UK - Until now, short throw and ultra-short throw projection has typically been limited to smaller, lower brightness, fixed lens projectors used in education seminar rooms and in corporate meeting room environments. Panasonic is about to change that with the arrival of the new ET-DLE030 short throw lenses for larger format single chip DLP projectors.

With prototype models shown earlier this year at ISE 2013 and at Prolight + Sound shows, engineers in Panasonic R&D operations have since been finely crafting an impressive solution that vertically redirects light cast from projectors at a distance of just 370mm from the projector to produce a bright, perfectly symmetrical sided image directly above it. This is achieved by a cleverly designed mirror system and brings about new and exciting possibilities, unachievable with front projectors especially for applications in digital signa

UK - With an emphasis on increasing its presence within the UK AV marketplace, Vivitek UK's dealer showcase day brought its dealers, distributors and potential customers together to display its extensive range of projectors and display equipment.

Hosted at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey, the day saw a steady stream of industry professionals pass through the doors, keen to learn about some of the 40 Vivitek projector models now available in the UK.

Speaking at the event, Brian Grogan, regional sales manager at Vivitek Corporation said, "Vivitek has grown as a company extensively since it was founded five years ago as a subsidiary brand of Delta Electronics. With a range of products that cater not only commercial and office applications, but that now stretch through educational establishments, large venues, home cinemas and out 'on the road' with portable offerings, the Vi

South Africa - Christie reports that Gearhouse, the largest rental staging company in Africa, have extended their relationship with Christie through their purchase of eight Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP projectors.

As well as their impressive rental staging credentials, Gearhouse are also the leading technical supplier to the live event industry in the region. They are specialists in all aspects of event staging - design, projection, lighting, audio, screens, rigging, power, sets and structures. Vision, passion and service excellence are key drivers for them. The company's head office is in Johannesburg with branch offices in Cape Town and Durban.

Christie and Gearhouse have a close relationship which spans almost 10 years. Over that time Gearhouse have built up a substantial inventory of Christie products, including Roadster HD10K-M, S+16K and HD18K digital projectors,

UK - Audio visual company Saville Audio Visual has announced the appointment of Rob Morrison as head of sales (south) for the Conference & Live Events division.

Morrison has been successfully involved in the creative live events and communications industry for over 12 years during which time he has been involved in some major events including a position as the corporate hospitality manager where he led the hospitality sales for the FIFA World Cup in 2006.

Based primarily with the team in Guildford, he will build on the foundations he has established from working alongside Saville for the last six years, to develop the company's' solid reputation within the industry and explore new market opportunities and deliver growth across multiple sectors.

Head of events for the south, Adam Pike said, " Rob is a vital stepping stone in pushing forward our brand values and extending

Spain - Over the summer there was one story dominating the Ibiza headlines: the launch of the island's hi spec new superclub, BOOOM!, featuring a custom made Pioneer Sound System and visuals powered by Avolites Media's ultra high spec Ai Media Server.

The Ai Media Server is being used to feed multiple surface projections and LED screens around the club, providing an integral part of the BOOOM!'s 'world class clubbing experience'. Production Manager for the BOOOM! project was Dave Singleton from The Shop Ibiza.

"I specifically asked Steve Warren from Avolites Media to get involved as I'd worked with him and the Ai Media Server before," explains Singleton. "I knew it was the only piece of kit that could provide us with the flexibility and sheer power to meet our demanding visual needs. Our single Ai is running an incredible amount of information from under its

UK - Wicked, the award-winning musical that tells the untold story of the Witches of Oz, has taken to the road for its first UK and Ireland tour kicking off in Manchester and winding its spellbinding way around the British Isles and Ireland well into 2015.

No stranger to the show, Creative Technology's (CT) seven-year relationship with Wicked's successful West End tenure at the Apollo Victoria Theatre is continuing with the Show's touring side in providing video projection and a full replay system for the supporting imagery.

Supplying Wicked UK Tour Productions two Panasonic PTDZ133 projectors, both of which are positioned at the front of the Circle and aimed at the stage, CT is also providing main and back up Catalyst Media Servers to output the video to the projectors. CT's project engineer Chris Higgins assisted projection designer Elaine J McCarthy and her productio

UK - Aylesbury Buckinghamshire LED screen and visuals specialists EMTO has specified and supplied LED screen solutions to two high profile club installations in central London - Amika in South Molton Street and Egg at Kings Cross.

Both clubs are radically different in vibe and demographic. Amika attracts a trend setting and sometimes celebrity crowd who like to hang out on one of central London's most opulent and fashionable streets; while the charismatic raw industrial chic of Egg attracts a young crowd who love the music, mixology and magic created by of some the best DJs and performers on the EDM scene.

Both venues approached EMTO's Wes Matthews because they wanted high quality LED technology installed with some flourish, design and purpose rather than just for the sake of it!

When the installation at Amika received the green light, they wanted it in immediately, so Matth

USA - XL Video UK and US operation XL Video Inc. combined resources and expertise to provide LED screens, Catalyst control and crew, plus a dynamic high production value video design to impress followers of the Christ For All Nations (CFaN) Ministry for two shows staged in the Amway Centre in Orlando, Florida.

CFaN is led by the high profile internationally known Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, renowned for his gospel missions throughout Africa. According to his website, Bonnke has personally preached to over 120m people and led 72m in the prayer to salvation.

XL Video UK's project manager Paul 'Macca' McCauley was approached by CFaN's UK/US based technical production manager Paul 'Boyo' Manuel to provide something different and innovative in terms of video reinforcement for the shows and a system design - developed in conjunction with TAIT - that would not only WOW the crowds, bu

UK - Green Hippo has added new personnel adds to its team whilst familiar faces move up, in the very Green, Unit 307.

Simon Harris, a familiar face in the AV industry has been with Green Hippo for over six years, first joining as part of the sales team in a company of six, he quickly took on the role of head of training.

This December Harris takes on his new role as user experience manager bringing in new responsibilities. Harris is now the 'point of call', managing the interaction between users and the products and with his vast technical knowledge bridging the gap between end-users and development.

Ryan Brown, who joined the company just over a year ago, making his debut at the 2012 PLASA show London, started as a product specialist, also working with support and testing. After quickly establishing himself as a confident and technical individual, matched with his character

UK - This year, Fleetwood Mac have been on a major tour of the USA and Europe that encompasses the large arena-size venues with the likes of Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY, the beachside theatre that can require some creative planning from a production team to load-in a full show rig. At the time of writing, the fourteen date leg of the tour in Australia and New Zealand has been cancelled to allow bassist and founder member, John McVie to receive treatment for cancer.

Not for the first time, Chaos Visual Productions supplied the production with the video hardware. As lighting designer, Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie remarks, "Video features in almost the entire set so getting the balance between lighting content and IMAG was crucial. Incorporating video successfully is always something of a balancing act. I feel we have brought a modern look to the visuals without distracting from what ha

UK - As Academy Music Group (AMG) explores new technology to complement existing in-house production across its venue estate, O2 Academy Leeds welcomes investment from the Group, with brand new, state of the art LED panels.

The 42 LedGo EQ HR Silan 6mm lightweight LED Black Face panels (each 488mm x 732mm) are seamless and easy to build and dramatically transform the stage, in horizontal or vertical designs, in high definition.

"We have seen more in the way of LED video coming through our venues with touring productions over the last year, so it's important we remain at the forefront of new technology, ensuring we are offering promoters the most attractive production facilities. We are the only venue in Leeds to now offer a full stage LED screen in house as part of the existing rental package. A video wall can provide the most exciting backdrop as well as video-based elem

Germany - Water played a leading role at Wolfsburg's Autostadt theme park this summer. The pinnacle of this year's stagings was the water shows, the world's largest of their kind, which the Autostadt produced and choreographed on its own.

Around 350 water systems producing more than 70m-high fountains, more than 130 flame generators producing up to 15m high flames, seven LED screens, eleven full-colour 25 Watt lasers, 20 green laser scanners, plus new light and sound concepts were employed at this year's shows.

Technical implementation of the project was assigned to a team whose collaboration had proven its worth in staging the annual shows for the last few years. Included among the collaborators were the firms of Aquatique Show for the water systems, Leyendecker for the lighting, tarm Showlaser for the laser systems, Entertainment Technology Concepts for the video equipment,

UK - Projection Advertising this week helped event specialists Fisher Productions transform the appearance of the Liberty building in London's Great Marlborough Street for the prestigious store's annual Christmas launch event. Fisher was tasked with producing a spectacular light and video mapping display, for 4.30pm on Saturday 9 November. Lighting elements from Fisher will remain in situ for eight weeks over the Christmas period into the New Year.

Following an interactive countdown, beautiful Liberty snowflakes were projected across the building in Great Marlborough Street, culminating in a crescendo of colour and light where elements from Liberty's Christmas range burst across the building which was draped with a visual representation of Liberty print. Great Marlborough Street, which was traffic free for the launch, was packed with crowds watching the Tudor building come alive

Spain - Broadway and West End spectacular Les Misérables has taken to the road and is currently visiting 20 major cities throughout Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands.

The Stage Entertainment España production includes screen projections of paintings of Victor Hugo, the author of the original novel on which the musical is based. Working with Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and Fifty Nine Productions on productions of Les Misérables worldwide, Creative Technology (CT) are providing five Panasonic PTDS10K projectors and a Catalyst playback rack comprised of Catalyst Media Servers. Four of the projectors are positioned on the back wall of the stage while one is front of house aiming at various on-stage positions to project virtual scenery and supporting imagery.

CT has a long and ongoing relationship with Les Misérables, having supported the

Mexico - Leading Mexican sound rental company Tecno Son Espectáculos has deployed its new Nexo STM modular line array system for the Corona Capital Festival, sponsored by Corona beer. Held over two days in October at the Rodriguez Brothers Racetrack in Mexico City. The 2013 festival attracted a larger than ever crowd of 85,000, eager to witness the international line-up of rock and dance acts.

Tecno Son Espectáculos had previously handled one of the festival's smaller stages using Nexo Geo D and CD18 systems. The arrival of the new STM system in early summer 2013 caught the interest of Eduardo Gonzalez, audio technical manager from production and booking company OCESA. Gonzalez took the decision to debut STM on the Corona stage, one of two main stages, along with other components from Tecno Son Espectáculos' existing NEXO inventory.

Acts performing on the Corona stage inclu

UK - The Firtash Foundation - a Ukrainian foundation promoting Ukrainian arts recently held the Days of Ukraine festival across three days in London.

The culmination of the events was a family festival of music, dance, food and handcraft demonstrations held in Potters Field Park, next to Tower Bridge. XL Video, working for producers, EventPM Ltd, supplied LED screen and camera system for the festival.

The 15sq.m LED screen needed to be suitable for outdoor use and possible inclement weather and be lightweight for rigging from a small truss. For this purpose XL's project manager, Mark Rooney, specified Pixled FX-11 LED. The screens on the main stage showed a combination of pre-recorded content and IMAG footage from XL's camera system.

XL Video supplied five Sony HD cameras - four HXC-100s and an HDC-P1 on a remote 10m track which covered the entertainment on the main stage fr

UK - The third edition of Lumiere Durham, Durham's popular light festival came to a close, Sunday 17 November at 11pm. First estimates put the number of visitors at around 175,000 attending the festival over four nights. The festival is produced by leading creative company, Artichoke, and commissioned by Durham County Council. The event is also supported by Arts Council England and a raft of sponsors and funding bodies.

Artichoke says that early estimates indicate that 175,000 people attended the festival over four nights, and the city's restaurants and hotels were full to bursting over the weekend. The event passed off safely and without incident.

This year, to spread the crowds, the festival had extended opening times and a free ticketed system during peak hours in the central area for the first time.

Visitors from all over the world flocked to the festival to see t

USA - The Empire State meets state-of-the-art display technology from Christie for a spectacular, fully immersive visitor experience this holiday season at the Barneys New York flagship store in Manhattan. Barneys and Christie have partnered again to bring back the traditional family shopping experience in a "bricks and mortar" setting, creating magical windows and an in-store gallery through the use of visual technologies.

Inspired by native New Yorker Shawn 'JAY Z' Carter, visual artist Joanie Lermercier and Barneys' creative director Dennis Freedman, A New York Holiday is a series of windows facing Madison Avenue and an interactive in-store gallery brought to life by the latest generation of Christie digital display technologies.

A New York Holiday premiered on 20 November, benefitting the Shawn Carter Foundation, a charity which awards post-secondar

UK - Lighting and visuals rental company Siyan has made its first investment in Chromlech's Elidy product, with the purchase of 24 x Elidy-S panels which went directly out on the current Texas tour, as specified by lighting designer Paddy Farr.

Siyan is supplying all the tour's lighting and associated rigging, a project that started off as a floor specials package for some of the smaller shows in Europe and then expanded to the full production rig for the latter half of Europe and the UK section as the venues increased in size.

Siyan's project manager Jez Johnstone comments, "Paddy came up with a really versatile, flexible design, complete with a great 'classic' look and feel to it, and we are very happy to be working with him on the tour."

Farr was not given a brief as such for the design, but when he initially spoke to lead vocalist Sharleen Spiteri, she mentione

The Netherlands - XL Video collaborated closely with Ogle Hog to supply video production equipment, expertise and crew to the spectacular 2013 MTV EMAs staged at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.

XL delivered nearly 800sq.m of various LED surfaces, video projections and creative / scenic LED elements plus control and 12 crew under the project management of Guido Ruysschaert to help realise an ambitious production design by Wieder Design from Germany. This was based on an intergalactic theme and featured a giant UFO style structure above a spherical stage.

The 2013 EMAs, directed for live broadcast by Russell Thomas and lit by Tom Kenny, was attended by a live audience of around 12,000 and aired across MTV's global network drawing record viewing figures - claimed to be over a billion! Fans worldwide cast a staggering 292m votes across all MTV digital platforms to help decide the 201

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies video division has supplied a Christie Roadster DS+14K-M projector to Clockwork Audio Systems Ltd to project a series of historic visuals onto Plymouth's 124ft Devonport Column in commemoration of its restoration.

Local social enterprise company, Real Ideas Organisation (RIO), oversaw the restoration and re-opening of the Grade I listed column. Their brief to Nick Western at Clockwork Audio Systems was to provide a solution to project historical images marking the life of the column - mapped onto its face, with an accompanying soundtrack and a fireworks climax.

The second requirement for the projector was that it could be used in the associated Devonport Guildhall next to the column - to project images for conferences and events - but also to use as part of a cinema experience.

AC-ET's Video division, which offers complete creative LED, p

Denmark - Neets has introduced its most advanced AV control system to date: Neets Control - DelTa. The DelTa is a 19" AV Control System with integrated audio mixer including balanced in and outputs.

The built-in audio-mixer, 240VAC relays, lighting and AV control makes the DelTa "an unmatched and cost-effective three-in-one solution, giving you complete room control via mobile touch device or web browser". Custom graphical user interfaces are configured using the new and intuitive Neets Project Designer software - like all other Neets software tools and apps, free of charge.

Drag-and-drop the devices you need from the extensive device driver library, create custom buttons or use one of the many templates to make control of the room a breeze. All connected devices are controlled through a generous amount of RS-232, RS-485, LAN or IR ports, making the Neets Contro

USA - Last Friday night saw the United Nation's Headquarters in New York become home to the world premiere of David Guetta's One Voice video as it was projected live onto the building's facade as part of the UN's '#THEWORLDNEEDSMORE' campaign.

Lead agency Mission Media called in projection mapping and video consultants Bluman Associates to turn its concept into reality, transforming the 509ft building for special guests including secretary general of the United Nations Ban-Ki Moon and David Guetta.

Guetta's One Voice video was filmed especially for the groundbreaking cause marketing campaign which aims to turn people's words into real support for communities affected by humanitarian crises.

International brands have sponsored words they believe the world could use more of - such as inclusion, love and education - and every time someone tweets the word and the h

The Netherlands - Advantech has signed an agreement with Avnet Technology Solutions. The partnership is formed specifically for the Pro AV market in Europe. Avnet Technology Solutions is a global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc.

As a global IT distributor, Avnet provides a variety of services designed to assist partners in bringing end-to-end digital signage solutions to the market quickly and cost-effectively. Bas Smeets, business development manager at Advantech explains the motives of partnering with Avnet: "With the tremendous growth in demand for professional digital signage and retail/hospitality solutions in Europe, Avnet's comprehensive experience and large customer base will help Advantech expand its business in this area."

Advantech provides an extensive range of reliable and innovative products that will help to com

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