UK - For the first time in the UK, G-LEC is to open a dedicated sales office. Based in central London, G-LEC UK will manage all sales for architectural and other installations, as well as supporting G-LEC's UK rental partners.

Until now, rental projects have been the focus of G-LEC's business in the UK, but Lars Wolf, managing director of G-LEC Europe, wants to begin to put more emphasis on the company's new architectural products, saying, "Chimera, which we launched at PLASA this year, is a strong product for us. We already have 700sq.m installed in the BMW Museum in Munich, and we are getting a lot of enquiries. We need a full time sales office in England and, as we have other partner companies in Europe and the Americas, it made sense to form G-LEC UK."

As well as managing sales, G-LEC UK will also support the company's existing UK rental partner, Creative Technol

UK - XL Events is supplying audio and video equipment plus four crew for the CBeeBies Live Treasure Hunt UK arena tour which is being production managed by Nigel Mousley for BBC Worldwide.

XL Events' Rich Rowley says: "This is the fourth year that I have been involved in this project and every year brings a new set of challenges. This year we were looking at big rear projected images with the addition of a 'lifesize' giraffe and elephant to contend with. As you can imagine some pretty creative keystoning was needed to allow the beasts to move around backstage."

Ade Moore is looking after the video for XL Events, which consists of a 32 by 24ft centre stage projection screen being fed by a triple stack of rear-projecting Barco ELM R18 'Director' machines fitted with 1.2 wide angle lenses.

These receive content programmed into two Coolux Pandora's Box digital m

UAE - ORB, the fully mechanised LED globe, has caught the attention of the Middle East. It is now in the hands of set and stage rental company, IBS Decor LLC, which has secured the exclusive sales and rental agreement for the region.

"Although we only took delivery of the ORB very recently, we have already arranged for it to be used at the closing ceremony of Dubai Film Festival and at the Shakira concert in Abu Dhabi," says Nick de Fay, sales manager LED Products for IBS Decor.

"We feel the potential in this market for ORB is excellent," he continues. "In addition to Dubai Shopping Festival and Summer Surprises, the region hosts a large volume of concerts, exhibitions, promotions and corporate events. There is a high demand for sponsorship for these events and this is where we see ORB coming into its own.

(Jim Evans)

Serbia - Operacija Trijumf is one of Serbia's most popular television shows, combining a singing talent contest with Big Brother-style behind-the-scenes footage of the contestants in their shared house. Forming the backdrop on the stage during the contestants' performances, Lighthouse R10i/o 10mm LED panels are deployed.

66 panels of R10i/o LED panels, purchased by Operacija Trijumf production company Emotion Production, formed four screens on the stage.

"We choose the R10 panels partly on recommendation and partly because the only other LED screens currently in the region are 19mm pixel pitch," says Aleksandar Miljus of Emotion Production.

"We want to offer more versatile LED panels to the region and, after this series of Operacija Trijumf, we will be able to use the 10mm panels on a wide range of indoor and outdoor events. We will

Europe & Middle East - GearSource Europe has been appointed as the official Christie Digital Partner to sell their B stock products in the EMEA region.

Garry Nelsson of GearSource said: "GearSource Europe has quickly established itself as the premier web site for industry insiders wishing to buy or sell pre-owned lighting, sound, staging and video equipment. The association with Christie will enable us to offer even more video related products to our many users in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa".

Dale Miller, vice-president EMEA, Christie explains: "Our business in the region has expanded dramatically over the last three years. As a direct result we have needed to enlarge our demonstration fleet to meet the opportunities we have to develop new business. The agreement with GearSource Europe will allow Christie to refresh its demo fleet more frequently and

Denmark - Maxedia Broadcast, the latest generation of Martin Professional's user-friendly Maxediamedia composer and playback device, is optimised for High Definition playback with ultra fast quad core processors, 1080p playback support and two dedicated engine outputs, says the company.

Two powerful graphics cards provide a dedicated user interface plus two engine outputs. Each output can be split over a maximum of three displays for custom wide-screen projections, allowing a maximum of six projectors to be connected to Maxedia Broadcast. Maxedia Broadcast supports a full pixelmapping engine for CMY and RGB systems. It has the same intuitive graphical user interface as other Maxedia systems and can be networked with them as well.

Utilizing an intuitive touchscreen-optimised user interface, Maxedia offers users "a vast library of media content - video clips, still images a

UK - MTFX has just invested in some new 5 way Firedance units. "MTFX's Firedance flames have been so popular with our customersthat I wanted to take them to their next level, which are these new 5 way compact units," says managing director Mark Turner.

"Each unit is light weight, compact and gives you a fantastic spread from such a small footprint. They are ideal for use on pitches and other sports arena and literally add a new dimension to flame effects. The other advantage is that the flames can now be coloured green, red, blue as well as the standard orange."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Two Catalyst digital media servers are being used to great effect on the Kings of Leon Only By The Night tour in an integrated visuals show created by live visuals director Phil Haynes, lighting co-designer/director Ali Bale, creative designer & co-LD Paul Normandale and live video director Phil Woodhead.

The Catalysts - running a pre-release version of the latest V4.2 software which gives 10 submixes on 16 layers - are outputting the nine-camera IMAG mix and assorted playback content to 1000 tiles of Barco MiTrix screen and 270 Element Labs VersaTube HDs.

These latest spec Catalyst machines were supplied by Catalyst's UK distributors Projected Image Digital (PID) to the tour's UK & European lighting contractors Lite Alternative. They are fitted with two Apple MAC 3.2 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors, 4GB RAM, an 8800 Graphics card, 128GB Solid State Drives and

UK - Set up by the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the Digital Lab is a new £50 million facility at the University of Warwick in Coventry, designed as a high-quality research environment.

Its mission is to become the world's first multi-disciplinary centre, enabling leading digital experts to come together and deliver research, which can impact on all sectors of the economy. The Lab will initially focus on Digital Healthcare, Digital Manufacturing and Service, promoting innovation and boosting research opportunities between academics and user organisations.

The facility provides end-to-end hi-definition quality using native HD projectors from Christie, while site wide AV distribution through an access grid is central to the design of system integrators, Pure AV.

"The fact that we already had a good working relationship with WMG probably helped," said direc

France - The town of Asnières sur Seine just outside Paris has decided upon a new Innovason Sy80 digital mixing console to complete its AV inventory.

Thierry Plenier, who runs the AV department with department head William Baruch, comments: "I was fascinated by the Muxipaire (digital snake) when it first came out, and when we bought our first digital console in 2002, if I'd had the budget, I'd have bought a Compact Live. As it was, we went for another solution, which has served us well until now, but we are reaching the ceiling of its limitations in terms of mix capacity, and our analogue console just doesn't offer us the flexibility we need to handle monitors."

Regarding the Sy80, Plenier notes: "From a technical point of view, first and foremost, the sound quality is excellent. Secondly, to our huge delight, you don't have to configure your patch to the conso

Canada - Ross Video has announced the appointment of Jan Mills, as director, marketing communications. He enters his new position after 31 years with Ross, spending the last 10 years as media marketing manager.

"This promotion recognises the significant impact that Jan has made over the past 31 years with Ross. Jan has been instrumental in building and promoting our brand and communicating the innovation and integrity that it stands for." said Jeff Moore, executive vice president, sales &marketing. "

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Production, Operations and Artistic teams of Cirque du Soleil are currently looking for passionate individuals of all levels of experience to fill upcoming positions in a wide range of theatre-related technical fields, including automation, rigging, sound, lighting, carpentry, props, wardrobe, video/projection, stage management, artistic direction, technical direction and project/production management.

In an effort to attract the right people to fill these many roles, the company is hosting a recruitment event in London on Tuesday, 3 February 2009. This 'Red Curtain Recruitment Event' will provide an opportunity for those interested in working with Cirque du Soleil to meet its recruiters and managers, have a drink and a quick bite to eat with current employees, and generally learn more about the company and its many career opportunities.

Anyone wishing to attend can r

UK - dnp has announced the release of a new Ceiling Cassette for discreet installation of the retractable dnp Supernova Flex Screen. This will be available in the UK through distributors, Paradigm AV.

"Eight out of 10 installations with retractable front projection screens are currently ceiling-mounted, so we anticipate a dramatic increase in sales as a result of the introduction of the Ceiling Cassette for the Supernova Flex. This new installation option will undoubtedly drive new business for installers who work with the Supernova Flex Screens," says general manager of dnp denmark, Niels Hermansen.

The ceiling-mounted system targets users who prefer their Supernova Screen to 'vanish' when not in use - for example, in conference rooms and home entertainment applications in private homes. At the push of a button, the Supernova Flex Screen rolls down through a slot in

Spain - Design consultants Equipo 63 from Madrid approached Czech-based trussing manufacturers Milos to custom build a large stand for their client at London's World Travel Market exhibition, staged at the ExCel Centre.

Equipo 63 are known for their innovative approach to design and build projects of all types, and are always keen to incorporate cutting edge technology in the process.

They have worked with Milos and used their products on many previous projects. On this occasion, the Equipo 63 team designed the stand, which included a 12 x 12sq.m 'crown' flown above, holding a 10m diameter circular truss 'inside', which was used to hang a series of projection screens making a 360 degree internal panorama.

Equipo 63 then approached Milos with their concept, and asked them to come up with a structural solution and all the required logistics to make it work in situ.

Milos dev

Norway -projectiondesign will use Integrated Systems Europe 2009 to showcase a completely updated range of professional projectors, as well as the range of high-end home theatre products, and the latest in 3D stereographic projection systems.

Anders L°kke, international marketing and communications manager, notes the irony of projectiondesign this year choosing to showcase its products inside a 'blackbox'. "Given that many of our projectors are used in research applications which, for political, scientific, or commercial reasons are top-secret, it seems rather appropriate for us to showcase the latest fruits of our own R&D in a way that is controlled and discreet," he says.

Among the new products on view 'in the box' will be three revamped product platforms - the F12, F22 and F32 series - all of which are updated to feature performance enhancing VIDI lamp technol

Belgium - Arkaos has released its latest media server software, Media Master. First announced at the PLASA show in London, the software is now, after months of final development and testing, shipping with immediate effect. Media Master has been designed specifically with show and lighting market in mind.

Built on ArKaos' latest generation of technology, Media Master runs perfectly and reliably on standard laptops or can play up to eight full frames-per-second HD movies on an octo-core server, says the company.

Media Master's new interface has been designed to give lighting designers and video artists "the best ergonomics possible". Designed around one single window, it is possible to display all playing layers simultaneously, giving designers improved visibility of their shows. Supporting MSEX (Media Server Extensions) protocol, the ArKaos Media Master allows thumbna

UK - Following the launch of Animotion Live, AV solutions company PSP has introduced another new concept to the market - 3D-holocube. PSP is working closely with the UK distributor, activ8-3D, which also delivers the 3D projection platform for the Animotion Live system.

3D-holocube provides an alternative advertising medium and offers a new way of enhancing brand experience. Ideal for point of sale applications within the retail market, product launches and live events and exhibitions, 3D-Holocube is a fully integrated, mini 3D holographic system that creates 3D video holograms to deliver instant impact, says the company.

"3D-Holocube offers our clients vast opportunities," says PSP general manager, David Woodcock. "Content needs to be specially produced. This is a service we provide alongside the rental of the 3D-Holocube unit itself. Images can take anything f

Norway - Succeeding the F30 series of DLP projectors, the new F32 series from projectiondesign is now shipping in SXGA+, 1080p and WUXGA image resolutions.

Like all of the company's new wave of product platforms, the F32 features Philips' latest VIDI lamp technology, along with completely revised colour management and configuration options. To these, the F32 adds active cooling, which enhances reliability and prolongs useful product life for a lower total cost of ownership, says the company.

The F32 offers projectiondesign's DuArch dual illumination architecture with 'hot swappable' lamp modules, along with Texas Instruments' BrilliantColor technology and their own RealColor colour management suite.

The F32 utilises its feature set for greatly enhanced image quality and extended calibration and colour-matching capabilities. It also boasts a sealed optical architecture design

UK - Live event and audiovisual hire specialist First Network is the first UK company to add the new Panasonic PT-DZ12000 projectors to its product portfolio.

Dennis Georgiou of First Network reports: "We have been very pleased with the performance and popularity of the Panasonic range of projectors and have maintained a good stock, so investing in the PT-DZ 12000 was a natural progression. The features guaranteed from Panasonic, such as high resolution, clarity and brightness, along with Panasonic's sales and technical support, have often convinced our purchasing decisions their way.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Exhibiting at The ARC Show for the first time, G-LEC UK will be showing its newest architectural LED lighting product, Chimera. Suitable for museums, interior design, themed spaces and hotel and corporate reception areas, the first installation is in the BMW Museum in Munich, where 700m² form an impressive media façade for BMW Square, the heart of the museum.

Combining two existing products - LEDs and printed circuit boards - G-LEC's Chimera is one of the first products to offer absolute flexibility of shape without compromising control over individual LEDs, offering designers great possibilities for dramatic graphics and video using an LED video system that can cover large areas or fit the smallest space.

Also being seen at The ARC Show will be G-LEC's fun 'balls on a rope' Solaris system.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Plasma wall manufacturer Orion is launching a UK based website www.infiniteplasma.co.uk for integrators and end users of the Infinite Plasmas, to offer a comprehensive technical resource for the current range of screens.

The Orion Infinite Plasma range, which launched in summer 2008 features both installation and rental version of the bezel-less plasma screens, which are joined together to create video walls or any size or shape. This technology is at the forefront of corporate and commercial installation projects in the UK and Europe, with a flagship 240 screen Infinite Plasma display recently being completed in BMW Welt in Munich, the largest single project to date.

Orion worked with specialist distributor PSCo to build the website, to suit the needs and respond to feedback from the product's approved integrators. PSCo Managing Director Stuart Holmes states, "The n

Europe - D&M Installation (DMi) and Hawking Technology have signed an exclusive agreement for the distribution of the US manufacturer's CI networking products in Europe by DMi, with immediate effect. With the agreement, DMi now offers a professional range of network products to partner the new generation of AV signal source components from Denon, Marantz and Escient.

The Californian based company's product range includes Wireless Access Points, Gigabit switches and wireless security cameras. With the addition of selected Hawking Technology products and systems to the DMi portfolio, D&M Europe's dedicated CI division now offers integrated network solutions to interface with the latest Ethernet and WIFI network enabled products from Denon, Marantz and Escient, as well as with WiFi control systems like the Marantz RC9001 touch-screen universal remote control handset.

Commenting o

Poland - Eight F30 sx+ DLP projectors from projectiondesign were used to create two high-resolution animated panoramic displays directly on to the historic walls of Sanguszko Fortress in Poland's capital Warsaw for the 10th birthday event of Polish company, AT Media.

Polish live events specialist Moov More Video used the eight F30 sx+ projectors which were combined with Dataton WATCHOUT4 software to geometrically blend and correct images on to two 24m diameter cylindrical 120-degree panoramic surfaces. Each panoramic display produced a resolution of more than 5 Megapixels and formed part of a system that wowed AT Media staff and customers with a two-hour long animated programme in high definition.

Industry veteran Thierry Ollivier, regional sales manager for projectiondesign, says: "The unique way in which our projectors are integrated is testament to their durability, hi

UK - Peacocks feathers, the twisted branches of trees and other non-traditional Christmas images have been projected onto the Grand Theatre in Blackpool over the past fourteen weeks by EMF Technology.

Stuart Roberts, of EMF confirms that it was a challenging brief, including the installation of a fully automated 7kw Hardware Xenon projector with slide changing system. The client, Blackpool City Council, required the projection to run for six hours per night, automatically switch on and off and reset without a live operator being present.

Drawings were completed for a custom made cabin, with bespoke cooling, ventilation, weatherproof and security features, so that the projector could be situated outdoors in some of Blackpool's most in-hospitable winter weather.

EMF designed and produced a specialist switching system to enable the smooth running of the projector and the automa

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