Last year’s Prolight + Sound saw around 31,000 visitors come to the Frankfurt Messe to visit 825 exhibitors – a slight decline on 2009’s attendance. It will be interesting to see if the trend can be reversed this year – and if so, by how much.
Particularly for the IE readership, it’s clear that Prolight + Sound has lost some ground to ISE in recent years. It has used the ‘Media Systems’ sub-brand to address this market – and this year promises around 300 companies in the fields of ‘display, video, audio, production, broadcasting, systems integration and media technology’.
As in 2010, the relevant halls at the Messe are – mercifully – closer together than in earlier years. Product categories are distributed as follows:
– Hall 6.1, Audio: Microphones, PA systems and accessories.
– Hall 8.0, Sound Systems: Personal sound, concert sound, installed sound, microphones, networks, production, broadcast.
– Hall 9.0, Light and Stage: Theatre, studio and stage lighting, truss/rigging systems, display, video.
– Hall 11.0, Light and Stage: Show and stage lighting, design and installation, laser and effects, truss/rigging systems.
Visitors to Prolight + Sound with iPhones or Android smartphones can navigate their way around the exhibition centre, and search for specific exhibitors and products in the halls, using special apps – which will also show news items. Users of these services may also wish to purchase wireless internet access via the Messe Frankfurt WLAN portal; this is available from five centrally located counters in the complex.
On the education front, the Media Systems Congress… @page_break@ On the education front, the Media Systems Congress will be held on the conference floor of Portalhaus (next to Hall 11) as well as in rooms Symmetrie 2 and 4 in Hall 8. Around 50 lectures and presentations will include speakers from the Association of German Sound Engineers and ALMA (the International Loudspeaker Association) alongside presentations of products and services at the Manufacturers’ Forum. In addition, sessions in the Prolight + Sound Forum (in rooms Symmetrie 2 and 3, Hall 8) will include information on security in the events sector, legal frameworks, regulations, and professional development and training.
Outside, the Agora Stage will see around 70 musicians and bands performing during the fair. The Agora Stage marquee covers 2,000sqm and contains two 200sqm stages.
Peavey Commercial Audio Division will supply everything for the audio side of the Agora Stage, from front-of-house and PA to monitoring. The equipment used includes the Peavey Versarray 212, which is controlled by the MediaMatrix Nion6 and powered by Crest Pro 200 amplifiers. Two Crest CV 20 Premium will be used as front of house desks, with Crest HP series mixers as monitor consoles.
“It’s great exposure for all the product lines, especially the Versarray system, which is a revolutionary product in its class,” says Clive Roberts, managing director of Peavey Europe.
Martin Professional is providing lighting and video equipment for the marquee and the two stages. Peter Kroul, Martin’s sales director EMEA north, comments: “For four days and nights, we will demonstrate that live shows can be organised using only Martin Professional products – from spotlights, via light-control systems, to videowalls – on the two stages.”
See next page for product highlights…
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Product highlights
Details of what will be on display on the show floor are still being released, but here are some of the highlights that we’ve heard about so far.
The HS120 from Audac is a full-range sound projector based on a 4in driver, designed to provide quality sound with a long throw range in a wide variation of indoor and outdoor applications. It delivers a power of 20W RMS in standard 8-ohm systems with a maximum power of 40W, but it can also be used in 100V PA systems.
Cadac will debut its first compact digital console. The Cadac DM1600 is an all-new development based on a proprietary DSP mix platform. The mixer marks Cadac’s continuing expansion into new market sectors with this its first ‘budget’ digital console.
Chauvet will be promoting the new WELL, or Wireless Event LED Luminaire, which is designed to be a self-contained uplight for any event. Inside each WELL wash light are 12 3W tri-colour LEDs, similar to the 14 found in the COLORado 1-TRI Tour. It’s powered by a 12V battery offering up to 12 hours of life to the fixture.
Also new are the COLORado Range IP and COLORado Ridge IP indoor/outdoor wash lights, featuring RGBWA colour mixing. The use of red, green, blue, white and amber LEDs offer more colour mixing and full spectrum colour rendering.
D&M Professional Europe will feature the latest technologies and product ranges from its Denon Professional and Denon DJ brands at this year’s exhibition. The Denon DN-F650R offers instant or programmed playback and management of digital music files via a front-mounted SD card slot and USB port. Recording is possible both to and between memory cards and connected drives, and USB connectivity also enables fast file transfer to and from Mac or PC.
Iosono will demonstrate its IPC100 Spatial Audio Processor… @page_break@ Iosono will demonstrate its IPC100 Spatial Audio Processor, billed as an “all-in-one solution for immersive true 3D audio experience in all venues”. The heart of the technology inside is the Iosono algorithm, which supports systems with five to 500 loudspeakers to reproduce object-based, enhanced multichannel or conventional audio content.
Laserworld (Switzerland) currently offers W-DMX from Wireless Solution Sweden as an option for the SwissLas, Purelight, Purelight Blue Beam, Moving Head and Revolution product series. Following the recent signing of an OEM partner agreement, W-DMX will be unveiled as the standard for these products at Prolight + Sound.
Multiform Lighting will be showing its IP65-rated MultiSpot GII luminaires, which provide “higher light output and more sophisticated DMX control facilities than the current products”. It is about to start manufacturing these in a new 24,000sqft facility in Guangzhou.
Sommer Cable will be showing the new Cat7 PUR XL 10-Gbit cable, which boasts a large wire cross-section (AWG23/7) plus a high-quality foam/skin PE wire insulation and 100% shielding provided by a CU mesh screen and AL/PT foil-screened wire pairs. The rugged jacket compound guarantees a long life and is weather resistant, says the company.
This cable has been designed for the safe data transfer of EtherSound, digital audio or network signals in mobile use, especially with long transmission paths in outdoor applications.
Void Acoustics plans to premiere three products – the Indigo, Node and V2 digital loudspeaker processors. Indigo is the first generation of high-efficiency compact loudspeakers “designed specifically for aesthetically conscious venues”. Node is a range of sub-miniature stage monitors designed to produce a true point source radiation pattern by use of a dual-concentric configuration.
