Clay Paky Wins String of Awards at LDI

	Ben Saltzman, of ACT Lighting.; Francesco Romagnoli, of Clay Paky; Bob Gordon, of ACT; and Pio Nahum, of Clay Paky

Clay Paky won a number string of wins at the LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The company secured a total of four awards: a Parnelli Award, two LDI Awards and a PLASA Rock Our World Award.

The Sharpy won a Rock Our World Award at a reception organized by PLASA in connection with the annual LDI show. The jury, chaired by Mike Wood, gave the Sharpy its enthusiastic backing. Lighting designer Natasha Katz said, 'this is the beginning of more lights that have to be like this. Efficient and green,' while Nick Jones said: "Absolutely brilliant - an amazing amount of light coming out of such a small piece of kit."

Two days later, the Sharpy won a Parnelli Award in the category for Most Indispensable Technology. The Parnellis are initially shortlisted by an industry jury, the winners are then decided by a poll of subscribers to PLSN and Front of House magazines.

The Alpha Spot 800 QWO, one of several new products launched at the US show, won the LDI Award in the category of Best Debuting Product. The projector impressed the jury with its optical features: its 7.6-to-55--degree zoom range; uniform beam distribution at any zoom angle; the Stay-Sharp-Zoom feature, which keeps images locked in focus while zooming; and the new Dyna-Cue Creator, which enables complex animations with minimal programming effort, the company says.

An award for Most Creative Use of Lighting went to Clay Paky for its booth. The centerpiece of the design was the all-new, patented Kinetic Light Ring by Parasol Advanced Systems, featuring 12 Sharpys configured in a ring. The system, which is able to move the position of moving lights along a predefined path, creates an entirely new approach to stage lighting design. Both the light shows and the booth were designed by Clay Paky veterans Massimo Piccinini and Giovanni Zucchinali.

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky's chief commercial officer, warmly welcomed the awards: "Four awards in a single event is a record even for a company as old as ours. We are particularly happy because the awards are for products launched last year -- which are proving a massive success -- and for new products making their very first appearance. This confirms to me that we are progressing continuously and in the right direction, and that our users appreciate what we're doing."

Over the last 12 months, Clay Paky has won two other awards in the US: a 2011 Live Design Lighting Product of the Year and an LDI Best Debuting Product of 2010.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky's area manager for the Americas, commented: "This year Clay Paky has seen a sharp advance in the US thanks to the precious efforts of our distributors, in particular, ACT Lighting, who has been extremely active in supporting our products throughout the country. Currently, Clay Paky's products are present on many of America's most important live productions. We hope next year to take another step forward, focusing even more effort and investment on this market."