Staged at both AC-ET's southern HQ in High Wycombe and northern office in Leeds, a good mix of people from many different industry sectors took up the opportunity to visit - including schools and educational establishments, theatres, venues, individuals working in broadcast and a cross-section of freelancers.
In a fast-moving industry constantly demanding quicker and more flexible control of multiple video sources and playback surfaces, the events emphasised the on-going creative and technical fusion between lighting, LED sources, 'pixels' and video technologies as a complete visual environment.
Attendees were able to delve deeper into the award-winning Hippotizer range of Green Hippo media servers. Product demos highlighted inventive new features of the latest v3 software like UberPan, for the control of multiple Hippotizer media servers as a single canvas, and VideoMapper, to fit and shape content across different scenic surfaces.
Visitors had the chance to discover why PixelRange are one of the industry's most innovative providers of LED lighting solutions, with demos of the SmartLine versatile and powerful battens range, the QPar high output Par fixture and PixelSmart Par, which combines a vast colour palette with warm white LEDs for a brilliantly bright white.
To showcase today's seamless convergence of lighting and visual elements, Green Hippo Hippotizer media server content was 'pixelmapped' onto the PixelRange SmartLine battens.
The format consisted of two sessions - morning and afternoon - separated by lunch and refreshments throughout the day. This casual format provided a good networking opportunity for guests to meet and discuss ideas with each other, as well as representatives from AC-ET, Green Hippo and PixelRange.
"Everyone was really impressed with the open days," reports A.C. Video's Peter Butler. "The attendees really appreciated the chance to get hands-on with the products, and took the opportunity to discuss any inquiries directly with the manufacturers and AC-ET."
Tom Warden from Milton Keynes based Impact Production Services comments that the events were "really useful". He took the opportunity to quiz the Green Hippo representatives about the full product range, and take a close look at PixelRange's newest LED technologies.
Eddie Stephens from the BBC comments on how "interesting and useful" the day was, adding that there was "a very pleasant lunch".
AC-ET is the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for Green Hippo and master European distributor for PixelRange.
(Jim Evans)
