Video and AV

Heavyweight challenge for One Box Productions

Details: 14 March 2016

Imagine the challenge of producing an event where your six star performers each weigh seven tons and are four metres high, three metres wide and up to 10 metres long. This was the task facing One Box Productions when launching ERF’s new range of trucks at Telford International Centre on 24 April.

The launch, to ERF’s dealer network and key customers, was particularly important because it is the first time ERF trucks have incorporated cabs developed by their parent company MAN. For One Box managing director David Langdon and his team, the challenge was to develop a show concept that would communicate the company’s heritage, the driver benefits of the new range and allow a large-scale product reveal. The solution was a dramatic AV presentation projected onto a 40ft high, 130-degree arc of drapes. This was delivered using Blitz Vision’s Suite P system and an array

Bryan Adams

Details: 14 March 2016

Roy Lamb has been Bryan Adams’ production manager for the past three years, ever since Val Dauksts finally decided to wave the road goodbye.

Lamb, himself a contemporary of Dauksts, is rumoured to stick at the job for the love of rock ‘n’ roll and the huge variety of golf courses this career affords him. Which just leaves Adams himself - why does he keep doing it? "This tour has been running pretty much continuously since ‘98, two weeks on, two weeks off," said LD Mac Mosier. "He just loves touring. He said it to the crowd at the last show - I don’t have an album out, I’m not promoting anything, I just enjoy being here."

Beyond my own personal like for the artists’ song writing and his live performance, this proved heartening news. As with Travis, which I’d seen the week before, I polled the audience; for a middle a

Christie lights up screen for Star Wars Episode II

Details: 14 March 2016

Christie projectors have been used by Lucasfilm Ltd for the production, post-production and (commencing May 16) the exhibition of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - the first all-digital major motion picture.

In 1999, Christie signed a three-year agreement to supply Lucasfilm with the latest projection equipment to meet its production needs. Christie projectors were first used by Lucasfilm in the post-production of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and were used even more extensively for Attack of the Clones. With the decision to shoot Episode II digitally, Christie projectors played an important role in the production of the movie as Lucasfilm took a Christie projector on location to Australia to review daily footage. In the final post-production phase conducted at Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucas Digital Ltd, the filmmakers used a Christie Digital Cinema

A screen shot from the RentalDesk system.

RentalDesk assists management of demo stock

Details: 14 March 2016

Navigator Systems Ltd have come up with a solution which will ensure that companies who own ‘demo’ stock achieve the best possible return on their investment. Following several months of discussions with sales representatives, Navigator discovered that for some keeping track of the ‘demo’ stock had turned into a logistical nightmare. Items such as mixing desks, projectors, plasma screens and lighting consoles had either been forgotten or simply gone missing.

By adding several new features to its rental management software system RentalDesk, Navigator Systems have now made it possible to search quickly and easily for the ‘First Available Date’ for the ‘demo’ item required. Thus, if a company requests a mixing desk for a five-day period in June, the sales rep can check whether it’s available for that period and if it isn't, give the

Screenco chooses Barco for Commonwealth Games

Details: 14 March 2016

Screenco have purchased an opening stock of Barco’s DLite 10 tiles - primarily for use in the new £32m Manchester Aquatics Centre for the upcoming Commonwealth Games swimming events. The 144-tile order will give them a maximum 30sq.m presentation area, which will be split into three separate displays. Screenco also purchased additional rental structures to allow greater flexibility in creating non-standard shapes.

In view of the humidity in the pool, one of the recommendations made by Screenco was the need for displays to be rated to IP65 for dust and water protection, as confirmed by Graham Andrews, Avesco plc Audio Visual Services Division managing director. "We chose the D10 on its price versus performance ratio and its IP65 front and rear characteristics, which make it ideal for the high degree of outdoor arena and stadium work in which we specialize."

(Ruth Ross

PGI's stand at the recent IPEX exhibition.

CT NEC in print

Details: 14 March 2016

CT NEC supplied a wide array of AV equipment to over 80 stands at the recent IPEX print exhibition at the Birmingham NEC. The most notable of these was the Xerox stand, produced by PGI, which covered 65,000sq.ft of the venue. Both CT NEC and CT London provided video technology, hardware, software, installation and manpower to the stand throughout the nine-day event.

PGI - who have offices in 30 cities across the world - offer business-to-business communication, exhibition and trade show services and destination management, and have been working with Creative Technology for over three years. A purpose-built theatre, which ran demonstration shows eight times each day, required three remote control cameras and four lipstick cameras which were placed on the new Xerox DocuColor iGen3 in the theatre and at various other places around the Xerox stand. Throughout each show, presenters were abl

Dome duo re-united

Details: 14 March 2016

London-based sound, lighting and video installation and consultancy company, Live Business International, has just added a new member to its team and re-united the duo that ran the sound at the Millennium Dome.

Almost a year to the day after completing his contract at Greenwich, Gerry Logue has joined technical director Roland Hemming to become Live Business International’s technical project manager. Hemming comments: "I’ve been trying to get Gerry on board for ages, but distractions such as his consultancy for the Commonwealth Games and work managing a large video conferencing project have prevented us from working together until now. I'm glad he has finally seen the light and come home."

During his 20-year career, Gerry has established himself as one of the best audio-visual project managers in the industry. He coordinated the sound at Madame Tussauds and Rock

The Hogwarts Express arrives at King's Cross.

E//T//C UK makes magic at King's Cross

Details: 14 March 2016

E//T//C UK, the large format projection specialists, created magic at King's Cross Station last week, as Platform 1 was transformed into Platform 9 ¾ for the launch of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone DVD/video. Copies of the coveted DVD arrived onboard the Hogwarts Express, and were handed out to eagerly awaiting Harry Potter fans by members of the top grossing film’s cast.

When the idea of projection was thrown into the production mix, E//T//C’s Ross Ashton was approached by Chris Slingsby and Dave Hurd from Imagination. The platform was already decided upon, and then they needed over 100 different cross-fading images projected, large and clear, onto the wall at the end of the platform. The images were to be projected onto an arched projection surface, custom designed by Harkness Hall, attached to the wall at the station end of the platform. Since the r

Lighthouse appoints Asia Pacific sales manager

Details: 14 March 2016

Lighthouse, designer, manufacturer and installer of giant LED video screens, has recently appointed David Thilwind as project sales manager for the Asia Pacific market. David will be responsible for a variety of areas including major project sales, sales promotion to both end users and architects, technical sales support for regional system integrators and project management.

David joins Lighthouse from Pilkington Micronics Ltd, where he spent three years as regional sales manager and brings with him a wealth of knowledge of the region and its markets. His past projects include Hong Kong Airport, Kuala Lumpur Airport, the LG Kangnam Tower in Seoul SK, the Peak Tram Redevelopment in Hong Kong, Café Deco in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Jockey Club and the South China Morning Post building in Tai Po (Hong Kong), and while in the LCD field he also worked with the likes of Philips, Variatronix, Ye

Unitek is a clear winner at Chester

Details: 14 March 2016

Unitek’s new Activ Banner system delivered an impressive performance at its inaugural race meeting at Chester. Installed and operated by event display specialists ADI Group, two Activ banner systems were used to display announcements, race results and sponsors’ messages at the May Vase Day event, televised by Channel 4 Racing.

This is the first time Unitek’s Activ Banner system has been used at a UK horse racing event: based around Unitek’s industry standard LED display cabinets, the low-profile, banner format displays can be installed quickly and easily, virtually anywhere. The Activ system allows real-time textual information, announcements, graphics and animations to be displayed with pin-sharp clarity and in vivid true colour, even in strong direct sunlight.

The fully weatherproof displays are controlled by a dedicated processor and Unitek’s Activ-8

Unusual Backstage at The Jubilee

Details: 14 March 2016

Unusual Services Ltd are main contractors for the massive Golden Jubilee weekend celebrations that are happening in The Mall, Green Park, St. James’s Park, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park and at the Queen Victoria Memorial.

The company is supplying all technical infrastructure, co-ordination, site and production management for this mind-boggling task, working closely with show producer Major Sir Michael Parker and the Golden Jubilee Weekend Trust. Unusual has employed over 250 sub-contractors and mounted a major logistical exercise to ensure the event - being broadcast live worldwide - is a well-oiled operation. To this end, the company has been interfacing with various authorities including Westminster City Council Special Events, the Metropolitan Police, Royal Parks, the GLA, the WRVS, London Underground, London Ambulance, St. John Ambulance and the British Red Cross.

The event i

Spider's flightcase warehouse now open

Details: 14 March 2016

Spider Engineering has opened a ‘Flightcase warehouse’ in the UK at its Tamworth site in the Midlands. The new look warehouse, which is open to the trade and public, has over 6,000sq.ft of space, including a new flightcase dept, a used flightcase dept and a used equipment dept. "This is an exciting project which we’ve been working on for three years," comments managing director Steve Austin. "We saw that there was a huge potential market for ‘off the shelve flightcases and have spent the last three years developing our manufacturing process to place us in the best position to supply that market." The company now carries over 700 cases in stock.

(Ruth Rossington)

DMX Music standardizes on Stardraw

Details: 14 March 2016

DMX Music has standardized all system design and documentation on Stardraw. The premier provider of professionally programmed music, imaging and message marketing has begun to roll out Stardraw AV on a national basis over many of its 26 offices in the United States. DMX Music carried out extensive research and testing of available products before they opted to standardize on Stardraw. Tim Dorwart, vice-president of Commercial Division for the Eastern US, cited the need for quality over and above other requirements: "After our evaluation process Stardraw came through as the clear winner for us in all categories, but certain areas stood out," Dorwart said. "The key factor was the quality of the symbols and the fact they all conform to the same standard, and the protection that this affords the database. There is far less likelihood of corrupt data or a virus sneaking into th

Lighthouse in Reebok Stadium

Details: 14 March 2016

Fans of FA Barclaycard Premiership club Bolton Wanderers FC will be able to enjoy next season’s soccer action in crisp close-up, following the installation this summer of a 16:9 format Lighthouse LED video screen at the Reebok Stadium, replacing an earlier LED screen installation.

The screen, whose sale was negotiated by VRS (Vision Reality Systems Ltd), is a fully weatherproof Lighthouse LVP2056 (20mm pixel pitch, 5600 Nits of brightness). Gareth Moores, Bolton Wanderers’ commercial director, comments: "We bought the screen for two reasons. We’re constantly looking to enhance the matchday experience for all our supporters, including live relays of away matches, and the video screen and the content on it is an integral part of that. Secondly, it’s an important revenue generator for the club as a high-impact advertising medium for our partners, sponsors and

Racklight evolves into Viperlight

Details: 14 March 2016

Adam Hall has announced the availability of the new Viperlight, which builds on the success of the Racklight to combine the flexibility of a gooseneck, the portability of battery power, and the versatility of a spring-loaded clip with durable Racklight technology to create the first ever portable LED gooseneck light. The Viperlight can quickly be attached anywhere, and will provide up to eight hours of cool, coloured illumination using a single 9-volt battery.

(Lee Baldock)

Firefly projection for Spiderman

Details: 14 March 2016

Firefly Imaging’s patented, award-winning scrolling projector was chosen by Sony Pictures Entertainment and its marketing partner, Buzztone, for the Hollywood premiere of Spiderman on 4 May. As celebrities and guest arrived to enter the premiere tent outside the Wadsworth Theatre, images of Spiderman’s web and logo were projected on the tent, which was larger than the size of a football field. "We were thrilled to be a part of the Spiderman premier and contribute in a material way to the look and feel of the evening. Our specialty is creating unique imagery and projecting it in large formats on any type of surface. The Spiderman premier allowed us to do what we do best," said Rachel Wagner, vice-president of events for Firefly.

Voted Product of the Year by Entertainment Design magazine, the Firefly Projector has the ability to project sharp, full colour images of

Unitek On Tour With XL Video

Details: 14 March 2016

Leading giant video screen manufacturer, Unitek, has added XL Video to its list of event industry customers. The award winning concert video specialists will take delivery of 50sq.m of Unitek MS17 LED video screen in the first week of June. However, XL Video will have little time to admire the latest addition to their hire fleet, as the MS17 system will be in action for the first time less than a week after delivery. The MS17 will be based in the UK and will allow XL Video to further develop their successful UK touring and one-off event business.

With bases in London, Los Angeles and Belgium, XL Video specialise in supplying complete video support services to the concert touring, music and entertainment industries. Despite being one of the most recent entrants, XL’s rise to prominence in the concert touring industry has been nothing short of meteoric and they are now considered b

Industry first for SPS at IPC Media Awards

Details: 14 March 2016

Show Presentation Services (SPS), the UK's largest stockholder of the Barco Dlite7 large screen LED system, has created an industry first through its innovative use of LED screens in the corporate sector. The new ‘Pop Idol’ style LED screens, which allow images to move in sequence across a collection of screens in any order, were launched at the IPC Media Awards, held at Grosvenor House Hotel, London, where SPS continued to build on their longstanding relationship with IPC.

Bryan Leathem, head of SPS’s LED display department, explains: "Our brief was to take this important event that has been running for nearly a decade and bring something new and exiting to it, which we hope we achieved with this unique system. LED screens are often used as a back drop to events and conferences, but the feedback we had been getting from our clients was that they wanted to find a

New Lighthouse screens

Details: 14 March 2016

Lighthouse has recently released no less than five new products: The ultra high brightness LVP1050 (10mm pixel pitch, 5000 nits brightness) screen is the world’s first outdoor SMD (Surface Mount Device) LED display, according to the company. The combination of high brightness and the image quality of Lighthouse’s M4 technology will open up new markets to LED screen technology. The high definition LVP0630 (6mm pixel pitch, 3000 nits), is targeted at the indoor rental and fixed installation markets. Its high resolution allows much closer viewing distances and creates a sharp image.

Both screens feature Lighthouse’s new M4 Uniformity Control that brings TV quality images to the giant screen, the Quarter Bin sorting process and 13-bit processing displaying 16.7 million shades of colour. The LVC88, LIP SX and LIP QX Lighthouse Image Processors, offering a choice of VGA, SV

Lighthouse screens in Seoul

Details: 14 March 2016

Two giant Lighthouse LED video screens are relaying World Cup action throughout the tournament to fans outside the Korean Convention Centre in Seoul. Two 20sq.m, 20mm pixel pitch Lighthouse outdoor screens have been erected on behalf of Korean Telecomm Corporation in Seoul by AV rental company Hibino Korea, and are in use right through from the opening ceremony to the final itself.

KT Corporation is one of the World Cup’s sponsors and has secured rights to provide the screens, which are officially sanctioned by world football body FIFA. Seoul was the venue for the World Cup’s first match, when France faced Senegal. The group matches run up to June 14, with playoffs over the following three days. The semi-finals will be played on June 25 in Seoul and on June 26 in Saitama, and the final will be staged in Yokohama, Japan on June 30.

Jimmy Lo, at Lighthouse’s Hong Kon

Pictured are the monitors embedded in the different levels of the amphitheatre.

Blitz: licensed to thrill

Details: 14 March 2016

MTV Europe recently brought to life 40 years of James Bond movies at an exclusive party at the Cannes Film Festival, co-hosted with MGM and billed as ‘one of the hottest tickets in the Cannes calendar’. With 1,200 celebrity guests and film executives attending, stunning video effects were required to bring to life an amphitheatre venue complete with snow, Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish and a 10-metre martini ice bar. To achieve this, event organisers GSP - working to MTV Europe's brief - turned to London based AV specialist Blitz.

Blitz was briefed to create a technically sophisticated visual ambience synonymous with MTV's edgy, innovative style and suitable for celebrating the 40th anniversary of James Bond and showcasing the 19 Bond movies. The venue for the party was the Palais Bulles (bubble palace), a submarine-shaped structure complete with portholes and rounded viewing

Barco’s new projection solutions

Details: 14 March 2016

Barco Intelligent Displays, a division of BarcoProjection, has introduced a new range of high-resolution and high-brightness products for the fixed install market. With the IQR300, the functionality of the IQ series is now available in SXGA resolution. Barco’s IQ series offers new functionality, such as advanced picture-in-picture, seamless switching, dual-lamps and an advanced modular design. With its feature-set, the IQ provides intelligent solutions for high-end applications, such as meeting rooms, videoconferencing centres, training facilities and auditoriums.

The UR 7000 projector is one of the first commercial native UXGA (1600 x 1200) projectors available on the market, equipped with features that will make it ideal for meeting rooms and production houses requiring high resolution data and/or video projection. The projector’s picture-in-picture (PiP) feature allows

M+D Design creates two new operations

Details: 14 March 2016

To address a growing workload, Worcestershire-based M+D Design has split its operation into two new companies - Ikon AVS and Nebula Audio. The move is intended to create a more viable framework for the two key aspects of M+D’s operation - that of equipment manufacturer/supplier and that of installer. Ikon AVS will therefore concentrate on the manufacture and supply of products such as the company’s award-winning Podules and fault-monitoring systems, whilst Nebula Audio will be primarily a ‘systems house’ offering fully engineered solutions, including design, specification, procurement, installation and commissioning in audio visual and distributed digital audio systems for stadiums, shopping malls, exhibitions and conference halls.

(Ruth Rossington)

The LED wall showing live clips of the classic cars on display at the event.

Taking it up a gear

Details: 14 March 2016

In an effort to give that extra dimension to an already prestigious event, specialist AV company Blitz was called in to help with the annual Louis Vuitton Classic, this year celebrating a Jubilee of British motoring at Fulham's Hurlingham Club in early June. Commissioned by Philip Honey, freelance event production manager, Blitz supplied a Lighthouse 10mm pitch indoor LED wall to echo the themes of classic motoring and an earlier golden age of travel. Measuring 3.84m by 2.88m, it alternated between black and white and colour footage of a range of classic cars. As an extra twist the motoring footage was interspersed with live clips of the event itself via a Video Assist microwave camera link. The LED wall also served as a suitable backdrop for the Aston Martin 'Vanquish', positioned in front.

To complement the visual impact inside the marquee, Blitz provided state-of-the-art sound equip

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