USA - Litepanels, a Vitec Group brand and provider of LED lighting for the broadcast and production industries, has announced the release of its new Sola 4 Traveler KitTM. Designed specifically to accommodate the needs of shooters and productions on the go, the Sola 4 Traveler Kit includes three Sola 4 LED Fresnel fixtures in a rugged, ergonomically designed, trolley-style hard case.

Customised for safe and easy transport from location to location, the Sola 4 Traveler Kit weighs only 65 pounds (29.5 kilograms). The three fixtures included in the kit can be easily deployed for a traditional three-light set-up, and the kit's custom foam insert is expandable to allow for the addition of a classic Litepanels 1x1.

Litepanels' Sola 4TM is the smallest DMX controllable LED Fresnel on the market. The daylight-balanced LED offers the controllability and light-shaping properties inheren

Germany - ArKaos PRO will show its complete range of media servers at Prolight+Sound 2014, marking the first European showing of all three servers side by side.

Comprising the Stage, Studio and Stadium servers, this range offers up to two-, four- and six-outputs respectively with features and controllability that meet any challenge or project requirement.

Newly presented at Prolight+Sound is MediaMaster 4.0, the latest and ever-more powerful version of ArKaos PRO's media server software. MediaMaster 4.0 brings more flexible protection via an optional dongle and many additional features, yet retains the simplicity of operation familiar to its users.

A completely redesigned licensing system allows the user to register and deregister any machine remotely from their own account so MediaMaster 4.0 is not restricted to use on only one machine.

MediaMaster 4.0's long list of new

USA - Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were given a dazzling backdrop to their performances at the Super Bowl XLVIII Half Time show at the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on 2 February by Bob Barnhart's spectacular lighting.

Barnhart, of Full Flood, LA, incorporated 220 Ayrton MagicPanel 602 fixtures into his design to enhance the vibrancy and dynamism of the performances on stage.

The MagicPanel fixtures were arrayed in two massive, raked banks which flanked the performance area and served to extend the visual impact of the stage within the massive 82,500-seat stadium. The MagicPanel banks were arranged in two 'chevron' shapes which were mounted on custom-made risers that rose from 4" at the front of the stage to 11" at the back with each row staggered to sit 6" (15cm) higher than the one in front.

At Mars' request, the show was to replicate an atmosphe

UK - Following the success of last year's events, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd's Video division - the exclusive UK dealer for Green Hippo media servers and LedGo video display solutions, and an official partner for Christie Digital projectors - are holding more UK video open days in conjunction with these leading brands, on Tuesday 1 April (AC-ET North, Leeds) / Thursday 3 April (AC-ET South, High Wycombe).

The events will showcase the latest innovations from these marques at the forefront of video production in the entertainment sector, as well as demonstrating how these complementary technologies together provide versatile video system solutions.

Green Hippo's Hippotizer media servers range continues to develop new features and components, ensuring its footholding as the market leader in video and media control solutions. Products showcased include the new Rac

Europe - In response to growing industry demand, PLASA Events Ltd has announced that two new PLASA Focus events will take place in Europe during 2014.

The first of these new events - and the first PLASA Focus to be staged in mainland Europe - will take place this summer, when PLASA Focus: Brussels open its doors in the heart of Belgium's capital city, on 1-2 July. PLASA Events reports that initial interest from exhibitors has been very positive, with over 30 companies already applying for space in Brussels, including brands such as ADJ, Chauvet, d&b audiotechnik, Robe and Shure.

Having introduced the successful PLASA Focus event model in Leeds, UK, in 2009 and subsequently in various cities across North America, PLASA has long been aware of the market's desire for more of this type of event in Europe. The BeNeLux region was one of the first to be considered for a regional mark

Benelux - Vivitek has announced a new distribution agreement with Sanel for Belgium and Luxembourg.

"Sanel's reputation for excellence and their expertise in the audio visual market have been central to Vivitek in choosing Sanel," " says David Zrihen, sales manager Vivitek. "With the enthusiasm of the Sanel team, their market development skills and support for the dealer, we expect to see solid growth for Vivitek in the Belgian and Luxembourg market."

Sanel is a Benelux-oriented company that provides and advises AV integrators, AV rental companies and digital signage specialists. Sanel is known as a distributor of amongst others Panasonic, and Sanel's core products are projectors of all sizes , professional LCD and plasma monitors, digital signage solutions and video conferencing, as well as a whole range of peripheral products for AV integration.

Vi

Rich Pickings - Taylor Swift has returned to the top of Billboard's annual list of music money makers, a title she held in 2012 only to relinquish last year to Madonna. The 24-year-old earned $39.7m (£23.8m) in 2013 from a combination of music sales, royalties and touring, according to the trade publication. Country star Kenny Chesney rose three places to second place, while Justin Timberlake came third. Rock acts Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones round out this year's top five.

Homecoming - Hit musical Book of Mormon is due to play Salt Lake City for the first time next year, near the location of the Mormon church's headquarters. It will run from July to August at The Capitol Theatre, less than half a mile from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' flagship temple. Written by South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the show pokes fun at two naive m

UK - Event technology specialists Blueprint were recently tasked with the challenge of providing dynamic lighting to enable British chart topping artiste Katy B to make the video promoting her next single, Crying For No Reason.

And so they turned to their inventory of next generation LED tools from SGM, notably the 120 x 2m long LT-200 3D pixel tubes. This was accompanied by 60 of SGM's ILD controllers and a lot of SGM extension cable.

Said Jacob Swan-Hyam, producer at RSA Blackdog, "The tubes added great depth to the video bringing what would traditionally be 2D video out into the space, and allowing the camera to track in through the tubes."

Toby Shipway, Blueprint's SGM technician, added that the SGM LT range of products are incredibly bright for their compact size but still have the finesse to work at much lower intensities making them suitable for film

Scandinavia - Christie has announced the appointment of Trond Solvold to the position of sales consultant for Scandinavia.

Trond Solvold brings has almost 20 years of experience in the Nordic proAV market. He was previously business development manager at eyevis Nordic AB, selling to distributors and integrators. Prior to that he was business development manager / sales manager for projectiondesign AS. He is fluent in Swedish and Norwegian, and also speaks English, Danish and German.

Solvold will play a key role in developing the business products channel as well as the control room and immersive / simulation markets in Scandinavia. This will include focus on Christie's ever-growing value-for-money LCD and 1-chip DLP projector product lines, and also Christie Brio, a presentation and collaboration solution for single and multi-site workplace meetings.

"I am delighted to

UK - MultiTouch has announced the London launch and permanent showroom for its MultiTaction iWall interactive videowall solution. Launching officially on 2-3 April, as part of UK partner Engage Production's new FLUX Innovation Lounge, the MultiTaction iWall will be showcased to both the trade and the press.

"MultiTaction iWall is the new standard for interactive walls in corporate and public spaces, and we're delighted to be able to showcase it permanently in London," explains Hannu Anttila, vice president of business development at MultiTouch. "Engage have created a hotbed for innovation, insights and technology within the FLUX Innovation Lounge, making it the ideal residence for MultiTaction iWall."

To make MultiTaction iWall ready to use straight out of the box, MultiTouch supplies the MultiTaction Experience application, a scalable multiuser application

Germany - The projector technology at the heart of the Roger Waters The Wall Live tour is being displayed on the Panasonic booth at Prolight + Sound, at the Messe Frankfurt this week.

The award winning PT-DZ21K projector will be used to replicate a staging environment on a booth which will also feature Panasonic's state-of-the-art 84-inch 4K displays.

The world's first 6000 lumens 1-chip DLPTM laser projector will also be making an appearance on the Panasonic stand, set up as a kiosk information point with rear projection and a touch glass panel.

The stand (Hall 9, A30) includes a replica of The Brandenburg Gate, mirroring the 3D mapping effects projected onto the Gate by the PT-DZ16K, during the Berlin Festival of Lights.

Visitors will be able to meet with technical experts, view live product demonstrations throughout the day and discuss solutions for a range of re

UK - Panasonic has signed a partnership with PRG that will see the company's market leading 3-Chip DLP projectors used on some of the world's biggest events.

The deal will see the high-end PT-DZ21K and PT-DZ13K projector series bringing to life touring concerts, corporate events, trade shows and theatrical performances, initially in Europe and North America.

Stephan Paridaen, CEO (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for PRG, said, "We are always striving to improve the product that we provide to our customers. We feel that Panasonic is at the cutting edge of high brightness projection and we are certain that our customers will agree when they see the products in action."

Jan Markus Jahn, director of Panasonic Visual & Communications Systems, said, "This is a significant partnership for Panasonic as PRG has a leading position in the rental and staging market. The 2

UK - S+H Technical Support's new Glux 3.9 mm hi definition LED screen was recently used to great effect on an event at The Portsmouth Guildhall in the UK which was produced by Sounds Commercial for Affinion International - a global leader in customer engagement and loyalty solutions.

The event's technical production was designed by Sounds Commercial's head of production design, Matt Willsteed. The company, headquartered in Bristol, owns a large amount of equipment and rents in specialist elements as required for specific projects.

For one, Willsteed explains, the requirement was for a very high definition screen at the back of the stage to project a variety of content and IMAG images.

The newly delivered S+H product came on-stream just at the right time for them to be able to replace the projection system used on previous events for this client.

Part of the design concept

UK - This February, the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, introduced, for the first time into its theatre, a Hippotizer Rackoon, the new six layered HD Rackmount, to provide video control on a Royal Ballet production. With video production by Florian Baeumler, Programmer, the Rackoon was chosen for its wide range of capabilities with PixelMapper and ease of use in a 1U Rackmount.

Tectractys- the Art of Fugue received four performances as part of a mixed programme of work bringing an exhilarating fusion of contemporary ballet and baroque music to the stage.

Using PixelMapper, set and costume designer Tauba Auerbach, worked with Florian Baeumler to create pixel-mapped shapes using lines and colours providing a very simple and contemporary sculpture design as a backdrop to the production.

Using six layers of the Rackoon, Florian was able to pixel map seven dif

Austria - Channel 4's popular celebrity winter sports series The Jump wowed audiences during February with ski jumps lined with 400m of IntelliFLEX LED systems, controlled by Avolites Media's Ai Server Infinity EX Series.

The show, presented by Davina McCall and Alex Brooker, took place in the Tyrolian Alps near Innsbruck, Austria, and saw 10 celebrities, including Sinitta, Sir Steve Redgrave, and Joe McElderry, compete against each other in a range of winter sports, including three ski jumps of increasing size.

Lighting director Roger Williams worked alongside set designer Patrick Watson to specify the Ai Media Server as the control system for the impressive lighting concept.

The technology was executed by lighting programmer David Bishop, alongside LI technicians Ben Vaughan, Anders Akermo and Joe White.

"The Ai server coped admirably in the conditions, being

The Netherlands - Vivitek has introduced three, high brightness, multimedia digital projectors, which are designed for large meeting rooms and other corporate applications. Each projector in the D96x Series delivers high level of image quality, combined with a range of features designed to meet any integration or presentation challenge.

Delivering brightness up to 5500 ANSI lumens (D967), 4800 ANSI Lumens for the D968U and 4200 ANSI Lumens for the D966HD, the models are available in XGA (D967), 1080p (D966HD) and WUXGA (D968U) resolutions. All projectors display an outstanding picture with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio.

"The D96x Series is a great addition to our existing range of projectors for corporate applications," says Holger Graeff, general manager EMEA at Vivitek. "All the models in the range deliver a sharp, bright image whatever the ambient light. This mak

UK - Lighting and visuals designer Cate Carter and Pablo Beckett of Bryte Design expanded their innovative, eye-catching video set design concept for Ellie Goulding's recent UK arena tour, in the process utilizing three of XL Video's newest LED products - Radiant MC-18 Hybrid, Radiant MC-7T and Radiant MC-18T - plus their popular Pixled F-12 screen.

XL Video also supplied cameras, a Catalyst media server for playback and PPU and crew. The account is being project managed by XL's Phil Mercer.

Carter, who operated lighting for this section of the tour, was the first person in the UK to tour the brand new Hybrid 18mm screen on Goulding's UK theatre tour - part of the same Halcyon Days album campaign - in October 2013. It features a standard medium 18 mm pitch comprising 32 x 32 pixels per panel, with 4 x 4 higher brightness (7700nit) low resolution pixels also embedded in

UK - Saville Audio Visual provided the complete audio visual facilities for the Royal Television Society's North East awards night at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead - for the 27th consecutive year.

Over 450 programme makers, commissioners, supporters and executives attended the event alongside a host of presenters and celebrities. The ceremony and dinner celebrated all aspects of media production in the region - from television shows to on-line programmes and video games.

The RTS North East and Borders Awards is the biggest media event in the region, honouring achievements in TV production, online programmes and video games and were expertly hosted by Steph McGovern, popular business presenter on BBC Breakfast.

Among those presenting awards was Teesside-born Stephen Tompkinson and winners included Robson Green's Tales from Northumberland, which took the best factual award. G

UK - This February saw Avolites technology at the heart of The Show: R&B Superstars Valentine's Special - a night of performances by a nostalgic line-up of 90s R&B legends at Wembley Arena in London.

Headlined by En Vogue with Blackstreet2, for the third-year running the evening was an exciting celebration of the best American artists. The show was managed by Birmingham-based production company DMX Productions, headed up by production manager SJ Grevett.

Lighting designer Tom Grant from design house and rental company Siyan Ltd worked alongside programmer Jack Sayer to construct a powerful show design, specifying Sayer Lighting Productions' high performance Avolites Expert Pro with Titan Mobile Wing to control the entirety of the lighting and media, which was run from his Avolites Media Ai T4 Media Server.

Tom Grant explains the concept behind the design: "I was tasked

Germany - Avolites Media's intuitive, live, hands-on Sapphire Media Controller show control surface has won the first ever Prolight + Sound International Press Award (PIPA) for Best Video/Projection Control.

The award highlights Avolites Media's achievements in design and innovation of the Sapphire Media Controller, which connects to and controls the powerful Ai Media range of servers enabling seamless integration of all visual elements.

More than 100 magazines from all over the world voted to determine the best audio, lighting, and musical equipment, attended by more than 300 industry movers and shakers. 2014 marked the debut PIPA awards, which ran alongside the well-established Musikmesse International Press Award, which is now in its 15th year.

The Avolites Media team was present to accept the award at Frankfurt's Messe exhibition centre on Thursday 13 March.

"We'r

Italy - The Bride of the Zar, directed by Dmitri Rcherniakov, has developed different narrative plots on Teatro alla Scala's stage. Beside the music masterfully conducted by Daniel Barenboim and the ability of the singers, another protagonist of this opera layout has been for sure the use of technology.

The scenic organization set on a turntable allows the spectator to see different points of view and along with the music and the dramaturgy, is characterized and enriched from the first act to the very last one by projections implemented by Meeting Project srl, using Hippotizer media servers, the world's best solution for real-time media playback.

This work has been conducted my Meeting Project srl, technical sponsor of Teatro alla Scala of Milan. The technical skills of Fabio Fraomene and Marco Piva met all the requirements of the director, who wanted to add meaning to

UK - Over the past year Audio Visual specialists Saville Audio Visual have continued to expand the hire inventories of several of their branches with KV2 Audio products.

Having initially invested in KV2 Audio back in 2004, Saville AV have come to rely on the performance of KV2 products within the AV field. With heavy emphasis on aesthetics, detail and clarity, KV2 products match up to Saville AV's requirements for sonic excellence at a reasonable price point.

The most recent investment came from the North East office who, following a very successful year were in a position to boost their existing KV2 inventory. Having run KV2's powered EX 10's for the last 8 years, the team were looking for the same high quality output, but from a lighter cabinet due to a high-profile regular contract which requires the units to be mounted from the roof.

The solution was found with KV2 Audio

Germany - d3 Technologies, manufacturers of the world's first integrated video production system, announced their new pro range during Prolight+Sound 2014. Consisting of two new hardware products, the pro range was announced alongside r11.2, d3's new software release with four new features aiming to help improve show design and production workflow. With the company's strong focus on innovation, d3 Technologies continues to strive to enable d3 users to create and deliver the best shows on earth.

The top of the range solution, the d3 4x4pro sets a new standard for power and adaptability. With industrial components in a custom case, this system is suitable for the most complex touring productions, massive multi-projector shows and broadcast. It features four 4K outputs and enough power to make short work of the largest content sizes. Play up to eight layers of uncompressed HD or 4x

USA - TNDV has had a busy mobile production schedule through the first quarter of 2014, with Amnesty International's Bring Human Rights Home Concert last month standing out as its lead project. The event, which took place at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, featured a roster of interesting musical acts aligned with the organization's mission of fighting injustice and promoting human rights.

TNDV brought its 40ft expanding side truck, Aspiration, to capture live performances for in-venue image magnification; and to serve as the central command centre for content acquisition. The dramatic elements of the event - which included a rousing speech and performance of two recently-imprisoned members of the Russian musical act Pussy Riot - influenced TNDV to make some changes to its mobile production workflow. This included the use of Canon EOS C300 cinema cameras, which introduced new p

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