LONDON — Innovation is creativity that ships, Steve Jobs famously said. The legendary Apple cofounder knew a thing or two about innovation, and what he meant was that even the best ideas don’t have much value, unless they can be brought to market to make a difference. The free CHAUVET Professional Unrival App meets this standard in flying colors.
Introduced this summer, the groundbreaking field-first fixture workflow app will make a big difference at job sites by putting the power of information directly in the hands of production pros. Now, it has been recognized with a 2026 PLASA Award for Innovation. A total of 43 products were put forward for the prestigious award, which is determined by an independent panel of judges drawn from industry experts. The Unrival app was one of only eight to earn this recognition.
Announcing the honor, LSi, which runs the PLASA Award for Innovation with PLASA, described Unrival as “a free app that makes addressing and managing a lighting rig easier on site and in the warehouse, with multiple users able to access the same information in real-time. The announcement also praised Unrival for “helping to improve communication and workflow with the novel use of self-generated QR codes.”
Designed to make prep, patching, configuration and maintenance faster, easier and more reliable, Unrival lives up to that assessment. Not just another “NFC app” that offers one access point within a broader workflow tool, Unrival is a freestanding app that gives users direct control of setup, patching, configuration, testing, firmware, and diagnostics for applicable fixtures without having to dismantle a setup and fight through fixture menus.
As versatile as it is powerful Unrival works across different fixture brands, not just CHAUVET Professional, so technicians will not have to open multiple different apps to address the various fixtures in a rig. Unrival can also import patch data from existing workflows (MVR, Spreadsheet/CSV patch files) , render 3d show environments, coordinate patching a rig among a team in the app patching tool, and update Chauvet fixture firmware wirelessly via Bluetooth.
The CHAUVET Professional team is very honored by the PLASA Award for Innovation. But beyond the award, is the reward …as in the rewarding feeling you get from knowing that your innovation will be helping technicians, programmers, rental teams, touring crews, and production houses get more done in less time to lower cost, increase efficiency, and make everyone happier on the job.
