Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NRG takes on the adventure of a lifetime at PLASA 2018

10/10/2018

NRG takes on the adventure of a lifetime at PLASA 2018 posted: 10/10/2018

by Nicky Rowland

Robe Stand at Plasa 2018

At the recent PLASA entertainment technology trade show in London, Robe once more offered high energy, high profile roles to half a dozen NRG crew members. For three non-stop, high octane days, students and young technicians from every corner of the British Isles supported the international Robe sales team in the jungle adventure that was the Robe stand.

Hailing from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, six students from six different colleges and universities came together to work as a close-knit team to provide a frontline welcome' to all the trade visitors coming onto the Robe stand and offering them product demonstrations whilst acting as ambassadors for the NRG programme run by Robe UK.

NRG (Next Robe Generation) is a networking community for students, apprentices and young technicians who are serious about pursuing a career in the world of performance lighting and visuals.

The initiative provides NRG crew members the opportunity to meet influential industry professionals who are happy to offer advice and share their enthusiasm and passion for lighting. NRG also offers the chance for young technicians to showcase their talent in real working environments at top industry events, as well as exclusive access to technical tours of venues and organisations such as Sky Studios, the Royal Albert Hall, X Factor, Westfield Shopping Centre and the Roundhouse.

Ian Brown, Sales Director for Robe UK was clear about the skills he was looking for when he conducted interviews with all the applicants for these very special roles on Robe's PLASA stand.

PLASA is a flagship show for Robe and we need to offer the most informed and welcoming introduction to all the visitors coming onto our stand. I selected students based on their interest in, and passion for Robe products. Many of the previous students who have had this experience have gone on to forge very successful careers in the industry. Each and every one of the students excelled in their roles this year - we were proud to have them on our team.

The successful applicants were buzzing about their experiences at the show and what the opportunity meant to them.

left to right - William Blackie, Karyn Wilson, Jack Coker, Charley E Lidster, Matt Carnazza, Gavin Mooney.

Will Blackie felt very privileged to be offered the opportunity for a second year running. Since leaving Cheshire South & West College as a student last year he has now embarked on a Level 3 apprenticeship in lighting. This is one of the best things you can do! Having worked on the stand last year, I couldn't resist applying again - the networking is unprecedented.

Jack Coker is a second year at Royal Central School of Speak and Drama and acknowledged the breadth of technical insight he gained: Working for Robe at PLASA has been a fantastic way to get more involved in the NRG project and I have gained so much product knowledge which will be invaluable in my studies, and, longer term in my career.

Karyn Wilson is just starting her final year at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland. This was my first experience of PLASA and it was amazing to work on the Robe stand. I met some inspirational people and it was an incredible educational and networking opportunity - one which I will utilise as I enter my final year of study.

left to right - Gavin Mooney, Amy Kerr (Robe UK training), William Blackie, Matt Carnazza, Askley Lewis (Robe key accounts - touring, TV, theatre & Film), Josef Valchar (Robe CEO), Charley E Lidster, Ian W Brow (Robe UK sales), Jack Coker and Karyn Wilson

Charley Lidster kick started her 21st birthday celebrations working on the Robe stand. Now entering her second year at University South Wales and on the lookout for an international work placement for her third year she said what a great way to further my network within the lighting industry. Opportunities like this are so worthwhile and whilst it was exhausting, it was amazing!

Matt Carnazza from Rose Bruford College is just starting his dissertation and third year. A regular at NRG Technical Tours and Networking Social events for the past 12 months he agreed that he had become part of the Robe family and this PLASA opportunity has been invaluable for my future career prospects. Wearing the Robe uniform at the show was an absolute privilege and it has really helped build my confidence when speaking to industry professionals.

Gavin Mooney from LIR Academy in Dublin was absolutely delighted to be offered the opportunity to travel over and meet other students from around the UK studying different courses. It was a privilege to be chosen to work on the Robe stand and learn more about all the fixtures we were talking to customers about. I met so many inspirational and genuinely interesting people from all aspects of the lighting community.

Many of the tutors and course leaders also came along to the show to see how their students were getting along.

Robe Stand at Plasa 2018

Angie Berwick, Cheshire College South & West, couldn't be more delighted. I think the NRG programme is fantastic. I have had the opportunity to see the inspirational opportunities and experiences that it offers students. I cannot think of a better partnership than working with Robe as a training provider of technical theatre. We are very proud of our connections with Robe and the NRG programme.

Hansjorg Schmidt, Programme Director, Rose Bruford College commented: NRG is a fantastic initiative, and many of my students are making use of this network to meet with other students and professionals from across the lighting industry. Opportunities like this where students are invited to represent NRG provides a real confidence boost and enables the students to further develop their und
LINK: https://www.live-production.tv/news/products/nrg-takes-adventure-lifet...
See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

02/06/2026

Case Study: Tennis Channel Transitions From Satellite to IP Distribution With LTN

Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...

02/06/2026

Daktronics Announces 2026 High School Video Summit for June 23-24

Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...

02/06/2026

Fandango to Screen Telemundos FIFA World Cup 2026 Coverage at 160 Theaters Nationwide

Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...

02/06/2026

AWSN Announces Broadcast Schedule for Inaugural Professional Softball League Season

All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...

02/06/2026

Spalk Announces Partnerships with Ligue 1, Euroleague, and LNB

Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...

02/06/2026

NHL Network Announces Stanley Cup Final Programming Schedule

NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...

02/06/2026

Matrox Video Launches Maevex MGX Series IPMX-Ready AV-over-IP Encoders and Decoders

Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...

02/06/2026

Marshall Electronics to Exhibit IP Camera Lineup at InfoComm 2026

Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...

02/06/2026

PAMA and Shure Extend Deadline for Mark Brunner Professional Audio Scholarship to June 15

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...

02/06/2026

MultiDyne To Debut FiberSaver-10G and New VersaBrix Frame Options at InfoComm 2026

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...

02/06/2026

Advanced Systems Group Promotes Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...

02/06/2026

Brothers Osborne To Perform Free Concert Outside Lenovo Center Before Stanley Cup Final Game 1

The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...

02/06/2026

CP Communications Names First Female Executives in Company History

CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...

02/06/2026

Lighting Design Group Designs Broadcast Studio for Yahoo at 770 Broadway

The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...

02/06/2026

Zee Entertainment Acquires FIFA Media Rights for India Through 2034

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...

02/06/2026

Behind The Mic: Prime Sports UK Shares On Air Roster for NBA Finals; and More

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

02/06/2026

Auburn Universitys Parker Leppien on the Nonstop Growth of War Eagle Productions

The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...

02/06/2026

With Stanley Cup Final Set To Begin, NHL and Honeywell Lay Foundation for Energy-Efficient Venues

The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...

02/06/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in June, From Leviticus to The Invite

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Pen lope Cruz, and Edward Norton appear in The Invite by Olivia Wilde, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Co...

02/06/2026

Scaler Music launch Carbon Electra 2

Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...

02/06/2026

Klevgrand introduce Altitude

Powerful new vocal-production tool announced Described as a vocal performance station , Klevgrand's latest plug-in combines pitch-correction with harmo...

02/06/2026

McDSP introduce DC-2 Dual Compressor for APB

Launched alongside Go Green sale extension McDSP have just released the latest addition to their APB line-up, DC-2 Dual Compressor, and have also announced ...

02/06/2026

Ableton announce Extensions SDK

Create custom tools for Ableton Live 12 Suite Ableton have just introduced a new open JavaScript toolkit that allows anyone to create their own custom tools...

02/06/2026

Eventide unveil the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2

Now features full H90 algorithm library Eventide have announced the upcoming launch of the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2, a new and improved version of their hugely p...

02/06/2026

Universal Audio release UAD Topline Vocal Tune

Plus UAD Half Yearly Sale now live The latest arrival to the Universal Audio range delivers a new native pitch-correction plug-in that's capable of deli...

02/06/2026

BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification compliant OTA test system by Rohde & Schwarz

BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification c...

02/06/2026

Cobalt Digital to Showcase End-to-End IPMX Ecosystem at InfoComm 2026, Making ST 2110 Easy for Pro AV

blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...

02/06/2026

Monetizing the Archive: How Cantemo's JIT Playback Eliminates the Proxy Bottleneck

If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...

02/06/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV for Greater Choice in Virtualised Workflows

With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...

02/06/2026

Marketing Architects Expands Relationship With Nielsen To Include Integration of Media Data Engine on a National Level

The TV agency was one of the earliest adopters of Nielsen's local television...

02/06/2026

Riedel Networks Taps Gudrun Scharler as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Grass Valley Enables Sky News Australia s Cloud-First New...

Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...

02/06/2026

STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCES NEW MODEL 385 MIC INTERCOM...

Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...

02/06/2026

Gudrun Scharler Appointed CEO of Riedel Networks

The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...

02/06/2026

Magewell Levels-Up All-in-One Content Production with Lau...

More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...

02/06/2026

Modena Showcases farmerswife at Mediatech 2026

farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...

02/06/2026

PTZOptics showcases intelligent video ecosystem at InfoCo...

PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...

02/06/2026

Roku Launches the Roku Soccer Zone

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

FCC Sets Deadlines for Comments in ABC License Renewals

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Studio Technologies Introduces Model 385 Beltpack

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Gerald Jerry Pierce, Architect of Modern Digital Cinema, Dies at 73

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

VEON Closes USD 1.4 Billion Bond Offering, Refinancing 2027 Notes Ahead of Schedule

02 Jun 2026 VEON Closes USD 1.4 Billion Bond Offering, Refinancing 2027 Notes A...

02/06/2026

The Marlow Murder Club returns for a fourth series on U

Praise for series three: The Times - sun-dappled pleasure The Daily Mail - The Homes Counties' Charlie's Angels The Sun - 4* this [is an] enjoya...

02/06/2026

Gudrun Scharler Appointed CEO of Riedel Networks

Wuppertal June 2, 2026 Gudrun Scharler Appointed CEO of Riedel Networks The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel N...

02/06/2026

Discover Your Next Book-to-Screen Obsession With Our New Dedicated Hub

Back to All News Discover Your Next Book-to-Screen Obsession With Our New Dedicated Hub Product 02 June 2026 Global Link copied to clipboard Dear most vor...

02/06/2026

New LinkedIn Data: 90% of C-Suite Leaders are Continuously ...

New LinkedIn Data: 90% of C-Suite Leaders are Continuously Building Skills to Lead in the AI Era Published on Jun 2, 2026 Categories: Data and insights Lin...