USA - The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded Coolux Media Systems the Emmy Engineering Plaque in recognition of outstanding achievement in engineering development for the Pandoras Box real-time compositing Media Server. Coolux Media Systems GmbH president Jan Huewel received the award during the 2008 Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards ceremony at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

"Pandoras Box is a turnkey solution that perfectly unites state-of-the-art rendering technology with intuitive media control, and it is a tremendous honour for Coolux to be recognized by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the engineering involved in developing this unique and very powerful solution," said Steve Gilbard, president of Coolux International.

(Jim Evans)

Singapore - Since gaining independence in 1965, the National Day Parade in Singapore has been an annual celebration to mark the extraordinary success of this island state that has transformed from humble beginnings to a world class cosmopolitan city.

The Show Company was the official LED Display & Multimedia Control Systems vendor for The 2008 National Day Celebrations and was appointed the task of providing everything to run the visual aspects of the show. Jo Gan of The Show Company, who oversees system design, specified the latest Barco T-20 outdoor LED display as the solution for the demanding requirements of the show.

Gan said: ''Given the magnitude of the show and the stringent benchmarks associated with a national event like this, where the entire nation from the president, cabinet ministers to the common citizen is in attendance, the show demands nothing but the very be

UK - PLASA 08 provides the perfect platform for A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd (formerly known as A.C. Lighting Ltd), to reinforce its new name and wide range of industry products and related services.

The company's stand features leading brand innovations from its four specialist divisions - A.C. Lighting, A.C. Audio, A.C. Rigging and A.C. Video - as well as providing specialist knowledge on applications using these technologies. A.C. Lighting will be showcasing a selection of innovations across its range of traditional and intelligent lighting fixtures, control, dimming and power distribution, effects, cables and connectors.

As the worldwide distributor for Chroma-Q, the stand will feature the brand's complete range of LED products for all types of entertainment and architectural lighting applications - including the new Color Span - a configurable, low-profile, ultra-b

UK - Capable of covering an entire office block, the Proteus Display system - to be launched at PLASA 08 - consists of thousands of LCD pixels interconnected in a mesh. The mesh construction not only makes the displays light and strong, but also makes them flexible, so a Proteus display can be fitted to almost any building surface. For example a Proteus display could be used to cover the exterior of a new sports stadium, a tired inner-city building or the interior walls of an expo centre, says the company.

Paul Silsby, CTO and co-founder of Proteus Displays, has been developing this technology for more than three years. "We've conceived our system as an artistic cladding system, or a media façade to use the current term, which will be of interest to both architects and designers," he says. "A Proteus Display is robust and straightforward to retro-fit, and once fi

UK - Having previously run the successful installation company, Xtreme Audio Visual, Craig Wiggins has set up a new event production company from his base in Clacton-on-Sea, in partnership with Essex Sound & Light's Mike Glover.

MRL Productions will specialise in providing a complete sound, lighting, video and staging technical service to the corporate event, theatre, fashion show and concert sector.

Their biggest contract to date has been with Great Leighs, the first new racecourse that has been set up in the last 80 years.

John Holmes' new venture - situated between Braintree and Chelmsford - hosts night racing as well as a large number of corporate functions for which MRL has been providing sound and lighting. This includes the opening night when Alexander O'Neal performed in front of an audience of 600.

The company has already developed a cutting-edge hire fleet. This

UK - Specialists in AV Rental and Advanced Product Sales PSCo has appointed Mike Nield as operations director, he joined the company in August.

Nield joins PSCo from Avanti Screenmedia where he held the role of operations director for three years. While at the digital media company he headed up the operation and maintenance of digital media private networks across retail and commercial premises. Previously he worked at Reflex for ten years working in both account handling and senior operational positions.

"I'm thrilled to be joining the PSCo family and contributing to the growth of the company at a key time of development within the sector," says Nield. "My role is to maximise efficiency of the operations departments and to help the team deliver exceptional customer service while we grow the business and open a new office in Birmingham."PSCo Managing Direc

UK - AV specialists 2Ci have completed a tour of the UK's festivals, supporting the Guitar Hero Experience with AV technology including the 103" Panasonic Plasma aboard a promotional trailer.

2Ci worked with brand experience company Bugle to create the Guitar Hero Experience, which featured a 103" Panasonic Plasma as the centrepiece to the stage set, where festival goers showed off their skills, rocking out to Rage Against the Machine, the Sex Pistols and the Kaiser Chiefs to name but a few. The most talented of the festival goers were offered special prizes, including the chance to play on the main stage at some festivals.

The 103" Plasma was sourced from trade rental company PSCo, with the company's exclusive Screenlifter which lifts the screen up to 3m in the air at the touch of a button. This was then built into a set to act as a stage backdrop

UK - A.C. Video, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, supplied lighting designer Mark Kenyon with two Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers to provide LED video control on the recent BBC Saturday night TV hit music talent show, Last Choir Standing.

In the show, choirs from all walks of life went up against each other to find out who had the passion, power and performance necessary to be declared Last Choir Standing. Presenters Nick Knowles and Myleene Klass followed the choirs as they progressed through the contest, joined by a panel of music experts.

Kenyon decided to invest in two Hippotizers after seeing the media server used on another high profile Saturday night light entertainment show and being impressed by how well it handled slow motion and de-focusing shots. On Last Choir Standing, the units were separately feeding moving image content t

UK - The range of seminars and workshops for PLASA08 (which opens at Earls Court in London this Sunday) has attracted the highest-ever number of advance online bookings. The sessions, which are free, cover a broad range of industry subjects and interests.

Sunday's special interest seminar programme includes two Infocomm seminars; the Institute of Acoustics, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Skills Academy, PMA and Arup feature on Monday; Tuesday sees sessions from the Arcola Theatre, National Theatre, ATG/ABTT and Cirque du Soleil; while Wednesday's line-up is headed by the Institute of Acoustics and CC Skills' Creative Apprenticeships seminar. Technologies For Worship is hosting seminars on every day of the show.

Meanwhile, manufacturer-led sessions include Zero 88 (Sunday), Alcons, Wireless Solution, White Light and Martin Professional (Tuesday) and Cast Software (Wednesda

UK - FogScreen is exhibiting at PLASA08 on stand D72 a seamless 3 x One projection screen installation. The FogScreen One (one meter) and Inia (two meter) both utilise patented technology to create a thin layer of fog that is dry to the touch and environmentally safe. The one-meter-wide screen provides the option of seamlessly linking with additional FogScreen One projection devices to create a fog-canvas as large as the imagination desires.

For integrators FogScreen One is especially interesting since it enables the creation of large-scale installations, says the company.

FogScreen's AV Integrator Programme for the European market is being launched at PLASA08. This programme has been designed to support AV Integrators with conceptual and technical development, to help with presentations of the screen and to provide integrators with an opportunity to purchase affordable demons

The PLASA Show got off to a flying start in London on Sunday this week, with a host of high-profile product launches from many of the entertainment technolog business's leading manufacturers. The draw of new technologies and a string of other highlights has made this a visibly successful event as we enter day three.

Tour News - With a canon of classic songs, unbowed enthusiasm and his musical faculties still sharp, Stevie Wonder has opened his first European tour for a decade. The US star took fans at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena on a two-hour journey through almost 50 years of songs that helped shape soul and pop. A sold-out crowd of 13,500 saw him play with a 10-strong band and four backing singers, including his daughter Aisha. Wonder, 58, now visits Manchester and London before other European cities.Festival News - Amy Winehouse has played her last scheduled show of the year

Norway - Gerben van den Berg has joined Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign as sales manager, Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg. The move follows the promotion of David Aleksandersen, former sales manager, Netherlands, as he focuses on the running of the company's Certified Product Specialist training programme worldwide.

"Gerben van den Berg's appointment is part of projectiondesign's effort to expand its sales and support resources for its growing customer base in Europe. The company has made several exciting product introductions in the past few months. We want to capitalise on the rising demand for high performance projection" said Chris Axford, international director, sales & marketing at projectiondesign. "Gerben is the ideal candidate to lead our sales effort in this region. He has a strong experience, good knowledge of our customer base and

Germany - After nearly five years in Las Vegas, Celine Dion has returned to the international stage with her Taking Chances tour, which started in South Africa in February 2008. Every show features six Pandoras Box Media Servers from Cologne- based coolux to help create the visual design of the show.

Lighting designer Yves Aucoin is using Pandoras Box Media Servers and Pandoras Box Media Manager, all communicating with a grandMA lighting desk. The three Media Server GREEN systems render the imagery in real time, all of which are running simultaneously as well as independently on different display technologies.

One system is controlling the extensive LED stage-floor, the second is feeding the Element Labs Stealth package and the third is used for the video switcher that is mixing the camera-feeds with the contents from Pandoras Box. Every Pandoras Box Media Server system

UK - Dover harbour will host a dramatic and ground-breaking fire show, by internationally acclaimed pyrotechnicians The World Famous (TWF), to remember and celebrate Dover's rich history. Featuring a 12m torch image, the event marks the first national push for Kent's campaign to welcome the Olympic torch relay into the UK through Dover as it did at the last UK Games in 1948.

Fireworks in the harbour and lighting the medieval beacon at Dover Castle link the sea, the harbour, and historic white cliffs. A moving soundscape of nostalgic songs with a contemporary twist will complete this show.

Partners and supporters for this event include Kent County Council, Dover District Council, Dover Pride with substantial support from Arts Council England and Dover Harbour Board.

"Just as rugby, karate and roller sports struggle to be recognised as Olympic Sports, so fireworks struggl

UK - The PLASA Show in London last week was the setting for the landmark launch of the Mayor of London's Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change initiative.

Matthew Griffiths, CEO of PLASA, who welcomed the guest speakers and audience members to the launch, told LSI: "We're very proud to be able to host the launch of the Mayor's Green Theatre Plan at PLASA08. Many of the manufacturers represented here on the show floor are already playing an active role in developing new equipment and technologies to help theatres achieve the goals set by the Mayor's Plan, and the lighting and sound industry still has a great contribution to make. PLASA and its members are very keen to work with theatres and other industry bodies, not only to help improve the power efficiency of lighting and sound systems themselves, but also to support and encourage the adoption of the many s

UK - Lighting rental specialist HSL supplied designer Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions with lighting and rigging equipment for the main stage and for site-wide architectural highlighting at the 2008 Beck's Fusion Festival. This was held at Castlefield's Arena in Manchester.

HSL and Electric Fly also recently collaborated to supply all production lighting and design for the 2008 Global Gathering dance festival, and Jevons states, "HSL is always my first choice for lighting rentals. Mike Oates (HSL's project manager) and his team have been fantastic - as always - in providing great service and excellent kit". For this event Electric Fly was working for live brand experience producers, Sevens 7.

The highlight of the two-day music and arts event was a performance from Massive Attack and United Visual Artists (UVA) - the last show of a summer tour that HSL has also

UK - Proteus Displays reports a great success at PLASA08. The company was launching a new, ultra low power reflective display screen for indoor or outdoor use, also called Proteus, which represents the first reflective display product of its type.

Dr Tim Coker, CEO, comments: "This was our first time at PLASA and we were uncertain how this new product would be received amid today's difficult financial climate. A little to our surprise, the buzz the product has generated has been beyond all our expectations, amplified of course by the Innovation Award. We have seen that this industry has an appetite for new technologies and ideas and every visitor to our stand was most enthusiastic about the product."

For the first time the PLASA Innovation Awards included an environmental prize and Proteus was the inaugural winner. Dr Coker continues: "It has been through develo

UK - Point Source Productions were approached back in April of this year by the Communications Department at Guy's and St Thomas' Charity in London to supply a lighting, sound and AV solution for their charity's showcase event. This took the form of an awards ceremony to celebrate the charity's contribution to health service innovation and improvement.

The event took place in the historic Governor's Hall at St Thomas' Hospital - a room lined with Victorian wood panelling. The brief was to provide lighting which would accentuate the features of the room without damaging the valuable fabric of the building, and to provide entrance lighting to the event and sting lighting during the Award Ceremony itself.

Point Source Productions rose to the challenge providing a number of free-standing lighting fixtures to create maximum effect with no damage.

ChromaQ ColorBlock DB4 LED upligh

Azerbaijan / Turkey - The Azerbaijan Republic has ordered 200 panels of Lighthouse R16i/o 16mm LED screen. Supplied by Lighthouse partner Provid Systems, based in Istanbul, and with service offices in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, the screens will be used at public and cultural events such as National Days, sports tournaments and other live events.

"The main criteria for this purchase by the Azerbaijan government were product and service quality," says Provid's Necdet Ercingöz. "The order is being organised in two halves, the first 100 panels were delivered in June this year. These panels have already had their first use as a giant screen in Heyder Aliyev Park, Baku's most popular square."

In the park, highlights of Euro 2008 were shown, with the Turkey versus Germany game attracting a large. Live footage from AzTV's broadcast of the military parade cele

UK - The Chemical Brothers We Are The Night tour has just finished its second summer run - back by popular demand on the international festival and touring circuit this year, after enjoying massive success in 2007.

The show is renowned for its visuals - created by Adam Smith and stored and played back via a Catalyst digital media server.

Digital media specialists Projected Image Digital (PID) spoke to the Chemical Bros 2008 tour show programmer Matthew Button about his media server of choice. He sought a lightweight, fully portable solution for visuals storage and playback. Both he and lighting tech Toby Dennis invested in Mac Book Pros to which they fitted the latest 32Gb Mtron 2.5 inch solid state hard drives and installed the latest version of Catalyst. The Mtron is turbo-charged to give super-quick video access time.

The visuals show was originally programmed on a

USA - Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign has supplied its F10, F20 and F30 series projectors to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Academy boasts a planetarium, a natural history museum and an aquarium all under one roof, and is one of the most environmentally friendly museums on the planet. The Academy has also formally recognised projectiondesign as one of its corporate supporters with the installation of its products inside Morrison Planetarium, Hohfeld Hall pre-show area, the Water Planet exhibit and the scientific Visualization Studio for creating visual and audio content.

The new Academy is in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, on the site of the old museum, aquarium, and planetarium and opens to the public this week. The building is expected to receive a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum rating from the US G

China - Shenzhou VII, China's third manned spacecraft, successfully lifted off on 25 September at from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province. The pride of China, the Shenzhou spacecraft, with astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng on board, orbited the earth for 68 hours over a three-day period.

Barco SLM R12+ projectors were used to command and control the entire launch programme at both the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre and Beijing Aerospace Control Centre. The monitoring continued through the duration of the spacewalk and concluded with its culmination, when the astronauts' re-entry module landed in central Inner Mongolia.

More than just delivering an advanced technology product in support of the event, Barco also provided on-site technical standby around the clock via a specially assigned technical team.

"There's no understating the i

Romania - In collaboration with lunatX, Aquatique Show International, and Paradigma Production, tarm Showlaser staged the finale of the White Night 2008 in Bucharest in front of an audience of more than 100,000.

Against the backdrop of the impressive facade of the Casa Poporului (Parliament Palace), one of the world's largest buildings, the city's insignia hovered in the air in the form of full-colour laser projections on a large WaterScreen. Space-spanning laser beams, beam fans, and light tunnels criss-crossed the area. Massive fireballs and 40m high fountains lit the night sky, in tune with the music.

This was the tenth time that tarm Showlaser had staged a multimedia spectacle in the Rumanian capital city and the team tarm will be back in Bucharest in late October for another project.

(Jim Evans)

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