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Video and AV

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UK - In April of this year a new company, Arcstream AV, was formed combining more than 80 years' collective experience in the creation of outdoor and indoor multi-media shows. The four principals of the company bring expertise in theatre and touring concert industries and have now expanded their offering to serve the audio-visual, entertainment and themed attraction markets.

Operating from a studio in West London, the team comprises Brett Salmon and Tony Clynick (both Themed Entertainment Association award winners), as chief executive officer and technical director respectively, Wayne Haxton as production director and Neil Dickinson as operations director. The team has already completed major projects in both China and Malaysia in the six months since its formation.

Salmon has over 23 years' experience in technical management and production of events and in the last few years has foc

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UK - Creative Technology fielded an impressive array of Barco iLite 6 high-brightness LED modules to fulfil John Anderson's set design for the BBC's annual Children In Need fundraising spectacular, at the Television Centre in London. In addition to providing the totaliser screen, banner screen and stage left screen, this year CT fielded an additional 28sq.m screen at the rear of the set in studio TC1 - where Gaby Roslin and Terry Wogan again anchored the seven-hour TV marathon. The main central screen opened and closed via a tracking device behind the presenters.

Commented John Anderson, in his second year of designing the show: "The idea of a sliding screen this year was at the request of director, Richard Valentine. Also we moved the (36 x 1 module) i6 LED banner from the overhead proscenium last year onto the stage; it looked very prominent in the foreground.&quo

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France - Nicolaudie-Sunlite, the maker of the PLASA Innovation Award-winning Easy Stand Alone - has launched Color Manager, a new tool which not only works with RGB or CMY fixtures and is compatible with any drawing software program, but also incorporates powerful wizards such as images and video loading and text scrolling. This tool, say the company, has been designed to work with a matrix of LED devices as well as with conventional fixtures. Color Manager has already been integrated in Easy Stand Alone and will be one of Sunlite 2004's features when the new version is released in December.

(Lee Baldock)

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Spain - This marks seventh industry award for HES' Digital Lighting fixture High End Systems' DL1 Digital Light fixture won Best Product of the Year at the Pro-Audio and Lighting Awards in Spain. The honor was presented 11 November at the Broadcast 2004 trade show in Madrid. Produccion Profesional magazine sponsored the awards.

Ramon Setien of Pro-Lighting, a High End Systems distributor in Spain, accepted the award. Pro-Lighting was also in the running for lighting company of the year. The jury was comprised of professional lighting designers. Says Carlos Martinez-Iturralde of Pro-Lighting, "The judges said the DL1 deserved the award because it was the best lighting product for its innovative technology in the lighting market."

This is DL1's seventh industry award since its introduction in 2003.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - This year the ever-popular Barco Showcase event was held at two locations, in the North and South of the country. The first was at Three Mills Studios in London and the second held at the Magna Science Museum in Rotherham, Yorkshire. LSI visited the Three Mills Studios, which proved to be an ideal location for showing the huge range of Barco products.

The show included everything from their high performance display products and solutions for simulation training, to their large screen LED display and state-of-the-art projectors. One of Barco's newest products being shown was the Encore Presentation System which is a multi-layer Video Display System (comprised of a Video Processor unit and a System Controller), that combines seamless switching with a variety of flexible video effects, to provide a versatile video production tool for live event staging applications.

The huge

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UK - Hippotizer version 2, previewed at this year's PLASA Show, begins shipping this week. With new features including a control area on a separate screen from the main output screen, allowing images to be adjusted locally in a user-friendly, intuitive environment. In addition there is layer-level preview, up to sixteen image layers (depending on model) each with separate adjustment of all key parameters including brightness, contrast, colour, position and zoom. There is controllable interaction between layers; a master layer with 16-bit geometry applied globally to all other layers and an expanded range of supported media file formats, including Quicktime, Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 and AVIs. Hippotizer will also play back audio within video files.

Hippotizer's existing features, including its beat-detection engine and user-configurable real-time effects are further improved in version 2.

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Germany - Mercedes Benz celebrated the 100 year anniversary of its Untertürkheim plant near Stuttgart recently. A ceremony was attended by 300 of Germany's movers and shakers from the political, business and social worlds and events on the main stage were displayed on two huge systems of G-LEC ClassicFrame, which were attached to the facade on each side of the 14 story Mercedes Benz office building.

With both displays measuring 245m², the 140 frames of ClassicFrame, controlled by 12 graphic computers, were used to display live video feed from the events on the main stage. With such a large rig required, ClassicFrame was the only product for the job as owing to the lightweight façade of the building - a video wall would have brought the building down!

Richard Profe, media and lighting designer at Munich and Stuttgart based design company TLD, had been waiting to specify the

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UK - Digital media solutions specialists Projected Image Digital has been appointed as the exclusive re-seller for High End System's Catalyst digital media server software as well as an authorised Apple Ltd reseller. This will enable PID to continue offering the most cost-effective, highly flexible bespoke digital media packages to lighting designers and visual artists working in all areas of entertainment, leisure and the arts.

PID, which has established itself as a leading solutions-based digital media service over the past two years, says that the deals with High End and Apple allow them to offer the latest software-only versions of Catalyst, together with an array of new features and playback hardware at highly-competitive prices. Catalyst Pro software features eight layers, two video outputs, MIDI Show Control input, four serial control devices, three RS422 (Sony 9-pin pr

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UK - ECT, a manufacturer of custom projection screens for the staging and events market, was recently contracted to build an 88ft screen for the National Television awards at The Royal Albert Hall. The screen filled the complete backdrop of the awards set. ECT were asked to make the screen after their success with another large screen, measuring 87ft by 49ft, made for The Prince's Trust Fashion Rocks event earlier this year. ECT, based in Pangbourne, Berkshire, specializes in projection screens for the television industry, corporate, public information and shop window displays. The company's screens are can also be seen on the BBC 10 O'clock News and regional news programmes where the screens provide large-format interactive communication.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Hospitality guests at this year's Investec Challenge matches at Twickenham were greeted by a new reception area, which led the way into the stadium's River Suites. Detail Management Services Ltd holds the management, design and build contracts and Jim Mason, managing director of Detail explained: "We needed to create a reception walk-through area to ensure that guests immediately feel special from the point of arrival. It is a key area in the complex as all of the hospitality guests pass through it on the way to their suites."

Detail brought in technical event management company Next Step Forward Ltd to design and install a sophisticated multimedia system, which would transform the walk-through area into a functional yet stylish space.

Mark Thomas, technical director of Next Step Forward explained: "Detail had expressed their desire to create an area which

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UK - Creative Technology dipped heavily into its inventory of Barco DLite 7 LED daylight screens to meet the requirement of set designer Lisa Lillywhite for this year's Smash Hits T4 Pollwinners Party.

Immersed within the heavily arrowed stage theme at Wembley Arena, the focal point was the 44sqm of landscaped D7 wall, which could travel vertically from its flown position upstage centre. This was reinforced by a smaller tunnel screen, marking the stars' entrance at the top of the stairs, and a single 12 x 2 vertical column, situated upstage left.

The CT screens integrated well with Vince Foster's inspired lighting design, with all the graphic feeds relayed to the flanking screens from a Catalyst server, triggered from a G5 computer. The main central display featured live camera action (and nominee captions) - fed from a CTV scanner truck - while CT themselves took five close-u

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XL Video is now carrying the new Hibino Chroma Tek 6mm LED indoor panel, which features 12bit color depth, a brightness of 1,200 NIT and can be configured into a variety of shapes. XL also carries Barco products, including the Barco MiPix pixelblocks, as well as plasma and portable video displays. XL provides have offices in the U.S., the U.K., Belgium and Germany.

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UK - This year the ever-popular Barco Showcase event was held at two locations North and South of the country. The first was at The Three Mills Studios in London and the second held at the Magna Science Museum in Rotherham, Yorkshire. LSI visited the Three Mills Studios, which proved to be an ideal location for showing the huge range of Barco products.

(Jane Cockburn)

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UK - The Picture Works, one of the world's most comprehensive and pioneering video services companies, has placed an order for two Barco XLM H25 projectors. Established in 1996, and with offices in Wales and London, The Picture Works will add the 27000 lumen projectors to its rapidly growing range of specialized hire equipment, making it the first company in the UK to have the XLM H25s on its fleet - a move which the company believes will place it firmly on the map of heavyweight events companies.

Barco's impressive XLM H25 projector, the first DLP projector with a native wide-screen aspect ratio, native 2048x1080 resolution and 27000 lumen light output, is ideally suited to ultra wide screen projections. Robin Wealleans, managing director of The Picture Works, explained his decision to choose Barco: "The XLM H25 offers a functional design, fully sealed DMD engine and an a

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UK - XL Video is supplying Blink TV with all video production, equipment and crew for the current Will Young arena tour. The tour features a combination of IMAG video from XL's 4 camera PPU and pre-recorded footage specially created for the tour by show producer Michael Gracey. The live images are mixed by video director Phil Woodhead, and the video production package is co-ordinated by XL Video's Des Fallon and Blink TV's Tom Llewellyn. XL's chief engineer Stuart Heaney looks after their crew of seven and the tour's production manager for 19 Management is Kenny Underwood.

Video plays a central role in Young's stage show, with visuals running for over half of the set. Sydney-based video artist Michael Gracey initially met Will Young when his company Babyfoot Productions shot the "Your Game" promo on location in Australia - and they immediately hit it off. Young has tak

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UK - Blitz, one of the UK's leading providers of audiovisual equipment and services, showcased some of its most innovative sound solutions at the 250th anniversary celebration for the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The event, which was held at the Royal Albert Hall was attended by over 2,500 delegates.

Richard Rogers, Blitz's sound designer, commented: "Owing to the very tight schedule, we pre-programmed the show in advance on our latest Yamaha PM5D digital mixing desks. We used 28 Sennheiser radio mics on the circular stage with a radio earpiece for the host, Michael Buerk. Our system also took into account that the event was being recorded to CD for subsequent web casting. We also delivered zoned onstage foldback to five separate zones via Mission NXT FS2 loudspeakers - sneakily hidden in coffee tables!"

In addition, B

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Finland - The makers of FogScreen have reported that volume production of the system has now started, with lead time currently at one month for FogScreen Inia, a 1.5m x 2m (59" x 79") sized model. The company also reports that the screen's quality has been improved during 2004, and the level of condensation water dripping from the unit has been reduced. Also, FogScreen Inia is now DMX-controllable, say the company, while interactivity add-on are also available, making it possible to write and draw in the air with a pointer stick.

Units have now been sold to USA, Japan, Germany, Finland and Russia, and the company has announced exclusive distribution arrangement in Germany and Japan with effect from 1 January 2005, plus dealers in the USA and South Korea. The company also reports that its sales have doubled every four months since its start-up in July 2003, and the fir

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UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK projected into the Shell Building for London's New Year's Eve 2004/05 celebrations, working for show and event producers Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW).

The projections were part of London Lights a pyrotechnic and lighting extravaganza designed to catch the spirit of London as the year rolled over and reinforce the city's bid for the 2012 Olympics. The event took place along the Thames, encompassing the South Bank between Jubilee and Westminster Bridges, including landmarks like the London Eye and Big Ben. Over 135,000 people on the streets, plus TV audiences of several million enjoyed it live.

E//T//C's Ross Ashton decided to change the projection format slightly for this event, covering the full surface of the building with eight PIGI 6Kw projectors. (In the past, they've used 6 for the images, with two for accompanyin

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UK - Green Hippo and Scene Change, creator and distributor of the acclaimed Hippotizer digital media server range, have announced H-MAP, the Hippotizer Media Access Protocol. H-MAP offers the ability for any lighting console to access information from Hippotizer servers, including clip previews and corresponding DMX control values. A console could therefore show programmers thumbnails of all of the images or movie clips available in a Hippotizer allowing direct, immediate selection. The link between Hippotizer and console is via ethernet, and is dynamic and so can be automatically updated as the Hippotizer's contents change - unlike 'one off' schemes offered by some manufacturers where clips are manually transferred from media server to console.

"Until now, controlling digital media from a lighting console has involved keeping lists of which DMX value corresponds to which

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UK - Projected Image Digital has supplied UK lighting rental company Lite Alternative with the first Catalyst XPress software package - following its appointment as exclusive UK dealer for the award wining digital media.

Lite Alternative's Catalyst system immediately went out of the Human League's UK tour, designed by Paul Normandale and programmed and operated by Rob Sinclair. PID supplied the full digital media system, including the dual 2GHz PowerMac on which it runs, to which PID installed an ATI9800 video card along with a Decklink Black Magic video input card and an Artistic Licence Ethernet to DMX input unit.

Catalyst XPress is a cost-effective version of the full Catalyst package. It's now available through PID as a software only purchase - making the Catalyst universe more versatile and accessible to another layer of users and viable for small to medium tours - like H

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UK - Switchcraft has been expanding its range of audio and video patchbays and patch cords in recent times and can now offer a wide selection of products that are suitable for HDTV/digital applications.

Recent introductions of digital-ready products include: high-density video patchbays rated to 3GHz (with 32 jacks per 1RU panel); audio patchbays fitted with 48, 52 and 96 jacks per panel; audio patchbays in which the normalling can be changed from the front of the panel; mixed audio/video patchbays; audio and video patch cords made using 110 ohm cable; and BNC plugs. All Switchcraft products are complemented by a lifetime warranty.

Not only has the range expanded but so has the worldwide customer base that includes major broadcasters, OB facility companies and post-production houses.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - This year's BBC's Sports Personality of the Year 2004 awards had a dramatic new environmental set created for them by design and communication company Imagination. Over 600 guests attended the event, which saw gold medallist Kelly Holmes scoop the 2004 Sports Personality of the Year trophy.

Working closely with the BBC executive producer Paul Davies, Imagination was able to create a visually arresting space for the awards, which not only hosted the live television programme but also a pre and post transmission party for over 600 VIP guests.

This year's environmental set included multiple interview staging areas, graphic treatments on the stage and floor as well as lighting and projection design. Imagination has a long-standing relationship with the BBC having worked with them on environmental sets for such programmes as Newsnight and Sports series On-Side

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The Netherlands - For Dutch superstar Frans Bauer's three sell-out 28,000 capacity Christmas shows at the Arnhem Gelredome, he and his design team decided to push their innovative use of video to record breaking levels. The single location and spectacular venue allowed a level of production which would be all but impossible on a touring show. The 'set' was a video screen - similar in proportions to the system on U2's legendary Popmart tour, this screen was not a low-resolution, background effect, but 500sq.m of Barco's D7 outdoor product assembled into arguably the largest and highest resolution display ever built Europe and even worldwide if fixed installations are discounted.

Dutch video specialist JVR (an Avesco plc company), an established supplier to Bauer's extravaganzas, supplied the screen. Sales director Jeroen Jongenelen commented. "The Barco D7 is the only syste

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UK - JVC is now stocking its range of dual purpose digital video (DT-V) range of HD and SD monitors with multi-signal video and audio capabilities. The JVC 17-inch DT-V1700CG and the 19-inch DT-V1910CG colour video monitors have an increased range of interface cards and are newly price-positioned to compete with standard definition CRT monitors.

All DT-V monitors feature natural flat CRTs with either user-selectable standard 4:3 or wide 16:9 aspect ratio. A discrete 16:9 removable bezel is provided as standard. Producing clear images, the DT-V1700CG monitor has 800 TV lines and the DT-V1910CG has 900 TV lines of horizontal resolution.

The three blank connection panels can each be populated when and how, according to user needs, with audio and video I/O modules. The selection is from: composite video and Y/C, analogue component / RGB / RGBHV, a range of SDI and a range of HD SD

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