Industry reacts to ‘busiest PLASA Show in years’
Posted on: 29th September 2019
LONDON, UK - The 2019 PLASA Show was “the busiest in years” thanks to a six per cent increase in attendance, PLASA has reported. The event’s global status was also strengthened, with delegates from over 63 countries flocking to the London-based tradeshow.
This was the last edition of the event that was held at Olympia’s National Hall, with the 2020 PLASA Show set to move to London Olympia’s Grand Hall to accommodate a greater number of stands and show features.
“PLASA has always presented a great opportunity for us to wave the Leisuretec flag and spend some valuable time meeting with our customers and engaging with new clients from across the industry,” comments Wayne Juggins, Leisuretec’s Commercial Manager.
“Once again PLASA did not disappoint,” added Gareth Collyer, Nexo’s UK sales manager. “We were very pleased with the overall number and quality of the visitors that visited our booth and we look forward to seeing the show grow again next year when it moves to the Grand Hall.”
The show saw an array of new brands and initiatives, including immersive AV installation Blackout and Stage to Studio, which featured respected studio engineers Simon Todkill and Jamie McEvoy, and was mixed live by Andrew Mansell from Shermann Audio. The tradeshow also saw double the amount of live audio demonstrations, including three dedicated Audio Lounges for L-Acoustics, Sound Technology and RCF.
RCF’s UK sales director, Dean Devoile, comments: “Our Audio Lounge worked wonderfully well. Virtually all of the sessions we ran were full and we probably could have done with doing even more! This has been the busiest and best PLASA Show we’ve done in a long, long time.”
Exhibitor’s represented all corners of the entertainment technology industry, from audio, lighting, staging and rigging to broadcast and AV, each sector commenting on the quality and range of visitors attending the show.
“PLASA Show is an invaluable fixture in our calendar”, confirms AED Group ‘s business development manager, Ryan Stromski. “It enables us to connect with so many of our existing and potential customers under one roof. Without PLASA we simply wouldn’t be able to generate those vital touch points with our valued clients.”
City Theatrical’s sales vice-president Gary Vilardi adds: “PLASA is one of the best trade shows we exhibit at each year and we had many high calibre lighting professionals visit us at our booth this year."
ETC’s Cat Shepherd agrees: “We had a really busy stand the whole time and we’ve seen lots of different types of customers – including many international and end users. We’re really excited about the move the Grand Hall next year - it’s a great opportunity to have everything on one level will bring the whole show together.”
A staple show highlight, the PLASA Awards for Innovation, held in association with LSi magazine, awarded eight companies with the prestigious product awards.
The PLASA Awards for Innovation, organised in collaboration with LSi magazine, took place at the end of a vibrant Monday at the PLASA Show 2019. The Awards recognise and reward pioneering product designs and the people behind them and are widely respected as they are independently judged by a team of industry experts with a variety of specialist backgrounds.
This year saw 36 entries for the Awards, with the judges selecting seven winners and one Gold Award winner.
And the winners are:
- Nexo for the P12 Point-source loudspeaker
- Robe for Esprite
- Theatrixx for its 8-bay Reversible Rackmount Converter
- SSE for The Azimuth
- ETC for Augment3d
- Shure for TwinPlex Subminature Lavalier and Headset Microphones
- Elation Professional for Artiste Monet
GOLD AWARD
- Artistic licence for sunDial quad
The judges also commended three products: City Theatrical’s Multiverse Transmitter 2.4GHz for advancing the dark art of Wi-Fi in lighting control; TMB’s ProPlex GBS Network Selector for being a neat tool to solve networking problems on large festival shows; and Vectorworks (GDTF Group) for the GDTF v.10 which advances interoperability design, visualisation and consoles.
Meanwhile, the Gottelier Award - which recognises product developers for their significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of technology - was won by Dr Christian Heil, the founder of L-Acoustics.
During the Award for Innovation ceremony, it was announced that LSi would donate £2,000 to industry charity Backup, raised from entry fees to the awards.
In a separate charity initiative, a cycling team of industry peers raised over £5,550 for the charities Backup and Stage Hand.
PLASA Show 2020 will take place from 6-8 September at Olympia London’s Grand Hall.
Courtesy of LSI Online
