The HSBC Headquarters Building in Hong Kong's Central district - Norman Foster's remarkable machine-like structure, had been the subject of a facade lighting project in 2003 which became 'A Symphony of Lights'. HSBC HQ was one of 24 of the most significant buildings that joined Hong Kong's permanent nightly light show that year.

Twelve years later, illumination Physics was commissioned to help bring to life the first wave of HSBC'S 150th anniversary messages. A complete update of the façade lighting and the integration of three large media walls followed.

In 2003, the HSBC main building was equipped with the best lighting technology available at the time. The LED revolution had yet to take hold. The first step of illumination physics' plan for this building upgrade was to bring the façade lighting up to date. The photometric requirements for this building are very precise. Few plan

UK - PSCo, the trade only AV distributor and rental specialist, is showcasing the latest innovations from its leading manufacturer partners at the PLASA Show 2015 (London's Excel - 4-6 October). Visitors will be able to view PSCo's must-see 3-2-1mm LED line-up of Absen products on its 70m² stand, alongside innovative LCD displays including the new Samsung High Bright and video wall displays, and the stunning new Samsung 105" display - the largest professional display available in the world.

"Following the success of last year's PLASA, we are excited to be showcasing so many new technologies from our rental and sales portfolio for system integrators and live events partners," says Stuart Holmes, managing director of PSCo. "We will have new technologies across mu

UK - Each summer the great and the good of folk music visit the picturesque university city for the Cambridge Folk Festival.

This year, the site at Cherry Hinton Hall saw the 51st Festival, with main stage headline performances including Joan Baez, The Proclaimers, Frank Turner, Joan Armatrading, and Passenger.

With three days of sunny weather, the central arena outside the Main Stage tent was packed with festival-goers. To ensure that those outside the tent had an excellent view of the artists onstage, the event organisers, Cambridge Live, called on XL Video to supply a pair of outdoor LED screens.

Two 9m2 screens were requested, as in previous years, and XL's project manager, Paul Wood provided XL's own ROE Visual MC-7 7.5mm resolution, indoor/outdoor LED. The screen was selected for its good visibility in daylight, weatherproofing, and high resolution, giving the audience

USA - The newly-renamed Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration has opened new galleries in the former Kitchen and Laundry Building of the immigrant processing and detention station, which operated from 1892 to 1954 in New York Harbor. Dedicated to the story of immigration in the years following Ellis Island's closure, the galleries mark phase two of the Peopling of America Center. Electrosonic provided AV support for phase one, which covers immigrant arrival in the Pre-Ellis era, and opened in 2011, and returned to complete phase two following a long delay caused by Hurricane Sandy, which struck the Northeast in October 2012.

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation raised the funds for and oversaw the project and engaged ESI Design as the exhibition designer, with Michael Schneider as technical lead.

For phase two, Electrosonic was tasked with installing all the rac

UK - To create a spectacular opening for the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, 59 Productions, with the Edinburgh International Festival, created The Harmonium Project.

The free outdoor event drew in crowds of approximately 19,500 people and combined the music of John Adams' choral work Harmonium, made especially by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus conducted by Peter Oundjian, with visually stunning projection mapping onto the Usher Hall in central Edinburgh.

The 34-minute performance of The Harmonium Project integrated scientific data captured with the support of the Centre of Design and Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, who collaborated on the project to examine the effects singing has on both the performer and the listener.

Having worked with them succ

Maldives - Working for local technical production and solutions company Pop Joy headed by Asad Haneef, London-based large format projection specialist The Projection Studio (TPS) was asked to assist in providing spectacular pitch video projections at the Galolhu National Football Stadium in Malé, for the Maldives 50th Independence celebrations.

TPS was asked to get involved in the project because of its reputation of projecting onto spectacular buildings and for major ceremonial events which have included the Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.

TPS had just three weeks from receiving confirmation to producing finished content for the 30-minute finale section of the show, which featured a cast of hundreds, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) marching band and display team, sky divers and 40 members of the MNDF - which all u

Australia - Rockhampton's Pilbeam Theatre, in Queensland, is a thriving 1000-seat lyric that sees a wide variety of productions on its stage. Concerts, musicals and corporate events are regular fixtures, and with a thriving community arts scene, often quickly produced and tightly turned around. Ashley Salta, the theatre's technical supervisor, often employs projected media effects on their in-house produced productions to save budget, space, time and effort.

"We produce a lot of musical theatre," explained Ashley. "We often project video content like rain, clouds or other moving textures onto the set or cloth to bring the stage to life. It also means we can avoid creating a piece of set with that imagery on it. Until recently, we'd been using QLab, but that meant someone had to operate it separately, and we had to load in content for each new show. So I was lookin

UK - Working with designer, Jonathan Paul Green, XL Video has supplied a package of video projection, screens and LCDs for the latest series of the topical panel game, Mock The Week, produced by Angst Productions for BBC Two.

The show, which is hosted by Dara O Briain and features panellists Hugh Dennis and Andy Parsons, is filmed before a live studio audience shortly before its air date. This ensures that the topics for improvisation are relevant to current news subjects.

The studio incorporates a range of different video elements. The show logo incorporates a world globe, inspired by the show's theme tune, News Of The World, by The Jam. This is recreated using a 6ft diameter Repro H screen, located behind O Briain, which is built into the set and rear-projected via one of XL Video's Panasonic 10k projectors.

Upstage of the main improvisation area, a 16ft x 9f

USA - Striving to make the undergraduate student experience as fulfilling as possible, the University at Buffalo Student Association hosts a series of memorable events throughout the year. As the organization got set to produce the EDM concert Electric Tundra headlined by Bingo Players and featuring 3LAU and DNNYD, the local production staff was asked to create a high-energy atmosphere inside the Alumni Arena, and needed lightweight LED video panels that could also create quality HD projections so they chose the FLEXCurtain HD from PixelFLEX.

"On Electric Tundra we had the challenge to present a national headlining act with limited setup time on a small stage with a video wall, all on a tight budget," began production manager, Katie Gilliland, University at Buffalo Centre for the Arts. "Inside the 6,500 seat arena, equipment cannot be hung from the r

UK - Blackout continued its longstanding relationship with Somerset House, supplying rigging and drapes for this year's Summer Series and Film4 Summer Screen events during July and August.

Blackout worked alongside production manager Jon Howes, within a team of contractors, who year on year collaborate with the venue's management and sponsors. The team work to facilitate both events and aid Somerset House's transformation into a concert setting and then an open air cinema.

This is the eleventh year running Blackout has worked on the Summer Series concerts, supporting promoters Metropolis Music. This year the concert featured performances from Passenger, George Ezra and Jessie J and attracted crowds of up to 3,000 people.

Blackout provided all of the stage rigging as well as two truss wings, which flanked either side of the stage, to hang the PA systems and branding, negating

UK - Matthew Griffiths is to step down as PLASA CEO. A statement from PLASA reads: Over the past few months it has become clear to the boards and executive management of PLASA that a fundamental redesign of our business model and structures are necessary due to the increasingly difficult trading conditions currently being experienced. For the organisation to remain of service & benefit to the membership we represent, it is imperative that our expenditure can be funded by an affordable and sustainable income. To that end, the PLASA Governing Body has decided that there needs to be complete review of its businesses.

In light of the above and after 17 years as PLASA's chief executive officer, Matthew Griffiths has decided that now is the right time to step aside which would help kick start and facilitate a fresh set of ideas and approaches needed for the next chapter in PLASA's dev

UK - The latest AniMotion live painting, digital art and music show is presented by Aurora Nova at George Herriot's School as part of the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The power of original painting created in real-time and projected onto stunning architecture accompanied by live music is a special collaboration between projection artist Ross Ashton, virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and acclaimed visual artist and painter Maria Rud.

The location for this magical outdoor experience - Venue 316 of the Fringe Festival - is the quadrangle at George Herriot's School. The high impact art is being projected onto the side wall, of the beautiful 17th century chapel - which becomes part of the world renowned Festival, famous for showcasing new, innovative and thought-provoking works.

Says Ross, "We are extremely excited to be performing at the Fringe and exceptionally

USA - Following on from the custom video solution they supplied for alt-J's headline show at London's O2 Arena and subsequent worldwide festival runs, XL Video has supplied a similar LED set-up for the band's current US tour.

The tour, in support of alt-J's second album, This Is All Yours, visited a variety of indoor and outdoor venues around the US including a show at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

The video design, created by Jeremy Lechterman and Jackson Gallagher from FragmentNine, uses horizontal rows of LED, interspaced with gaps which can be used with lighting.

At the O2 show, XL Video supplied a solution using their regular touring frames, and special brackets.

"For the US tour design, the designers wanted to reduce the size of spaces between the LED rows," said XL's US touring projects director, Gareth Jeanne. "As our touring frames have

Italy - Hoare Lea carried out the design of AV systems for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2015, which takes place in Milan from 1 May to 31 October 2015. With more than 140 countries represented and the theme of: 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life', Milan Expo 2015 is a platform for the exchange of ideas about food, stimulating creativity and promoting innovation for a sustainable future.

Under the title 'Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland', the UK's response is a stand-out Pavilion, designed by award-winning British artist Wolfgang Buttress. Inspired by pollination and by scientific research developed to monitor the health of beehives by physicist and bee expert Dr. Martin Bencsik, the UK Pavilion highlights the crucial role of pollination in our food supply, drawing attention to issues such as food security and biodiversity.

The UK Pavilion has been developed around th

Austria - Multimedia specialists, Scenomedia's latest installation at Austria's famous Salzwelten salt mine experience includes the new Bronze Age Cinema located 400m below the Earth's surface in natural Dachstein limestone bedrock of the Hallstatt Mountain Salt Mines in Austria. Scenomedia installed AV Stumpfl show control, multimedia and screens as core technology throughout.

The Bronze Age Cinema was created in a specially blasted 1,000-cubic-meter cavern in the Rose Chamber of the experience. The eight-minute cinematic experience ends to reveal Europe's oldest wooden staircase, lovingly restored and documented over a 10-year period by Vienna's Natural History Museum. The Bronze Age Cinema seats up to 70 visitors for each performance and at the end of the presentation they can view prehistoric artefacts in custom made cases using LED lighting.

Inside the cavern and in front

UK - 31st August is the last day that visitors can pre-register for free entry to PLASA Show 2015, the UK's premier business event for the live entertainment technology industry. International pre-registrations are at their highest level since the show moved to ExCel in 2013, with registrations coming from over 90 countries so far. Visitors who haven't already registered are urged to take advantage of the last few days of the free registration period.

PLASA Show 2015 takes place at London's ExCel from 4th - 6th October. From 1st September to 3rd October visitors can pre-register for £10, meaning doing so before the end of the free period can make a significant saving. On site entry will cost £25.

"The show will feature over 300 brands, covering all production di

Austria - Engineering company, AV Stumpfl has expanded its presence in creating an extensive visual systems product and service offering to its extensive international client base.

In speaking about the expansion, Tobias Stumpfl, CEO at AV Stumpfl GmbH says, "Over the past few years, we've established ourselves with a solid foundation in creating a wide range of robust projection screens, in-house warp, blend and auto calibration technologies and projectors. With a reputation for excellence in engineering, our systems are backed by an experienced team of visual display professionals with direct experience in the simulation and training sector ranging from civil aviation to aerospace, education, military, security and operations."

All products are custom engineered for their intended application and manufactured in Austria.

All screens are custom made to measure in

UK - Specialists in the hire of giant video screen technology for events, broadcast, TV and entertainment industries, Cheshire, UK-based Euroscreens Ltd has taken delivery of Calibre LEDView530 Universal rental, staging and events switcher-scalers for its complete turnkey production solutions.

The LEDView530 performs screen processing for high-profile projects that Euroscreens works on. As an all-in-one solution, the LEDView530 has optimal operating modes and can be used on either LED video walls, projection or for scan conversion.

Euroscreens has deployed LEDView530 in a number of different scenarios, from edge-blending of projectors at corporate conferences to LED screen processing for live broadcast events.

Most recently the LEDView530's were used to process LED screen content for Matchroom Sports Boxing, shown live on Sky Sports HD. For this event 4 LED screens that were

UK - West Midlands based technical production and solutions specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) has made its first purchases in a major new round of investment in Panasonic laser projectors.

A fleet of 24 new projectors will comprise 12 each of two models, the PT-RZ670 single chip 6500 lumen and the PT-RZ 12K 3-chip 12000 lumen machines.

"The idea is to replace the older stock of conventional bulb-lightsource Panasonic projectors completely," explains CPL MD Matthew Boyse.

"We need to keep constantly moving with the technology alongside offering our clients the best and most appropriate options for all of their projects" continues Max, highlighting the fact that the new machines also draw less power and are essentially more eco-friendly.

As most events are now under pressure to prove - and improve - their carbon footprints, this is set to become

UK - South London-based technical production and design specialist Presentation Rentals has re-branded as 'PR Live' to reflect the dynamic nature of its business and the current scope of the company's activities.

The company was launched in 1997 by MD Ian Coull as an AV equipment rental company - initially supplying small projectors, screens and PowerPoint presentation kits.

It's now grown into a highly successful full high-end technical production supplier offering the latest audio, lighting and video hardware and technology, plus a comprehensive range of associated services including complete show and event design, video content creation, graphics, artwork and set design / building. In short, everything to cover all aspects of any types of live event or brand activation, together with a full logistics department and transport fleet.

"Live - and larger scale - producti

Austria - When experiential event production agency, Media Apparat took on the technical aspects of Pioneers Festival in June 2015, the unique multimedia control and display capabilities of AV Stumpfl Wings Engine Stage and Fullwhite screens were used to their full capability.

"The prestigious annual festival at Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, Austria brought together the smartest start-ups, corporate, media and investors in one place, eager to support the next big thing," says Andreas Göltl, managing director at Media Apparat. "The event happens every year and our task was to make Pioneers Festival a stunning event experience to remember. It's the type of event that gets a lot of business interest and press internationally and is broadcast live to an international audience of 100,000."

At Pioneers Festival, video content covered the entire main stage a

UK - Long days in the sun and surf, long nights lost in music. That's the promise of Boardmaster, Europe's leading celebration of all that is surfing. Grown from small beginnings in 1981, Boardmasters has become the epitome of boutique festival going, an event packed day and night with a feast for all the senses; not least visuals. "We're doing something quite different at the Unleashed stage in the Big Top this year", said Rhodri Shaw of Video Design. "That's as well as provide the big IMAG screens for the main stage."

Shaw, as project manager for Video Design, has been instrumental in driving the development of LED at Boardmasters and it's not as straight forward as it sounds. "The Unleashed stage is a saturation situation with pumping music from the likes of Groove Armada and Roni Size. The designers asked that we provide great arches skinned with LED

The Netherlands - The 'Groots met een zachte G' show from the artist Guus Meeuwis, a huge celebrity in the Netherlands, is the biggest concert of a solo artist in the country. The event takes place every year at the Philips Stadium, Eindhoven. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event this year, the artist performed five concerts in the stadium. Each concert was sold out with 35,000 attendees per show, with the last one broadcasted live on Dutch televisions for the first time.

The video setup was extremely challenging to provide an unparalleled visual experience for this high-end concert. Faber AV, a leading company in the rental market of LED screens and audio-visual productions, supplied all the video equipment for the concerts. Two weeks of installation were required to produce the demanding setup.

For the stage, Faber AV supplied a massive LED screen of 700sqm (7680x2

Sweden - Mats Karlsson, an industry veteran with a string of successful products and positions with several major companies, has started Intendor - a product innovation consultancy.

"My mission is to help companies get ahead of their competition by helping them create useful, innovative, and differentiated products. Anyone who has visited a trade show in recent years can testify to the fact that you have to look long and hard to find something really new. As the competition heats up and product life cycles gets shorter, companies are becoming painfully aware of the need to innovate in order to stay competitive and profitable. But only a few know how to do it, Karlsson shares."

"After bringing successful products to life at several leading companies, I am now making my skills and experiences available to those who wants to succeed using true competitive advantage

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