What's happening
PLASA Show 2026 ran 6–8 September at Olympia London with more than 270 brands and over 7,000 professionals, and for the first time launched a Cybersecurity Pavilion examining the EU Cyber Resilience Act. The Sig-Net secure lighting-control project, built around authentication and data integrity, now has more than 25 lighting manufacturers partnering with it. A new controlled PLASA Lab also let visitors compare anonymised fixtures across five categories before brand reveal.
Why it matters for buyers
For a retailer, venue or signage buyer, the practical effect is simple: the unit that reads on your wall at your ambient light, with your artwork, beats the one with the bigger number on the box. Specification order — distance, image size, ambient, then brightness — decides the result.
It also changes lead-time risk. Custom gobos and certified outdoor builds need briefing before the date is fixed; the projector is rarely the long pole, the artwork and certification are.
The technical angle
Brightness you can see is a function of ambient light, not just lumens. A 'bright' unit in a lit lobby disappears; the same unit in a dimmed evening reads strongly. Specify against the actual ambient, not a catalogue number.
What to specify
Before you request a quote, lock these down:
- Mounting surface and whether the bracket can hold aim
- Gobo material: glass for longevity and colour, metal for cheap short runs
- Ambient light level at the hour the projection must read
- MOQ and dispatch window before the event date
