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 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

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)

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

The Deep is Hull’s £45.5m Millennium project and a central part of the city’s regeneration programme. Supported by a grant of a cool £21.5 million from the Millennium Commission, the world’s first ‘Submarium’ has been designed by Sir Terry Farrell and features various aquaria, a business centre, a lifelong learning centre and research facility.

The venue boasts the deepest water tank in Europe. This, and its 11 other tanks, are home to seven species of shark and thousands of fish. These tanks range in size from the ‘Endless Oceans’ tank holding 2.3 million litres of salt water to the smaller ‘Jewel’ tanks which hold just 1 cubic metre. The design consultant for the exhibition was John Csáky Associates, whilst the lighting consultant for the exhibition and exterior lighting was DHA Design Services, with Peter Fordham as project l

Audio visual rental and staging company MCL has launched the UK’s first real-time audio visual help facility on its website. The online interaction enables MCL clients to ask real-time questions about equipment or hire pricing during UK office hours. The help facility takes the form of a chat forum co-ordinating live enquiries between the regional MCL offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

MCL’s online marketing manager, John Leah, commented: "We have been trialing the system for a couple of months now and are confident that it is stable. We are getting an amazing response from site visitors and users who seem impressed that they can get immediate information when putting together project proposals, want local venue details from our regional MCL operations or just need some technical information on a piece of kit." The MCL web site now a

A pair of giant Lighthouse LED video screens are relaying the World Cup action throughout the tournament to fans outside the Korean Convention Centre in Seoul. Two 5.12x3.84, 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 have been in use since the opening ceremony and will continue until the final itself on June 30.

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. Jimmy Lo, at Lighthouse’s Hong Kong office, commented: "It’s a fantastic honour that Lighthouse screens have been chosen to show the tournament in Korea during the World Cup."

(Lee Baldock)

RMS - Rental Management Systems has introduced new options to link its rental management software to external software programs. With the 'input-link', users of RMS are able to import equipment-lists from drawing programs such as AutoCAD and Stardraw. Once a design has been created in a drawing package, a list is automatically generated containing all the elements within the drawing, which can then be imported into a project within the RMS software.

The 'output-link' provides an easy way to connect RMS to the most popular accounting packages.After the completion of a project, all relevant financial information can be exported into a file, which can then be read by the accounting software.

(Lee Baldock)

AV industry veteran Alan Barber has joined Lighthouse to support the company’s AV Rental and Staging sales team in the US, with a new office on the West Coast. Barber joins Lighthouse from rental company Creative Technology’s Los Angeles office. His arrival will mean a wealth of experience from 13 years at the front line of the AV rental and sales market, with four years in the LED screen industry.

Barber has worked on a wide range of shows including the 2000 Democratic National Convention; automotive trade shows; corporate trade shows; product intros, and television productions including the 2000, 2001 and 2002 Academy Awards; the 2002 Emmy Awards; the 2001, 2002 ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards and the 2001 AFI Awards Show. He comments: "This is an exciting time in the LED business, and I am proud to be involved with the company that created the indoor market. I t

Deltron Emcon, is pleased to announce the appointment of their new UK ‘Media Product’ distributor, Agosy-Cable Warehouse. Argosy will be stocking a comprehensive range of Media, Video, and Audio products from their centrally located facility in Stokenchurch, Bucks.

Ken Eckardt, managing director and Bob Clark, sales manager of Argosy-Cable Warehouse, are proud to be associated with the established ‘Media’ brand from Deltron Emcon, which will further enhance Argosy’s product offering to UK and export customers.

Neill Redmayne, business development manager for Deltron Emcon, sees this as a crucial appointment in the planned growth of the Media brand following the recent relocation of the whole manufacturing businesses into one purpose-built unit in Scunthorpe. The Media range is being re-vamped under the technical guidance of product manager Goolam Ramjan,

Software provider Stardraw has chosen InfoComm 02 to unveil a new suite of design applications. While they follow the principles of the developer’s established product range, Stardraw AV, Stardraw Audio, Stardraw Lighting 2D, etc, the new applications are fully web-enabled and users simply hit a web page to use the software within their Internet browser.

Stardraw managing director David Snipp explains: "Our conventional applications have established the sorts of tools that integrators find easy to use and valuable for system design and documentation. The web-enabled applications have been written from the ground up to provide comparable functionality, but they are designed to run within a web page. This is brand new technology and Stardraw is proud to be the first company to our knowledge anywhere in the world to offer full CAD capability via the web. It's a significant deve

ECA2 were honoured on 13 June this year at the annual awarding of FICHE prizes, organised to recognise French companies in the field of special events. ECA2 obtained the competition's two most prestigious prizes. Firstly, the ‘Grand Prix’ for an Institutional Event, won by the ECA2 evening spectacle ‘Luces y Voces del Tajin’ (Lights and Voices of El Tajin). This ECA2 production, commissioned by the government of Veracruz state, Mexico, took place in March.

Secondly, the ‘Grand Prix’ for a General Public Event - designated by a unanimous jury - for the evening show at Expo 01 in Yamaguchi, Japan, entitled ‘Kirara Starlight Fantasy’. On the same day in Berlin, at the TILE (Trends in Leisure and Entertainment) International Conference, Yves Pepin, ECA2's president and creative director, was honoured with the Award for Product of the Year for

As part of the ongoing growth of VDC Trading, the pro audio, video and broadcast cable specialists have recruited Jo Clarke as sales manager. Clarke has wide experience of tele-sales and customer service management within the telecoms industry, and presently heads a large team of experienced staff, with plans to expand the team to meet VDC’s upturn in business. "I wanted a move into the independent sector, and in VDC I can see enormous potential for growth," she says.

Clarke’s early tasks will be to implement a training programme and an improved sales and marketing strategy. Managing director, Niall Holden, commented: "VDC’s reputation has spread through word of mouth amongst its loyal and committed customer base over the last 15 years. It has grown in a reactive culture based on short lead time demands from customers anxious to get their products. Jo&r

In a move designed to enhance both businesses and add value for the end user, design and documentation software specialists Stardraw.com have announced a unique partnership with the audiovisual association, ICIA.

InfoComm iQ, developed, maintained and delivered by the International Communications Industries Association, Inc (ICIA), is an industry-wide product information database for the AV market which offers users instant access to the most up-to-the-minute product information. ICIA takes raw data from manufacturers and re-authors it to be complete, current and comparable. It is then distributed directly and through third party dealer websites. By teaming up with Stardraw, with its own library of over 36,000 high quality symbols from manufacturers, ICIA can now make InfoComm iQ available to a wider audience.

According to Stardraw.com Inc president, Randell Green, the arrangement is

The PSL music division team are midway through a hot summer of music. They have provided two of their High End Catalyst systems with Barco ELM R12 projectors, along with on-stage dome-cameras and front-of-house cameras, for Gabrielle’s UK tour. Lighting designer Patrick Murray also used these Catalyst systems for Gabrielle’s appearance at Picnic in the Park, Hyde Park on June 29.

The weekend of 22 and 23 June saw PSL out in force at Gatecrasher Tour Western providing crew and a total of 11 Barco projectors and folding screens across the four arenas. Orbital also continues its long-standing relationship with PSL for the Somerset House and Glastonbury gigs using two Barco G5 projectors, a motorized screen and magic DAVE for Orbital. Meanwhile, Mardi Gras 2002 at Hackney Marshes will see two of PSL’s new Barco DLite 7 screens in action along with a four-camera digital PP

XL Video is supplying video production for Mexican guitar legend Carlos Santana’s world tour, which has just finished its European leg. The tour now continues in amphitheatres in the US for a month, before taking a break and resuming Stateside again in October.

The video element of the tour was co-ordinated by XL Video Inc in the US, where the tour kicked off on the first of three US legs. The video front end and control in Europe was supplied by LA-based XL Inc and the screens came from XL Belgium. Santana played a single UK date at Crystal Palace. This is the first time that Santana has toured with a full scale video production, and video director Gerald McReynolds explains that Carlos Santana had some very clear ideas about what he wanted in terms of images - including fire, water and other abstract pre-recorded sources, which are skilfully mixed in and overlaid with the live

US company The Screen Works has opened an office in The Netherlands. A joint effort with The Screen Works, Europe (an already established UK operation), the Hoofddorp facility, located just outside Amsterdam, will provide convenient, centralized access to presentation equipment and staging resources. It will have an extensive inventory of projection screens, pipe and drape systems, trim kits and skirting, modular scenic systems, a projection screen cleaning and repair service and presentation accessories.

Overseeing the new venture will be Gabriel West, a long-standing member of The Screen Works management team, who has relocated from Chicago to take up his new role of European operations manager - Netherlands. Company president, Lee Facklis explains: "An overseas operation allows us to manage equipment resources, accelerate turnaround times and contain freight costs. Customers wi

A leading global consumer brand recently asked international production company, Imagination, to create the ultimate wow factor for the 3,000 attending its annual meeting - held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Imagination’s Chris Slingsby, who conceived the innovative set, turned to Creative Technology to draw on its inventory of audio-visual support equipment, anchored at equipment locations throughout the US and UK. In London, Dave Herd (who co-project managed the event with Joe Conway) worked closely with Imagination, ensuring that all software would be compatible with the various screen resolutions and aspect ratios. The result was one of the most elaborate stage sets ever designed, involving no fewer than 552 panels of Barco’s iLite 6mm LED panels and 318 panels of their iLite 10.

Presenters Charlie Rose and Donald Sutherland - along with fellow guests inc

Screenco provided a 28sq.m Barco Dlite 10 LED display to Bloomberg, the international information media company, for use at a combined World Cup and evening film event at their Finsbury Square facility in London. The display was rigged under a temporary curved dome, erected to provide protection for the viewers from the typical English summer weather. Using a mixture of Barco 3 x 2 and 2 x 2 fast set-up rental structures, a display of 14 tiles wide by 10 tiles high was constructed. Terrestrial feeds for both the BBC and ITV provided the daytime World Cup football coverage, and in the evening the screen was used in a traditional cinema environment running well-known feature films from a DVD source.

Graham Filmer, Screenco director and general manager said: "We chose the Barco Dlite 10 for this high profile and prestigious event with Bloomberg because we wanted to offer the client

Evenser Group, the UK's largest event services Group, has created a new division - Evenser Broadcast and Presentation Services. The creation of the new division will enhance the service offering available to clients through greater access to technical expertise, equipment and project management, say the company.

The division will incorporate the Group's international broadcast and audio-visual activities, including Charter Broadcast, Cinevideo, ABS and Blitz Communications, all of whom will continue to trade under their own names. David Carr continues as managing director of the broadcast businesses, whilst Paul Hutton, a director of Blitz Vision since 1993, will become the managing director of Blitz. The new division will be headed up by Evenser main board director Michael Breen.

Michael Breen comments: "This is a great opportunity for both the audio-visual and broadcast busine

Specialist audio-visual company, Blitz, has appointed Chris Jordan as regional manager for Manchester and Birmingham, to strengthen its sound offering. His immediate task will be to ensure that the same the level of expertise is available at all locations.

Chris’ background in theatre sound strengthens Blitz's presence in this field, bringing valuable experience to the whole Group. He has 23 years experience in theatre and conference sound, having worked as a sound designer, consultant and production engineer on many major productions worldwide. He joins Blitz having spent the last eight years based first in Brazil, and then in Oman. During that time, he worked as a freelance sound design and production engineering consultant. Before this, he was general manager of Theatre Projects Sound Division, handling many major corporate presentations, and prior to that worked for the Royal

Cinematographer Jon Driscoll contacted XL Video UK to supply projectors, playback and a control system for the dramatic projected backdrops he designed and produced for Up For Grabs. The production - specifically the projections - wowed the packed audiences flocking to see Madonna’s West End debut at the Wyndhams Theatre. The 10-week run was fully sold out in advance.

Driscoll was originally approached to design backdrops for the project - directed by Laurence Boswell, designed by Jeremy Herbert - by John Owens, a director of Aura Sound, the production’s sound consultants. Driscoll had previously worked with Up For Grabs’ sound designer Fergus O’Hare (who’s also a director of Aura Sound) at the National Theatre. Driscoll worked on the projection design and production with his colleague Richard Overall, who edited and post-produced the origina

The Sheraton Frankfurt recently added a new chapter to its 27-year history, following the completion of a €50 million renovation and redecoration programme. As an elegant five-star hotel with bright, spacious areas, it offers the latest technical equipment, large conference and banqueting facilities, direct access to Frankfurt Airport via a footbridge, close proximity to the ICE terminal and metro connections to Frankfurt’s city centre.

As Europe’s largest airport hotel, it has over 1,000 guest rooms. Not only has the interior design of the lobby changed completely, but also its location. Gone are the relatively dark charms of former days, now replaced by a bright and modern lobby six times larger. The floors are Italian porcelain tiles, extravagant Venetian plaster decorates the walls and the staircase is constructed of marble and glass. In the new ‘Glass House&rsqu

Manchester-based Digital Projection International (DPI) has announced the addition of three new projectors to its successful product line-up. The Blacklite range has been specifically designed for applications where cinema quality high contrast images are required.

The range offers light output levels from 3000-7000 ANSI lumens to suit every application: all the projectors utilize the unique dark metal Thunder DMDs which are the core enabling device of this 3-Chip DLP system, offering SXGA (1280 x 1024) resolution with optional SD-SDi or HD-SDi. This dark metal chip technology has only previously been available in D-Cinema projection units, and coupled with special lenses and Digital Projection’s optical know-how, offers a contrast level of 1200:1.

All the Blacklite range features as standard composite, component and DVI inputs. A unique link mode function offers conversion of

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