PLASA Announces Rock Our World, Frank Stewart, and Eva Swan Award Winners for 2013

The sixth annual Rock Our World Awards were presented at the PLASA Cocktails and Awards Reception on Thursday, November 21st, 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.

The 40 nominations received from across the industry internationally were narrowed down to a shortlist of eight finalists for the panel of judges to review. The judges for this year's awards were: Sebastian Frost, Alan Jacobi, Tim Mills, Nick Pain, Richard Pilbrow, Lee Rose, Artie Siccardi, and Josh Weisberg.

The judges panel was chaired by Mike Wood, who said prior to announcing the winners, "A Rock Our World Award takes a look at the big picture and tries to reflect the effect a technology, a product, a project, an installation, or a production has not only on our own small world of entertainment technology, but also to the world at large."

The judges were given free rein to select as many or as few winners as rocked their world.

Of winner GBLOCK from Gallagher Staging and Productions, Wood states, "The judges were in complete agreement that this deceptively simple device was just brilliant and fills a sorely needed niche in production. As Alan Jacobi said, this was a 'Why didn't I think of that?' product."

The judges were particularly impressed by winner Royal Opera House Muscat, recognizing Theatre Projects Consultants, which managed to combine elegance and tradition with reconfigurability and modern technology and actually make it all work.

The Olympics Opening Ceremonies were recognized for their production values and spectacle, which the judges said were second to none. As Lee Rose said during the judging call, "It definitely rocked my world."

This year, for the first time, the judges decided to award an Honorable Mention for the TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker from OutBoard. Judge Sebastian Frost notes, "The go to product of my choice for any live reinforcement application."

PLASA also presented the 2013 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award to Paul Rabinovitz for his work with the Business Peer Group Program, and to the members of the Technical Standards Program's E1.21 Task Group for their work on the newest version of the American National Standard for Temporary Ground-Supported Overhead Structures Used To Cover Stage Areas and Support Equipment in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events.

The award to Rabinovitz, owner of PRMi Consulting, was presented by Steven Way, a member of the Peer Group and President of ALPS / Advanced Lighting & Production Services. Paul was instrumental in helping develop the details of the Peer Group Program in 2008. He has since stayed on as the group's "parental unit," as they affectionately refer to him, to ensure the group is following anti-trust guidelines during its four meetings a year. Steven stated, "The time he volunteers and industry experience he offers has and continues to be extremely valuable to our Peer Group, as well as PLASA." His dedication to this group, and to PLASA's other programs, is a true testament to the amazing volunteers the Steward Award seeks to honor.

The award to the E1.21 Task Group was presented by the Chair of the Rigging Working Group, Bill Sapsis, who told the crowd, "When E1.21-2006 came up for review in 2011, the consensus was that, given the significant changes in the outdoor event industry over the past five years, it was time to update and expand the standard. A task group was formed and charged with the mission to make the standard even better." Through two years of very hard work, Task Group leader Keith Bohn, along with members Adrian Black, Benjamin Cohen, Tim Franklin, Mike Garl, Bill Gorlin, Greg Hareld, Richard Nix, and Miriam Paschetto did just that.

The Frank Stewart award was created to honor Frank's unrivalled service to ESTA during the 18 years that he served as its Treasurer. This award recognizes extraordinary effort by a volunteer or group of volunteers during the previous year and is bestowed by the PLASA North American Regional Board.

PLASA presented its highest honor, the Eva Swan Award, to Rocky Paulson. The Swan Award, which is presented only when there is a worthy recipient nominated, is presented to a member who has put forth exceptional efforts in time, expertise, and personal resources on behalf of PLASA; been instrumental in shaping and promoting the strategic direction of the association; made major contributions to the realization of the mission, goals and objectives; and enhanced the value of membership for all.

The award was presented to Paulson by Mike Garl, co-chair of PLASA's Technical Standards Council, who stated, "The person we are honoring tonight was one of the first members of the Technical Standards Program as well as one of the early supporters of what has developed into the ETCP. He has continued generously giving an exceptional amount of his time and expertise for years. His tireless contributions have helped insure the success of every program he touched."

Paulson was one of the first members of the Rigging Working Group and authored the first draft of PLASA's very first American National Standard E1.1 for wire rope ladders. He remains a member of the Working Group, where his continued participation in the development of rigging standards has been invaluable.

In 1999, Paulson's foresight, vision, and commitment to improving the industry was displayed once again as an original member of the ESTA Certification Program Committee and then the ETCP Certification Council. Rocky was also one of the original co-chairs of the Rigging Skills Working Group and co-chair of the original Rigging Subject Matter experts. Garl added, "Again, having Rocky's participation in the early days of the ETCP demonstrated to the industry that this was an important program that would one day change the industry. And it has."

Garl concluded his presentation saying, "This exceptional individual has made this industry, this organization and everyone who has known him better off as a result."