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UK - Live event specialist tdc transformed Sheffield City Hall's ballroom for the final of a Dragon's Den-style student business challenge. The Sheffield-based company provided AV support for the BiG Challenge, a competition designed to encourage and generate enterprise in education.

The event, which forms part of BiG - Make It Your Business, provided 180 teams from 18 schools and two colleges in Sheffield with the chance to pitch for a share of £100,000 to support enterprise in their school, as well as a five day trip to the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.

Each team of budding entrepreneurs received £25 to start and run their business over a six month period and generate as much profit as possible with the most successful teams making the City Hall final.

More than 20 awards were presented at the event with Myers Grove School taking the ove

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Good News - The Association of British Theatre Technicians reports that the 30th anniversary ABTT Theatre Show staged in London's Royal Horticultural Halls last week was considered another triumph. Year on year the Show has expanded from both exhibitor and visitor perspectives. With over 100 participating companies, the organisers say that, despite the current uncertain economic climate, the visitor numbers were maintained and were slightly up on 2007.

Company News - In the entertainment technology industry's latest high-profile acquisition, Barco has announced that it has bought High End Systems Inc, the well-known manufacturer of automated luminaires, digital lighting and lighting controls, for a total value of USD 55 million. "With the merging of two strong industry players, this acquisition reinforces Barco's leadership position in the fast converging video and lighting segmen

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UK - SPS recently completed the Institute of Directors Annual Convention. This one-day event was held in the Royal Albert Hall for nearly 3,000 business leaders, with speakers including Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Kevin Spacey and Bob Geldof.

SPS has worked on the IoD flagship event for five consecutive years and utilised its extensive experience to provide the bulk of the staging and production elements including the impressive stage set, screen content and opening video. The SPS creative team also worked with many of the speakers to develop screen content to support their presentations.

A 14m x 6m custom-built screen provided the main focus of the set, with imagery provided by two projectors to achieve a 45,000 lumen image with full 2K HD resolution. This screen was utilised in many ways throughout the day. "For the opening video we wanted to highlight the calibre of t

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USA - Two of the world's larger audio and video system integrators, Impact, Europe's largest, and The Whitlock Group, a $135 million dollar US based company, have announced "the creation of the industry's first global alliance for the audio-visual (AV) integration market". Called the Global Presence Alliance (GPA), the group will initially focus on customers based in the US and Europe, with plans to build the international footprint and size going forward.

Fredd Causevic, CEO of Impact, said: "With the market for videoconferencing, in particular, growing at a rate of more than 25 per cent, it is exactly the right time to look to extend our geographic reach.

"Our clients here in the UK and Europe are increasingly asking for the same level of service and support for their offices throughout the world. The Global Presence Alliance is all about promoting best p

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Belgium - Barco is unveiling a broad array of new products at this year's InfoComm 2008 (18-20 June, Las Vegas).

Headlining at this year's show is the introduction of the FLM HD20 (1,980 x 1,080 resolution, 20,000 centre lumens) and FLM R22+ (1,400 x 1,050 resolution, 22,000 centre lumens), two new high brightness additions to the FLM projector family. Together with the existing features of the FLM series, these additions incorporate new technology which ensures minimal maintenance costs, increased light efficiency and reduction of overall power consumption, says the company.

During development of the new projectors, Barco also designed a new universal lamp housing for the whole family of FLM projectors. This new lamp housing offers advantages over the previous housings such as increased brightness with less power consumption, enhanced image quality and reduction of the overal

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UK - With special half-price pre-registration now live on the PLASA08 website, organiser PLASA Events has revealed that the host of its first ever PLASA Masterclass will be Funktion One co-founder Tony Andrews - the winner of last year's inaugural Gottelier Award.

A highly regarded designer and manufacturer of high quality point source speaker systems, with numerous patents to his name, Andrews' landmark developments include the hugely successful Flashlight and Floodlight systems, and more recently the distinctive Funktion One Resolution Series.

Andrews headlines a growing programme of educational presentations at the show, which include a number of exciting new initiatives and partnerships. There will be a strong focus on industry technologies, with several sessions addressing existing and emerging audio, AV and lighting technologies and how to maximise their application in t

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UK - Cotswold Leisure Cirencester has provided an invaluable public sports facility in Cirencester for many years. But when faced with increased private competition and deteriorating conditions, Cotswold District Council took the decision to demolish its existing leisure centre and replace it with a new centre to meet the needs of its population for the next few decades. PEL Services Ltd was awarded the contract to supply, install and commission all the fire, security, safety and audio-visual systems for the new venue.

With a raft of new legislation in place to help protect the public and ensure all are treated equally, most notable of which is the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), special consideration has to be given to safety in a leisure centre. PEL Services installed a number of key assistance systems in Cotswold Leisure Cirencester including Personal Assistance buttons

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UK - PLASA Events Ltd, the organisers of the PLASA Show at Earls Court in London (7-10 Sept 2008) have announced the official launch of the 2008 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which this year will feature some significant enhancements - and also the 2008 Gottelier Award, which recognises the contribution of an outstanding individual to product development.

Innovation: PLASA goes for Gold
During consultation with the PLASA Awards for Innovation Judges after the 2007 PLASA Show, the judges expressed a desire to be able to more accurately reflect the levels of innovation seen in the products nominated for the Awards. Specifically, they were looking for a way to highlight those cases where a product truly delivered something strikingly new and innovative to the industry.

Roland Hemming, a highly-respected audio consultant and a regular on the PLASA Awards for Innovation j

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UK - A.C. Lighting has supplied a state of the art LED TV lighting system for the dedicated set of the new Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky television show.

As part of five TV's plans to refresh and relaunch its pioneering news programme, which include recruiting high-profile news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky for the show, the broadcaster decided to rebrand the set with a completely new look.

Set designer Chris Webster produced the concept of backlit acrylic panels that could be lit to achieve a varied range of looks to suit the mood of a bulletin, whether based on a particular theme or time of day.

Sky News, producer of the show for five, has a policy of incorporating energy efficient lighting into its sets where technology provides a viable solution, so approached A.C. Lighting to supply an LED system which would also provide five with maximum creative opportunities

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Italy - Aethra SpA, has announced that it has established a business alliance with Elmo Company Limited for the distribution of the Aethra range of video conferencing products in Japan. Thanks to the new agreement, Aethra solutions will be distributed in Japan through Elmo's sales channel network with the aim of enhancing Aethra brand awareness and market share in the highly-competitive Japanese arena.

The reciprocal nature of the agreement means that Aethra and Elmo will also collaborate on the development of a sophisticated and powerful line up of video conference solutions through the sharing core technologies.

Aethra has been utilizing the Elmo PTZ camera on its Vega X3 and X5 set top line since December 2007 and is confident that integrating the technology of the two companies will result in important developments, in particular for the Japanese market. By adding Aethra v

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UK - Ministry of Sound realized long ago that lighting has a positive draw, and the more impressive the better. The famed club brand is continually improving their offer for their customers, while striving to look better than any other nightclub. So when Alex Barrand, technical manager at Ministry of Sound in London, decided it was time to invest in a new laser system that would give the venue even more 'wow' factor, he turned to Martin's RGB Laser 1.6.

"The Martin laser is one of the best units on the market," Barrand states. "I like the fact that it can run DMX, also from a laptop, and I like the small size of the unit."

Two Martin RGB 1.6 lasers are located on each side of the DJ booth in Ministry's infamous Box.

The RGB Laser 1.6 joins MoS London's existing Martin rig of MAC moving heads, Martin effect lights and Jem smoke machines. Martin Professiona

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UK - After a decade away from the stage, Portishead could easily have looked a little rusty at the kick-off of their first British tour this millennium. But not only were the Bristol trio on form musically, but the stage was enhanced by a dramatic visual landscape, supplied by PSL.

To mark the release of their fourth album Third, the so-called trip-hop band from Bristol has been touring Europe with visual design that matches artist John Minton's creative concepts with PSL display technology.

Behind the stage, three separate projection screens are used in combination, with either three individual displays or as one large landscape. A multitude of small cameras, positioned all over the stage amongst the musicians, provide live footage, which is also processed as a feedback effect and relayed onto the screen.

Visual artist John Minton explains that he wanted to keep the

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Canada - E/T/C Paris is creating a new world record in large format video projection as part of the festivities for the 400th anniversary of the City of Quebec, which runs from the 20 June to 24 August.

Le Moulin à Images (The Image Mill), is a spectacle of imagery and sound created by media innovator and artist Robert Lepage and his team at Ex Machina, recalling the history of Quebec City.

Each evening at sundown the grain silos on the banks of Louise Basin in the Port of Quebec will be transformed into an immense projection screen measuring 657m long and 33m high - some 40 million pixels - revealing this stunning work.

E/T/C Paris is installing a total of 27 Christie Roadster S+20K DLP video projectors for the project. Onlyview, E/T/C's multi-media control platform, will handle the programming, transmission and broadcasting of thousands of spectacular images, anima

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USA - Barco picked up three awards recently: at the Rental & Staging Systems Awards, held at InfoComm last week. Its NX-4 Black LED display was awarded this year's Best LED Product while its DML-1200 digital moving luminaire was awarded the Best Lighting Product. In addition, Barco's new reference monitor for broadcasters received the Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit at this year's NAB show.

The annual Rental & Staging Systems Awards, which recognize excellence in the design and production of new products, were held at InfoComm in Las Vegas last week. The awards for best new products in the rental and staging market, in which Barco's NX-4 won Best LED Product and DML-1200 won Best Lighting Product, were determined by a special Rental & Staging Systems Magazine readers' poll.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Tents, sacks of food and a replica of a burnt-out village hut appeared in Trafalgar Square as a tourist hotspot became a refugee camp to highlight the plight of millions of people displaced in Darfur and elsewhere.

The display, set up on 17th of May to mark World Refugee Day, came as the U.N. refugee agency reported a record 11.4 million people were driven from their home countries last year.

Organized by the UNHCR - UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Experience Darfur exhibition had white U.N. tents erected in the square and films of the UN work going on in Sudan and Chad were back projected on the windows and windshields of two Toyota vehicles.

Cinegel Silent Frost and Rosco's grey screen for rear projection were stuck on the inside of the windows and projectors were mounted inside the vehicles to provide images.

Cinegel Silent Frost is a relatively dense diffuse

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Germany - The Metro Group has opened a Future Store in the town of Toenisvorst close to Duesseldorf where new retail technologies and concepts are tested. One of the Future Store's highlights is a Litefast Magic 360° Display.

The cutting-edge technology at the Metro Future Store offers maximum customer convenience and information in order to provide a new shopping experience. Customers can scan their purchases while shopping and get information via interactive kiosk systems. If desired, the innovation guides - two mobile robots - show customers around and point out the technical innovations.

An eye-catcher at the Future Store is a Litefast Magic Display, a state-of-the-art digital 360° video display more than 2m in height. Rapidly spinning LEDs in a transparent cylinder create colourful moving pictures which seem to appear out of thin air.

In contrast to common flat

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Belgium - Barco, a leader in visualisation technology, has announced that its OLite 612 LED displays have been selected by Creative Technology to replace the dot matrix scoreboards on Centre Court and No.1 Court at this year's All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon. From 23 June until 6 July, Barco's LED screens will not only keep tennis fans on both courts abreast of on court scores but also entertain them with Hawk-Eye replays and other additional match information.

Last year saw the introduction of the Hawk-Eye system at Wimbledon and Barco's OLite 612 LED screens were installed on No.1 Court to allow spectators to see the replays and judgment calls of the new electronic line-calling system.

Following the successful trial in 2007, the 122nd Championships at Wimbledon will see the traditional scoreboards on both courts replaced by full color LED displays. The di

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UK - Glastonbury-based supplier Batmink Ltd says it has been so impressed with the visual impact of its video dance floor that they have decided to take a demo floor on a UK 'Roadshow'.

Grant Thomas, sales director for Batmink, explains: "It soon became obvious that although still images and video footage give a flavour of what this flooring system can deliver, there is absolutely no substitute for seeing the floor operating 'in the flesh'. With this in mind, we have decided to take a 6m x 6m floor on a tour of the UK to enable interested parties to come and have a look, see a demonstration of its motion graphics and text capabilities and discuss any questions they might have."

The floor will be in Glasgow, on Monday 11 August, Leeds on Tuesday 12 August, Donington Park on Wednesday 13 August and London on Thursday 14 August. For more information regarding venues and

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UK - PLASA 2008 will be the second year of the prestigious Gottelier Award. Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise the tireless product developers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Last year's inaugural Award was won by Tony Andrews of Funktion One for his decades of dedication to the advancement of loudspeaker design.

The Nomination phase of the 2008 Gottelier Award is now open, and industry professionals worldwide are being asked to put forward the names of individuals who they believe should be considered for this year's award.

Following the nomination period, a shortlist of the leading nominees will then be ope

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UK - Show Presentation Services (SPS) has added to its creative design team by appointing Jack Beccegato to the role of senior designer and content producer.

Beccegato has extensive experience in the industry, previously owning his own creative agency called Sedicinoni SRL, based in Verona, Italy. There he also worked as senior designer and produced video graphics and other visualisations for events, business meetings and conventions, both in house and for other Italian communications agencies.

In his new role, Beccegato will be responsible for directing some of SPS's other graphic designers and taking the creative lead in corporate event projects. He will also be working alongside many of SPS's clients to establish briefs and to present and sell ideas.

Robin Coles, managing director at SPS commented, "Adding Jack to the team is a great boost to the creative arm of our

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USA - Milestone announced at CEDIA Expo 2008 that it has agreed to distribute differentiated versions of the CLO Systems, LLC's products under Milestone's brand names in Europe. CLO Systems' products include X-arm and T-arm series motorised wall-mounts which are designed for retail, residential and commercial applications.

Paul Feenstra, vice-president of Milestone AV Technologies B.V, said: "We are excited to add CLO Systems' products to our existing branded product portfolio. We believe automated mounting solutions represent an important, emerging product category, and our well-known Chief and Sanus brands will be strengthened by this welcomed addition to our product line."

Sung Oh, CEO of CLO Systems, added: "This is a great new strategic alliance for CLO Systems, and we look forward to working with the consumer and commercial sales teams at Milestone to sign

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UK - Christie has introduced the latest addition to the DS+ Series of dual lamp, single-chip DLP projectors. Compact and quiet, the projector delivers top-quality image reproduction for medium to large meeting rooms and classrooms, government facilities and executive briefing rooms where smooth, reliable operation is critical, says the company.

Optimised for brighter whites and vivid colour, the Christie DS+655 is designed for business presentations in high ambient light environments. It delivers 6,500 ANSI lumens and combines SXGA+ resolution with a contrast ratio of up to 7500:1. BrilliantColor, DNX, and the latest-generation 10-bit image processing technology produce "dramatic colour rendering and video reproduction, broader colour bandwidth, and significantly reduced image noise".

"The Christie DS+655 draws upon cutting-edge technologies and features the lat

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UK - The Ultimate Fighting Championship has returned to the UK, and PSL is once again supplying the event with Christie S+20K projectors and massive projection screens.

The UFC tours four British cities, taking its brand of mixed martial arts to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle and the MEN Arena in Manchester. London's O2 Arena is the biggest tournament on the UFC's British itinerary. It can accommodate 18,000 fight fans, most of which have been introduced to the sport by the UFC Series broadcast on cable TV from the USA. An essential element in the arena presentation of the event is the giant screen, which allows the audience to follow closely the action and characters such as The Irish Hand Grenade, El Conquistador, The Hitman and Hands of Steel.

Although the sightlines in the O2 Arena are excellent, especially in this in-the-round conf

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USA - When the Disco Fever tour headlined by KC & the Sunshine Band made a recent stop at L.A.'s Greek Theater, thousands of disco fans of all ages turned out. Although the music may have been classic '70s dance tunes, the lighting effects were over-the-edge 21st century, thanks to Acclaim Lighting's X-Panel low-res LED screen system, which put on a high-tech display of colourful graphics on the wall behind the stage.

Lighting design/production company Stage-Tech used 36 X-Panel Frame Systems linked together to create the video display. The X-Panel is a lightweight 8.3" square panel with 25 high-intensity RGB LEDs that can be used in multiples to produce video, graphics, text, animated cartoons, or any combination. Each X-Panel Frame System consists of a 3' x 4' flying frame with 12 X-Panels and an Acclaim X-PD-150 power supply pre-mounted to it.

According to Stage

  1. XL Video goes with the Flow
  2. Event Concept adds Sound and Video departments
  3. Spidercam at Wembley for Foo Fighters
  4. Barco at The Comcast Experience
  5. Christie projectors go the distance at AT&T
  6. 2008 PLASA AGM attracts record turnout
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