UK - As part of an ongoing commitment to provide customers with the best in cutting edge presentation technology, Saville Audio Visual has just placed an order for 22 Christie LHD700 projectors. The investment is a major step in enhancing the hire stock available through the company's twelve branches nationwide.

The new LHD700 is a single lamp LCD projector featuring a huge 7000 ANSI lumen output for high contrast and vivid colours at full HD resolution.

Saville conference and live events divisional manager Ben Voisey said, "We were looking for a replacement workhorse projector for our hire fleet, allowing us to address the increasing demand for HD capabilities. We also wanted to maximise the compatibility of our existing stock of lenses and peripherals."

"The new projectors will allow us to provide a consistent level of serĀ¬vice nationwide and helps address

UK - Examples from Christie's huge projection portfolio can be seen at PLASA 2012 - both on the show floor and at the high profile collateral event, The Knights of Illumination.

AC Entertainment Technologies is showing the Christie Nitro integrated motorised yoke and projector system (in the shape of a YK50 harnessing a Christie LHD700 projector) on stand # 1-E10.

Coolux GmbH is also be using Christie 3-chip DLP HD projection on stand # 1-C17, where a pair of Roadster HD10K-M 3-chip DLP® 1080 HD projectors will be soft-edge blended and warped to project onto a geometrical shaped screen, made from different pieces of Styrofoam.

These are supported by four Christie LWU420 3LCD projectors. While two of these WUXGA projectors will perform a 360° projection on a wooden bird house, a further two LWU420 will project onto an interactive wheel and an interactive brick, where

UK - After 12 months of intensive research and planning, UK-based VirtualXpo, a new, highly innovative digital media brand, is going public with its plans to radically change the way that technology manufacturers and service companies do business, not only in the entertainment production field but across a broad spectrum of industries worldwide.

Says the company, "An elegantly simple companion to trade shows and general promotion, VirtualXpo's beautifully crafted VX 'Super App' provides a multimedia market place in which any company can exhibit and anyone can attend wherever they happen to be in the world. Its 'game-changing' Digital Marketing Environment (DME) platform provides an expansive reference point for companies, providing all their marketing needs in a truly cost-effective package that both transcends and complements the exposure offered by current exhibitions, co

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by AED Rent and Lighting&Sound, were presented at the PLASA Show in London yesterday evening, along with the announcement of the prestigious Gottelier Award.

During the show's opening two days, 47 products were judged 'live' in front of a crowd of show visitors and camera crew by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

John Meyer of iconic pro audio brand Meyer Sound was honoured with this year's Gottelier Award in recognition of his life as one of the pioneers of the modern sound reinforcement industry.

Eight Awards for Innovation were presented - including a final Gold Award for Innovation - along with a special Award for Sustainability.

Nominees are asked to demonstrate a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, an aid to safety, energy-s

USA - Barco teamed up with broadcast and event producer SennovA, to create the visual centerpiece for the world's premiere electronic music festival in Miami, Florida. The partners delivered a stunning 3D projection mapping display, entitled Red Bull Mind Meld which covered 29 floors of the Intercontinental Miami Hotel exterior with bold, animated imagery for three nights during the festival.

The Ultra Music Festival has been a fast-growing phenomenon among electronic music fans since the first concert launched in 1999. Expanding from a one- to three-day sold-out event, this year's festival was also streamed online to bring the total number of viewers to several million (with 200,000 attending live over the duration of the event).

The magnitude of the event demanded a larger-than-life visual spectacle, which was expertly designed and executed by SennovA with Barco proje

Germany - MediaLas has added new enhancements to the high end Infinity show laser projectors. Already the recipient of two industry awards, the Infinity is still MediaLas' "top-of-the-line product with many unconventional und extremely useful features for professional event companies and exclusive clubs."

"Besides the well-known, superb beam and color quality, the Infinity has been enhanced on the processing side," says the company. "A new firmware boosts both safety and reliability of the entire system. The computerized safety inside the Infinity even corrects user programming errors in some ways, be limiting the single point exposure time of the laser deflection system, and therefore smoothing the total irradiance of high powered laser rays. Further firmware updates have been released for the network client inside the Infinity, that allows to control t

USA - Held this year in Indianapolis, CEDIA Expo 2012 proved that there is positive growth in the residential electronics sector with more than 450 exhibitors participating, and over 16,900 attendees from 71 different countries.

Among companies taking full advantage, and successfully test launching several new solutions to the home technology professional were world leaders in optical screen technology, dnp denmark.

Global sales & marketing manager, S°ren Kraemmergaard, was making his fourth visit to CEDIA and noting the consistently high footfall on the dnp booth, he had no hesitation in describing it as "the best ever" for his company.

"We received a lot of serious interest from reps, dealers and integrators who were not only focused on home theatre but also equipping sports bars and even big commercial venues."

But the reason for Kraemmergaard's

UK - displayLED has revealed its state of the art showroom and industry resource, designed to be Europe's most comprehensive collection of LED video displays. Featuring the latest in innovative LED products from leading manufacturers, The Pixel Depot opened this September at the company's headquarters near Dorking, Surrey, attracting hundreds of decision makers across the AV rental and installation markets.

On display products include solid LED modules and tiles, creative and flexible displays, mesh/curtain products, video controllers, content management software and an impressive LED dance floor. Other features include replicas of digiLED product applications, including the use of wearable LED and incorporation into objects such as a piano, as utilised by a leading US performer.

Also on show is the world's highest resolution commercially available screen. With 1.9mm pixel pit

UK - PLASA 2012 saw a successful final chapter of the show's history at Earls Court, with high quality visitor attendance, a hugely popular Professional Development Programme and a vibrant out-of-hours social schedule - a fitting end to an era before the show begins anew at ExCel London in 2013.

Although the show attracted fewer visitors than last year, following a quiet - and gloriously sunny - Sunday, numbers picked up again for Monday and Tuesday, and after an unusually busy final day the overall visitor attendance reached 11, 500 (subject to ABC audit). Despite anecdotal reports of reduced international turnout, the overseas attendance was in fact a robust 25% of the total footfall, compared with 26% in 2011. The overall response from exhibitors, however, was vintage PLASA - excellent quality visitors and good levels of business - plus a strong sense of the buzz returning to

UK - IT and AV rental company, DB Systems, has spent just over £100,000 on 170 LED LCD screens, following increased demand from customers. All the new screens, which are a mix of 55", 47", 42" and 32" in size, are Full HD, while 80 are 3D Smart TVs. The investment takes DB's LED inventory (32" and bigger) to just over 400 units and is part of an ongoing programme to tailor its stock to cater for the waning event industry demand for standard LCD screens.

Early this year, DB purchased top-of-the-range 80-inch LED screens, including touchscreens.

Oliver Richardson, DB's sales and marketing director, said: "The huge advantage of LED technology is how they look on exhibition stands or as digital signage around shows. They're almost like wall paper, which makes them so aesthetically pleasing. Our design agency customers love it when we supply LED

UK - XL Video supplied Stealth LED screens as part of a spectacular specials package for Canadian electro artist / producer Deadmau5's highly visual performance at the 2012 iTunes festival, staged at London's Roundhouse venue.

XL was approached by Deadmau5 Production Director Mark Ward, who worked with LA-based visuals designer Martin Phillips to create a bespoke concept for the show, based on curved screens that mimicked the venue's unique structural curvature.

XL's project manager Paul 'Macca' McCauley comments, "Mark and Martin came up with something different and inventive for the show to ensure that it looked individual, and we were able to turn this around quickly and efficiently."

The design was based on three separate layers and levels of screens.

The bottom section was a convex curved run of Stealth around the base of the DJ mixer riser, rigged on a spec

UK - On 6 and 7 September, Hippotizer distributors came together from different countries to preview the latest software and catch up with the latest developments of Green Hippo over the past year.

Previewing the newest features, product manager Lee House gave an introduction into 3.2 and gave the Hippotizer distributors a chance to get involved with a Hippotizer monopoly, an interactive session looking at how Hippotizer customers approach decision making.

"Even in the frantic run up to PLASA it is always a pleasure to host the distributor days," says product manager Lee House. "With a very motivated and very successful team of distributors we are pushed in every direction to make the product easier and more powerful. This year was no exception and we're already been working hard on the great ideas that came from those two days."

(Jim Evans)

UK / USA - The focus of Le Maitre Pyrotechnics and Special Effects on its US operation and its commitment to the North American market has now been further underlined by the recent appointment of a new global CEO - Rob Brenner - who will oversee both the UK and US companies. Brenner is based in the US and will also be President of Le Maitre USA LLC.

Brenner's background has been as a touring industry executive with over 25 years experience and has included producing tours for such stellar names as Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys & Britney Spears. His responsibilities in this role covered all things creative, organizational, logistical and financial, all terrific skill-sets that he now brings to Le Maitre.

Says Brenner: "I'm really looking forward to working with such a well established company. Maintaining excellent customer satisfaction will be a top p

UK - The walls of one of Scotland's most stunning historic sites, Tantallon Castle, provided the backdrop to a spectacular outdoor light and music show commissioned as part of the recent Lammermuir Festival and watched by an audience of over 1500 people.

Northumberland-based events producer, Culture Creative, who were brought on board to creatively produce the show, commissioned Newcastle-based production company, R&B Group, to provide digital mapping technology to help wow the audience with unforgettable images, lights and animation projected onto the castle walls.

Zoe Bottrell, director of Culture Creative said, "When we were asked by the festival organisers to creatively produce a light show incorporating music and words to tell the tale of the castle's history, we knew immediately that we wanted to do something quite ambitious. We engaged the expertise of R&B Group to

UK - Following the recent news of XL Video Group's investment in 66 new high brightness projectors from Belgium's Barco, XL Video UK now has the first of these units available for rental.

XL Video UK, with offices near London and Birmingham, is the first UK company to take delivery of the new Barco HDF-W26 and HDQ-2K40 projectors.

The new 26K models will, over time, replace XL's existing fleet of 20K projectors, which have been used on high-profile projects such as the projections on Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert.

The Barco projectors are available for rental immediately.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Just over two weeks since it all ended and the highs from PLASA are still running through the office at Green Hippo, says the company.

With distributors, lighting designers and DJ's to students, technical managers and programmers the stand was buzzing and everyone was able to get a sneak preview into how easy just got easier.

Head of sales Samantha Bailey stated, "The response from customers to the new release was fantastic, they are thrilled with the new markets and customers it opens them up to and are heading back to their respective countries with new jobs on the horizon as a result.

"Not only has the development been with our products but with our staff and office. Many of you will have seen familiar faces on the stand and with a closer look discovered that we're not quite human. Looking at the people behind the product we make up the team of dedicated st

UK - Chaos Visuals have been a constant presence at London Fashion Week twice a year for the last three years providing screens, playback, operators and technical support. Everything about this show is world-class: fashion design, hi-tech shows that wow the celeb audiences and run to time (quite a feat in the catwalk world) and in settings that other cities can only dream of. The Neoclassical delight, Somerset House is exactly that; a piece of eighteenth century London that provides a delicious backdrop to the week's proceedings.

Although many of the catwalk shows take place within the purpose built structure that is erected in the central courtyard, other events take place at various locations across the capital. So if you want to stay abreast of everything on offer during the week there is only once place to catch it: on the screen system set up by Chaos that relays a live vid

UK - XL Events provided audio and projection in a very neatly tailored technical package for a recent UK Roadshow presented by the Port of Felixstowe.

XL was working for London based production company Lodestar, and their project manager was Rich Pow. The brief included providing rear projection and control for the Keynote presentation plus a short concluding video, together with a full sound system and radio mics for the presentation speakers.

The Roadshow was specially tailored to an exclusive audience of around 70 key clients in each city. It highlighted the many facilities, advanced technology and excellent transportation links offered by Felixstowe - 'Port of Britain', one of the UK's leading and busiest container ports.

The clean, contemporary, aesthetically pleasing setting for the event was designed to be installed in a few hours by two XL Events crew and others, and

Canada - The Quartier des Spectacles is a roughly 1 square kilometer area downtown of Montreal. This area of the city had historically been filled with theatres and cabarets, but in the last 40 years, it had fallen into blight and become an unfavourable, and sometimes dangerous, area of the city. The Quartier des Spectacles Partnership was formed in 2003 to revitalise this once vibrant cultural heart of Montreal. Now, it is the home of not only theatres and cabarets, but restaurants, shopping centres, and many outdoor music and art festivals every year.

Eight main sites and many more to come have transformed buildings into canvases for architectural projection artwork. One of the rules of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership is that the artistic projects should only be used for public art, not for commercialism, so advertising and logos are not allowed as part of the building

UK - Nick Gray, from London based visual design practice Renegade created a stunning 50m long video sculpture for the entranceway of the 2012 100% Design exhibition at Earls Court.

The innovative work, which resembled an intricate DNA wire-frame structure in architecture and appearance was fed with video content from a media server, and amazed anyone entering the exhibition, drawing people into a completely immersive experience.

Gray was asked to create the piece by Media Ten, the new producers of 100% Design, and worked directly for Studio Design who co-ordinated the various art installations in and around the exhibition space.

Gray took a visual brief from Studio Design and based the sculpture on a fusion of graphic design and promotional artwork produced for 100% Design 2012.

He commissioned scenic specialists Firecracker Works to collaborate in realising the project, a

UK - Visual Connection (VCL) has announced it is expanding its operation with a move to new premises in Butler Works, Lancaster, UK. VCL supplies specialist lighting and media equipment, as well as being a leading designer and installer of visual technology for its entertainment clients all over the world, including cruise lines, TV networks and stage shows.

VCL will be relocating to share office and workshop space at Mainstage Ltd, cementing its long-standing relationship with the firm, one of the UK's foremost suppliers of stage equipment and effects.

The two companies have already worked together extensively, collaborating on projects for existing VCL clients, with Mainstage engineers building bespoke equipment to VCL specifications for cruise client Holland America Line. With VCL's move, the two firms look forward to working on future projects where clients can benefit fro

UK - XL Video is supplying a high power projection system and Green Hippo Hippotizer i7 HD media servers for Mercury prize winning UK indie band The xx, who are currently in the middle of an 18 month world tour having just released their second album, Coexist.

The highly innovative projection-based visual design was originated by Tobias G Randler, and then modified on the road by lighting director and lighting/video operator Michael Straun.

The design has evolved and grown, and currently five projectors are being utilised in total. Two Barco FLM22 22K projectors are positioned at FOH, and separately either projected across a white backdrop or carefully masked and beamed onto the band members, or as the set reaches its climactic conclusion, onto an imposing 12 x 12 ft three dimensional transparent X which is revealed for the final three numbers.

The Perspex X is also f

UK - The Avolites Media Sapphire Media Infinity video control system has been awarded the prestigious PLASA Award for Innovation.

During this year's PLASA show at Earl's Court in September, 47 products were judged, 'live' in front of show visitors, as an independent panel of expert judges toured the show floor, camera crew in tow, to view presentations about each product.

"Nominees are asked to demonstrate a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, an aid to safety, energy-saving or sustainability benefits, or new technology, materials or techniques," explains one of the judges.

Designed and manufactured in the UK, Avolites Media's Sapphire Media Infinity represents the next exciting step in Media Server technology, says Steve Warren, managing director of Avolites Media. "The powerful unit contains an incredible 8 Full HD outputs and conven

UK - Registration for the Panasonic System Communications Company Europe 2012 Visual Experience Road Show is now available. Road show attendees will be amongst the first to witness next generation innovative visual solutions from Panasonic.

A series of visits to major UK and other European cities has been announced during November. Solutions on display include the PT-DZ21K series projectors which debuted at the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Also on show will be the PT-RZ470/RZ370 series lamp-free projectors and the latest Digital Link connection and HDBaseT technology plus LED/Laser-combined 1-chip DLP projectors with 20K hours of lamp life.

Also on display will be TH-65PB1 interactive display and the full Panasonic education range including the UB-T880 interactive whiteboard - one of the most advanced IWB systems on the market.

(Jim Evans)

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