The Flightcase Warehouse and Q-Flightcases of Lisburn have formed a partnership to distribute their standard range of flightcases in Ireland. The new company will be called Flightcase Warehouse Ireland and will be based in Lisburn. Flightcase Warehouse managing director Steve Austin comments: "We know that the potential in Ireland is massive, but due to logistics and shipping costs, we are limited to what we can sell direct from the UK. According to our website statistics, we receive on average of 5000 hits per month from Ireland, indicating a need for an outlet in this region. Q-Flightcases are the perfect solution to this problem, and are well situated to cover the whole of Ireland."

Q-Flightcases co-director Joan Beggs adds: "At present those companies that take advantage of our local facilities, have mostly been interested in our specialized cases. Generally, for lar

Proving that no job is too unusual, a Lighthouse LVP1010 LED video screen (10mm pixel pitch, 1000 nits of brightness) was supplied for a large pharmaceutical company, Pharmacia’s, recent staff forum. The 5x5 panel screen was supplied by AV Network, specialists in the hire and sale of technology presentation products. “The management of Pharmacia believe in strong, regular communications with its staff," explains AV Network director, Suzanne Atkins. "And to achieve this they hold regular staff forums for two-way open communications and updates." To keep the meeting informal, and to encourage interaction from the staff, the company wanted to keep the event in-house.

"Their offices have a large glass-ceilinged atrium, which they wanted to use for the forum," continues Atkins. "This gave us an area with very high ambient light. As we intended to ru

500 guests attended this year’s UK AV Industry Awards Ceremony on 16 October; and the event attracted record numbers of entries. One of the most hotly contested categories was Installation of the Year, which included five finalists instead of the usual three. Electrosonic, which was involved in three of the final projects, emerged as the overall winner of Installation of the Year for ‘Thinktank’, the Birmingham Museum of Science and Discovery. The other finalists were Williams F1 Conference Center and Grand Prix Museum; the Vanco Lab Presentation Environment; the Sheraton Frankfurt 270 degree AV installation; and The Big Picture at Imperial War Museum North.

The principal criteria applied to the judging process were evidence of innovation and company performance, coherent strategies and objectives, capable implementation, the appropriate use of technologies and creati

The resources of Creative Technology and Dimension Audio were combined at this year’s Paris Motor Show, where their integrated technology created presentation media, IT infrastructure and audio playback solutions for a number of exhibits. While CT debuted their newly-acquired Barco SLM G8 projectors on the Lexus stand, the centrepiece was the Ford stand, where Kylie Minogue helped launch the new StreetKa.

CT used Dimension Audio as the sound supplier. The latter, working for Imagination, provided a system to fulfil the requirements of sound designer, John Del Nero. The sound source delivery was all from hard disk and the automated show was played out through Dimension’s front-line d&b sound rig. Dimension also provided editing facilities in the form of their Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro suite.

CT’s project manager, Darren Alexander, was overseeing the performance of th

Some of the biggest names in television gathered at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 15 for the ITV 2002 National Television Awards. But everyone in the packed auditorium had a ring-side seat - thanks to the presence of several Screenco big screen displays. The main backdrop was a 40sq.m 25mm LED screen, upstage centre, reinforced by two 13 x 8 sq. metre 15mm IMAG displays, situated left and right of the stage. Screenco also provided a plasma display for the backstage press area.

While the centre screen was sent a feed comprising of stage close-ups, the flanking screens and plasma display took its feed from the live television mix. Hosts Trevor McDonald and Tess Daley presented the awards, screened on ITV1, while this year ITV2 also broadcast exclusive coverage from backstage and the glamorous after-show party. Graham Filmer, director and general manager at Screenco commented

Stardraw has announced a unique symbol update as part of the monthly update process available to all current subscribers. By popular request, the company has made available the component elements used to create its high quality product symbols in the Block Schematic, Rack Layout and Pictorial Schematic environments of Stardraw Audio, Stardraw AV and Stardraw Radio.

The update includes more than 500 symbols of buttons, switches, knobs, connectors, logos, meters and much more. They have been created to meet all of the criteria currently used in the production of Stardraw libraries and conform to layer and drawing specifications.

According to marketing director, Rob Robinson, this is a significant enhancement. "By making the component symbols available, we are effectively giving our subscribers even greater scope to customize Stardraw to their own requirements. Although our library

Barco has won a order worth $3 million from one of North America’s foremost AV rental and staging companies, AVW-TELAV Audio Visual Solutions. Barco will deliver 30sq.m of its renowned ILite6 indoor display technology, as well as 20 SLM R8 Performer projectors to AVW-TELAV. The digital display and projection solutions will be used by the company at various high profile events throughout North America.

AVW-TELAV Audio Visual Solutions, which is a new company formed by the merger of TELAV Audio Visual Services and AVW Audio Visual, is one of North America’s leading AV rental and staging companies. AVW was founded in 1971 and although headquartered in Dallas, had 15 locations throughout the US. TELAV was established in 1982, and from its base in Montreal, Quebec operated 18 locations across Canada. Today, AVW-TELAV Audio Visual Solutions has 34 offices coast to coast and offe

When the headquarters of the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority on the south bank of the Thames opened to the public in September this year, they set a mandate that they wanted to be accessible to the public via television, radio and the internet.

One of the key technical requirements was to create a backbone - with various plug-in points throughout the building - that would allow information in the form of data and text, video and audio to flow from its source to any desk or display screen, the GLA website or for national broadcast. IVC, the company awarded the £2.1 million contract, were also asked to provide a high-grade portable presentation unit, that would be able to operate in both the first floor assembly chamber and way up on the ninth floor.

IVC devised a solution based around an 80" dnp Black Bead screen and Christie Roadster X4 DLP projector, also designing

Building on their success as video supplier for Madonna’s ‘Up For Grabs’ this summer, XL Video UK is back in the West End working for cinematographer and projection designer Jon Driscoll, and production company Tiger Aspect on the new musical Our House, featuring the music of Madness.

Driscoll and film editor Richard Overall have again teamed up with video scientist Richard Turner to produce the visuals, working in close collaboration with lighting designer Mark Henderson and Tiger Aspect’s production manager Steve Rebbeck. The production’s principal projection sequence takes place during the seminal Madness hit Driving In My Car. The Morris Minor car comes onstage, and the minimal set turns into a giant three-sided screen surface, in old-fashioned Cinema 180 film projection style. The footage propels car and cast on a journey which starts on the st

Image enhancement and gobo specialist Projected Image, has announced the launch of a new division of the company - Projected Image Digital Ltd - and at the same time has announced the appointment of the new division as the exclusive UK distributor for the RADlite PC-based video effects and digital image generating system.

The new division will be based at Three Mills Island in East London and run by directors David March and Jim Douglas, the latter of whom founded Projected Image in 1999. Projected Image, meanwhile, has moved into new, expanded premises at Three Mills in preparation for a busy schedule for 2003. Projected Image Digital will be complementary to the gobo manufacturing side of the business, and dedicated to being at the cutting edge of new digital technology, video generation and projection.

The company was formed to take advantage of the ever-increasing creative integr

XL Video were approached by lighting designer Bryan Leitch of Siyan to supply hardware for Coldplay's hihgly successful world tour - which continues until September 2003. Coldplay's unconventional video production includes an eye-catching 48ft by 9ft semi-circular IMAG screen elegantly 'crowning' the stage. With the images in 4:3 ratio, the stage takes on a portrait-shaped look.

Below this - upstage of the band - is a 4-screen RADLite video effects generation system. Several layers of lighting are sandwiched in between the two video systems, giving depth to Coldplay's overall visuals. Siyan commissioned the projection screen from XL Video. The semi-circular idea was initiated by Coldplay's lead singer Chris Martin, who approached Leitch and production manager Derek Fudge, wanting a semi-circular thrust stage.

Coldplay's video director is Nick Whitehouse, who is running Siyan's 4-way

Large format projection specialist E//T//C UK projected one of the greatest Britons - Viscount Horatio Nelson - onto the Shell Building on London’s South Bank for the launch of the BBC’s new series Great Britons.

The major new 10-part BBC2 history series, directed by Miriam Jones, included the programme about Nelson, one of the top 10 Great Britons as voted for by the public. The two 6kW PIGI projectors were located in Jubilee Gardens, near the banks of the Thames, and overlaid, to project one 40m wide image across the building.

For the programme’s opening sequence, the camera panned along the Thames, taking in the various sights of that particular stretch of the river, including the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, before swinging round to catch the dramatic projection on the Shell Building, which stands near the Eye.

Three weeks later, E//T//C UK was bac

On 14 November, 40sq.m of Barco’s Dlite 10 daylight display solution was on stage at the MTV Europe Awards ceremony in Barcelona. The screen was supplied by XL Video, one of the world’s leading large video display specialists, which due to its reputation has over the years provided equipment to events including The Spice Girls Tour (worldwide), the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the US Open Golf Tournament and U2’s ‘Elevation’ Tour.

"The diversity of important events where our clients have deployed our video displays is a testament to both the quality of our equipment and the dependability of our service," says Rene De Keyzer, managing director of XL Video. "When approached to provide material to high profile events such as the MTV Europe Awards, it is with confidence and pride that we recommend Barco’s material, as we know it will exceed the c

Embarking on his first North American tour in almost a decade, Peter Gabriel kicked off his ‘Growing Up Live’ 2002-2003 tour on 13 November with a stage production that has been termed "spectacular." Lighting designer Luc LaFortune (LD for Cirque du Soleil) has specified High End Systems equipment in the design, including 36 X.Spot HO (High Output) and 36 Studio Beam automated luminaires, as well as four Catalyst systems with orbital mirror heads and six Catalyst media servers. Controlling the show are three Wholehog II consoles with a wing.

The UK's Neg Earth is the primary lighting contractor, with Upstaging as its partner on the North American legs. The Neg Earth crew includes programmer/operator Dennis Gardner, crew chief John Shelly, head electrician Andy Porter, and Dave Cox in charge of Catalyst systems.

(Lee Baldock)

5 Star Cases, the Cambridgeshire-based flightcase manufacturer, has expanded its sales team with two new members. As from 1 November, Andy Harford has been appointed to look after all 5 Star's retail sales. This is Harford’s second spell at the company, having previously worked for 5 Star as a sales manager on the road. Harford will be mainly office-based, but is available to make visits to customers if required. Harford has a wide knowledge of the DJ Market, being a part-time DJ himself.

The latest addition to the sales team is Dave Peacock: based in Manchester and starting on 6 January 2003, Peacock will become 5 Star's North West sales manager. With 14 years’ experience in every aspect of the flightcase industry, having worked for BSH Transit cases and Condor, Peacock will aim to improve service and support to 5 Star’s existing customers whilst developing new conta

On 22 October, Orange and Microsoft announced the launch of the world’s first Windows-powered Smartphone - the SPV - at a press conference in London. Creative communications agency Park Avenue Productions developed the idea of using moving screens to communicate the key messages of the launch to the audience, and CT were contracted to provide the AV solution.

The event allowed CT to combine Dataton Watchout and QMotion screen movement. Four high-brightness Barco ilite 10mm LED screens in a portrait orientation were flown with Stage One’s Qmotion system. This enabled them to be tracked around the stage, each screen receiving input from the Dataton Watchout System. The Watchout content took the form of colourful images which set each scene, and this was supplemented with Video Stings timed to match the screen movement. The output to the i10 was pixel matched to maintain image

XL Video, the UK's leading live video production specialists, has taken delivery of the first new Barco R18 projectors in the UK. XL has made an initial purchase of four of the new units. This brings XL's total stock of large projectors to over 50. XL director Lee Spencer comments, "It's important to stay at the cutting edge of the industry, and to keep investing in the latest technology as it comes on stream. This has always been XL's philosophy."

The Barco ELM R18 Director projector combines extreme light output, high resolution and advanced signal processing to deliver remarkable performance. It is specifically designed for large screen video projection, and is equipped with the state-of-the-art DLP technology. Combined with Barco's expertise in electronics and optics, the R18 features an impressive 17,000 ANSI lumens and SXGA resolution.

XL Video's busy autumn schedul

Nocturne Productions & Vidicon are providing Barco high-performance display technology for Paul McCartney’s World Tour, which completed its 50-date North American leg on 29 October in Phoenix, having grossed over $100 million. Nocturne and Vidicon are providing approximately 1,600sq.ft of Barco’s Daylight Display LED video displays and 16 of its high brightness ELM Series DLP projectors for McCartney’s World Tour in Japan. The displays are located on both sides of the stage, each in a spectacular 60ft (18.3m) x 40ft (12.2m) display. 16 Barco ELM R12 projectors are rear-projected, side-by-side, onto eight 15ft (4.5m) x 20ft (6.1m) projection screens left and right of the stage. The stunning configuration is used to show live image magnification and video playback during the show.

Following his successful North American tour stops, McCartney then toured to Mexico City

Tom Stoppard’s trilogy The Coast of Utopia is just coming to the end of its Royal National Theatre run; not for those with short attention spans, the three sequential plays - Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - are set across Russia and Europe, and relate an epic story.

Set designer Bill Dudley was struck by the shortness of the play’s scenes and the frequency of location changes. His design had to allow for quick, simple scene changes, which provided the opportunity to use 3D-computer modelling: it was but a short step then to the use of computer-animated projections to provide instant scene changes.

With 75 scenes, kinetics were key to the set and lighting design. The production sees a partnership between Dudley, lighting designer David Hersey, DHA’s projection specialists Wyatt Enever and Steve Larkins, the RNT’s new video department and Dick Straker, its vide

The Marquee Club, one of London’s most high profile live music venues, has re-opened at a new location in Islington, North London. After a £4 million fit-out, the club has been transformed into a 1,200-capacity club/live music and entertainment venue. The Marquee brand is now owned by former Eurythmics star Dave Stewart of the Artist Network, and entrepreneur Mark Fuller.

The lighting and visual elements for the new Marquee have been designed and co-ordinated by Dan Cook, who vacated his post as technical manager of the Ocean Music Centre in Hackney to take up the role of lighting manager. Cook designed a flexible lighting rig to cater for a diverse range of artists.

For its rock and roll credentials, Entec Sound & Light was asked onboard by Gary McGovern, Dave Stewart’s studio maintenance manager and the club’s technical consultant. Entec supplied the lighting e

This year’s MOBO awards recognized both new and established artists, from Miss Dynamite and Nora Jones, to the longer-toothed Jimmy Cliff and Chaka Kahn. The production team were closer to the latter in years, but they helped this year’s awards ‘Kick Ass’, as a star-studded occasion.

The atmosphere was more like that of a gig than an awards ceremony, due in large part, to its tight production and planning. The show itself changed format considerably this year, with the guests having dinner before the show in a separate draped area before moving into the main auditorium for the awards.

The event’s production manager, Mick Kluczynski, of MJK Productions, expanded: "We changed the layout in order to keep the show fresh. I brought together my regular team of suppliers, who make a consistent and professional team for the big awards shows I run each year.

The whole slickly formulated Pop Idol phenomenon is the popular culture movement of the moment. With Will and Gareth topping the UK charts, the live Pop Idol concept is now flying high in the US with a30-date American Idol tour, produced by Simon Fuller and 19 Management, with production handled by Chris Vaughan’s CV Productions.

The show is a superlative example of high production values, with Chris Vaughan’s CV Productions team featuring many who made the first Pop Idol tour gel. With 12 trucks and 24 sold-out UK arena dates, this is some achievement in these politically jittery times.

With Vaughan himself in the States for American Idol, the UK tour is production managed by Kenny Underwood and Debbie Bray, with tour management by Bill Barclay. XL Video UK is once again the live video equipment supplier, working in conjunction with Blink TV - the latter hiring the gear

Show Presentation Services (SPS) has secured a further three-year contract as the preferred AV supplier at the Business Design Centre (BDC) in Islington, London. SPS, which has an in-house residency at the North London venue, has been working on events at the BDC over the last three years, and has most recently provided AV support for Cycle 2002 - The International Cycle Show.

Robin Coles, managing director at SPS, says: "We are delighted to be extending the working relationship with the BDC, and we hope that our expertise will continue to add value to all events at the venue. We have become an integral part of the way in which the BDC works and the two members of the SPS team that are permanently based at the BDC is testament to our close working relationship."

This sentiment is echoed by Dominic Jones, Managing Director at the Business Design Centre. He says: "We fe

The Barco Technology Showcase, held at Pinewood Studios on the 8-9 October provided an interesting opportunity to view the display specialist’s wide range of projection and display products, while the company’s experienced and knowledgeable staff were on hand to talk visitors through each product.

The Barco portfolio is certainly impressive, ranging from the compact state-of-the-art Cine Versum 80 home theatre projector through to the ScenergiX seamless wide screen and SLM Performance projectors - ideal for panoramic backdrops on stage.

Also on view to visitors was Barco’s iStudio, one of the most advanced all-in-one solutions for managed monitoring. Intended for use in studios, control centres, playout centres, uplink centres and for downlink monitoring, it has a high quality display with rear screen projection, a graphic controller and web-based operating softwar

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