PLASA Announces the 2011 Rock Our World Award Winners

The fourth annual Rock Our World Awards were presented at the PLASA cocktails and awards reception on Thursday evening, October 27, the evening before the LDI show. These awards, which recognize ground-breaking achievement by PLASA members, were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real world environment.

Over 30 nominations were received from across the industry internationally and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of 12 finalists for our distinguished panel of judges to review. The judges for this year's awards were Tony Galuppi, Travis Hagenbuch, Nick Jones, Natasha Katz, and Tupac Martir. The judges panel was chaired by Mike Wood, who said, prior to announcing the winners, "The winner might be a product that could change the industry -- either breathtaking in its simplicity or stunning in its breadth. It could be a remarkable way that somebody has used a product - perhaps an unexpected or unconventional application. Or it could be an entire project which brings together the expertise of many in a single enterprise. It could be anything anyone in this room devises, creates, designs, constructs, installs or uses."

The judges were given free rein to select as many or as few winners as rocked their world, and the winners were:

• The 83rd Annual Academy Awards involving A.C.T Lighting, Green Hippo, MA Lighting, PRG, and TMB
• ARRI for the ALEXA digital camera system
• Clay Paky for the Sharpy
• coolux for the Widget Designer 3.0 PRO
• Disney World of Color involving A.C.T Lighting, Christie, Clear-Com, Fisher Technical Services, Green Hippo, IATSE Local 33, MA Lighting, Meyer Sound Laboratories, PRG, Syncrolite, TMB, and Walt Disney Parks and Creative Entertainment
• Lex Products for the EverGrip molded motor control cables
• Unusual Rigging for the Garsington Opera

A special posthumous award was presented to David Taylor. Taylor, who passed away in January, was the vice chair of the PLASA North American board and a member of the PLASA governing body. He was also a renowned theatre consultant and lighting designer.