PLASA LONDON 2013: What to expect from this year’s show

The pro audio industry is now gathering at London’s ExCeL for four days of product launches, networking and professional development.

PLASA London 2013, which takes place in East London for the first time, offers a whole new line-up of AudioLab content. For the first time this year, pro audio professionals can take part in three new pro audio features, including a large-scale loudspeaker demo facility, a dedicated educational theatre, and a third interactive space.

Sponsored by MediaLease and supported by Roland, the AudioLab Arena is a purpose-built space for demonstrations of the latest loudspeakers. Located in a separate module of ExCeL, the Arena gives listeners an appropriate space to judge large-format systems in a real-world environment.

The AudioLab Theatre features three distinct seminar streams focusing on Live Sound, Installed Sound and The Sound Business. Highlights include a look behind the scenes at Glastonbury’s famous Arcadia Stage and a ‘Question Time’ for live sound engineers, with a guest panel consisting of Barry Bartlett (Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, Damon Albarn), Rampton (Chase & Status, Basement Jaxx), John Newsham (Funktion-One co-founder) and industry legend Roger Lindsey (Wembley Stadium NFL, Sade, Prince, George Michael).

Also in the programme, Bringing Together AV, ITand Audio examines where pro audio fits into the colliding worlds of AV and IT; and Touring Live Sound Meets Broadcast Audio highlights the areas of common approach, as well as possible conflicts. More details on the AudioLab Arena and Theatre can be found here.

The pro audio content continues with the AudioLab Interactive, a "myth-busting laboratory" where visitors will see live experiments on a range of pro audio equipment. For more information on AudioLab Interactive, click here.

On the show floor there promises to be a whole host of new products on offer, from the industry giants to the smaller, innovative brands. Avid (Stand C56) will present the UK debut of the new Avid S3L live sound system, and will offer free training sessions throughout the show on the new console; Pioneer (Stand E80) is launching its new professional audio business at the show and presenting the first public showcase of its new club speakers; Source Distribution (Stand E30) will debut the PreSonus 32.4.2AI digital mixer and the StudioLive AI three-way active PA loudspeakers; Line 6 (Stand E81) is up for a PLASA Award for Innovation for its StageScape M20d smart mixing system and Roland Systems Group (Stand C80) has announced the UK launch of the Roland VR-50HD all-in-one AV Mixer with outputs for web streaming and recording. Check out our PLASA London 2013 tag for more pre-event news.

As always, visitors will get plenty of opportunities to mix business with pleasure and networking. The PLASA Awards for Innovation, held in the AudioLab Arena on Monday October 7th at 6pm, is one example of this, and the Avolites Afterparty, supported by PLASA, Digico, Amptown and Martin Audio also makes the move to East London, taking place at The Troxy, which is ten minutes from Excel, on October 7th from 8pm. There are three new bars on the show floor as well this year.

You can still register online to save 50 per cent off the door price by visiting www.plasashow.com.

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