South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa was recipient, for the fourth consecutive year, of the Best AV Supplier Award at the EXSA (Exhibition and Event Association of Southern Africa) Awards held at The Forum, Bryanston on 26 November.

"Exhibition work is a very exciting market for us because our service appeals on both the exhibitor and the organiser levels and we have solutions for pretty much every size and type of display" says Gearhouse South Africa's marketing manager, Robyn D'Alessandro.

"We have seen the exhibition market taking an increasingly strong position in the marketing mix of late. There is a growing trend for buyers to seek to engage with sellers in a face-to-face scenario and exhibitors are using a variety of technology combinations to engage the senses in that interaction. Luckily Gearhouse has been able to continually diversify to accommodate t

Germany - Sommer Cable, the specialist in professional cable and connection technology, is expanding the product portfolio with the addition of a high-performance hybrid cable: the Transit MC 1031. The new cable allows the simultaneous 10 Gbit network, power and HD-SDI-compliant video transmission. The robust and shielded cable is perfectly suited for use in conference and building technology, in OB vans as well as in mobile broadcasting at large events.

"With the Transit MC 1031 we have developed a compact hybrid cable which is up to the daily strains in professional environments. Despite its three inner conductors it is highly flexible, so you can easily bend or reel it," emphasises Pascal Miguet, product manager with Sommer Cable.

The new cable provides a hassle-free transmission over distances exceeding 100m due to low damping values, but also relies on a special

USA - The Addison Theatre Centre, home of the WaterTower Theatre, has invested in ArKaos MediaMaster Pro 4.0 software which it recently utilised on the WaterTower Theatre Company's production of Bonnie and Clyde.

Founded in 1996, the multi-awarding-winning WaterTower Theatre is a not-for-profit professional theatre company that produces six main stage shows each season alongside award-winning educational and community outreach programmes.

Earlier this year Fred Mikeska and Darrell Barnes of A.C. Lighting (ArKaos' US distributor) took Arkaos MediaMaster Pro to The Addison Theatre Centre where they presented a full demonstration of its capabilities to technical director, Scott Guenther, and lighting designers, Dan Schoedel and Jason Foster. "The team at Addison Theatre Centre was evaluating different media server options that would meet the venue's diverse requiremen

UK - For the fifth year, CT supplied the innovative sports presentation services for the end-of-season tennis championship held at The O2 Arena.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is the year-end climax to the men's professional tennis season, featuring only the world's best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams as they battle it out for the last title of the season.

Creative Technology (CT) has been supplying equipment to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals since 2009; the first year they were held at the current venue.

The sports presentation involved all of the usual display elements as provided by CT. This included 230 linear metres of LED courtside banner, 160sq.m of flown LED in the form of an eight-sided gondola hung above the court and a 90sq.m IMAG screen.

Key to maximising the potential of all the display technology in the arena is the event control sy

Germany - HK Audio has marked the first birthday of its Pulsar range of full-range portable powered speakers by producing a new explanatory video entitled Pulsar by HK Audio: Story of Origin.

The three-minute video, which is available now on HK Audio's official YouTube channel, explains Pulsar's key features from the perspective of one of the firm's engineers, and runs through the considerations made when designing the series.

Engineered specifically for musicians and DJs who want state-of-the-art acoustics and electronics delivered in a classic format, Pulsar brings all of HK Audio's longstanding competences together in a modern, easily transportable package. The speakers feature 1000 watts of Class D power and the latest DSP technology, while the cabinets are built of select wood chosen for its superior acoustic properties.

HK Audio product manager Alexander Wollenb

Denmark - Danish brand Change Lingerie recently held an outstanding fashion show for the presentation of The Intimate Britney Spears, the collection created and designed in conjunction with the American pop star. Nordic Rentals, a leading Danish rental and event management supplier, opted for Analog Way's Ascender 48 to ensure a flawless and visually stunning show.

At the Forum in Copenhagen, Change Lingerie introduced the Intimate Britney Spears line in the presence of the artist, as well as 5,000 attendees. Nordic Rentals was selected to create an astonishing fashion show.

As a background to the catwalk and stage where lingerie models and dancers performed, an ultra-wide curved screen of 44m x 5.5m was utilised. A total of six Panasonic DZ-21 video-projectors were blended to provide the panoramic curved image. The entire show was built in a Watchout 5 system, with eye catchi

UK - With just 24 hours notice, London based large format projection specialists, The Projection Studio (TPS) delivered a full projection design to enable a giant image of the BandAid30 music video to be projected onto the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

It was the first time a full motion video has been projected onto this landmark building.

The song is helping to raise funds and awareness in BandAid30's ongoing fight against Ebola.

TPS's Creative Director Ross Ashton received the call on Friday afternoon from Des Shaw at event production company Ten Alps, who had received final clearance from Bob Geldof, on all the permissions to make the high-profile event happen on the Sunday evening in front of the world's press.

Says Ross Ashton, "We were called at 13.30 on Friday, and by 13.00 on Saturday we had started the install. Naturally I was thrilled to be involved.

UK - Avolites Ai S8 media servers completed an elegant makeover of the London Coliseum, draping the stage in video content for the British Fashion Awards, held to celebrate the contributions of British designers, creatives and models over the past year.

The glitzy event, attended by some of the biggest names in British fashion, was set against a backdrop including a main projection surface of eight Panasonic projectors blended to create a 6598x830 screen.

Ben Miles used two active Ai S8 servers, with another two used as reserve and programming systems. Another 1920x1080 HD feed to the camera PPU fed the IMAG screens content, such as fashion shoot clips, awards and winners graphics, mostly created by StrangeBeast.

Of the two active servers, one had the UI and three outputs and the other, the UI and two outputs, all outputting 1920x1080 at 50Hz, beautifully synced together.

UK - Marquee AV has announced the appointment of Jimmy Potter as sales manager. Potter started his career at Nomis, progressing through the ranks there to become studio manager of that facility which dominated the live rehearsal sector throughout the 80's. During Potter's tenure, Nomis hosted most of the greats of the era including The Jam, Dire Straits, Tina Turner, Status Quo, The Police, Wham!, Culture Club, Duran Duran and Queen. After leaving Nomis, Potter moved to the sales side of the pro audio industry and worked with Sensible Music, Marquee Sales and Fuzion.

"I had previously worked with Mark Brown and some of the other guys during my time at Marquee Sales", said Potter. "I always respected the installation division and could see the professional way Mark steered Marquee Installations to become independent, and how the company has evolved and expanded to

UK - The British Comedy Awards is returning once again to Fountain Studios. Hosted by Jonathan Ross and transmitted on Channel 4, the evening is renowned for bringing together the top talent in the industry to acknowledge and celebrate the continued success of British television comedy, showcasing some of the most outrageous, successful and hilarious comedy moments of the year.

Working on the Unique TV-owned award show on behalf of CPL Productions, Creative Technology (CT) has been commissioned to supply the LED and plasma screens for the ceremony, delivering the solutions for on-set video and graphics, autocue displays and press room video relay.

In the centre of the stage a 4m x 4m Flyer 12 LED screen is visible through the middle of the iconic circus-themed stage dressing, sitting behind a back projection surface to create a subtle diffusion for the graphics.

In addition,

UK - Debenhams flagship Oxford Street store revealed a spectacular Christmas lighting display at the beginning of November, which was delivered by lighting design and installation specialists Mushroom Lighting.

Mushroom's managing director Paul Butler was contacted by the Debenhams team at the beginning of September and asked to come up with some ideas that were worthy of a flagship store, particularly as the Oxford Street Debenhams had recently undergone a complete modernisation - including the exterior - which was designed by Ned Kahn.

"I met with Ian Dorsett, creative windows designer at Debenhams to show him some lighting products," says Paul. "One of things I took with me was LED fluorescent tubes. I suggested that we could do something similar to a sculpture I had seen that had a seemingly random design.

"We played around with the idea and I ordered

USA - Avolites' US partner Group One reports that the two companies are "seeing the fruits of our labours" in a dramatic way, as Avolites' new products - including the compact-yet-powerful Quartz console - excite the US market following LDI.

The newest addition to the Titan Mobile family, Quartz was the "star of the show" on stand as it made its US debut at the tradeshow, showing off its on-board processing and bright, vibrant 12.1" screen.

"Quartz is super compact, measuring only 16.7" wide, and is positioned as the ideal companion for lighting projects ranging from touring and festivals to clubs and one-offs," says Avolites Sales Manager, Stephen Baird Smith, who was on-stand at LDI. "It is Avolites' smallest fully-featured console, featuring the same high quality faders and hardware you've come to expect from Avolites, and is ide

Italy - ArKaos PRO has announced the appointment of Music & Lights as its exclusive distributor for Italy.

With immediate effect, Music & Lights will handle the full portfolio of ArKaos products which includes ArKaos Stage, Studio and Stadium media servers, the dynamic MediaMaster PRO and MediaMaster Express software and Kling-Net, ArKaos' user-friendly control protocol.

Music & Lights first made the headlines with ArKaos PRO in October 2014 when it adopted ArKaos Kling-Net into a number of its pixel-based LED lighting fixtures.

The arrangement between the two companies proved such a success that ArKaos PRO expanded the collaboration to incorporate the full promotion, sales and support of all ArKaos products across Italy.

"We are happy to increase the range of our solutions for the AVL market through the ArKaos brand," says Fabio Sorabella, product manager at M &

UK - It was announced on Friday that the UK's first government-backed National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries is to be established at The Backstage Centre, High House Production Park, opening in September 2016.

Managed by Creative & Cultural Skills on behalf of a consortium of employers and industry organisations including Live Nation, Royal Opera House, White Light and the Association of British Theatre Technicians, the new National College will provide specialist training in the technical skills needed by the creative and cultural industries. This is in response to significant industry growth, with the creative economy growing at four times the rate of the national economy, and the value of the UK's creative industries exports standing at over £15 billion per year.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The talent which brings plays, operas, and f

UK - Presteigne Broadcast Hire has appointed well-known industry figure David O'Carroll as its new head of technology. He joins from leading outside broadcast company NEP Visions, where as technical manager he was responsible for major projects including the BBC Proms, Global X Games and Wimbledon.

"Presteigne is an important player in the industry, providing partnerships and backup for broadcasters, production companies and outside broadcast facilities," said O'Carroll. "That alone makes this new job an exciting challenge, to understand how we can all work together to create compelling and technically excellent television.

"Today we are also seeing huge technology changes, and with Presteigne I have the chance to get involved in some demanding and innovative projects," he added. "We are already leaders in RF mesh technology, for instance, providi

UK - This year, SXS Events are celebrating 15 years in business and to coincide with celebrations, the company has purchased Calibre UK LEDView530 scaler-switchers for use across their LED and video display fleet.

"Our client base is broad and includes Airbus, Audi, Barbour, BBC, Bentley, the Clinton family, Eurostar, London Fashion Week and Rolex," said Johnny Palmer, production designer, company director and founder at SXS Events.

Projects that have challenged SXS includes building structures over natural lakes and providing 'rain curtain' water screens at Britain's Top Model on Sky TV.

"With every project, we are looking to differentiate the services we provide. By offering a unique set of broad services there are often no other companies who can bid on our projects," said Palmer.

"The key challenge for our business is lead-time. Because our fab

UK - Really Creative Media's VJing skills were put to the test when worked alongside lighting designer Rob Sinclair to design all the animated content for and produce the live shows on The Human League UK Tour.

The stunning stage set, designed by Sinclair, was built with video integration in mind to bring the electro beats and vibe to life through the accompanying visuals for the audience. It included three cascading arches of 12mm video screen, the largest being 48ft wide with 25ft legs down to the stage floor. These surrounded the central upstage screen which was 24ft x 8ft of 6mm.

In the smaller tour venue, this was reduced to just the central display and one arch. Our creative team of animators had to keep this in mind during the design process, to ensure that the more intimate venues had the same show experience as the larger ones.

Nick Dew, managing director at Really

USA - VER (Video Equipment Rentals), one of the top AV rental companies in North America, with locations in Canada and Europe, recently purchased an extensive Optocore fibre optic audio system in its ongoing commitment to provide their customers with leading edge technological solutions.

The 500+ audio channel network will additionally support routing and distribution of video, digital intercom and a variety of DSP based control and communication via the high speed 100 GBit Ethernet capability.

Brady Belavek, audio production manager, commented: "VER was one of the first North American AV production companies to incorporate fibre optic products in its inventory to offer advance services to customers who are the pinnacle of TV and event producers and technicians.

"Every year their visions of production expectations pushes the status quo and they come to us for bette

UK - With Christmas in sight the team at Fix8Group are once again run of their feet getting everyone's pre-holiday events programmed, operated and running perfectly in all their glory.

The MTV European Music Awards took place at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow on Sunday 9 November 2014 and saw artists like Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, U2 and Alicia Keys amongst many others perform, with the awards being hosted by Nicki Minaj.

The enormous setup for the show involved a range of companies such as XL Video, who provided all the LED screens, fixtures and projection for the show; multiple graphics agencies, and Chris Saunders from Ogle Hog, who was in charge of coordinating and managing all the media playback and control systems. Ogle Hog invited FIX8Group on board to programme and operate their Hippotizer fleet, which included media formatting, outputting and programming.

For the event p

UK - Working with production manager Sarah Chaloner and designer Jonathan Paul Green, XL Video supplied a projection system for studio recordings of 'Series L' of the popular QI Ltd/TalkBack Television show, QI.

Originally created by John Lloyd, QI is a comedy quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry, featuring regular panellist Alan Davies, which is broadcast on BBC2 in the UK. The set includes two projection screens that are key to the quiz show, displaying clues and visual alerts throughout the game.

For the projection, XL Video project manager Jeff Bailey specified two of XL's Barco SLM R12+ projectors, each of which fed to a 13ft x 7.5ft screen. Bailey chose the R12+ projectors for their three-chip DLP colours and bright 12,000 lumen light output. XL supplied Repro H screens, selected as they minimize the hot spot that the camera sees in the projected picture - parti

UK - Described as "The best Christmas light switch-on in Wales", residents in Barry, the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, enjoyed a specially commissioned visual spectacle created by London based The Projection Studio across the front of the municipal library building in King Square in a Christmas light switch on ceremony that would rival that of most metropolises.

The Projection Studio - led by creative director Ross Ashton - won a competitive tender to produce the large-format video show. Ross was delighted to be working in Wales again: "It was fantastic! I love working in Wales . . . the people are amazing, there is always a great vibe and everyone gets right into it," he enthused.

The Projection Studios' recent work in Wales includes illuminating the National Gallery of Wales twice and creating shows at Caernarfon Castle and Caerphilly Castles, as well as desi

The Netherlands - Panasonic's presence at ISE 2015 will showcase the latest in 4K and laser technology, as well as visual solutions aimed at a range of industry verticals.

Among the innovations promised at this year's show are a pixel quadrupling 4K projector, laser projectors that achieve industry leading brightness and a successor to the PT-DZ21K, Europe's most successful high brightness projector.

Panasonic will also showcase its newly developed remote monitoring and managed service solution - demonstrating results of a trial with a leading UK university, which used Panasonic's own Early Warning System, connected with M2M technology.

The company has increased the size of its booth at ISE to an impressive 600sqm, which reflects the importance of the event to the company. Jan Markus Jahn, director of visual system solutions, said: "ISE is the centrepiece of our annual

USA - The colourful Rubik's Cube made its debut 40 years ago and continues to delight and intrigue puzzlers today. A new twist on the puzzle, Beyond Rubik's Cube, opened at Liberty Science Centre in Jersey City, New Jersey, with audio-visual design, integration and installation by Electrosonic.

Electrosonic was hired by exhibit fabricator Maltbie, a Kubik company, to take on the project designed by the Science Centre's Experience Services. The 7,000sq.ft exhibit, with 24 areas featuring AV support by Electrosonic, is intended to travel; after 11 months at Liberty Science Centre, it will start a seven-year international road trip.

The exhibit features three exploration zones with the themes of Invent, Play and Inspire. They offer tantalizing puzzles, robotic manipulations, music, art and original artifacts, which become creative platforms for the exploration of Professor

World - In a nod to her status as working mum pop star, British singer Lily Allen has been touring both the festival and venue circuit in front of a backdrop of baby bottles laced with LED strips and controlled by Avolites Ai.

Allen first unveiled her baby bottles set - a concept conceived by acclaimed stage designer Es Devlin - at Glastonbury 2014 and went on to perform with the bottles throughout the US, UK and Europe in the autumn as part of her Sheezus tour. In January and February 2015, the tour continues to Asia.

The bottles were designed by bespoke lighting creators Light Initiative and feature LED strips inside, making up a mapped 'video screen' of colours and effects.

For the tour, Ai operator and content creator Aislinn 'Ash' Clifford and Ai programmer Toby Dennis are using two MacBook laptops with Ai software licences to control the array of effects running throug

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