PLASA Technical Standards in action.

PLASAtechnical announces that the RDM and sACN Developers Conference and Plugfest returns for 2014 and will take place on Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th April, in the UK, at Gatwick Manor, London Road at Lowfield Heath, just south of Gatwick Airport.

The Developers Conference provides a European forum for manufacturers, designers, consultants and prospective users; and aims to ensure that the adoption of these new standards achieves desired levels of interoperability and reliability.

Conference sessions will cover the understanding, implementation and use of the published E1.20 and E1.37 RDM standards as well as the E1.31 sACN standard. Other projects in the current PLASA Technical Standards Program such as”E1.33 : RDMnet” will also feature.

In all, three new Control Protocol projects were proposed at the recent PLASA meetings, held in January in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas, and participants will have a chance to review and contribute to these important developments. The advancements in defining a standard method for firmware updates using RDM will also be presented.

The “Plugfest” is a hands-on opportunity for product developers to try out their hardware and code implementations with products from a variety of other manufacturers, with support from their industry peers in an environment that encourages co-operation and improved understanding of the standards, and with the aim of achieving high levels of interoperability. Typically, engineers participate in these events with the ability to code and debug aspects of their implementations on site, sometimes retreating to their hotel rooms to craft improvements before returning to the “Plugfest” to continue testing.

The sessions, despite their apparent informality, can be a valuable opportunity to learn how not to make the same mistakes, or misguided assumptions, as others may have done.

Participation is by invitation, and limited to registered delegates. The Developers Conference will also have relevance to Lighting Designers, System Integrators, Theatre Consultants, Production Electricians and Rental Technical staff. Thursday sessions will address all categories of participant, whilst the sessions on Friday and Saturday will target those who are actively engaged in or considering development and implementation testing. The” Plugfest “will run throughout.

A single registration fee of UK£95 per person (UK£75 for delegates from PLASA member companies, UK£50 Students) , payable in advance, covers participation and a buffet lunch.

Delegates may attend one or more days as they think appropriate. The registration fee is fixed, regardless of the number of days you attend, but you are required to indicate your proposed level of participation in advance. A discount is available for delegates from PLASA member companies.

Further information and signup will be available at http://www.plasa.org/rdm/

Any enquiries should be directed to Ron Bonner at PLASAtechnical. (tr@plasa.org)