UK - XL Video continues its long association with singer Robbie Williams, supplying over 46,000 Barco FLX-24 pixels, HD camera system, D3 control, IMAG screens and crew to the Take The Crown stadium tour.

XL's project manager Phil Mercer is working closely with the tour's production manager Wob Roberts

The camera mix is being crafted by Stefaan 'Smasher' Desmedt and the stage set which includes a back wall video screen and a huge video mapped scenic piece of Williams' head, is designed by the late stage architect Mark Fisher. Artistic director and lighting designer is Willie Williams and the show's producer is Lee Lodge.

The impressive 12.6m high by 7.5m wide 3D head was modelled from a scan of Williams' face and is fully pixel mapped. It is central to the elegant theatrical visuality of the stage, and is fitted with the 46,000 Barco FLX 24 video pixels - the same one

UK - London venue the Brewery has confirmed Blitz Communications as its exclusive in house audio visual supply and production partner. The five-year agreement will commence on 31 July.

James Varah, sales director, at the Brewery comments, "We are thrilled to be welcoming Blitz to become part of The Brewery family at a key point in our history. Our business has grown significantly in the last eighteen months, and we are now hosting more events than ever before. The breadth of Blitz offering was instrumental in our decision, and we feel will enhance our already comprehensive event service."

(Jim Evans)

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd provided spectacular video projection for the British Racing Drivers' Club's (BRDC) dazzling annual British Grand Prix party at Silverstone racing circuit.

Staged every year on the eve of the F1 Santander British Grand Prix, this year a party was held for the first time at the BRDC Farm, which is adjacent to the celebrated race track.

AC-ET's technical manager, James Bawn, decided to bring the façade of the space's Georgian building to life. For this he used dynamic, high-speed racing footage from the BRDC's own film archive. To achieve the overall look Bawn specified a Green Hippo GrassHopper controlling Barco HD20K Projectors and TV One signal transmission for the projection.

BRDC's Stuart Pringle was delighted: "It was fantastic to see the BRDC Farm transformed into a dynamic, visually vibrant space full of light and

UK - The Emirates Stadium, the North London home to Arsenal Football Club was the venue for an unforgettable night on 1 June with American rockers and Grammy Award winners, Green Day. This was their first stadium show in London since 2010 and formed part of the Uno, Dos, Tré, Tour. The video element of the show was supplied by Chaos Visual Productions who are continuing a packed schedule of events this summer.

The band, who, despite their mainstream successes still adhere to their punk ethos, chose not to deviate from their stripped down look to the stage allowing the video crew to concentrate on the band members (and audience members) playing on stage. Video director, Blue Leach was given pretty much carte blanche to interpret his vision of the show onto the two 29Sqm Barco OLite 510 screens either side of the stage.

"The band wanted a very clean look to th

Souith Africa - Green Hippo has announced Electrosonic SA cc as their new distributor in South Africa.

Electrosonic SA cc, a leading supplier of stage, theatre and entertainment lighting for over 21 years, has similar ideals and the same passion as Green Hippo, says the company. It sees this partnership as an exciting extension to the range of world class brands that it represents, such as Martin Professional, CM Loadstar, ADB, Compulite Litec and Milos Structural Systems.

Entertainment lighting manager Bruce Schwartz says, "We are really honoured to represent Green Hippo, and see the tighter integration between video and lighting growing even further with this partnership. We look forward to offering the backup, service and knowledge that Electrosonic is renowned for, on the entire range of Green Hippo products and growing the world-wide rental network."

Green Hip

South Africa - Christie has named Stage Audio Works as its authorised service centre for South Africa.

Through this appointment, Stage Audio Works will provide the following technical support services to Christie's customers in South Africa: technical telephone support , service and repair Christie products under warranty and a local inventory of parts and consumables for Christie products

This arrangement will help to support the fast growth of Christie's business in South Africa since the opening of its first Southern hemisphere branch office in Johannesburg this time last year.

Dale Miller, vice president EMEA for Christie explains, "Our business in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa has grown quickly since investment in our Johannesburg branch office. Now the appointment of Stage Audio Works to the role of Authorised Service Centre allows us to maintain the high st

UK - Working for event management company MEDIAmaker, XL Events recently supplied multi-screen projection, mapping, live interactive elements, camera system and audio systems for a corporate conference and awards ceremony serving 1200 delegates and guests.

The event, held at Telford International Centre, was spread across a total of six rooms, as well as being webcast live to an invitation-only microsite which allowed attendees in remote locations to login and view the awards in the evening.

In the primary room the main focus was a twin projector blend using two of XL's Barco FLM HD20s on to a 13m x 4m screen. The blend was controlled by an Encore unit, also from XL Events, which was programmed and controlled by Charlie Archer.

This screen displayed keynote presentations, awards films and other graphical elements.

Either side of the main screen two stacks of flown boxes we

UK - West London based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) supplied lighting equipment, LED screen and crew to lighting designer Rich Gilson for the recent Die Antwoord (The Answer) show at London's Brixton Academy.

The South African Zef rap-ravers Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er have a massive international cult following, a reputation for hugely energetic shows and visceral, raw, insightful - often controversial - videos that embrace numerous South African sub-cultures, all of which are self-directed.

Gilson has worked with them since last year. He designed the lighting for this latest three week UK and European tour based around the Brixton performance, where they brought in a full production.

He was extremely pleased when Colour Sound were also confirmed by promoter SJM to supply equipment for the gig, having worked with them on many previous occasions. "

UK - Blitz North is supporting the BBC in delivering their Summer in the City programme, a season of sport, fun and family entertainment aimed to promote becoming active in sports.

Staged in the MediaCityUK Piazza, the series of events are planned around the summer's major sporting events, and recently featured the Women's European Football Championships. A comprehensive technical solution was provided by the Blitz team, featuring all-weather staging and audio systems, and IP rated power distribution for the entire site to cover every eventuality. Video support included a miniature HD outside broadcast system, enabling relay of VT, off-air and live camera images to MediaCity's big screen.

John Crompton, project manager for Blitz Manchester, commented, "Delivering the perfect solution required careful consultation with all parties involved, including the FA and the

UK - Every year since 1993, the Goodwood Estate in Sussex, UK has hosted the Festival of Speed; a motoring event celebrating the greatest automotive marques and vehicles.

XL Events, working for client Shelton Fleming and their producer, Dan Rees, supplied an innovative interactive audio and video package for Audi UK's brand activation at the 20th Anniversary Festival of Speed event.

Audi's stand, the largest at the show, was located in the manufacturers' area and incorporated 1,700sq.m of external show space and a 400sq.m pavilion in which the experience was staged.

Based on Audi's victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 & 2013, the experience presented a series of Audi innovations that were designed for high performance racing and now feature in road cars.

Teaser and competition promotion videos were presented on four waterproof outdoor plasma screens from XL Events as

UK - Blitz North has been appointed as the sole AV and technical staging provider to the Liverpool Music Awards. Sponsored by the City Council, the awards are a key part of Liverpool's International Music Festival, held over August and September.

Ellie Phillips, founder and director of the awards, commented, "After meeting with Ian, it was clear that Blitz were going to be the right team to work with, alongside our events management and catering team. They demonstrated the creative flair we were looking for, essential for the awards, while remaining professional and extremely reliable. I'm looking forward to the ceremony at St George's Hall knowing how spectacular it is going to be in their hands."

Chris Jordan, Blitz Communications' head of sound added, "We have a strong background in the world of theatre and music and we welcome the opportunity to be involved

Germany - Osram has for the first time achieved maximum image quality for pure laser-based projection with a combination of laser and phosphor materials. The new phaser technology contains modules which do not need to be replaced during the complete service life of the projector. They will be used for the first time in projectors from the end of this year.

Until now only green light was generated via laser with laser-based projectors - LEDs were responsible for the blue and red primary colours. With phaser technology, where 'phaser' stands for phosphor and laser, Osram for the first time presents a process which achieves outstanding image quality with projection by the use of laser, made possible by blue laser diodes. The beams of the diodes are focused directly onto a wheel coated with red, yellow and green phosphor. When the wheel rotates the colours are generated in sequence,

UK - The Kings of Leon have a busy and varied schedule this summer in Europe. Venues range from indoor arenas like the O2 in London and the LG at Birmingham's NEC though to outdoor festivals like the Tennant's Vital Festival in Belfast and Denmark's Smukkeste Festival at Skanderborg. In between are the more intimate spaces of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and the iconic Roundhouse in Camden Town. Paul Normandale's design has to have more than a modicum of flexibility at its heart.

The video element of the design is all supplied by Chaos Visual Productions - eight screens of differing sizes are arranged in a classically Normandale asymmetric form. "Although the optimum height for this rig is 50ft there are occasions when that can be reduced to 15ft. I also had to bear in mind that, on a festival stage, our rig could only occupy the last 10ft of the upstage area to allow other

UK - Green Hippo has announced that along with their ever developing range of products, the team behind it all is expanding even more with the addition of Zep Mouris and Vlad Voina, software developers, and product design intern Rhian Wellington.

Mouris, who started at Green Hippo as an intern has developed his programming skills whilst working towards finishing his degree and has been a great addition to the team from the get go.

Voina joins the team as a graduate from Goldsmiths University with a BSc in creative computing and he has shown great enthusiasm working at Green Hippo and in the industry

Wellington, a BA industrial design and technology student at Brunel University joined in July working closely with the Hippotizer range.

(Jim Evans)

Malaysia - Originally founded in Johor Bahru, Malaysia by Presbyterian missionaries from England, the English-speaking congregation of Holy Light Church celebrated its 60th anniversary with the completion of a gleaming white new church building. To ensure clarity for speech and music, this new worship hall has installed a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system.

The hall's architecture features a high-peaked ceiling and ample windows which give a feeling of natural light and open space. This design also introduces reverberation for choirs in traditional worship services, though these same acoustical conditions introduce problems for both spoken word and amplified contemporary praise bands. To find the best solution, the church went to Danny Kinchang of Selangor, Malaysia-based First Live Sound Sdn. Bhd.

"The church's range of worship styles coupled with its reverbe

Mauritius - The Gearhouse Group of companies recently took charge of all technical requirements ahead of the 63rd FIFA Congress hosted in the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre (SVICC) in Mauritius.

The opening was held on 30 May and the congress took place on 31 May, and Gearhouse was the first choice for executive producer and creative director David Bloch to partner with, in executing the opening ceremony.

Originally, Pieter Joubert (technical director - opening ceremony) was briefed to advise on the technical and set aspects of the ceremony only, but it soon became apparent that the actual congress would require extensive support as well, due to the limited resources available on the island. As both the opening and the congress were to take place on the same stage, in the same venue, with only 12 hours and a rehearsal in between, this became quite a challeng

UK - Projection Advertising transformed the appearance of 94 Baker Street, the Grade II listed one-time base for Apple Records and the Apple Boutique, as part of the 31 July event to launch the luxurious new Apple Apartments.

Utilising two 15K projectors to create a light projection, Projection Advertising adorned the building -on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street - with a contemporary interpretation of the famous psychedelic-style mural by Dutch group The Fool, which had originally adorned the Apple building in its heyday. The image was projected with the strapline 'another beautiful place for beautiful people' - echoing Paul McCartney's description of the Apple Boutique as 'a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things'.

"It was wonderful to play a part in such an historic occasion," explains Tom Burch, managing director of Projec

South Africa - Christie has today announced a deal with MGG, one of the largest rental staging companies in South Africa, for four Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP purpose-built, event-staging projectors. These will be the first of the new J-Series projectors to be deployed in Africa.

MGG has been steadily increasing their investment in Christie Pro-AV systems, starting with LCD and 1-chip DLP, moving to 3-chip DLP, UHP illuminated M-Series and now onto the J-Series digital projectors.

Mark Gaylard, owner of MGG, said, "Over the last couple of years we have purchased a number of Christie products and have been particularly impressed with their quality and reliability, so when we were looking for projectors that could enhance our capabilities and offerings, they had to be Christie."

Gustav Barnard, technical and education manager at Stage Audio Works, added, &qu

South Africa - In March earlier this year, Kilowatt AV raised R35 000 for the charity Songo, besides supplying the full technical support, at The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

"Every year Kilowatt AV chooses to back a charity," commented Dillon Jearey, managing director at Kilowatt AV. "We feel that by doing this we can add significant value with cash and services donations. We look for charities that do not facilitate basic life needs but rather focus on inspiring people and helping them get excited about life and the awesome opportunities it presents. For the last two years we have supported Songo, a charity that uses cycling to inspire and uplift a community."

Kilowatt AV's main drive for their charity is entering a team into the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle tour and then raising money through suppliers and other friendly companies. DWR Distribution w

UK - Neets have announced its new exclusive distributor in the UK as Sahara Presentation Systems Plc.

Sahara Presentation Systems Plc is a trade only distributor and manufacturer of Audio Visual (AV) products including major brands as well as their own brands of audio solutions, mounting products, and more traditional presentation products including rail systems, dry wipe boards and notice boards.

The agreement, which sees Sahara distribute the full Neets portfolio means Sahara can offer a comprehensive range of control systems, connectivity and input panels predestined for classrooms, board rooms and conferencing facilities.

Shaun Marklew, sales and marketing director at Sahara says, "I am very pleased with the addition of Neets to our product portfolio adding great connectivity products and value for money for our resellers."

Carl Harper, screens and connectivi

USA - Twenty shows, 20 acts, 20 days! Hippotizer saddled up at Houston's Reliant Stadium and went the distance at this year's Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The annual Texas extravaganza featured nightly concerts by some of the biggest names in music, enhanced by video content wrangled and programmed by John Dickson of LD Systems, Houston.

Six outputs from three Hippotizer HDs delivered synchronized video playback to a variety of video displays supplied by LD Systems and Screenworks. Eight 8'x 16' "filler screens", with a total of256 WinVision 9mm tiles were rigged above center-stage between eight 29' x 16' HD Toshiba IMAG screens showing live content. Expanding and enhancing the filler displays were stage footer and header rings, and stage backdrop, all comprised of 3868 Barco MiTRIX 24mm LED panels. Seamless video content displaying across every one of these dispa

Switzerland - On Saturday 10 August a giant movement of people cascaded through downtown Zurich with almost 1m fans joining the 22nd Street Parade celebrating from 1pm to midnight right next to Lake Zurich.

Top acts like Bob Sinclar, Fedde Le Grand, Nicky Romero, Westbam and NERVO entertained and excited the crowds on eight large stages and 30 music trucks with further performances provided next to the festival site.

Nicky Romero and NERVO performed their acts on the main stage next to the Mythenquai (the former site was blocked by construction works), which were supported by a large light spectacle and a big live laser show. Acts on two further stages the Bürkliplatz and at the concert hall were also supported with many laser light systems from Laserworld.

Altogether Laserworld used laser light systems with a total output power of up to 200W, which were controlled by profe

The Netherlands - Creative Technology has announced that Edwin de Haan has joined the project management team of Creative Technology working out of CT's Holland operation.

Effective 1 August 2013, de Haan brings with him a wealth of experience in managing large complex video productions on a national and international basis, having spent seven years in a similar position at XL Video in the Netherlands.

Jeroen Jongenelen, general manager of CT's Holland operation commented, "We are delighted that Edwin has agreed to join CT. With his industry experience, I am confident that Edwin will be supporting CT's business development and continued growth. We look forward to his contribution to our Holland operation."

(Jim Evans)

China - As part of Creative Technology's (CT) commitment to offer the latest and most innovative equipment, CT's Asia Pacific operation reports that it has just placed an order for Barco HDX W20 Flex Projectors. This investment is a subsequent order following the delivery of the Barco FSN system earlier in the summer.

The Asia market - in particular mainland China - is demanding a similar level of quality of equipment as that in the European and the US markets and CT is aware of a noticeable rise in the amount of incoming events into the region, says the company. With CT's Asia Pacific operation offering full service of video, audio, lighting and rigging, the in-house team of Western and Chinese engineers and project managers provides total solutions to our clients.

(Jim Evans)

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