Video and AV

Vanishing Points for XL Video

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - XL Video and video artist/designer Sven Ortel of Mesmer have been working together again on their latest project - Vanishing Points - staged at the Gymnasium (also known as 'The German Gym'), sandwiched between Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations.

An promenade performance pushing the boundaries of technology and imagination in a site specific collaboration between writer John Berger, poet and novelist Anne Michaels and theatre-maker Simon McBurney. Performed by Complicité, the event was production managed by John Farquhar-Smith.

McBurney asked Ortel onboard to produce special visuals that played a major role in the show's narrative. The potent and emotional work explores themes of immigration, displacement, deportation and conflict, taking the audience on the fast track from industrial to the metaphysical via the memories and hidden histories of 'arrivals' and 'de

'BBC' con-man warning

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - PLASA Media has received a warning about a con-man operating in the London area who has stolen several thousand pounds worth of equipment from a London-based AV hire company. The culprit gave his name as David Jones from BBC Worldwide, and presents convincing paperwork - and an internal answerphone message at the BBC itself - to back up the claim. He then collected, via courier, a range of equipment including laptop computers and plasma screens, and disappeared.

The BBC is aware of the problem, we are told. If anything suspicious arises, please contact Simon Brown at the BBC's investigations department on 0208 752 5094.

(Lee Baldock)

Holographic screens for British Council

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The British Council's Pall Mall offices in London now allow visitors to take a tour of the world while waiting in the reception area. The council has installed a visual communications system from Visual Planet which uses Holographic screens incorporated into a glass partition to create a dynamic 'information wall' which displays - via film and moving graphics - the work of the Council. The purpose of the British Council is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and to increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements.

This ethos was a major driver behind the refurbishment of the reception area which, as facilities manager Steve Ellis explains, is multi-functional: "The work of the British Council is better known overseas, so the reception area has a role in explaining and promoting its activities, not jus

EQ Audio's Red Bull install

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Pictured is an unusual installation by EQ Audio & Events of Dublin. The company was contracted to specify, design and build a promotions vehicle for Red Bull - based around a 1944 US Military Police Dodge Vehicle. The original vehicle was stripped out and the rear canopy roof was cut off (vehicle modification was by Par Fit Dublin) and replaced by a hinged steel canopy mounted on hydraulic rams. A 2.6kW Dometic TEC29 generator with separate fuel tank was mounted beneath the vehicle, allowing approximately four hours of independent operation from a full fill.

Sound engineer Kevin Madigan installed the audio and visual equipment. The system was specified to be used as a DJ setup - d&b audiotechnik speakers and amplification were chosen, using two of their Ci90s mounted left and right and a single E12 subwoofer power by D12 amplifiers. DJ equipment included an Allen & Heath Xo

ECT screens elected by BBC

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The BBC has chosen ECT projection screens to be used during the election broadcasts on national TV, while BBC Scotland will also use ECT screens, for similar presentations on the election night itself. The two main screens will be employed for interviews, analysis and diagnosis by the news and political broadcaster teams. The 26ft x 26ft Repro HS rear screen was manufactured in the UK, and then customised with eyelets and stretched across a truss frame. Repro HS projection material is favoured by broadcast cameras, as it does not suffer from hot spots. The company says that the BBC producers wanted the wide viewing angles offered by the Repro HS screen material, which is exclusively available from ECT.

(Lee Baldock)

Smart AV wins Australian Design Award

Details: 14 March 2016

Australia - Critical acclaim for the Smart Console continues following its recent debuts at NAB2005 and Frankfurt MusikMesse, as Smart AV announced that it received the Australian Design Award for Business and Technology. Open to products designed in Australia or by nationals working abroad, the Australian Design Award was given to 20 winners - out of more than 200 entries - judged to have added significant value to the country's cultural and design identity.

"It's a great honour to be recognized by your own countrymen, and this Australian Design Award is more than just another feather in our cap," said Joe Narai, Smart AV's CEO. "This recognition of the Smart Console is a testament to its groundbreaking design and the value it provides in delivering improved efficiency to engineers mixing large numbers of audio sources in high-pressure situations."

The Sma

Mark Brown (left) with Richard Wright, in front of their V5 screen.

New owners for Unitek Displays

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Mark Brown and Richard Wright have acquired the big screen interests of Unitek Displays Ltd and Unitek Holdings Ltd from previous owners, Richard and Graham Nye. The two men - both veterans of the display and entertainment technology industries - say that the switch will enable them to capitalize on £1.9m worth of new product investment carried out by the Nye brothers prior to their departure.

They add that Unitek Displays will continue to honour all existing maintenance contracts, while implementing a videowall and LED development programme of bespoke engineering, based on their new chip and processor technology. "We wanted to consolidate the distribution of video product - including LED and cube wall manufacture - into one entity, providing customers with a full range of product and expertise," said Mark Brown.

"We realize we may be fighting from behind

Barco LED solution for Tennis Masters Cup

Details: 14 March 2016

Belgium - Barco recently announced that it has been selected to supply LED display walls for the Tennis Masters Cup 2005-2007 in Shanghai, which will take place in mid November 2005.

The Tennis Masters Cup will be staged at the new, architecturally unique Qi Zhong (pronounced Chee-Jong) Tennis Centre. The Barco LED solution for Qi Zhong consists of multiple SLite 14 outdoor LED displays, supplied in a rental configuration, which will allow the customer to re-locate its LED displays to other venues within Shanghai. With its ultra-high light output, the SLite 14 displays offer unequalled brightness and contrast levels, making them ideal for use in very bright outdoor locations - even in direct sunlight, say the company.

Due for completion in August 2005, the Qi Zhong Centre will become the largest tennis facility in Asia. Covering over 80 acres and featuring a total of 40 indoor

Switchcraft expands in Benelux

Details: 14 March 2016

The Netherlands / Belgium - Switchcraft has strengthened its international representation by appointing Amsterdam based Audiopro Distribution to stock and supply its connectors, audio and video patchbays and cable assemblies to the broadcast and professional audio markets in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Stephen Waldron, Switchcraft's director of international sales, said: "Audiopro Distribution is a well established supplier within its market place and we are very pleased to enter this new relationship that will increase the availability of our products and introduce the Switchcraft range to new customers."

(Lee Baldock)

The V5 LED display, sits above the V9 stadium banner.

Unitek upgrades V-Series LED screens

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Now under new ownership, Unitek Displays has announced the release of its upgraded V Series LED screens - suitable for large-scale applications from concert touring to stadium banners.

The modular high-resolution LED screens - including the V5 (10mm pixel pitch), V9 (17.5mm) and V12 (25mm) - have been optimized by the introduction of Unitek's ONE processor, which can drive up to 768 x 576 pixel screens operating in native PAL, NTSC or SECAM. One features an infinitely variable Aspect Ratio Converter and programmable colour control, with unique motion/definition image enhancement feature.

"The beauty of this processor is that all the scan and aspect ratio conversion takes place in a single box," says electronics engineer, Alan Drake. Because the signal is only being processed once, the delay time from camera to screen is reduced to a single frame, or 40 milliseco

Virtual Cook a reality with Trigger

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - With four days notice, medical supplies company Cook turned to Trigger Concepts to design and install an inventive audio and visual solution for their exhibition stand and hospitality suite at the Charing Cross International Symposium 2005, creating a virtual representative to man their stand. With up to date technology including a holographic screen, and two of the world's largest plasma screens, with a viewing size of 84" a piece - sourced from trade AV rental specialist PSCo - virtual Cook led the way in exhibition technology.

The Symposium was held at Imperial College, London, with companies showcasing the latest in medical equipment. From the holographic screen, Cook was able to interact with guests in the exhibition on the ground floor, providing product information and inviting visitors to join them, from their hospitality suite on the fifth floor. The holograph

Projecting down under for Royal Mail

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Specialist trade AV hire company, Steljes Hire, supported the launch of the Royal Mail's World Heritage special stamp issue, with a visually inspiring stunt organized by Steljes' client, Eulogy. The Royal Mail and Australia Post celebrated the special relationship between the two countries with the launch of eight stamps of their countries' World Heritage Sites, issued in four pairs, featuring four UK sites matched with four Australian sites, these included Stonehenge - the UK image chosen for the 1st class stamp. To launch the range, an image of the stamp was projected onto the stones at sunrise using a Sanyo XF45 10,000 lumen projector and photographed by renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite.

Andy Horn, sales manager, commented: "We build our reputation by supporting the trade with the best audio-visual equipment and support. We strive to ensure that no matt

From L-R: Martin Featherstone, Alison Reynolds, Adam Bright and Andrew Skadorwa.

AV team appointments at CIE-Group

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - As part of its growth strategy into the AV market, CIE-Group (UK representative for many of the UK's leading AV, CCTV, lighting and electronics brands) has announced the appointment of four new field sales advisors to its team.

Martin Featherstone joins CIE-Group's Audio Division, having moved from LiteStructures, Alison Reynolds (previously from Gardiner Security) joins the Visual and CCTV Division, Adam Bright joins the Specialist Cable Assembly and Connector Division and Andrew Skadorwa also joins Visual & CCTV.

This boost to CIE-Group's sales team forms part of the Company's investment for growth across all divisions into the AV, presentation, retail and education sectors. A number of new product developments from Inter-M, Chiayo, EverFocus, Chauvet and Switchcraft and the addition of brands including Armstrong i-ceilings, ELMO cameras, B-52 Pro and Euromet brings a n

PSL's low-entry event solution

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Presentation specialists PSL has devised a portfolio of low-entry packages to enable event producers to take advantage of a tailored staging solution. PSL's scalable audio visual options incorporate projection, mics, speakers and lighting. Each can be customised to individual requirements (including client branding) and come with full technical support.

Remarked PSL managing director, Gary Davis: "These have been created as a flexible and cost-effective alternative to custom design and build, or off-the-shelf display and set systems. Whatever the presentation needs, these packages provide outstanding value - including everything required to stage an event at a fixed price."

The six separate alternatives - which range from simple wall-flats to more striking and multi-textured set designs - can be mixed and matched to suit client requirements and venue limitations

SurgeX unveils new technologies

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - SurgeX has re-engineered its one-rack-space (1U) surge protectors and power conditioners to feature new Advanced Series Mode surge suppression and proprietary power-conditioning technologies such as Impedance TolerantEMI/RFI filtering, SurgeX ICE inrush current elimination, and COUVS catastrophic over/under-voltage shutdown.

Advanced Series Mode technology is the latest generation of SurgeX's proven Series Mode circuitry, which uses an inductor as the first and primary surge-suppression component to intercept and contain destructive surge energy. There has never been a failure of Series Mode protected equipment. Unlike other approaches, Advanced Series Mode technology does not rely on metal-oxide varistors (MOVs) as a sacrificial component. In addition, it creates no ground-wire contamination or common-mode surges and has zero let-through voltage.

SurgeX 1U products prov

PID supplies O2 Retail Project

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - West-London based Projected Image Digital, has supplied and installed a series of bespoke Element Labs VersaTUBE LED display systems for telecoms giant O2. PID was working to the specification of leading UK brand experience and production company Imagination.

The installations - involving nearly 300 TUBES - are now operational in the shop windows of selected flagship O2 retail outlets around the UK. Inbuilt into customized two-metre wide racking, the VersaTUBE linear LED fixtures are running a 15 minute loop of high-impact, low-resolution video visuals.

Imagination wanted a turn-key solution for the project. It also sought a supplier able not just to specify the right product, but to offer the requisite amount of technical expertise, support and back up, both during the installation and thereafter - in the specific area of digital media. This is why PID was chosen for the

Barco: new features for Encore

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Barco has announced new show control, DVE effects and image processing features for its Encore video processing system. The Barco Encore provides source selection, advanced windowing features, seamless switching, video effects and integrated control, say the company, and its modular, scaleable architecture allows the system to support a wide variety of show configurations. The system can efficiently support from 1 to 32 screens with any combination of independent display or seamless wide-screen display elements.

New features announced by Barco include: integrated device and show control features from Events Manager and StagePRO; the ability to drive Barco LED walls with low transport delay when coupled with Barco's new LEDPro Video Processor; DVE colour effects and "strobe" processing; programmable colour correction for digital sources; support of operation with

Barco takes centre stage at Eurovision

Details: 14 March 2016

Ukraine - This year's Eurovision Song Contest, which too place in Kiev on Saturday, May 21st, showcased some of Barco's latest LED and projection technologies, including the brand-new OLite 510 display and the XLM H25 and R12+ projectors, underlining Barco's technology leadership in the international events industry.

An estimated 400 million viewers worldwide saw a spectacular stage featuring 86 tiles of Barco's brand new OLite 510 LED display technology, 280 ILite 8 LED modules, two Barco XLM H25 projectors, three Barco R18 projectors, two R12+ and three R10 projectors. Barco rental partner, Massteknik, delivered all visualization equipment used on the show.

The star of this year's show is surely Barco's OLite 510: the brand new indoor/outdoor SMD LED display technology, which combines the benefits of indoor and outdoor LED requirements in one reliable, robust LED tile built

Pinnerton: new from Alcorn McBride

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Pinnerton UK, the UK distributor for the Alcorn McBride range of show control products, has announced the availability of the Digital Video Machine - a rugged, compact MPEG-2 player offering flexible control capabilities and a wealth of interface options.

The Digital Video Machine allows clips to be copied from PC and stored on Compact Flash; clips can then be triggered using contact closures, playlists, real-time schedules or RS-232.

The Digital Video Machine offers a number of flexible options: a stereo amplifier provides two channels at 20W each; the pro audio module provides balanced, S/PDIF and Dolby 5.1; and an SMPTE-259M SDI module provides digital video out. With the optional Ethernet module users can update clips, schedules and GPS coordinates remotely - even using wireless networking.The Digital Video Machine fits almost anywhere and is vibration resistant, so i

Marquee at Royal Grammar School

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - When the 16th century Royal Grammar School in Guildford hit a snag midway through converting the former gymnasium into a multi-purpose auditorium, the school's bursar, Ian Watson, contacted Scott Wakelin at Marquee Audio, who devised an audio-visual solution which would allow simple operation and switching of playback devices - sending both laptop VGA and composite video signals from either the control room or lectern positions. At the same time, the provision of a pair of flown Turbosound TQ-310 (10" + 1") full-range speakers and a TQ-115 (single 15" sub) - enabled them to optimise the building's already enhanced acoustic properties.

The principle playback sources are the Marantz DVD player (with RS232 port) and PC laptops. Thus Marquee Audio specified Kramer switching and scaling interfaces in a signal network with a Biamp Nexia system - which handled the f

New video extender from Gefen

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Gefen has released the DVI-1000 ST - which is a new version of the DVI-1000 HD video extender, but is equipped with more durable fibre optics cable connectors to accommodate the rental and staging markets.

Though armed with cable connectors that are better able to endure frequent and repetitive setup and take-down procedures, the DVI-1000 ST uses the same methodology to extend high definition digital video up to 500m (1,640ft) from source to display. Small sender and receiver units link the source to the extended display with multimode fibre optic cables, available from Gefen in lengths ranging from 10m (33ft) to 100m (330ft). The DVI-1000 ST supports high resolutions up to and including 1080p or 1920x1200 for computers, and is equipped with DVI inputs and outputs to connect its sender and receiver units to the source and the extended display, say Gefen.

"This new v

Eclipse and E//T//C UK take the Credit

Details: 14 March 2016

UAE - Large-format projection specialists E//T//C UK projected giant images onto the majestic Gate International Finance Centre in Dubai, for the launch of Credit Suisse's new Middle Eastern offices. The event production company was Eclipse LLC, and the original concept was developed by Adrian Bell, managing partner of Eclipse. Duncan Shortt was the production and project manager.

Credit Suisse wanted to announce its arrival in Dubai and the UAE in grand style. They did this initially at an opening gala event for key Credit Suisse organization figures, followed by a week of projections in a high traffic area to maximize brand exposure and impact. Eclipse won the bid for the contract by presenting the boldest and most effective response to the brief, combined with a reputation in the region for delivering polished, high end production solutions.

With large format projection sti

Ambrose named Electrosonic MD

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - David Ambrose has been appointed managing director of Electrosonic Ltd, effective immediately. Reporting to the Electrosonic Group CEO, Kyle Carpenter, Ambrose will has responsibility for all Electrosonic's operations in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region.

Ambrose has been with Electrosonic for 15 years and during that time he has worked within the systems, products and service businesses of the company, including a short period in Hong Kong. He says: "Electrosonic has a strong history of understanding and adapting to the needs of our customers. This is an exciting time for the organisation with a significant investment in new products, growth within our service business and some great opportunities for systems integration projects."

(Jim Evans)

Lighthouse launches PopVision

Details: 14 March 2016

Hong Kong - Lighthouse Technologies has introduced what it claims to be "the industry's first portable, self-contained 'pop-up' high brightness light emitting diode (LED) video screen". Lighthouse, will be showcasing the PopVision at InfoComm which opens in Las Vegas this week.

PopVision features Lighthouse's proprietary technology, enabling "a high-resolution screen with better quality images at an affordable price". Designed for aesthetic integration, PopVision - with brightness level up to 3000 nits - Is intended for use in any digital signage network (new or existing) where LCD, Plasma and projection systems are not appropriate. PopVision can also be used in outdoor applications and be seen in direct sunlight with the proper weatherproof housing.

The 6mm screen is contained in a 5ft x 2ft mobile case with a wireless remote and hydraulic system that ena

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