UK - Within the last quarter, Blitz reports that it has invested over £1m in new video, sound and graphics equipment. On the video front, its projection fleet has been significantly extended by the addition of four Panasonic 20K units, three Panasonic D211OXE units and two Barco W8 units, together with a variety of lenses to suit different environments. Additional new video hardware includes 28 video scan converters, 20 Marshall and HAA monitors, and a range of DVI equipment.

The Audio department has added a range of loudspeakers, including 30 d&b E6 units, and a number of QLab playback systems.

The Graphics department has upgraded its fleet through two HD3000 Clarity systems, two Hyper X3.1 Chryon upgrades and 40 channels of Watchout V5.

Paul Hutton, managing director at Blitz, commented, "This investment will ensure we can deliver the very best on a whole host o

UK - A new service offering the AV industry a method to trade used, rental and ex-demo equipment in Europe has officially launched. Nearly New AV is to concentrate on both the buying and selling of used audio visual equipment.

This service is designed to give manufacturers, rental companies, integrators and end users the chance to access used AV equipment at much reduced prices than compared to brand new stock, as well as also offering a vehicle for them to sell off underutilised and older products also.

Nearly New AV's business manager Stuart Johnson explained, "This initiative has been designed with the aim of supplying a growing market for high quality used AV equipment; helping rental companies supplement their fleets and save money by investing in those products that they use the most.

"Installation companies will now have top of the range used equipment readi

UK - XL Video supplied plasma screens and full Catalyst media management and control for the acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland current production of Macbeth.

Starring Alan Cumming in all the major roles, it plays the Tramway Theatre Glasgow, and the Lincoln Center New York.

One of the co-founders of video design group Mesmer, Ian William Galloway presented original, cutting-edge and highly atmospheric visuals for the show, which is set inside an asylum.

To achieve this, he worked closely with programmer Salvador Bettencourt Ávila and the National Theatre of Scotland design team to create a unique CCTV video playback. This video enables Cumming to interact with virtual versions of himself and pre-recorded characters to create this highly intense presentation of 'The Scottish Play'.

"The production called for three remote controllable CCTV cameras to follow

UK - West Midlands- based video and production specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied PPU, projection system and crew to Second Sight Video for a recent Skoda brand experience event, culminating in an incendiary gig for 5000 people by top international DJ, Tiesto.

The event was staged at the LG Arena at Birmingham's National Exhibition centre. It was promoted virally via selected social media channels.

The CPL team was led by project manager Lee Gruszeckyj (Lee G), who also showed his talents cutting the pacey live camera mix. The CPL team assisted Second Sight to capture the full event for future video and DVD editing / internet broadcast, and recorded time-lapse footage of the build that was streamed live on Facebook in the run up to get all those attending energised and expectant about what they were about to experience.

Gruszeckyj mixed the show using an AVH

USA - A spectacular visual display guaranteed heavy traffic at dnp denmark's InfoComm booth. Backed up by further exposure of their Supernova Infinity and Supernova One displays on the Digital Projection booth, the Danish company left Las Vegas confident of securing orders and cementing new partnerships.

According to dnp global sales manager, Soeren Kraemmergaard, the upgraded Supernova Flex Classic, Supernova Core II and new Supernova STS, Short Throw screen had been particularly well received.

"With an attendance of 34,000, traffic overall at the show was up 4% up on last year - but more importantly, it felt like the leads we picked up this year were more qualified than previously," he said.

While reps reported a high degree of interest from the local market, dnp also received Asian and European visitors, and many new companies expressed interest in becoming dnp

UK - Fans, celebrities and actors alike were all present at the premier of The Amazing Spider Man in London's Leicester Square.

Digital insanity headed up the audio visual production of this highly anticipated film premiere. Along with the red carpet, celebrities and fans, a huge red spider hung at the front of the stage. Free runners and other visual performances worked on the stage as large screens relayed rendered images of the film, video streams and parts of the trailer to the crowd along with live video feeds of the actors as they walked down the red carpet.

Digital insanity used Hippotizer HD's running a dual output, driving a lighthouse R7 screen and a 8mm Cobra screen using Videomapper. As well as playback prepared GFX by Digital Insanity; they used live cameras at the premier via HDSDI. By using the HippotizerHD as the media server Digital insanity was able to

UK - London- based projection artist Ross Ashton of The Projection Studio had his Face Britain video projection work onto the front of Buckingham Palace officially confirmed as a Guinness World Record for the 'most artists working on the same art installation'.

The work - formatted for the wide-screen canvass of Buckingham Palace - featured 32 animated mosaic portraits of HM The Queen made up form a total of 201,948 self portraits submitted by children from around the UK.

All these portraits have been carefully scrutinised by Guinness World Records and certified as individual artworks.

Ashton designed and created the finished projection portraits working with Moscow-based Boris Glazer, using a bespoke version of his Mazaika software to encode all the photos and compose the 32 images from all the images.

For the show, the component images all 'flew' together to make

UK - Universal Event Productions (UEP) supplied a full technical production package - lighting, sound, video and staging - to a recent high profile party staged in the Ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane, London.

The evening's entertainment was headlined by popular chart-topping alt hip hop / rock artist and musician Tinchy Stryder and also featured a supporting slot by 2011 X-factor star, Kitty Brucknell.

UEP's Steve Butcher, who also production managed the event, comments, "We were recommended to the client by a contact. They wanted very high production values and were open to our ideas about how to make their event memorable and fun in terms of look and presentation, so it was a really good working environment and we were all proud of the resulting show." The party was attended by around 250 invited guests.

Lighting was designed by UEP's James Fickli

Asia - Green Hippo's Technical sales manager for Asia, Justin Fitzpatrick, has been busy travelling from tradeshow to tradeshow. He has visited four shows in as many weeks and supporting the company's local distributors, managed to further increase Hippotizer's profile in the region:

He explains, "Green Hippo continues to go from strength to strength in Asia helped by a strong presence at the all trade shows in the region recently. I would like to thank all the visitors at the shows for dropping by and visiting Green Hippo at our distributor's stands and making all these tradeshows such a tremendous success. The future in Asia is looking very exciting."

It all started at the end of May with the 21st Palme Beijing Expo held at the new China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC). Green Hippo exhibited at the stand of their Chinese distributor KUPO, with Fitzpatrick on

USA / UK - coolux Pandoras Box 5.1 software release is now available. Building on the success of Pandoras Box Version 5.0 launched at PLASA last fall, over 50 distinct improvements and upgrades have been added, including Media Encryption, 3D Warping, and a new Matrix Patcher. The new user-friendly Version 5.1 software package makes Pandoras Box a yet more powerful creative tool, uniting state-of-the-art rendering technology with intuitive live media and show control.

Features and improvements include:

New Matrix Patcher: Relocate individual pixels for creative setups when working with conventional LED processors, e.g. Barco, Daktronics, Galaxia/Winvision etc. A real time-saver for repositioning pixels, even with unconventional LED fixture shapes.

Timeline Key Presets: Store and recall any amount of timeline keys as presets and update their data in all instances. Significantl

Belgium - Visualization expert Barco has recently signed a series of major deals. One of the eye-catchers is that with the European audiovisual expert AED Display. The company purchased 18 HDX-W18, 24 ultra-bright HDF-W26 and 10 HDQ-2K40 projectors. The new range will be presented during demo days, including workshops, on 10 and 11 July next.

A long-term customer of Barco and part of the AED group, AED Display is a trendsetter in Europe's rapidly changing audiovisual industry. The company provides AV professionals with both rental and installation services. Its broad rental pool, which comprises Barco's full range of projection and image processing systems, is now being extended with the new compact HDX-W18, the very bright HDF-W26 and top-of-range HDQ-2K40 projectors.

Thierry Heldenbergh, managing director, AED Display comments, "We are very excited about these new add-o

USA - Christie Lites has opened a Nashville office and warehouse, the latest additions to its multi-office network of full service stage lighting supply locations across North America.

Effective immediately, the Christie Lites Rental Rep team will support clients from its newest regional office location within the Soundcheck complex at 740 Cowan St. in Nashville.

Equipment support of the full CL range of lighting and rigging equipment will come from Christie Lites' new warehouse and prep location in the Nashville suburb of Antioch. The 50,000sq.ft. high volume facility is located at 650 Dana Way.

Shannon Scott, long time industry professional from Huntsville AL, has joined the Rental Rep team and is based in the new Nashville location. Scott started in the industry in 1997 in operations and quickly began touring with such acts as Hank Williams Jr. He was most recently a seni

UK - An audience of over 700 Yorkshire business people paid and turned up to hear worldly wisdom and wit at the 17th Yorkshire International Business Convention, held in Leeds.

Over the past 17 years, the event has brought together some of the world's most inspirational and influential speakers, from Bill Clinton to Mikhail Gorbachev. This year's sell-out event was run in a purpose-built marquee at Wellington Place, Leeds with a parallel presentation at Bridlington Spa and a two-way helicopter taxi service for the speakers. The Leeds event was the last in the series, although YIBC will continue to be staged at Bridlington Spa.

The complete audio visual production was supplied by Saville Audio Visual, providers of the AV technology for practically all previous YIBC events. Saville technical project manager, Richard Zamberlan said, "Holding the event in a marquee brings its

Germany - Last month, all Germany was gripped with football fever. In addition to record TV ratings, the fans who gathered in vast numbers in front of giant screens all over the country to watch live relays of its performances underlined the popularity of the German national team. In arenas, including the stadiums in Kiev and Lviv where the matches were being contested, as well as at football parties all over Germany, sound reinforcement from Bosch Communications Systems provided the competition with acoustic support - whatever the size of the gathering.

In Dresden, the excitement was delivered in XXL format. Every time trainer Jogi Löw's team took to the field, around 12,000 fans assembled at the Königsufer on the banks of the Elbe to follow the action. To get them really geed up, the organizers (the City of Dresden and the company that produces the city's film nights) hired

USA - Norway's projectiondesign has supplied core technology to Electrosonic for the new building of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Electrosonic was the main contractor involved with the installation of audiovisual equipment and systems throughout the building.

Electrosonic was tasked with delivering AV systems that met the needs of media consultancy RomeAntics and media designer and producer Local Projects.

"Almost all the smaller screens at the NMAJH that require projection use projectiondesign," explains Bryan Abelowitz, system sales consultant at Electrosonic.

Depending on the throw distance, image brightness and resolution required at each location, Electrosonic selected projectiondesign F12, F22, or F32 projectors, and Abelowitz is pleased with their size and performance.

Anders Løkke, marketing director, projectionde

UAE - Dubai-based AV company, MediaPro International, recently fielded three Christie Roadie HD+35K projectors (along with two Christie HD18K 3-chip DLP projectors) to beam the action for the Etisalat Pro League football finals - a major event in the Abu Dhabi city of Al Ain.

Contracted by Al Ain Football Club, the production company ensured that the high output 35,000 lumens projectors, brought the event to life for the 11,000 people who gathered in the Tahnoun bin Mohamed Stadium, showing HD content and bespoke graphics throughout the event.

Images were projected onto a huge 60m x 90m canvas, using the Christie Twist module in the projectors, with the show run through a Dataton Watchout system.

With a throw distance of around 55 metres, MediaPro used 1.45-1.8:1 zoom lens on the projectors, which were mounted on scaffolding platforms positioned in the upper grandstand. This

UK - Conceived and sponsored by Saville Audio Visual in partnership with De Vere Venues Whites, the first ever Conference North attracted an enthusiastic audience to Bolton's Reebok Stadium.

Chairman Richard John introduced a team of leading events industry professionals to debate the benefits and the development of blended, or hybrid, events in some detail. The viability and effectiveness of the eStream streaming solution was clearly demonstrated on the day, with 25% of the audience watching and interacting online as remote participants.

Topics and questions from the room and from the online audience were discussed, broadcast and captured, using the Saville iDEA iPad platform to sample opinions and display results on screen. Nearly half the audience comprised professional event organisers and 60% saw the benefits to accessing a wider audience coupled with the ability to respo

Music in Schools - Violinist Nicola Benedetti has attacked the spending squeeze on music tuition in schools. She said young people needed a cultural identity to replace their obsession with celebrities and in becoming a celebrity. Benedetti began violin lessons at the age of five and went on to attend the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. The 25-year-old told the Radio Times, "I'm fiercely furious about the provision of music in schools."

Benedetti secured a £2m, six-album record contract after winning BBC Young Musician of the Year at 16 and has risen to international fame. She has also been involved in supporting the Big Noise orchestra in Raploch, Stirling - inspired by the Venezuelan El Sistema scheme to help poorer children. The violinist said: "So many people up and down the country are trying to create a better foundation for musical education.

UK - Green Hippo is excited to introduce Mercedes Stevao-Boase as a new member of the marketing team. Mercedes joined Green Hippo as their 'Marketing Executive' and she will be responsible for increasing the brands online presence via numerous social media platforms and other tools.

Asked why she wanted to work for Green Hippo Mercedes explained: "When I first saw the advert for this job I realised it combined a number of different interests that I love. Going through the interview process the atmosphere of the office was brilliant. Everyone genuinely loved the product, what they did and their team and you could see it from the way they spoke. It's something I felt I had to be a part of and being able to do what I love in such a nice environment, with the best in the industry just sealed the deal for me."

Mercedes has a BA (Hons) in Arts and Event Management and prev

Australia - "The Prime Minister's Olympic Dinner has become the signature lead-up event in preparation for the Games - to recognise and support those who have been selected to represent Australia in London by raising vital additional funds to support our Olympic team" says Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia.

The Prime Minister's 8th Olympic Dinner, produced by Multiple Award Winning producers -Peter Jones Special Events, held at the Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, raised over $2m dollars for our Australian Olympic Team, competing at next month's Games.

VIP's included former Prime Ministers, Over 60 past and present Olympians, along with corporate guests.

Entertainment for the evening included a star studded line up featuring Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, Delta Goodrem, Todd McKenny, David Hobson, Silvie Paladino, Mar

UK - As booking opened at 9am this morning, strong exhibitor numbers, record breaking pre-registration figures and a new focus on content provision were creating a buzz about PLASA 2012. With four brand new theatres and 80 free-to-attend sessions split into nine new themes, these exciting developments underpin PLASA's commitment to providing an unparalleled experience for visitors and remaining a leader in the provision of education, professional development and knowledge sharing across our industry.

PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths comments, "PLASA runs events to provide quality business opportunities, education and thought leadership. The PLASA Show in London is the only entertainment technology event to reinvest its revenue back into the industry it serves - anything that is not invested back into the show is used to help develop technical standards, certification and qualifi

South Africa - For almost two decades, Johan Stemmet has presented the much-loved South African music game show, Noot vir Noot. When he contacted technical company Blond Productions, it was to tell them of a new thought - the creation of a fresh game show called Musiek Trivia which would be aired on Kyknet, DSTV.

The quiz show would have two contestants competing against each other not unlike the popular Weakest Link, but strictly focussing on music trivia. It was important to have a polished production with a 'wow' factor.

Blond Productions' Pieter Rieck and Christian Ballot worked on ESP Vision to present three potential designs. In fact, Blond were requested to come up with the technical and set design. They worked on their faithful grandMA.

The television studio at ZSE from which Musiek Trivia is broadcast, is a small, compact area. Blond Productions

UK - XL Events, commissioned by the TRO Group, supplied a specially constructed circular LED screen for Nissan's stand in the main exhibition area of the 2012 Festival of Speed, held at the Goodwood Estate, Chichester.

The stand was showcasing Nissan's rugged Juke crossover vehicle under the 'Built to Thrill' banner. Over the Festival of Speed weekend, fans were treated to a virtual skydiving experience.

XL Events' display, measuring six metres in diameter, was made up of lightweight Pixled F-11 LED, mounted on to a circular Litebeam truss. The circular display was flown just off centre of the main stand and displayed facts and figures about the Nissan Juke throughout the Festival of Speed weekend.

Rich Pow project manager for XL events worked with Matt Price from the TRO Group both before and during the event:

"It was a pleasure to work with Matt," said Pow. &qu

UK - HHB Communications has supplied a host of equipment for new production rooms at the recently opened NGY myplace facility in Nottingham.

This project involved the conversion of the basement of the city centre Grade II listed building into a set of professional specified production rooms comprised of an impressive suite of music, radio and video studios for young people in the community. The design and contraction of the facility was carried out by The Studio People while HHB supplied equipment and commissioning services.

NGY myplace Nottingham opened this April as part of a collaborative project run by Nottingham City Council. The basement facility includes a music production studio, two radio studios, TV production, performance space and a digital-media classroom. The equipment chosen for the facility includes an Audient ASP8024 mixing console, Sonifex S2 radio mixers, So

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