolerant, self-healing 4 way DMX buffer designed to fully isolate all outputs from each other. Supplied with 4 x 5 pin connectors, each output is separately generated and boosted from the original DMX signal. The 4Play is suitable for truss mounting with a normal hook clamp and will work with mains voltages worldwide. There was also a preview of the soon-to-be-launched Colour Block DB4 – a high output, modular block of 4 DMX-controlled colour mixing LED lights which can be easily configured in stacks or rows. The unit features a fully variable effects engine and a unique user interface offering Hue, Saturation and Intensity control of each fixture.

Allen & Heath showcased the next generation of its best selling MixWizard range of multi-purpose pro audio consoles. The WZ³16:2 and WZ³12:2 feature a dedicated mono output fader, while the WZ³14:4:2 boasts a 6x2 matrix.

Beyerdynamic showed their new Opus 800 – the world’s only modular radio microphone system with a full colour screen, and Opus 300 entry level radio mic system. The stand also provided a preview of the Biamp Nexia presentation mixer, conference system and speaker processor digital audio range.

Turbosound had their new QLight digitally powered speaker range on stand. The TQ-445DP three-way design in a trapezoidal cabinet and the TQ-308DP trapezoidal two-way design.

Community showcased several new loudspeaker ranges, which included the M12 floor monitor loudspeaker system, the I/O (indoor/outdoor) 5 and 8 Series compact high performance speakers, the Cloud 4 and 6 Series self-contained co-axial bass-reflex speaker system, and the DnD12 compact and efficient two-way sound reinforcement loudspeaker system.

The Sennheiser stand showcased the new Anchor Liberty – a lightweight portable audio solution that can be specified from its basic form with a simply wired microphone input and external source inputs, or including radio microphone receivers, additional speakers and a built-in CD player.

The Le Mark Group stand had the new Tak-Away self-adhesive residue remover for removing gunk left by tapes and labels, the fully self-extinguishing Gaf-Fire fire retardant gaffer tape, the Identi-tak easy cable length marker and Pro Tape’s Pro Gaffer range of vinyl-coated tapes.

CIE showed the new generation Amina Compact Pro series of high power, very high SPL compact loudspeakers, which can generate an incredible 115dB at 1m. The touring version comes complete with 25mm light-weight tripod stands for conferencing and portable music PA/disco use. The wall-mount version is ideal for fixed installations in foreground music and PA/VA applications.

A.C. Lighting’s Northern sales director, Jonathan Walters, commented: “This year’s show has really set a precedent for future A.C. Lighting North tradeshows, with a record number of visitors, exhibitors and our strongest product representation yet by industry-leading manufacturers. All attendee feedback so far suggests that we got the balance just right this year, so we look forward to exceeding everyone’s expectations next year. A big thank you to our sponsors and everyone who attended the show.”

Due to the overwhelming success of this year’s event, dates for next year have already been confirmed. It will be held on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th April 2005 in the same venue.

http://www.aclighting.com

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Highly Successful AC Lighting North Tradeshow

14th May 2004

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