UK - The Rugby World Cup 2015 kicked off this weekend with 13 of the UK's most impressive stadiums all meeting international event standards n selected as match venues. Almost half of those exercised integrated LED video display systems designed, manufactured and installed by Daktronics.

Twickenham Stadium, the Home of England Rugby, features four Daktronics LED video displays. Two large displays measuring 167sq.m and featuring a 13HD pixel layout are supported by a further two 8.82sq.m displays with 10mm line spaced SMD LEDs. The screens can display one large image to highlight live video and instant replay, or divided into multiple sections for a variety of statistics, game information, graphics, animations and sponsor advertising.

The other match venues in London are, Wembley Stadium and The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. These also deploy impressive visual solution

UK - An exciting, fast-paced video mapping competition with three prizes of ArKaos MediaMaster PRO licences at stake will be thrilling visitors on the ArKaos PRO stand (C30) at PLASA London 2015.

Each day, ArKaos PRO will challenge visitors to try out their video mapping skills. Competitors will be required to map video content over a complex set of shapes on the stand and their performance set against the clock. Each day, the fastest video mapper of the day will be awarded a full MediaMaster PRO licence, including the new Cue Player feature, worth €2,000.

"We are looking forward to the look of surprise on people's faces when they realise how quick and easy it is to program complex video mapping scenarios using MediaMaster PRO," says ArKaos MD, Agnes Wojewoda.

(Jim Evans)

UK - ArKaos PRO, pioneers in interactive video technologies, will exhibit at PLASA London 2015 on the stand of its exclusive UK distributor, White Light (C30).

ArKaos PRO will demonstrate the latest version of its MediaMaster software which has consistently remained at the forefront of the industry's creative projection and LED applications. MediaMaster 4.2 which was released earlier this year, adds an integrated Cue Player for reliable, accurate playback of visual sequences, and 4K support which enables three layers of 4K video to be played on servers with a Core i7 processor. MediaMaster 4.2 is available as a free upgrade to existing MM 4.x users.

An impressive ceiling of LED lightsources will be used to showcase MediaMaster 4.2 on the stand, alongside ArKaos LEDMapper, its all-in-one LED show control solution. LEDMapper delivers LED show control in three easy steps, working

Kazakhstan - Belgian-based WIcreations, working for Italian production company Balich WS, was asked to engineer and fabricate the large, elegant and stylish 'Cup of Hospitality' for Kazakhstan's recent 550th anniversary celebration show in the capital Astana.

The event - attended by five heads of state, VIPs and dignitaries and 7000 public - took place in the new Ice Palace venue. For innovative engineering specialists WIcreations, the project followed hot on the heels of their work at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and WI's team of five was led by Yves Vervloet.

The cup was based on a traditional Kazak drinking goblet and was required to fit under the stage in a depth of just 500 mm from where it had to rise out of the floor, appearing as if by magic, be flown up and disappear into the roof of the venue.

Yves and the team

UK - Lighting and video control specialist Avolites is going all out for PLASA London this year with a brand new stand designed to echo the coherence of the current Titan and Ai product ranges.

This will feature two specific areas, focusing on Network functionality and Lighting and Video integration. Avolites' stand D10 will promote a compatible family of products which all work intuitively together.

Highlights of on-stand products include the new Arena console with Optical Titan Net Switch, both of which are shipping on the date of the show. In addition, new software in Titan version 9.1, featuring enhanced pixel mapping functionality, fully custom Key Frame Shape engine and fully featured theatre functionality.

"There is much talk about the future of the PLASA London show, but this year Avolites is investing more than ever before," says Avolites sales manager Stephen Ba

UK - With the Rugby World Cup now well in train it's opportune to reflect on an event at the O2 Arena, when, as a curtain raiser to the England campaign, sponsors O2 presented Wear the Rose. For 20,000 dedicated England supporters this was an evening to engage with the team, but with a twist. A slickly presented hundred-minute question and answer (Q&A) session between team members and compere Vernon Kay was interspersed with video clip highlights from the various players. This was then followed with a 75 minute finale from Take That.

"This started with an approach from O2 for Take That to appear," explains production manager Chris Vaughan. "Once the band had agreed it was a just a short step for their creative manager Kim Gavin to come on board and provide a framework for the whole evening. This was to be a great send off for the team."

For the key v

Europe - Hawthorn, one of London Stock Exchange's '1000 Companies to Inspire Britain 2015', has continued its reach into Europe with two significant events for September 2015.

The creative production company was commissioned by event management experts Taylor Bennett to design and produce all things technical for business events in Cologne and Barcelona.

Hawthorn delivered Taylor Bennett's creative exhibition stands for Adobe and Channel Advisor at dmexco, 16 - 17 September. The Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference 2015 is recognised as the premier global digital marketing event, drawing over 31,000 visitors to Koelnmesse, Cologne.

Last week, Hawthorn's technical team moved south to Barcelona to help realise Taylor Bennett's content rich party for Herbalife. Taking place at Poble Espanyol, over 3,000 guests were treated to a lively festival style reward and recognition

UK - Immersive experience studio, Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), has created a virtual reality (VR) work set in Grizedale Forest, the Lake District forest famous for its sculptures.

The project, called In the Eyes of the Animal, takes users on a fascinating journey that allows them to fly above the forest canopy, come face-to-face with hi-definition critters and embody various animals as they traverse the Grizedale landscape.

Through the use of virtual reality, aerial 360° drone filming, LiDAR and CT scanning, Marshmallow Laser Feast creates an experience allowing Abandon Normal Devices Festival (AND Festival) visitors to see the forest through the eyes of its creatures.

Artistically interpreting the sensory world of the animals, Marshmallow Laser Feast has built a real time system that dynamically visualizes precise LiDAR scans of the forest and CT scans of the a

UK - PLASA 2015 opens its doors to the public in under a week, but already the lights are on and burning brightly as the industry's leading brands turn their attention towards this year's event. Robe will once again carry the headline sponsor torch, taking their place alongside more than 70 lighting brands and lighting distributors at London's ExCeL exhibition centre between 4- 6 October.

"The visual spectacle of the PLASA Show in full swing is quite a sight," says Christopher Toulmin, director of PLASA Events. "Just the scale of the light show created by our exhibitors is always something special to see. This year we're looking forward to an even bigger display with many new exciting products for visitors to explore."

As lighting brands and distributors come together at this year's show, many of the larger stand areas feature products from groups of market

UK - South London-based live event and technical solutions specialist PR Live has invested in its own LED screen surface, with an initial purchase of 120 panels of Absen A3 Pro 3.9mm pitch high definition product, complete with all necessary processing and rigging.

This is the first of a series of planned LED screen purchases which will expand the company's substantial video department which also currently features Christie high powered projectors, High end video switchers, processing and a selection of media servers.

PR Live's Justin Hammond comments, "LED screens are becoming increasingly prominent in the shows and events for which we design and supply equipment, so we are expanding the department. We wanted a premium multi-purpose product particularly to service our high-end corporate work ... and that was also ideal for our general music and live event based work.&quo

Australia - TDC - Technical Direction Company is recognised for their achievements at Vivid Sydney 2015 by being shortlisted in the Best Technical Achievement and Innovation category of the Australian Event Awards.

Winners of the awards will be announced at a glittering ceremony on 17 November, 2015 at Doltone House in Pyrmont, Sydney.

TDC's involvement in Vivid Sydney this year included providing video expertise in cutting edge mapping techniques and core video technology across an unprecedented 10-kilometer distance as the festival expanded into Chatswood and Central Park inner-city precincts.

The company worked with Destination NSW, the NSW Government's tourism and major events agency, as well as various artists for each installation. TDC broke all records by providing nearly 9,000sq.m of video (or 7,464,960,000 video pixels) projected onto the stunning architecture of ov

Czech Republic - The Macula, a leading Czech videomapping company, recently mesmerised a private audience of 600 VIP guests at the Rudolfinum music auditorium with the SIM/NEBULA: a 45 minutes long video mapping performance accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic orchestra, led by internationally renowned conductor Jiri Belohlávek, the former principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The project involved a live orchestra of 118 musicians and projections on four sides of the auditorium (front, two sides and ceiling).

The content was broken into seven themes (Matter, Technology, Message, Mission, New World, Rendez-vous and Birth), expressing visual futuristic poems, and shaping the emergence of a cybernetic organism counting down its time code in acoustic waves of classical music. The project was developed in collaboration with 11 international artists (from UK, Fr

UK - French LED lighting manufacturer, Ayrton, is showcasing six new products at PLASA Show 2015, all of which have been launched this year. MagicDot-R and CosmoPix-R were first shown in the UK at PLASA Focus Leeds but now make their first appearance in London on the stand of Ayrton's exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions (B10).

MagicDot-R and CosmoPix-R are part of the Creative Solutions line, into which Ayrton has incorporated a totally new technology: the first 94mm diameter narrow beam angle collimator combined with the latest generation high-power (40W or 60W) Osram multichip LED to create tighter beams with an unrivalled centre beam intensity.

MagicDot-R has proved a hit from the moment it was released and is currently appearing on the Foo Fighters international tour. The latest member of the RADICAL series, MagicDot-R is the first professional moving head LED

UK - At PLASA Show 2015, D3 Technologies is showcasing its innovative, integrated video production suite. "d3 is more than just a media server," the company days. "Based around a real-time 3D stage simulator, it is the single solution needed to design, present, communicate, sequence and playback your show. d3 lets you work with props, venues, LED screens, projection, lighting and moving stage elements, while being completely integrated into a single intuitive software solution that runs on your own laptop or dedicated d3 hardware."

Nominated for a PLASA Award for Innovation, d3 Technologies' 4x4pro sets a new standard for power and flexibility. With next generation components, it is ideal for the most demanding productions. The d3 4x4pro plays up to eight layers of 4K video or 32 layers of HD video, and up to eight layers of uncompressed HD video, all with co

UK - Lighting and video control specialist Avolites has gone all out for PLASA Show this year with a brand new stand designed to echo the coherence of the current Titan and Ai product ranges.

The stand features two specific areas, focusing on Network functionality and Lighting and Video integration. Avolites' stand D10 is promoting a compatible family of products which all work intuitively together. Highlights of on-stand products include the new Arena console with Optical Titan Net Switch, both of which are shipping on the date of the show. In addition, new software in Titan version 9.1, featuring enhanced pixel mapping functionality, fully custom Key Frame Shape engine and fully featured theatre functionality.

Avolites' Koy Neminathan comments: "Day one has gone very well - a lot of people have been complimenting our new stand design; we produce professional products an

UK - At PLASA Show 2015, Jon Driscoll, Paul Pyant and Peter Mumford will today present a seminar session entitled 'Lighting and Video Design' as part of PLASA's popular seminar stream.

The seminar will discuss how a lighting designer and video / projection designer create an understanding and language of collaboration and how a working relationship develops to successfully combine the two disciplines of manipulating the use of light in live performance.

The session takes place today at 10.15 in the Lighting showcase theatre at PLASA Show 2015.

For more information about PLASA Show or to register please visit www.plasashow.com/seminars.

UK - Block9's Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher are set to present a seminar session entitled 'Making Music Look Good' today at PLASA Show 2015.

Based in East London, Block9 creates radical stage sets, large-scale immersive artworks, installations and live events. Recent work includes The Dismaland Castle at Banksy's Dismaland, Utopia at the Roundhouse, the Block9 area at Glastonbury festival and stage designs for Lana Del Rey and Skrillex.

"Innovative live music and performance programming form a major part of Block9's festival work," says Gideon. "We construct complete temporary realities. Our unique venues - Genosys, The NYC Downlow or The London Underground for example - are musical utopias where fantastical structures are built around specific musical genres, resulting in powerful immersive experiences. Every detail of our installations; everything that y

UK - Pixar's director of photography Danielle Feinberg will today present a seminar entitled 'Pixels to Pictures - The Cinematography of Pixar's Films' as part of PLASA's industry leading Professional Development Programme at PLASA Show 2015.

"Cinematography: the art of lighting and photographing a movie. Translated into animation, how does this work? In this insightful talk, Pixar Director of Photography Danielle Feinberg will shed light on the magic of cinematography in animated film and how the creative freedom computers allow must be harnessed for ultimate storytelling," say organisers.

"After hearing about PLASA for years, I am so thrilled to be taking part this year," says Danielle. "It is a rare and wonderful thing to be in a room full of people that appreciate the immense power of great lighting."

The session takes place today at 2.30pm

UK - Straight off the back of Adobe's recent announcements, Niels Stevens, Video Business Development Manager, will showcase the very latest developments in their Creative Cloud content creation tools and services.

Today at PLASA Show 2015, Niels Stevens, the Video Business Development Manager for Adobe will present a three sessions as part of PLASA's renowned seminar stream. Straight off the back of Adobe's recent announcements, Niels Stevens will showcase the very latest developments in their Creative Cloud content creation tools and services.

Niels Stevens will demo the latest release of products which brings the entire collection of creative tools on a desktop, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Adobe Premiere Pro onto the Creative Cloud. With mobile apps, so you can create whatever you want, wherever you are and all your creative assets, including Adobe Stock

UK - PSCo, the trade only AV distributor and rental specialist, is showcasing the latest innovations from its leading manufacturer partners at PLASA Show 2015. Visitors are able to view PSCo's must-see 3-2-1mm LED line-up of Absen products on its 70sq.m stand, alongside innovative LCD displays including the new Samsung High Bright and video wall displays, and the stunning new Samsung 105" display - the largest professional display available in the world.

PSCo's Stuart Holmes comments: "This is the third consecutive year that we've done PLASA and each year for us, it becomes better and better. The main reason for that is people coming to the show have a much better understanding of the products we're showcasing and how they can be used in the environment they operate in, so therefore we can add more value to them."

"This show has been great, we have actually

USA - VER, a global provider of production equipment and engineering support, has announced that it has received worldwide patents for its innovative Air support frame, currently offered on its Winvision Air 9 product range. The first of its kind, the Air frame is featherweight, ultra-portable, and uses materials and construction techniques from the automotive industry. The reduced weight and high accuracy of the proprietary frame allow the product to be used in larger arrays without the need for additional overhead support.

"Our Air frame gives clients access to top-notch technology in a fantastic form factor," said Keith Harrison, head of LED for VER. "With a breakthrough in weight reduction, our Air 9mm has become one of the most popular rental products in our inventory, which is the largest and most diverse in the world."

Jeremy Hochman, leader of VER's

Sweden - Dataton has announced the appointment of Trond Solvold to the position of sales manager. Trond has over 20 years of experience in the Nordic and European pro-AV industry. His impressive track record includes key sales and business development positions at well-known brands such as Christie Digital Systems, projectiondesign and eyevis Nordic.

In his role as sales manager at Dataton, Trond will be responsible for developing and strengthening new markets. He will also work closely with the company's established partner network worldwide.

Trond Solvold commented, "I am thrilled to join Dataton, a pioneer company within the integration of digital media and digital displays for multi display experiences. It's an exciting time to be on board, following on from the successful launch of WATCHOUT 6 with its strong feature-set for projection mapping. With my background in v

Singapore - Nanyang Polytechnic has invested in eight Avolites Quartz consoles for its Electronic Engineering course, which offers a specialist final year of AV System Design.

Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) is located in Yio Chu Kang next to Yio Chu Kang MRT Station, Singapore. More than 15,000 students attend, on a campus of 30 hectares.

The Polytechnic approached Singapore-based Total Solution - a leading distributor of premium professional Light, Sound and Rigging products in Asia - to upgrade its existing lighting consoles for the course. Total Solution's Executive Director Tevin Heng demoed the Quartz console to the institution.

"NYP felt they needed to upgrade to a higher scale and more user friendly lighting console, and had always heard about Avolites' popularity in our region and therefore invited us to demo the Quartz," says Heng. "They were immediately i

UK - PSCo, the trade only AV distributor and rental specialist announced at PLASA 2015 that it has become the exclusive distributor for RGBLink in the UK and Ireland. The partnership further enriches PSCo's brand portfolio, and in particular deepens its LED offering, by providing clients with unique access to RGBLink's ground-breaking and comprehensive range of video processing and related products.

RGBLink manufactures full colour LED display controllers, mapping system solutions, broadcasting devices, conference and video wall controllers, and much more. The products are suited to a wide variety of applications ranging from entertainment, broadcast and control rooms, through to conference spaces and digital signage. This industry reach impressed Stuart Holmes, managing director at PSCo when he first met up with RGBLink at PLASA 2014:

"Amongst all the great technology on

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