Now in its second year at ExCel, the Plasa exhibition once again saw those in the entertainment technologies industry converge in London to see what's new. The vast majority of exhibitors this year were from the lighting and rental/staging sides of the AV industry. Visitor-wise, the show was particularly busy on the Monday, with a high level of European visitors on the exhibition floor.
The education programme was well attended, with one session featuring a very heated debate between the merits of line array and point source systems. Another seminar, this time on the subject of RF was full to capacity.
In a repeat of last year, the show was light on pro-audio manufacturers, with many preferring to exhibit instead at the recent Pro show in Birmingham. All the audio exhibitors (Shure and Polar Audio amongst them) were grouped together at one end, but it still only took up about one-fifth of the overall space. One high-profile pro-audio returnee however was Bose, who had taken a year off from the show to reassess its presence in the show’s new home (it was previously held at London’s Earl’s Court for years).
Despite being under-represented, the biggest product launch at the show went to a pro-audio company in the form of the TC Group, with Lab.gruppen launching the PLM+ powered loudspeaker platform. The PLM+ features double the processing power and throughput of the PLM 20000Q, launched in 2010.