Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Video and AV

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South Africa - The start of 2023 saw another large Absen shipment arrive at DWR Distribution, another sign that the live events industry is on the road to recovery. The gear was ordered by various technical supply companies across the country and consisted of over 2,000 PL2.9 Lite panels and a combination of over 100 PL3.9W Lite and PL3.9W XL Lite panels.
Housed in a protective casing, the curved PL2.9 Lite screens with lock system, suited for large display applications, were purchased by DNG Presentation Staging, The AV Company, Shattered Glass, Ultra Events, Lucidity Technical Production Services, Pure Event Gear and CCPP Group. In turn, AJR and MGG purchased a combination of PL3.9W Lite and PL3.9W XL Lite panels, well fitted for large outdoor and indoor events that deliver a brightness of 4,000 nits.
As per the large Absen shipment that was delivered during the la

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Europe - Jonathan Dyson, an electronics engineer and experienced sales professional has joined Absen to head up virtual production in Europe.
This new position is designed to build on the momentum the company has generated in the VP sector in the last six months through its new product development and collaborative solution approach.
Dyson brings technical and sales experience to the role having most recently served as technical sales and relationship manager for iMag Displays, a high-end video production and rentals service company. The role involved project management, client liaison and technical responsibilities, as well as new business development in related verticals that include film, television, streaming services and esports. At Multiplay Events (part of Game PLC) set up and ran the IT/AV rental division with responsibility for management, training, new produc

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Germany - Austrian AV technology manufacturer AV Stumpfl will present its mobile unibody screen system Monolyte, the new Flex Black PRO projection screen surface and new features of the upcoming Pixera version 2.0 at Prolight+Sound 2023 in Frankfurt.
The compact unibody screen system Monolyte has integrated legs, which makes it suitable for smaller venues and conference rooms.
Monolyte has previously only been available to US customers and will be officially presented to the European AV market at this year’s Prolight+Sound.
AV Stumpfl screens sales director Jan Walter comments: “After many conversations with American customers, we knew it would absolutely make sense to introduce the product there, but the ultimate scope of our success went way beyond our highest expectations. It became clear that we absolutely had to offer Monolyte to customers in other ter

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Germany – One of the leading rental suppliers in Germany, btl next GmbH, has recently chosen to modernise its dimming inventory with 40 modules of GEN VI dimming from Australian manufacturer, LSC Control Systems. The Düsseldorf-based company made this major investment through LSC’s exclusive distributor for Germany, LMP Lichttechnik.
Julian Siewertsen, head of btl next’s lighting department, says: “Due to the huge changes in the requirements for dimmers and current distribution, it was clear to us that we had to replace our old system - which technically still dims using the simple phase control and can therefore not replace a real fixed current distribution - with a more universally applicable product.”
As well as its dimming function, GEN VI can also be used as a full-featured power distributor. Each channel can be configured separately as a (real) relay

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The Netherlands - Optocore has chosen More Distribution, its partner in Holland, to host the first in its Fiber Masterclass progressive educational programme, focusing on fibre optics.
Part one of the programme, which will also feature sister company BroaMan, aims at educating young and aspiring professionals and students of media production, event production, sound engineering, broadcast technologies and data networks in every aspect of the technology, its capabilities and behaviour. It will set out the equipment needed to use it, its capabilities and real-life applications, and illustrate how industries other than live sound, broadcast and recording are slowly evolving to embrace fiber optics further down the road.
The initiative is the brainchild of Optocore’s experienced technical sales support specialist, RadhaMohan Rajani, technical support engineer, Marci Só

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Italy - To provide the newly designed Padova Congress building with an innovative and future-proofed AV over IP system, Intermark Sistemi selected and deployed a range of advanced AMX networked solutions.
Opened in 2022, the Padova Congress is a massive conference and exhibition space in the heart of the historic city of Padua. The venue serves as an international crossroads for culture, business and innovation, reflecting Padua’s legacy as the home to some of Europe’s greatest minds like Galileo Galilei and Giotto.
At the heart of the new AV system are the large LED walls placed on the main stages, designed by Stefano De Troia. The Congress’s largest hall - the 1,565-seat Sala Giotto - sports the largest screen in the venue as well as one of Europe’s most advanced multimedia stations for presentations, screenings and events. With such technology housed within

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China - ROE Visual has moved its LED production and production-related departments to the Unilumin Daya Bay Technology Park in Huizhou, China. The new location was officially inaugurated on 30 March 2023, with a festive and memorable celebration for the ROE Visual team. This upgraded production hub will enhance efficiency, allowing room for growth as the company expands, says ROE.
With the completion of the Daya Bay Technology Park facility, the Unilumin Group now has the world's largest intelligent manufacturing site for LED displays. ROE Visual's independent new factory and office base spans over 16,000sq.m of office and manufacturing space. ROE now has access to various facilities, such as a reception, lobby, production lines, showrooms, conference rooms, and office spaces, all spread over seven spacious floors.
ROE Visual's founder Jason Lu, flanked by members of t

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USA - Ushio Inc., parent company to Christie, has announced the appointment of Koji Naito as the new chairman and CEO of Christie Digital Systems, globally.
Koji currently holds the position of president and chief executive officer for Japan’s Ushio Inc., and will, effective 1 April, oversee both companies. Koji succeeds Hideaki Onishi, who will transition into a new role as Christie’s president and chief operating officer. In addition, Atsushi Kuroda, formerly of Sharp NEC Display Solutions, and currently senior director of Christie’s Strategy Office, has been appointed Christie’s chief technology officer and chief strategy officer, succeeding Zoran Veselic, president and CTO.
“Constant innovation and deep core values, while making a difference in the communities we serve, are paramount to Ushio’s vision to a sustainable future for everyone,” says Koji N

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UK - Buckinghamshire New University enlisted the help of LED display brand, Absen and global creative studio, Final Pixel to provide an end-to-end virtual production training academy.
Working alongside BNU faculty, Final Pixel and Absen provided students studying visual effects and games art courses the opportunity to further develop skills and refine their knowledge of this emerging industry with a live brief, that culminated in facilitating support and expertise across a four-month project which culminated into a 2-week virtual production (VP) shoot.
With the use of Absen’s PL2.5 LED screen, Jonathan Dyson, virtual production director for Absen demonstrated the product’s full capacity for virtual production. Regularly providing a range of LED applications for universities and colleges, Absen became involved with the Final Pixel on the project to assist in providi

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USA - Kansas City’s new International Airport terminal has opened with a focus on traveller experience, offering a technology-rich terminal with large LED walls driven by tvONE’s Green Hippo Media Servers.
The new multimillion-dollar, 39-gate single terminal is billed as the largest single infrastructure project in Kansas City’s history and the natural light-filled, spacious building reflects the city’s aspirations. Local artists have created pieces that are installed throughout, and it is home to more than 126 women and minority-group-owned businesses.
The modern, dedicated ticketing area features an LED wall that spans the entire counter space, standing at more than 38,000 pixels wide and 480 pixels tall. The LED wall displays key information and branded airline content. A smaller LED wall is located in the arrivals area at the information desk. Three Green H

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Denmark - SGM has updated its Video Pixel Linear product so that it is completely suitable for any temporary production setting or touring environment.
The main features that make this possible are: replacement of the proprietary power/data cable and connector with touring Industry standard power and data connectors, a new, low-profile clamp and bracket system which enables creation of shapes as well as flexible, quick attachment to truss, and new firmware which provides individual addressing of each VPL as well as sACN universe priority handling.
Because of its proprietary LED design, the Touring VPL can reproduce high visibility pixel content even in high ambient light environments. By expanding the imaging area per pixel in an LED cluster, and pre-mixing the colours inside the quad cluster, SGM considerably improves the impact for direct view applications.
Th

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USA - Target Centre is one of Minneapolis’ leading indoor venues, and in a city that gets over 50 inches of snow every year and has an average low temperature of 8°F in January, ‘indoor’ is a meaningful word. Opened in 1990, the 20,500-capacity arena is home to the NBA’s Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx, but also regularly hosts many other events, including concerts that in the past have included Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, and, of course, ultimate hometown hero Prince.
Target Centre is now also home to a DiGiCo S31 console at front of house, installed there last fall by Windy Shores Sound. Its arrival concludes an extended sound system upgrade that began five years ago with the installation of an L-Acoustics Kara PA system. As is often the case with city-owned facilities, the arena has the usual municipal bureaucratic issues around budgets, and it took some time for

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Spain - Alfalite has supplied 964 units of its ModularPix Pro 1.9 ORIM LED panels for RTVE studios, Spain’s national state-owned public television broadcaster. The operation is being carried out by Datos Media Technologies, who won the concession bid to provide the equipment.
RTVE has started an ambitious project to revamp all its studios in Spain to provide new features and cutting-edge technology that will improve the experience of its viewers at home, providing flexible, different, and more exciting ways of presenting information.
All studios are fitted with versatile AR technology that will allow the production teams to deliver a greater sense of space and creative versatility in a more vibrant, innovative, and impactful way that will make a real difference to its audience.
The path to winning the tender to supply the screens for RTVE’s studios was not st

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Canada - Martin Tremblay, president and CEO of Solotech, has announced the appointment of Martin Carrier as president of the live productions division in Canada.
“I’m pleased to welcome an exceptional leader who will play a key role on our management team thanks to his extensive experience in the entertainment industry. Martin Carrier is a visionary who, along with his team, will drive the live productions business in Canada within a large-scale market,” said Tremblay.
Martin Carrier has over 25 years’ experience in senior management roles in a variety of industries, including video games, television and film production, and technology. He joins Solotech from MELS Studios & Postproduction, where he served as president. Previously, he held executive positions at companies such as Frima Studio, Warner Bros. Games and Ubisoft.
“I’m honoured to join a

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UK - Anna Valley and Garden Studios are partnering to set up a new virtual production studio in central London. The announcement follows the companies’ collaboration on the recent SMPTE Virtual Production Showcase that took place at Garden Studios and featured an LED volume by Anna Valley.
Together, the companies are providing a 150sqm+ volume and supporting crew and technology at Garden Studio’s facility in the heart of London’s film community.
Anna Valley has an extensive inventory of ROE’s acclaimed Black Pearl BP2V2 ‘film-centric LED panels’ and facilitates a range of pop-up and hosted virtual production studios for television, corporate and film clients. Garden Studios is the largest-scale film studio in central London with a total footprint in excess of 300 000sq.ft and five sound stages totalling over 48 000sq.ft.
They’re also no strangers to

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UK - disguise has announced the launch of EX 3 - a 4K video playback solution designed specifically for location-based experiences and fixed installations. EX 3 unlocks the scalability of the full disguise platform, which has powered more than 600 immersive experiences in more than 50 countries. The platform - which includes disguise’s Designer software, newly-launched APIs, and the disguise Cloud collaboration toolkit - lets creatives benefit from an end-to-end workflow from concept to delivery, so they can bring their vision to life from one connected platform.
“Creative studios increasingly have to deliver a wider variety of projects,” says Raed Al Tikriti, chief product and technology officer at disguise. “With the EX 3, we’ve made doing this easier and more accessible than ever. Even if you only need video playback for an hour, you’ll be able to design, edit

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Germany - Film technology company ARRI is elevating ARRI Solutions to become its own business unit and has established two new senior management positions.
The business unit is led by Kevin Schwutke, who focuses on the strategic and commercial direction, and David Bermbach, who is responsible for the technological backbone.
ARRI Solutions designs, engineers, builds, and operates pioneering virtual production environments of all sizes, along with delivering integrated systems and cutting-edge workflows for corporations, broadcasters, and studios. With experience of leading major studio projects from consultancy through to configuration and turnkey installation, ARRI Solutions offers customers a full end-to-end service with the promise of ARRI brand quality.
Dr. Matthias Erb, chairman of the executive board at ARRI, comments: “We are seeing great demand from our

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Europe/USA - ALC NetworX, developer of the Ravenna audio-over-IP technology, has welcomed Netgear to the Ravenna community. Under its Netgear AV brand, Netgear is offering scalable AV-over-IP and wireless networking solutions for the commercial market. Netgear's pro AV solutions are engineered specifically for AV-over-IP with out-of-the-box support for most networked AV solutions.
Netgear has been developing commercial network equipment for over 25 years and has become a market leading switch manufacturer for AV-over-IP. With the AV Line series of network switches, Netgear has reduced common installation frictions with pre-set profiles for AV-over-IP protocols, from one-room setups to very large AV networks with thousands of endpoints.
Netgear’s Laurent Masia, director of product line management for managed switches comments: “We recognise the importance of key a

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USA - LED technology specialist LED Studio has opened its first demo space in the US in Dallas, Texas. This will showcase the latest solutions from the company and its manufacturing partner VOD Visual as the brand continues to grow.
The facility is co-located with LED Studio partners Elevated Systems in its 8,000 sq.ft. premises that combines offices, a warehouse and now demo space. The media and building services specialists provide a full turnkey solution for digital signage and wallscape installations, including design, engineering, installation and maintenance.
This physical space enables visitors to experience the magnitude of LED Studio’s award-winning displays and helps determine the optimal displays for prospective installations. An extensive range of LED Studio displays will be presented to highlight the potential opportunities for end-users in respect to s

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Singapore - The latest edition of the world’s largest e-sports championship, Dota 2’s The International 2022, was held in Singapore at the end of last year and attracted 67.74m hours of worldwide viewing.
Singapore-based system integration company, Cgangs International Pte, partnered with the game’s developer, Valve, to create a Brompton Technology-powered virtual production set, used during the filming of the opening video and teaser campaign featuring the top four participating teams.
Cgangs was introduced to Valve via PGL, a renowned esports tournament organiser, to provide its cutting-edge virtual production services for the event.
"Our primary objective was to construct a temporary virtual production setup for Valve's pre-match and opening campaign," says Cgangs' director of strategic partnerships & business development, Alvin Lim. "These were used

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India - Founded in 1940, Patna Women’s College was the first higher education facility of its kind to be opened in India’s Bihar state. The college recently invested in audio, video and lighting systems for its newly completed 2,500-seat Veronica Auditorium.
Following the successful completion of another project for Patna Women’s College, Punjab-based Soundxperts won the contract to supply a complete turnkey solution for the auditorium, including audio, video, lighting, control, acoustics, seating, and flooring. Soundxperts worked closely with professional audio distributor, Sun Infonet, which was able to supply leading brands for the crucial audio component of this prestigious project.
According to Soundxperts owner, Amninder Warraich, “Having the complete audio solution under one roof from renowned brands like Shure, Allen & Heath, Audiofocus, Quest Engi

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Europe - The Inside Story has taken steps to reduce its impact on the planet by becoming CoolPartner number 054 with Cloudforests.ie, a social enterprise creating new forests along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. The move will give the full-service marketing agency a verifiable nature-based solution to offset the carbon emissions created by the business.
“As a company, we have been talking for a while about the impact that our actions are having on the environment and we wanted to take positive action to reduce this,” explains Barney Jameson, founder and managing director at The Inside Story. “After a period of extensive research, we decided that Cloudforests presented the best solution to help us reduce our carbon footprint.”
“Joining Cloudforests is a powerful statement about what we stand for as a company,” adds John Hull, director of video at The Inside

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UK - disguise has announced that it has partnered with London’s Lightroom – a new home for spectacular artist-led experiences in King’s Cross – to power its inaugural art experience by David Hockney. Called David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), the show was designed by 59 Productions, who used disguise’s end-to-end location-based experience solution for everything from pre-visualisation to show control and delivery.
With the venue only open for a month, it has already attracted an average count of over 2,000 visitors a day. David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) takes visitors on a journey through 60 years of the artist’s paintings, digital art and set designs through a 50-minute, large-scale projection show powered by seven disguise vx 4 servers.
In six themed chapters featuring an original

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UK - Pro Media Audio Video Europe, part of the Clair Global Brand Group, has rebranded as Clair Global Integration (CGI), effective immediately. Clair Global entered the European market in 2021, led by industry veteran Eddie Thomas.
Keeping the audience experience at the forefront of its delivery in audio systems, network design, AV, network management, and IT comms and infrastructure, CGI in Europe will continue to ‘design and deliver exciting work across spaces that resonate and inspire, in-line with its US operation’.
Over the past two years, Thomas and his team have helped to deliver major projects for music venues in London including work at the O2 Arena and Here, the capital’s new flagship live events venue, which is situated within the immersive entertainment district, Outernet.
In the professional sports industry, the company has upgraded Burnley’
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  5. CORIOmaster2 drives Hamburg showroom
  6. Hippotizer Boreal fires up Icelandic Idol visuals
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