UK - DB Systems is gearing up for a busy few months providing bespoke AV and IT solutions at shows in the UK, Europe and even as far as Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. DB Systems will be attending more than a dozen events and exhibitions between April and June, including nine as the official AV & IT supplier.

DB's expertise will be showcased at events such as Latin America Aero and Defence (LAAD) 2009 in Rio de Janeiro in April, ITEC in Brussels in May, which is Europe's leading event showcasing products and services for purposes of defence, training, education and simulation, as well as the Paris Airshow in June.

Oliver Richardson, DB's sales director, commented: "We are approaching a very busy period operationally but our customers know full well that we always deliver. This is demonstrated by the fact that we are attending so many events as an official supplier.

"We've

UK - A Panasonic 103" plasma screen was chosen by the United Colours of Benetton's flagship store on Oxford Street, to deliver an eye catching display for its London shoppers.

This eye-catching addition to the store's vibrant and distinctive design was selected for its ability to work in portrait, reproduce accurate colours naturally and for its new anti glare surface, which allows the screen to perform in high ambient light environments essential for this store.

The 103" plasma's high contrast, brightness and true colour reproduction means it replicates the "perfect skin tones and vibrant colours featured in Benetton's famous adverts relayed on the screen", say the company.

The screen was installed by 103" experts PSCo, using a bespoke stand to secure the screen onto the wall. PSCo's managing director Stuart Holmes explains: "The opportunities

Germany - HoloTerminal from Pronova is a new display product which the company says presents a bright, crystal-clear message. Available to rent or buy, the HoloTerminal can display information and presentations in a wide range of environments. The sleek design hides the projection technology safely away in the base of the unit, while a shaped glass screen with a 30" HoloPro 4 film laminated into it presents your message as a floating image.

The base includes a Casio XJ-S52 DLP projector, and a MacMini where content is stored. The image is projected onto the screen via a mirror. The design means that the HoloTerminal is simple to set up on location: the HoloTerminal is delivered completely mounted in a flightcase which can then be rolled out, unpacked, set up and connected on location in less than one minute, the company says.

(Lee Baldock)

Germany - At ProLight&Sound this year, Visual Productions will be focusing on the launch of its entry-level software lighting control programme, Cuelux.

Visitors will be able to tryout this platform-independent piece of software lighting control on either a Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows. Cuelux is a DMX512 lighting controller for intelligent lights, LED, dimmers, lasers and various other effects; it is shipped with a USB-to-DMX adapter cable.

Key to the design of Cuelux is its graphical user-interface. It is specially designed to reduce the amount of time required to learn how to operate the software.

Alongside this new product Visual Productions continues to develop itsother products and will also be displaying the Duple: a USB to DMX-512 dual output and input hardware interface. The Duple enables both VisualDMX and Canvix lighting control softwares to send and receive DMX.

UK - One of the 'next generation' of luxury airport hotels, boasting significant meetings and events facilities, opened last summer at Heathrow Terminal 5.

As a vibrant centre for the international business community, offering fast access to T5, the hotel's 14 conference and meeting rooms warranted having superior media and communication facilities; all rooms have been specified and equipped with the latest technology, including Christie HD-compatible digital projection proAV, which has also equipped a 117-seat tiered theatre.

Three executive boardrooms - the 16-seat Imperial Boardroom, 22-seat Opera Boardroom and 16-capacity Zen Boardroom - are versatile and digitally equipped. The most advanced room, The Imperial, incorporates a Christie DS+305 SXGA+ 3300 lumen DLP digital projector, as part of an infrastructure that includes videoconferencing, while the remaining two rooms

UK - Stage Electrics is holding its Great Easter Switch On event on 7 April at the pavilion at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol. The launch event, tailored to be of special interest for those responsible for live events, will be a free to attend informal day of product demonstrations and presentations from industry specialists.

At the heart of the programme is the product launch of Stage Electrics' new modular LED screens, designed using the latest advances in electronic engineering and featuring a 145° viewing angle. An AV specialist will be on hand to explain the features and benefits of these screens and provide a full demonstration of the product's capabilities.

The event will also feature a temporary ice rink and presentation from leading ice rink specialists Ice World, a real-time demonstration of SPLNet - a new noise level monitoring unit, and a presentatio

Ireland - When opera singer Andrea Bocelli appeared at the new 14,500-capacity O2 Dublin (formerly The Point) recently, locally-based vision specialists CAVS were on hand to meet the production spec with a powerful Christie projection rig.

Brought in by Ian Smith of Just Lite, who were responsible for the lighting and trussing, the CAVS team, led by Rowan McDonagh, were tasked with meeting an exacting brief by the opera singer's production.

"They were very specific in what they wanted - from the PA down to the camera lenses for the live show relay," stated McDonagh. "While that's not unusual at this level, it proved quite a challenge as it had been rehearsed just once in Italy and no-one was quite sure how it would translate to the O2, which is still a new venue."

The two-day show involved a pair of Christie Roadster S+20Ks positioned atop two Christie S+

UK - Stardraw.com has awarded its Master European distributor with two separate awards. German communications technology distributor, COMM-TEC, has earned the double recognition of both Distributor of the Year 2008 and Most Improved Distributor of the Year 2008. Both awards were presented at the recent ISE show in Amsterdam.

Based near Stuttgart, Germany, with offices in throughout Europe, COMM-TEC boasts an impressive portfolio of brands. They cover all AV market sectors from audio, lighting, video, presentation technology, signal management and show and event control right down to racks and bespoke equipment housing. COMM-TEC is the exclusive distribution channel for all Stardraw products throughout continental Europe, including Ukraine, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

According to Stardraw.com marketing director Rob Robinson, COMM-TEC's success with Stardraw is due in large part

Ireland - The University of Limerick is one of Ireland's largest campuses, and its Department of Languages and Cultural Studies (LCS) is a particularly well-regarded programme. Recently, the LCS department benefited from the unveiling of a new Languages Building. With this new facility came a massive technology upgrade, and a key component were products from Xantech Commercial. The equipment was installed by Kildare-based Audiviz.

The Language Resource Area (LRA) offers support to the learning, teaching and research that takes place within the LCS department. The LRA works closely with the Language Support Unit (LSU) in assisting language students and the facility includes two computer labs specifically equipped for language teaching and learning, as well as a digital language lab.

The main hub of the LRA is its state-of-the-art Self-Access Centre, which contains many resource

UK - Blink TV, a leading supplier of video screens and visual content to the live music industry, has recruited two key new staff to drive its growth strategy.

Carmela Iandoli joins as programming editor, a newly-created role designed to expand Blink's pre-show entertainment offering to appeal to artists from all music genres. Blink is known for its work with pop acts, but recent projects with indie bands such as Keane and Snow Patrol signals its intention to broaden its client base.

For Snow Patrol's current tour Blink created bespoke pre-show entertainment tailored specifically to the tastes of the band and its fans, including music selected by the band set to time-lapse photography of the stage being set up. The resulting imagery builds anticipation within the crowd prior to the band's arrival on stage. The package includes targeted advertising which helps offset the signif

Norway - Reinforcing its commitment to the markets of 3D, gaming, effects and digital media display, Norway's projectiondesign is to exhibit for the first time at the fmx/09 event in Stuttgart, Germany from 5-8 May. Now in its 14th year, fmx offers a conference, a forum, an expo and a series of other events, all with the goal of furthering innovation in the creation, production, and distribution of digital entertainment.

Exhibiting with specialist Düsseldorf-based reseller 3D Powerstore, projectiondesign will show a range of products including the F32 1080 INFITEC stereo 3D setup; an F32 wuxga supplied by 3D Powerstore; and the F10 AS3D active stereo 3D projector which will be shown in conjunction with Autodesk design engineering software.

Additionally, Anders L°kke, international marketing and communications manager at projectiondesign, will present a seminar on 3D techn

UK - Urban Digital (formerly WindowGain UK) have joined forces with rear projection specialists, Paradigm AV to create a 95 sq. ft (8.8sq.m) screen displaying Barbie's image in the window of the world-renowned Hamleys toy shop in London's Regent Street.

Chosen by Mattel's brand and design agency Oakwood-dc to install and manage the content delivery of the campaign (which runs until the end of March 2009), Urban Digital in turn, contacted Paradigm to deliver the media hardware, based around four 84in dnp New Wide Angle screens, for which they are exclusive UK distributors.

Divided by narrow mullions the screens have been hard-edge blended and colour-matched, receiving picture perfect projection from four Panasonic 5700 projectors, cradled horizontally on four Paradigm Easy Erect rigs, to fold the beams off four twin mirror rigs angled at 45°.

While Paradigm were responsib

UK - XL Video supplied full video production - screen, cameras, PPU, Catalyst media servers and crew for the concluding date of Elbow's recent UK tour at Wembley Arena, London.

This was project managed for XL by Des Fallon, with live direction by Jon Shrimpton. Fallon comments, "From my first meeting with management and production, Elbow have been a pleasure to work with. The show was immense, a very special evening."

Shrimpton worked in close collaboration with Mark Thomas from Soup Collective who designed and produced all the playback visuals, and Hugh Davies Webb, who was brought in by XL to run the Catalyst media server that was at the hub of the live video show control.

"The visual cues were all very precise and we had no physical rehearsals, so the this was a major challenge" recalls Shrimpton. The three of them had several meetings to establish, ru

UK - Kramer Electronics has announced the introduction of the VP-728 ProScale presentation scaler/switcher. The VP-728 is a nine-input scaler/switcher that sets new quality and performance benchmarks in the Kramer line up of ProScale scalers and scaler/switchers with the incorporation of Silicon Optix HQV video processing.

The VP-728 is HDTV and HDCP compatible offering 720p, 1080i and 1080p HDTV output resolutions as well as numerous other user-selectable pre-defined output resolutions and one user definable output resolution setting.

The VP-728 presentation scaler/switcher employs Kramer's FTB (Fade-Thru-Black) switching for glitch-free switching. The VP-728 can switch between any of nine inputs that include three-wire universal video inputs on RCA connectors (each can be composite video, s-Video or component video as chosen from the menu), two computer graphics video inputs

UK - A/V services company PSP has continued its rolling investment programme with the addition of more state-of-the-art equipment to its inventory.

The recent purchase of a Panasonic AVS-400 multi-format live vision mixer, Christie S+20K Roadster projector, Barco DCS 200 dual channel seamless switcher and additional Grass Valley Turbo iDDR digital media recorder/players has reinforced the company's commitment to quality.

"High definition is becoming more and more of a client requirement and so we have to ensure that we can deliver it whenever requested," says PSP's David Woodcock.

"The AVS-400 and DCS-200 are both tremendously versatile. With great input and output flexibility for all formats, they provide the ultimate in vision mixing and switching capabilities and are also remarkably cost effective.

"We aim to deliver the ultimate in visual quality an

UK/Germany - 2009 sees the 30th year since the launch of Trace Elliot as a brand, in Essex, UK. To commemorate this a special promotional video has been commissioned.

It was 1979 when the first Trace Elliot amplifiers became available and these quickly revolutionised the way the industry perceived bass amplification. Coincidentally it is also 20 years since this was repeated for acoustic players with the launch of Trace Acoustic in 1989.

With both ranges again generating much interest, these milestones are being celebrated with the imminent release of an entertaining and insightful video. This refers to the continuity of the origin of the brand's design and also reveals some of the reasons that make these brands different.

The five and a half minute video will be officially released on the first day of the 2009 Frankfurt Musikmesse, 1 Aprilt, and will be freely available in

Show Time - The lighting, sound and production industries head to Frankfurt this week for ProLight+Sound 2009 and judging by the flood of pre-show product information - and launch party invitations - received by LSI, there will be much new to see and hear. Not surprisingly, then, the organisers are anticipating healthy attendance figures.

Woodstock Reprise - Michael Lang, the co-founder of the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival, is reportedly seeking sponsors for a 40th anniversary reprise in New York City. "The chances that something will happen are probable," he told the Times. "But I don't really have the answer yet as to what that will be." Central Park has been suggested as a possible location for the event. The Who were among the acts who played at the original concert, which took place in Bethel, New York State. A 30th anniversary concert

Switzerland - Barix AGhas scheduled a series of hands-on workshops to immediate follow the upcoming NAB, Infocomm and IBC conventions. The workshops will educate attendees on the topic of Audio over IP; Barix products, new developments and available software; key markets and applications; and an overview of the ABCL environment (Barix Control Language) used for custom Barix applications.

Barix held two successful workshops alongside Infocomm Asia and the Digital Signage Expo conventions in Hong Kong and Las Vegas, and included hands-on demonstrations of how the products are used in real-world applications. The next three workshops will take place on the following dates, with locations to be announced: NAB Workshop: 23 April in Las Vegas, Infocomm Workshop: 16 June in Orlando and IBC Workshop: 10 September 10 in Amsterdam.

"The initial success of our early training sessio

Denmark - Available now is the LC Plus Series from Martin Professional, a modular system of LED video panels with new generation technology that closely integrates light, video and set design for new possibilities in indoor and outdoor staging. Designed for the demanding rental and staging market, yet equally suitable for fixed installations such as retail environments and outdoor architecture, the LC Plus is an easy-to-use, all-in-one video solution, says the company.

The LC Plus is built around Martin's new P3 technology platform (Pixel Push Protocol) for video signal processing and distribution. Based on Gigabit Ethernet and Ca t5e wiring, the P3 technology removes the inherent limitations of video-type protocols for easy connectivity and speed of set-up.

The Ethernet based system is true plug and play, eliminating the limitations of DVI, fibre optic and coax (SDI) cable co

UK - Wonderworks has created a ghostly hologram within the new £1m permanent exhibition, Uncovering Origins, at Charles Darwin's Down House In Kent. Forming part of the bicentennial celebrations of the great scientist's birth, it was created in conjunction with Paradigm AV.

Wonderworks was contracted by design consultancy, Designmap, who created the exhibition for English Heritage. The Darwin hologram is set in faithful recreation of his cabin on the Beagle. MDM Props (Designmap's build partner on the project) realised the cabin interior. Having partnered Wonderworks many times in the past, Paradigm AV was brought in to work on the elaborate fabrication.

It was at Down House that Darwin lived with his devoted family for 40 years, and it was here that he researched and wrote his most famous and seminal work, On the Origin of Species.

The new exhibition cha

Sweden - CAST Software was behind-the-scenes at the recent Elle Galan 2009 - one of the most illustrious fashion events in Sweden, held at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.

CAST Software is the maker of two popular software suites in the entertainment and event industries - Vivien-Virtual Event Designer and wysiwyg. These tools were used to create the design for the show.

Three key designers worked on the project, lighting designer Mats Andreasson, production manager Ola Melzig and set designer Åse Persson, sharing wysiwygand Vivien files with each other to meet the demands of a challenging layout, creating a striking design while saving time and money.

The venue presented a few obstacles for the team, as Grand Hotel, which opened in 1874, was never designed for the range of events to be held within its walls. Automated lights, strobe lighting

UK - Production:av, an audio-visual services provider based in Gloucestershire, has been recognised as an InfoComm International Sapphire Audio Visual Solutions Provider. Reaching AVSP status has been a target for the company for some time.

Managing director Peter McCrea comments: "We have been working to achieve this recognition to ensure our business is viewed as a qualified organisation, which provides audio visual installations and equipment rental services to the highest standards." Production:av currently has technical staff working towards CTS status (Certified Technology Specialist).

InfoComm provides an internationally recognised AV industry certification programme, which is contributing towards creating standards of excellence and practice in the AV industry.

McCrea adds: "Whether we are hiring a plasma screen to a business seminar, installing a proj

UK - AV distribution company, PSCo has commissioned the development of a new vehicle to reduce the delivery cost of its 103" plasma and 108" LCD screens for temporary and permanent installations.

Specialists in large format display products, PSCo's portfolio includes the world's largest plasma screen the Panasonic 103" and the world's largest LCD the Sharp 108".

The specially designed vehicle has a pneumatic air suspension system that lowers the tail to less than 30cm and a winch that ensures the screens are safe and secure when loading and unloading. Together they reduce time and manpower required to manoeuvre the screens.

Stuart Holmes, PSCo managing director said, "We are delighted to be able to save money for our customers and at the same time improve the service we offer. Our new vehicle benefits both our sales and rental clients by reducing cos

Hong Kong - Continuing to expand its line-up of LED display products, Lighthouse Technologies has announced the launch of HELIOS (High Efficiency LED Informative Operations System), a powerful DOOH (Digital Out-Of-Home) system that delivers and manages advertising messages "more easily and efficiently, in virtually any kind of indoor and outdoor setting".

SF6-SVP, the first HELIOS model to be launched, is a dual-sided display unit with a high resolution digital face on one side and a back-lit poster on the other. The 6mm pixel pitch, 3000 nit LED panel is capable of displaying dynamic content in a rotating fashion, significantly minimizing overhead costs. The back-lit poster on the opposite side makes it suitable for places where traffic may pass by either side of the display, such as attraction sites, high density areas, and high traffic roadsides, while the built-in

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