Video and AV

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30 June 2025

Finland - PPDS has announced the installation of 800 hotel TVs, digital signage, and dvLED walls inside Finland’s advanced business hotel complex, the Clarion Hotel Helsinki Airport.

Located immediately outside Vantaa Airport’s main terminal, the 12-floor multi-purpose Clarion Hotel Helsinki Airport boasts 505 luxury guest rooms, a scenic rooftop cocktail bar, an à la carte restaurant, a gym, and heated outdoor pool.

The hotel also features a 21-room conference centre and plush 1,050-capacity ballroom.

The hotel’s owners, Strawberry Hotels – one of the largest hotel groups in the Nordics – turned to PPDS to support ‘the ultimate away-from-home digital experience’ for its hotel guests, while putting the complex on the global map for its advanced and interactive conferencing capabilities.

Working together with solution sp

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27 June 2025

Japan - Brompton Technology has expanded its service network in East Asia through a strategic partnership with Ark Ventures, an LED systems integrator within the Symunity Group. This development enables Brompton's advanced Hydra measurement system to be available through local certified service partners in Japan and South Korea for the first time, following Ark Ventures’ successful partnership with ROE Visual.

Brompton's Hydra calibration technology now provides regional clients with premium recalibration services, eliminating the logistical challenges and expenses previously associated with shipping LED panels overseas. By establishing this local service infrastructure, Brompton has significantly reduced downtime and maintenance costs for operators of high-end LED display systems across East Asia.

“We work with a select group of leading manufact

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26 June 2025

Hungary - Lightware’s Lara Wizard makes it ‘quicker and easier than ever’ to set up audio-visual (AV) room automation and control configurations, ensuring anyone, from systems integrators to IT teams, can achieve their desired system configuration in minutes.

Lara is Lightware’s built-in room automation platform, which simplifies AV system control in meeting spaces. Pre-integrated into Lightware’s core products, it empowers everyone to design, deploy and manage professional AV systems quickly and efficiently. A key part of this efficiency is the Lara Wizard interface. This online service is the quickest way for users to get started, delivering reliable room control without writing a single line of code.

Visitors to Lightware’s InfoComm 2025 booth will have seen Lara featured in multiple demonstrations, with the Lara Wizard also having its

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25 June 2025

Australia - Harman Professional Solutions has announced the consolidation of its audio and video control distribution in Australia. Effective 1 August 2025, MadisonAV will become the exclusive distributor for the complete Harman Professional audio and video portfolio across the region. Distribution of the Martin Professional lighting portfolio will continue with Show Technology.

“The Harman Professional portfolio is evolving in a way that R&D investments in new hardware and software platforms are reshaping the portfolio and our business,” said Amar Subash, vice-president and general manager, Harman Professional APAC. “As we look to the future, there are great benefits in consolidating distribution as it will allow us to leverage the full potential of the investments made to the portfolio, and I’m pleased that MadisonAV will carry us forward.”

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25 June 2025

Saudi Arabia - Luminex kicked off the festival season at the inaugural edition of A Thousand and One, Riyadh’s newest large-scale music festival.

Across five distinct stages, Qafilah, Sahaab, Bizar Bazar, Bustan, and Qasr, the festival hosted both world-class DJs and rising stars. Colour Sound Experiment provided complete lighting, video, and control solutions for all stages, backed by robust and intelligent networking infrastructure.

Each stage relies on a dependable network backbone built around Luminex GigaCore switches. Every stage has multiple racks: FOH, stage left, stage right – all connected via GigaCore switches’ ISL ports. Using Luminex’s RLinkX feature, the team created a redundant ring network with ultra-fast recovery, ensuring automatic fallback in case of link failure.

Each stage was routed to a dedicated backup

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24 June 2025

World - Metallica’s M72 world tour, renowned for its innovative in-the-round stage and ‘no repeat weekend’ format, has adopted the Pixera media server system from AV Stumpfl. This transition enhances the tour’s massive video setup, delivering ‘an unparalleled visual experience’ across its eight 100ft-tall towers, each featuring three 50 × 30ft LED screens, totalling 24 discrete surfaces – the brainchild of creative director and production designer Dan Braun.

The M72 tour, which began in 2023 and has captivated upwards of 80,000 fans per night, relies on a sophisticated technical infrastructure to match its ambitious creative vision. Metallica’s switch to Pixera, first tested at the Soundstorm festival in 2023, has proven transformative. “Pixera’s rendering capabilities, especially for Notch effects, are unmatch

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24 June 2025

USA - Brompton Technology has successfully deployed its Hydra advanced measurement system, through its partner Red Rock OPS, to revitalise Rentex's LED panel inventory. The Las Vegas-based consulting firm Red Rock OPS, which specialises in live overlays, colour calibration, and broadcast services, used Brompton's calibration technology to enhance the performance of the nationwide AV rental provider's existing LED panels and dramatically extend their lifespan.

Hydra is an award-winning, all-in-one measurement system custom-designed for LED panels and exclusive to Brompton Technology. It enables the use of Brompton’s groundbreaking Dynamic Calibration technology, which allows LED panels to achieve significantly higher brightness and a wider colour gamut than traditional calibration methods while maintaining uniformity.

This system is also the foundat

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24 June 2025

UK - Rise AV, the advocacy group championing gender diversity and professional development in the AV sector, has announced the launch of the Elevate Programme, a leadership accelerator designed exclusively to ‘fast-track the careers of mid-level women professionals working in AV, residential AV, and live events sectors’.

Following the success of the inaugural Rise AV Mentoring Programme, which demonstrated the tangible impact of targeted support and community-building, the Elevate Programme marks the next strategic step in empowering women to take on senior leadership roles across the AV industry.

Running from October to December 2025, this intensive six-week hybrid programme blends virtual and in-person sessions, real-world leadership challenges, and group mentorship from senior AV leaders. Limited to 35 delegates acro

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20 June 2025

China - As part of its newly expanded headquarters in Pingshan, Shenzhen, ROE Visual has recently opened the doors to its dramatically upgraded showrooms. The immersive, application-driven spaces highlight the full creative and technical potential of ROE’s latest LED technologies, with Brompton Technology’s Tessera LED video processing playing a pivotal role throughout.

Now three times larger than the original facility, the showrooms feature purpose-built environments that allow visitors to experience ROE Visual’s LED products in real-life scenarios, from touring and live events to broadcast, fixed installation, and virtual production. Brompton’s 4K Tessera SX40 LED video processors, paired with Tessera XD 10G data distribution units, power many of the key installations, enabling flawless system control, consistent colour reproduction, and the dynami

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20 June 2025

UK - The Art-Deco Grade II listed Queens Hotel has been an impressive presence on Leeds’ City Square since its construction in 1937. Designed by W.H. Hamlyn and faced with white Portland Stone, it is a striking landmark which over the years has hosted many notable guests. Royals, world leaders, and international film stars have all experienced the comforts of The Queens.

At the end of last year, The Queens was the focus of an art installation which saw LeedsBID (Leeds Business Improvement District) collaborate with Barcelona-based creative studio Onionlab on To Leeds With Love, a visual spectacular which used the elegant architecture of the Hotel as a canvas for multiple projections themed around The Twelve Days of Christmas.

The ambitious and innovative project, which embraced state-of-the-art technology and world-class design, r

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20 June 2025

UK - Stage Electrics Group has announced changes within its senior executive team. Andy Preece, group finance director, will retire from his executive role effective 31 July 2025, the end of the group’s financial year, and will assume a new position as a non-executive director.

Dave Coull, group CEO of Stage Electrics, said: “Andy’s breadth of experience and expertise have not only benefited the organisation financially and strategically but have also helped shape and develop our company culture over the past four years. As he moves into his new role as non-executive director, I’m confident the group will continue to benefit from his insight, non-executive oversight, and unwavering commitment to our continued growth and success.”

Nathan Athay, the company’s current finance manager, will be promoted to the role of group finance director an

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19 June 2025

Canada - At the heart of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) stands Chrysalis – a landmark 1,200-seat proscenium theatre housed in the historic Ryerson Theatre in downtown Toronto. As part of The Creative School, which encompasses 27 leading graduate and undergraduate programmes in media, communications, and design, Chrysalis is more than a performance space – it serves as a creative incubator.

Led by technical lead, Scott Martin, alongside director, Owais Lightwala and creative producer, Jasmine Au, Chrysalis is ‘reimagining live entertainment through the integration of emerging technologies and performance techniques’.

Its mission focuses on equipping students with the tools and methodologies that will define the next era of the industry. Martin’s role is central to achieving this vision. He oversees the implementation of technology sys

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18 June 2025

UK - Polar recently returned to the Old Savoy Theatre in Northampton to stage Polar Expo, a day-long event where integrators, AV consultants, rental companies and sound engineers were able to see, hear, and explore the full Polar catalogue.

Previous Polar demo days, focused on specific brands, had proved to be a popular draw for a wide range of technology professionals, prompting the company to expand the formula to stage its largest such event to date. According to sales manager Andy Plunkett, who coordinated the event, the Savoy Theatre takeover was another valuable exercise in giving visitors a close-up, hands-on experience of the Polar portfolio:

“We showcased the entire portfolio across morning and afternoon sessions in the Theatre and adjoining Dore Suite. There’s just no substitute for hearing our high-performance loudspeaker ranges in a r

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18 June 2025

UAE - INFiLED technology helped transform Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Park into an immersive AV spectacle for the inaugural Offlimits Music Festival.

Billed as the UAE’s first open-format music festival (i.e. one featuring multiple genres of music), Offlimits welcomed global artists including Ed Sheeran, OneRepublic and Kaiser Chiefs across four stages purpose-built on Yas Island for the event, held on 26th April 2025.

Technical production across all four stages – T11 (main), Head, Meteor and Club X – was managed by regional event technology company SLS Production. The team was responsible for delivering audio, video and lighting to global touring standards, ensuring a premium experience for the international artist lineup. One of the standout visual features of the festival was found on the Meteor stage, where a 910m² LED wall –

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17 June 2025

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation are back for 2025, and entries are officially open.  

Celebrating the most forward-thinking technology across lighting, audio, AV, staging, rigging and beyond, the awards recognise products that bring something genuinely new to the table, whether it’s a technical step forward, a sustainability breakthrough, or a clever commercial edge. 

Run in partnership with LSi, the awards are independently judged by a panel of experts who know what real innovation looks like. All shortlisted ent

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17 June 2025

UK - Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has taken a significant step forward in preparing students for the evolving landscape of virtual production. With the recent installation of a virtual production studio, including ROE Visual’s latest full-spectrum LED technology powered by Brompton LED processing and, for the first time, its TrueLight technology, NTU provides a hands-on learning environment to train future professionals in the skills the industry increasingly demands.

The virtual production (VP) studio marks a milestone in the university’s £1.3m investment in media technology for its School of Art & Design. This advanced facility is designed to serve both academic and commercial purposes, providing students with access to industry-leading tools while also catering to external clients seeking high-quality production facilities.

The proje

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17 June 2025

UK - As organisations rethink the role of the office space in a post-pandemic world, Leyard has partnered with T1V, a pioneer in interactive collaboration software, to unveil a new kind of workspace: the High Impact Space.

Located at Leyard/Planar’s London showroom near Chancery Lane, this installation features a 4.8m wide curved touch LED wall integrated with T1V’s ThinkHub and Story software, offering a bold vision of what collaborative environments can and should be.

T1V is distributed in the UK by Polar, whose business development manager Duncan Peberdy is excited by the potential of High Impact Spaces:

“Whilst many necessary work tasks in a post-Covid world can be carried out at home, a truly collaborative environment is required for activities that can’t be undertaken in isolation or through simple video calls.

“High I

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16 June 2025

Germany - Hit TV show Dein Song showcased the best emerging songwriters this spring with each contestant performing amid bespoke content displayed on three LED screens, all driven by Hippotizer Media Servers.

Creative production studio LUPIXX used two Boreal+ MK2s, supplied by ETC, to deliver a wealth of content created by Saskia Olma at LUPIXX and her team. “We were responsible for the content design of the finale, creating custom animations, visual concepts, and LED stage content to support the young songwriters’ performances and bring their music to life in an atmospheric and powerful way,” explains Olma. “The Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers are so user friendly, easy to set up and good to go, making the process and realisation of the show stress-free.”

The popular programme is produced by ZDF in collaboration with children’s channe

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13 June 2025

USA - PPDS, provider of Philips Professional Displays has announced a global alliance with Shure to deliver an advanced range of full room audio visual solutions.

Announced during a live launch event on Philips booth at InfoComm 2025 in Orlando, this collaboration sees PPDS enter into a global alliance with Shure, combining the power of Philips Professional Displays with Shure’s premium audio systems.

This development sees PPDS enter a global alliance with Shure, who provides integrated, easy-to-deploy IntelliMix Room Kits for Microsoft Teams Rooms, bringing audio visual together for total solutions in conferencing and collaboration in corporate, government, and educational environments.

Speaking at the official signing, Ron Cottaar, director of global marketing at PPDS, said: “Our collaboration with Shure further extends our commitment t

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13 June 2025

Canada - Brompton Technology has announced that Theatrixx Technologies, a Montreal-based manufacturer and distributor of professional audiovisual equipment, has joined its Panel Manufacturer Partner Programme as a blue partner. This milestone marks a new chapter in a growing relationship between the two companies, rooted in a shared commitment to innovation, reliability, and excellence in professional audiovisual solutions.

Theatrixx Technologies designs and manufactures high-performance AV solutions tailored for live events, broadcast, XR, systems integration, touring, and the preforming arts.

Among its key innovations is the Nomad LED range, featuring the proprietary TPEP (Titanium Polymer Edge Protection) technology, along with an upcoming permanent install series. Theatrixx is also recognised for its award-winning signal converters, besp

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13 June 2025

China - Christie laser projectors have brought to life an immersive nighttime spectacular at Wuhan’s popular Huabohui Scenic Spot, transforming the picturesque flower-themed park into a vibrant fusion of natural beauty and leading-edge visual technology.

Titled Zhiyin Flower Moon Night, the multi-venue show is celebrated as China’s first immersive night tour themed around the Twelve Flower Goddesses. Christie’s trusted partner Jianye Display led the projection design and systems integration, deploying 13 Christie 1DLP laser projectors. Models include the Inspire Series DWU760-iS and DWU960-iS, as well as the high-brightness DWU23-HS - chosen for their accurate colour reproduction, dependable performance, and ability to operate reliably in demanding outdoor environments.

“The Christie laser projectors delivered outstanding br

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11 June 2025

UK - Midwich has announced the launch of Live, a new division created to serve the needs of the live events industry through specialist distribution and trade rental services in the UK&I. Backed by the legacy, expertise, and energy of Sound Technology and PSCo, Live is designed to help partners ‘deliver extraordinary live events’.

Under the Live banner sit two independent specialist businesses – each focused on delivering excellence in their own area:

Live Technology – the distribution arm, formerly Sound Technology, providing market-leading brands in audio, lighting, video, and control to the live events community, supported by expert pre- and post-sales teams.

PSCo and Dry Hire Lighting – the trade rental arm, continuing to deliver exceptional service and specialist rental solutions through trusted teams and existing account s

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11 June 2025

UK - AbsenLive, a sub-category brand of LED manufacturer Absen, has announced the appointment of Murray Scott to its growing UK team and in the process bolster its rental services and solutions for the events, virtual production, and broadcasting sectors.

Murray joins as business development manager for the UK and Ireland. He brings with him a wealth of experience in sales and purchasing, having dedicated 30 years to both FMCG and independent businesses. His most recent experience involves working with transparent LED for the retail and rental LED market, making him an asset to Absen and its innovative growth plans.

"I’m eager to embark on this new chapter in the world of rental and staging LED," says Murray. “I was drawn to Absen by its outstanding product range and the exceptional support provided by the teams in the UK, Europe, and China. I lo

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11 June 2025

UK - Bolton-based TVC Technology Solutions has announced the successful completion of a sophisticated audio-visual installation at King Street Social Tap, a new flagship hospitality venue by Amber Taverns in Huddersfield. This latest project adds to TVC’s growing portfolio in the sector, reinforcing the brand’s position as a premier AV integrator of choice for the hospitality industry.

“We know what it takes to make a good hospitality venue great: Impressive sound, visually dynamic video and engaging entertainment options like karaoke that increase customer dwell time, average spend, and repeat custom.” Says Chris Whitlock, technical director at TVC Technology Solutions. “All tied together through the seamless interface that is easy for employees to use.”

Building on previous successful collaborations with Amber Taverns, including the pop