UK - Green hippo has begun shipping all Hippotizer HDs with extensive hardware revisions enabling radical performance gains for the media server range. Based around Intel's i7 processors the revisions harness the processors power and work in conjunction with version 3.0.14's new software Playback Engine from the London based company. The i7-based servers are significantly faster and allow for more video playback layers. Previous machines ran between 2-5 layers depending on the specification and the age of the unit whilst the new i7 based units are capable of eight layers of full HD playback simultaneously.

"We've always implemented hardware revisions unannounced as a matter of course but the gains from i7 are too significant to be seen as a progression ; it's more of a milestone" says James Ross Heron from Green hippo. "Several other revisions have coincided with

UK - Manchester based DBN Lighting helped creative production company, Just Communicate to realise a visual concept for the annual conference and gala dinner of a leading technology company at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham NEC.

The brief from show producer Julian Ward was to transform the hotel's Monarch Suite into a flexible presentation space and gala dinner venue. This would host a daytime conference for a leading international technology company, and then morph into an X-Factor style televisual environment for the evening awards dinner.

Just Communicate's concept was to use the entire stage set as a screen surface using a large LED screen as a backdrop, DBN's Stephen Page suggested utilising Martin Lighting's LC2140 product wrapping around the back of the stage with a Trevira cloth rigged in front of it for the daytime sessions, giving a dynamic moving backdrop fo

UK - RTW has announced the European debut of its TouchMonitor series. The TouchMonitor TM7, with a 7" touch screen and the TouchMonitor TM9, with a 9" touch screen, will be on display for attendees at AES London 2010 this weekend.

"With the launch of the TouchMonitor series, RTW is defining an entirely new category of product that will not only help audio professionals meet current loudness standards, but does so in a more interactive, intuitive way," says Andreas Tweitmann, managing director, RTW. "We are excited to share such a sophisticated, powerful solution with our friends in the audio industry."

In addition, the TouchMonitor's inventive modular software components allow it to be customised so the user only purchases what is absolutely necessary, making this new series of audio meters a truly cost-effective solution, says the company. Furthe

UK - With his strong marketing background, Aztec Event Services MD, John Robson, immediately seized the opportunity to fill a gap in his company's rental fleet after seeing the Christie MicroTilesT launch at February's ISE Show in Amsterdam.

"I surround myself with good technical people, but my strength is seeing opportunities - that's my niche," he says. "There was clearly a buzz surrounding MicroTiles, and I could see immediately it was the product I had been looking for."

Aztec was originally formed in 1989 but Robson took over one of its divisions following a successful MBO in 2006. Around half their work is in the exhibition sector and while they see opportunities for MicroTiles in this area. Last year they also set up a creative arm, Aztec Digital, enabling them to develop their own media.

These two factors presented a compelling argument for invest

Korea - Christie reports that South Korea based D-Cinema Korea Co. Ltd. (DCK) has committed to installing Christie 4K-ready Solaria™ Series DLP Cinema projectors in the second phase of their digital cinema deployments, countrywide. After a successful first phase of installations, DCK selected Christie's Series 2 projectors, based on their reliability, low cost of ownership and upgradeability to 4K.

In the initial deployment plan, DCK, the joint-venture company of Lotte Cinema and CJ CGV, installed Christie CP2000 Series projectors in the majority of cinemas across the country. The agreement for the second phase of installations strengthens DCK's leadership in digital cinema and introduces a new era in content distribution for Korea. With this second phase installation, South Korea is expected to be the first, completely digitized country in the world.

(Jim Evans)

USA - DNP will have a strong presence at this year's InfoComm Show (9-11 June) in Las Vegas.

Pride of place will go to the newly-announced Supernova 23-23-screen material. This high-gain material (NGHG) has been developed in response to feedback from customers wanting higher-gain screens for smaller projectors, in order to reduce overall installation costs.

Supernova 23-23 addresses and eliminates (or drastically reduces) previous screen limitations, providing 35° increase in horizontal viewing angles. It is available with immediate effect on Supernova One (with which it will be demonstrated at InfoComm) and Supernova Core.

One feature that sets dnp Supernova apart is the ability to provide the total active 3D experience in a high ambient light environment - and the Supernova Infinity Screen (with 3D Content) will do just that, says the company.

A large format Supernov

UK - With just over one week to go before the 2010 PLASA AGM & Members Lunch, the organisation is asking all its Business Members to make sure they cast their vote on the proposed merger with North American trade association, ESTA.

The PLASA AGM & Members Lunch, which takes place this year at Kings Place, London on Wednesday 2 June, is always an enjoyable event and an excellent networking opportunity for the Association's members. However, this year's meeting will mark a significant step for the organisation as Members are urged to vote in favour of the proposed merger with ESTA. ESTA's own members received ballot papers on 30 April, along with a strong recommendation to vote in favour of the merger.

There are still places left at the AGM so Members can register at the address below. Alternatively, if members are unable to attend the day itself, there is an opportunity to cast

UK - For the ninth year running Hawthorns have been contracted to supply Walk the Walk's MoonWalk and SunWalk power walk challenges in aid of breast cancer charities.

Hawthorn were also involved in Walk the Walk's new challenge this year, the Celebrity SunWalk in Southampton, created to celebrate the naming and launch of the new Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship.

For the two MoonWalks involving nearly 30,000 'MoonWalkers', Hawthorns provided lighting, sound, staging, rigging, power distribution and for the first year Video which was installed into De Boer's massive 'pink palace', a 150m x 60m Galaxy structure.

Three artics of lighting, sound, rigging, power distro, video and site services made their way to Hyde Park for the main structure and ancillary marquees, including six main generators and over 10 miles of cable to supply the marquees, 300 toilets and

UK - Green Hippo's VideoMapper hit the road with Editors on their recent In this Light and on this Evening tour, promoting the latest album from the Birmingham quartet.

Lighting company Siyan supplied all the lighting for the show. Lighting designer Cate Carter, who has previously worked on successful tours for Duffy and Elbow, and her colleague video designer Paul 'Pablo' Beckett, specified two HippoCritters, conceiving one of the most creative uses of VideoMapper to date.

The design brief for the tour was to create something, dark, edgy, sinister and theatrical and as they began to understand more about the band's vision for the live shows, they settled on the concept of industrial and urban decay as a basis for the set design and visual content.

The set and video elements evolved from their desire to have a backdrop that wasn't just a two-dimensional printed image,

China - PRG has chosen Barco's video and lighting equipment for their installations at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The company was responsible for delivery and installation of the audiovisual technology in the Belgo-European pavilion, the United Arab Emirates pavilion and the opening ceremony. To bring the designs to life, PRG used Barco's LED, lighting and projection technology.

The most important inspiration for the designers of the Belgo-European Pavilion was the image of a neuron. This image, the 'Brain Cell', represents the central position of Belgium in the heart of Europe and showcases the great cultural diversity present in all major cities of Belgium. To enhance this overwhelming image of Belgium, PRG chose Barco's outdoor black LED displays, the TF-16BK.

The entrance features one 30sq.m screen, integrated in the glass facade, showing a combination of video clips an

USA - The largest annual Christian music tour in the United States - Winter Jam - toured the country from January until late March with acts like Third Day, Newsboys, Newsong, and Sidewalk Prophets.

One of the main visual elements of the set was a flown wall of upgraded LC Series LED panels supplied by Axxis of Louisville, KY. The enhanced panels were upgraded with many features of Martin's LC Plus LED panels including compatibility with Martin's advanced video signal processor, the P3-100 System Controller.

Production manager and set design duties for the tour were handled by Jerry Holcomb (along with his usual audio duties) with bands performing on a 360o set with views from all angles.

"Sometimes we'd get no one behind us and sometimes there would be a lot of people behind us, you just never knew. That's one of the reasons we used the LC panels - you can see t

UK - Integrator IVC Media has announced a new focus for its management team. John Smith who joined IVC at the start of 2010, as sales director, will take over as managing director and Ray Harding, former IVC MD, will step up to the role of chairman from 1 June. In addition, the company is creating Operations, Commercial and Sales divisions to allow services to be tailored even more closely to customer requirements.

"IVC works with some of the world's leading organisations in the field of IT, AV and broadcast installations," saysohn Smith, managing director of IVC Media. "This is an exciting time at IVC and in the past few months we have developed a clear strategy for the company moving forward and have now put in place a simple structure to allow the team to focus fully on tailoring our offering to particular customers' requirements.

"There have been some r

Switzerland - SpinetiX, developer of the Hyper Media Player hardware appliance, and Scala, the global connected signage company, have announced that their systems can now be integrated together to create cost-effective, flexible and reliable digital signage solutions without the need for a PC.

Scala's Content Manager 5 and Designer 5 software platforms can now deliver content to the dedicated SpinetiX HMP100 hardware device. The HMP100 uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) family of open-standard specifications that allows XML-based file formats to describe static, dynamic and animated information. This means that dealers and systems integrators responsible for specifying digital signage rollouts are no longer tied to PC-based platforms when deploying a Scala solution with dynamic content.

Serge Konter, marketing manager, SpinetiX, comments, "Our Hyper Media Player tech

China - A Medialon Manager Control System is being used to control and synchronise the AV devices installed inside and outside of the Macau Pavilion in Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The 10,336 cubic metre Macau Pavilion has been especially built for the World Expo in China. It is covered by a double-layer glass membrane and fluorescent screens. Rep[resents Macau's return to the Chinese mainland in 1999. The exterior of the pavilion is made of thousands of LED lights which change colours to create a spectacular show. The design of the building was inspired by rabbit lanterns, which were popular in southern China in ancient times.

Avant Video Systems (AVS), an Israeli-based integrator, was in charge of the entire Medialon set-up and AV devices integration. AVS is now responsible for supervising the system during the Expo.

Two Medialon Manager Pro allow control of over 130 Sanyo pr

USA - Returning to InfoComm, Swedish image processing and show-control specialist Dataton will showcase its flagship, Dataton Watchout.

Watchout version 4.2, shown for the first time at InfoComm, promises more flexibility, remote control, scheduling and enhanced interfaces for complex and high-impact multimedia demonstrations.

Michael Engström, director of sales at Dataton, explains, "Partners and visitors attending the show are invited not only to see the latest technology on the Dataton booth but also to register for hourly booth demonstrations highlighting how Watchout can be used in the real-life working environment.

"The deployment of Watchout in ground-breaking projects such as the Comcast Experience and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai shows that our technology is trusted to work at the highest level, and InfoComm attendees will not be disappointed by what t

Brazil - Inaugurated in April 1940, the Estádio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho (colloquially known as 'Pacaembu') in São Paulo has been transformed by the addition of a new Museu do Futebol (Soccer Museum) which covers 6,900sq.m yet has been built without any alteration to the classical design of the arena's exterior.

The museum's 17 rooms of exhibits tell the story of soccer in Brazil, from its early days as a pastime for the educated elite to its contemporary status as a multi-million dollar industry. While the icons of the Brazilian game down the years are very much in evidence, emphasis is also given to the nature of soccer as an everyday passion in city streets across the country. Video plays a key role in demonstrating both extremes -with footage of classic games and modern heroes contrasting with clips of youngsters kicking a ball around on improvised playing surfa

USA - Medialon is to present MIP HD, the first multimedia/video sync player at InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas.

MIP HD is a new Medialon compact player able to playback both multimedia content such as Flash, Html, Jpeg and even URLs as well as 1080p HD video. Interactive media such as Flash keep their interactivity if needed.

Its built-in web server provides web user interface to remotely upload media, to build up playlists and to schedule and retrieve log files.

The Sync Video mode allows synchronization of unlimited number of HD video playback via the network.

It can either operate autonomously or be slaved of a Medialon Control System making it suitable for for museums as well as digital signage applications.

(Jim Evans)

USA - dnp denmark will show a curved dnp Supernova front projection screen based on the dnp Supernova Infinity concept in the Digital Projection display at InfoComm this week.

For the first time, dnp denmark will display a curved Supernova Infinity Screen. Dubbed the Supernova Infinity Arc, this massive screen has a height of 7ft (2.1m) and a radius of 40ft (12.2m). "This concept screen provides a glimpse into the future of what the capabilities are with the Supernova Infinity Arc," says dnp's product manager, Johnny Jensen. "As far as applications are concerned, we developed the Supernova Infinity Arc to become the ultimate large-format, front projection, control room and simulation screen."

Digital Projection will use five Titan WUXGA 700 projectors. Warp and blend will be provided by DPI's new Fusion MD processors. The source will be a five-channel Watch

UK - eMerging, the UK distributor of Merging Technologies' Pyramix DAW and VCube video playback systems, has supplied three 64-track Masscore-enhanced Pyramix DAW systems to TSL, the systems integrator working on MediaCityUK, the Peel Media development on Salford Quays, Manchester's waterfront. The £500 million mixed-use development incorporates a new home for BBC North, a new HD studio complex, apartments, a hotel, office accommodation, retail and catering and an outdoor plaza shaped around a stunning waterfront.

Two of the Pyramix systems are destined for use in Peel Media's new studios at MediaCityUK, while the third will be used in the new orchestral hall designed for the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which is scheduled to open at the MediaCityUK complex in 2011. All three Pyramixes are Masscore 128 systems, capable of handling up to 128 tracks of audio

USA / UK - With Hollywood's finest in the auditorium and a live worldwide audience of millions, AV productions don't come much bigger - or more challenging - than the Oscar Night. The pressure is on to create a high-impact feast for the senses, and that inevitably leads to the technological bar being raised, as production company SenovvA discovered when it found the need to use sophisticated warp-generation from Calibre UK at this year's ceremony.

Tim Brooksbank, chairman, Calibre UK reports, "In the centre of the set for this year's Academy Awards, there was a cylindrical projection screen showing clips of nominated movies. When logos and general graphics were shown, this cylindrical projection screen rotated open to reveal an LED display, the rear surface.

"The challenge is that if you project onto a curved surface, you get a distorted picture. The initial idea was

UK - Ross Ashton's UK-based The Projection Studio is consulting on India's first permanent full moving image son et lumière Ishq- e- dilli - The Love of Delhi, which is being installed at Purana Quila, a 16th century fort founded by Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1533 and completed five years later.

Ashton was invited to join the project by its creative director and initiator Himanshu Sabharwal of Two's A Film Company, who wanted this production to be groundbreaking and completely different to anything previously seen in India.The Projection Studio is consulting on the design and installation of the projection hardware and control, and the creation of the show material.

The 50-minute show has been commissioned by the India Tourism Development Corporation, a division of the Government of India to coincide with the opening of the 19th Commonwealth Games to be staged in

USA - Christie has added two new LCD projectors to its extensive product line-up - the Christie LWU420 and the Christie LW555. The LWU420 targets professional users demanding WUXGA high resolution and the LW555 fills the need for an affordable WXGA high brightness widescreen projector, says the company.

The Christie LWU420 is a 4200 lumens projector with WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution, making it suitable for small to medium sized venues including video conference rooms, meeting rooms and training rooms.

"With the Christie LWU420 we have an extremely high resolution product that is both compact and has the highest brightness in its category of LCD business projectors," said Christie business products product manager, Frank Anzures.

The 5500 lumens Christie LW555 projector features native WXGA resolution (1280 x 800), centre lens design with a fully motorised lens sh

USA - Barco is demonstrating a new enterprise collaboration platform at InfoComm. It comes with less cost and risk, in return for more flexibility and compatibility, says the company. This new system is compatible with any type of third-party flat panels, projectors and display systems.

Barco's new collaboration box, the XDS-100 enables quick and efficient decision-making in the meeting room by allowing users to display, drag and resize several sources on-screen simultaneously. These sources can be connected physically or pulled from the network, and even include other desktop computers. Because XDS works in a Windows interface, there is no need to learn new user protocols, and all operations happen with mouse and keyboard.

"We find that not just the biggest companies benefit from this technology. Collaborating in real-time with everything on screen at the same time, inst

Israel - Better Place electric vehicle (EV) services provider has recently opened its first electric vehicle demonstration centre in Israel, which, as a symbolic gesture, was constructed inside an old oil tank located in one of Israel's last remaining gasoline storage and distribution facilities.

The visitor centre concept was developed, designed and produced by Promarket. Protech Integration, an Israel-based AV integration company, designed, made, installed and programmed the entire multimedia and control system of the Better Place centre. Protech selected Medialon Manager Show and Media Control software to be the main AV controller of the Centre.

The Visitor Centre offers the public to come and familiarise themselves with all the aspects of the Better Place solution: a fully electric, battery-powered car and comprehensive infrastructure that includes charge spots and a batte

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline