Video and AV

Details
USA - The AVnu Alliance will enjoy its first birthday celebrations at the InfoComm 2010 tradeshow in Las Vegas. The alliance was founded in mid-2009 by six member companies, and has since more than tripled its membership. To celebrate, the alliance will host both a dedicated AVB technology and product pavilion on the show floor, and an alliance panel discussion.

The pavilion will include participation from AVnu Alliance members Broadcom, Harman International, Lab X Technologies, Marvell, and Meyer Sound, with each of the participating member companies demonstrating its progress with the new AVB technology. The AVnu Alliance itself will also have a dedicated area of the shared floor space, for visitors to learn more about the practical benefits of the emerging AVB standards and to inform interested parties about membership opportunities. The members of the alliance extend a parti

Details
UK - Fast-growing Gloucester-based AV support company Production:av has wasted no time in adding Christie's new MicroTiles to its inventory. The Christie partner immediately ordered 25 of the new tiles after seeing them at this year's ISE Show in Amsterdam.

Started by MD Pete McCrea five years ago, Production:av provides technologies for the fixed installation and systems integration markets. The company is enjoying its best year ever - with turnover showing a 30% lift on the previous year.

According to Business Development Manager, Andy Cook, they are confident that the addition of the modular MicroTiles - which combines the strengths of both DLP and LED technology to produce spectacular brightness in a near seamless display - will take them to the next level.

"MicroTiles was one of the big talking points at the ISE Show and we were immediately sold on it," he sai

Details
UAE - With technology lying at the heart of Creative Technology's business, the company's extensive inventory has been enlarged further with the purchase of a variety of new products that complement CT's already comprehensive stock of audio visual equipment.

Amongst the new purchases, CT now own three new types of LED Video Display systems - the Flyer 12, the Panasonic 12mm LED and the Spider 30, two new Christie DLP 18K projectors with lenses and four 16:9 projection screens.

Dave Crump, CT's managing director comments, "Despite our industry facing many challenges over the past 18 months, CT has continued to see rapid development in the sports and entertainment sectors of our market. These new products are a first step in our development of a unique family of high performance LED systems to meet the anticipated demand across all market sectors in the coming years."<

Details
USA - Visual effects company Origami Digital has completed the move to its new location near the Hawthorne Airport. The 8,000sq.ft building includes an expanded performance-capture stage, a large studio for the artists and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Origami Digital provides a solution for filmmakers who want to keep their postproduction in the Los Angeles area.

"We've always had a full-service approach to our work, and in the new space we can offer the whole range of our services more efficiently," said Oliver Hotz, founder of Origami Digital and visual effects supervisor at the facility. "We have invested a great deal in the development of our mo-cap pipeline and now we have a dedicated 50' x 50' mo-cap volume so we can really put the system to work."

"We looked at a number of great buildings, but we decided on this location because it gave us t

Details
Spain - QAV, who are a leading events company and have many years' of experience and expertise of managing events throughout the world, provided a full turnkey package for the Global Progress and Promise event sponsored by Pfizer. As part of this package Stage Electrics recently supplied two of their high resolution 6mm LED screens for the event, which took place in Madrid.

Working together over the four-day conference, the two 4mx3m indoor 6mm LED screens, were flown from two 4m truss structures within the reception of the conference. They then were taken down and combined into one 8mx6m screen and again flown from the truss structure in the main exhibition area for last two days of the event.

Included within the package, Stage Electrics also supplied their own video specialist, Chris Lewis, who was on site to provide technical support, for the whole duration of the co

Details
USA - dnp denmarkwill debut its newly-announced Supernova 23-23-screen material at the InfoComm Show in Las Vegas (9-11 June). The new next generation high-gain material (NGHG) will be available with immediate effect on selected products, beginning with Supernova One and Supernova Core.

The 23-23 is dnp's response to customers requesting higher-gain screens for smaller projectors, in order to reduce overall installation costs.

The manufacturers thus set themselves a design brief to develop a new generation screen material that would address and eliminate (or drastically reduce) previous screen limitations. The key objectives were to: improve brightness uniformity, improve horizontal viewing angles and eliminate or reduce shimmering. In order to meet these objectives, dnp had to develop a new technically sophisticated 'second generation' reflector.

"No other high-gain ma

Details
USA - Christie took home the Green AV Award at the inaugural 2010 InfoComm 100 conference, 30 April - 1 May in Dulles, Virginia. Newly created by InfoComm International, , the Green AV Award recognises organisations for their commitment to social responsibility, sustainability and the environment. Host to over 100 top AV industry executives spanning the entire value chain worldwide from manufacturing and systems integration, to architects and general contractors, the conference addressed changes in the AV industry. The award was presented on 30 April.

"Sustainability practices are important for the future of the AV industry," said Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., executive director and CEO, InfoComm International. "InfoComm is pleased to issue these first Green AV Awards to those who are paving the way for a greener and stronger audiovisual industry. Christie is a great ex

Details
UK - XL Video is supplying Pixled F11, Mitrix, VersaTUBEs and Catalyst control for the Deadmau5 world tour, which kicked off in the US headlining Coachella and is currently in Europe with its multi-layered video design and visuals, designed by Martin Phillips and John McGuire of Bionic Head.

The tour originated from XL Video UK project managed by Des Fallon and Chris Ferrante with support from Phil Mercer and his XL Video LA team. Once again XL's international operation has been able to provide transatlantic continuity.

Des Fallon says, "This show creates a new benchmark for dance act visuals - we're very proud to be involved."

Phillips is well known for his work with Daft Punk. His design for Deadmau5 started with the DJ booth, a three-sided cube that looks like it's tipped forward at 45 degrees. This is clad with 75 tiles of Pixled F11 screen.

Behind that, on t

Details
France - Technical partner for the fourth year in a row, Christie will be responsible for all digital projection at the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival for the complete Official Selection, Out of Competition and Marché du Film elements.

As technical partner, Christie will supply new DLP Cinema digital projectors for the projection of major works throughout the Festival. Of the 22 digitally equipped theatres that the Festival now has at its disposal, 11 of them are equipped with the new range of Christie Solaria projectors - the CP2220 and the CP2230.

"After three successful years alongside our partner XDC, we have signed a three-year agreement with the Cannes Film Festival. This agreement covers the provision of technical and logistical aspects of 2D and 3D digital projection and is proof of the trust and respect that cinema professiona

Details
UAE - The Dubai World Cup 2010 incorporated the opening of the iconic Meydan Grandstand and Racecourse - the new home of the Dubai World Cup. An extension of the programme has meant that the meeting now stages a total of eight races, making the meeting worth a phenomenal US$26.25m.

Creative Technology were asked by lead creative agency M-is, to supply a turnkey audio visual solution for this international event, providing over 17 tonnes of equipment from CT's London office and utilising a variety of equipment and resources from its Dubai operation.

Creative Technology provided the events with a wide array of equipment ranging from cameras, vision mixing and a high resolution replay system to LED screens and high powered projectors. One of the events leading up to the main Son et Lumière, was an evening with Sting, where CT supplied a four camera, vision mixing and engineering

Details
UK - Video control solutions specialist SNP Productions has moved to new, larger and improved premises in Milton Keynes.

The move follows a busy year in 2009 and positive signs that 2010 will be even busier, providing hire, sales, training and support for video control solutions. The new warehouse and office space is modern and very flexible. It provides a larger office area and more storage facilities.

SNP has set up a dedicated training, prep and programming area. This allows clients and freelancers working on SNP supplied shows and events to visit, work on their material and programme elements of their shows prior to arriving on-site. SNP's Simon Pugsley says, "Being able to set-up and configure a media server system saves valuable time during production rehearsals. This also ensures that the correct equipment is supplied and tested before it leaves the warehouse."

Details
Germany - The Klimahaus 8°Ost in Bremerhaven looks like a giant droplet that a Bremen-based architect has placed upon the port facilities. It is a glass palace with a certain similarity to the Allianz Arena in Munich. The building is 125m long and 82m wide, a 1.5 kilometre path leads through the exhibition space of 11,500sq.m, running from Bremen via Switzerland into the deserts of Africa, the Antarctic and back via Samoa, Alaska and the Hallig islands. The journey follows the eighth degree of longitude, which not only gave its name to the project and marks its location, but also indicates the thematic aspects of route, places and climate zones.

Amptown System Company (ASC), responsible for the technical implementation was honoured with the Sinus System Integration Award 2010 in the information category for its sophisticated installation of audio, light, video, media and con

Details
UK - The International Nursing Research Conference, organised by The Royal College of Nursing, will bring some 500 nurses and practitioners to the North East. Delegates from Europe, USA, Israel, Hong Kong and New Zealand will make the journey, descending on The Sage Gateshead, where they'll discuss the latest medical research and developments.

Event production partner, R&B Group, who have worked with the RCN for some 15 years, will be providing their expertise again this week when the three-day event comes to town. The team will be responsible for audio-visual and presentation support for over 240 speakers. As well as providing daily video programmes about the event.

Project Manager Gavin Frost comments: "Having worked with the RCN for over 15 years, it's a challenge to keep each event fresh and creative and indeed to top expectations from the previous year but it keeps m

Details
Norway/UK - Norway's projectiondesign has recruited Matt Horwood as regional manager for the UK and Ireland. Horwood will be based in the UK office and work with Iain Ambler to build on the company's success into the specialist market and add focus to the Pro AV channel.

Horwood arrives at projectiondesign from Epson UK, where he had led a sales team covering specialist resellers and end users in the AV channel. Prior to that, he spent five years working in sales for the Pro AV reseller Reflex.

"I wanted to focus specifically on the AV channel and am very taken by the 'value add' and 'high quality' specialisms that are key components of projectiondesign's established brand," comments Horwood. "The company has significant growth plans and a strong foundation on which to build them, so the challenge is extremely attractive."

Chris Axford, director of intern

Details
France - An installation at the National Engineering School (ENISE) in Saint-Etienne is enabling students to gain a new take on visualisation techniques, thanks to a 3D solution from Norway's projectiondesign.

Conceived, designed and installed by systems integrator Immersion, the system uses projectiondesign F12 1080 DLP projectors and INFITEC stereo 3D hardware. Each projector is built into a custom-made rear-projection housing so that they are physically 'locked' into position. The projectors fire directly onto a vertically mounted, 2m wide Stewart rigid rear-pro screen, and onto a custom-built mirror and horizontal Stewart 'table' screen setup.

The result is a seamless 'L-shaped' projection surface that gives viewers a greatly enhanced three-dimensional impression of whatever image is being displayed. This in itself is a notable achievement, but the project is unusual in ot

Details
UK - DB Systems has been nominated for two awards at next month's AEO Excellence Awards 2010.

DB is in the running for the Equipment Supplier of the Year and Service Supplier of the Year categories. DB won the Service Supplier of the Year award at last year's event.

David Bulley, DB's managing director said: "These nominations reflect the work ethic and high standards so synonymous with DB Systems. We always display innovation, creativity and professionalism at major global shows, such as Mobile World Congress and DSEi.

"In the past 12 months we've invested close to £500,000 in new equipment and technologies, introduced Microsoft Surface to the UK market, and developed ecoXpress, which provides exhibitors with an environmentally friendly and cost-effective method to communicate with clients. We've also created two specialist divisions, DBpixelhouse, which pro

Details
France - Christie, technical partner to the Cannes Film Festival for the fourth year running, has announced that Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (presented out of competition), opened Cannes in full 2K digital resolution. The film was screened on the next-generation Series 2 projector, the Christie SolariaT CP2230, which features DLP Cinema technology from Texas Instruments.

Designed to meet all Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) specifications, the Christie Solaria series is scalable and geared towards 4K digital cinema. Its Christie Brilliant3DT technology delivers "the brightest 3D projections in the market" with an output power of 32 000 ANSI lumens (CP2230) on screens up to 100ft wide and with the lowest cost of operation.

Christie, which will be providing digital technology for all the films at the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival, recently reached the hi

Details
Spain - ARX, the Australian-based manufacturer of USB, Digital & Analogue interface and signal processors has appointed Seville-based Rental Multimedia Systems S.L. (R.M.S) as its new distributor for Spain.

ARX Managing Director Colin Park finalised the distribution agreement with R.M.S's Rafael Jimenez and Alvaro Elena at the recent Frankfurt Pro Light + Sound.

R.M.S is a subsidiary of Meyer Sound Spain and currently also represents Digico and Whirlwind.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Hungary - Opened in November 2009, the Allee Shopping Centre in Budapest features 47,000m2 of retail space, with outlets ranging from global giants like Marks & Spencer and Vodaphone to local, specialist retailers; a multi-screen cinema, fitness club and a wide range of food outlets. Enticing shoppers to make the most of the facilities are two Lighthouse screens.

Budapest-based AV Control won a competitive tender to secure the contract for supplying an internal and external LED screen for advertising, choosing Lighthouse panels to maximise the effectiveness of the two sites.

The exterior screen consists of 4 x 4 panels of Lighthouse P12-ER panels and is located next to the main entrance, while the internal screen is positioned close to a central circulation area and meeting point, comprising 8 x 6 panels of P10-FA. Both are controlled by a Crestron Control System via Lighthous

Details
Germany - Nicknamed 'The Green Hell' by Jackie Stewart, Germany's Nürburgring motor racing circuit has now added the new 15,000sq.m, multi-million euro Ring°Werk motorsport-themed visitor attraction to the site.

Featured at Ring°Werk are a variety of multimedia attractions, exhibitions and dining/retail experiences, including the Ring°Racer rollercoaster; Grüne Hölle multimedia theatre; 24hr Race in 4D; Motor Mania dark ride; Truck Grand Prix simulator attraction, and Nürbus Eifel Tour, a simulator-based tour through the Eifel Forest. Finally, Test°Center is an interactive exhibition revealing the secrets of the car industry.

Tasked with design and project managing were specialist visitor attraction consultants, Design Vision, who in turn contracted DJW as the AV project manager and systems integrator on behalf of the client. DJW were responsible for the de

Details
UK - Green hippo has begun shipping all Hippotizer HDs with extensive hardware revisions enabling radical performance gains for the media server range. Based around Intel's i7 processors the revisions harness the processors power and work in conjunction with version 3.0.14's new software Playback Engine from the London based company. The i7-based servers are significantly faster and allow for more video playback layers. Previous machines ran between 2-5 layers depending on the specification and the age of the unit whilst the new i7 based units are capable of eight layers of full HD playback simultaneously.

"We've always implemented hardware revisions unannounced as a matter of course but the gains from i7 are too significant to be seen as a progression ; it's more of a milestone" says James Ross Heron from Green hippo. "Several other revisions have coincided with

Details
UK - Manchester based DBN Lighting helped creative production company, Just Communicate to realise a visual concept for the annual conference and gala dinner of a leading technology company at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham NEC.

The brief from show producer Julian Ward was to transform the hotel's Monarch Suite into a flexible presentation space and gala dinner venue. This would host a daytime conference for a leading international technology company, and then morph into an X-Factor style televisual environment for the evening awards dinner.

Just Communicate's concept was to use the entire stage set as a screen surface using a large LED screen as a backdrop, DBN's Stephen Page suggested utilising Martin Lighting's LC2140 product wrapping around the back of the stage with a Trevira cloth rigged in front of it for the daytime sessions, giving a dynamic moving backdrop fo

Details
UK - RTW has announced the European debut of its TouchMonitor series. The TouchMonitor TM7, with a 7" touch screen and the TouchMonitor TM9, with a 9" touch screen, will be on display for attendees at AES London 2010 this weekend.

"With the launch of the TouchMonitor series, RTW is defining an entirely new category of product that will not only help audio professionals meet current loudness standards, but does so in a more interactive, intuitive way," says Andreas Tweitmann, managing director, RTW. "We are excited to share such a sophisticated, powerful solution with our friends in the audio industry."

In addition, the TouchMonitor's inventive modular software components allow it to be customised so the user only purchases what is absolutely necessary, making this new series of audio meters a truly cost-effective solution, says the company. Furthe

Details
UK - With his strong marketing background, Aztec Event Services MD, John Robson, immediately seized the opportunity to fill a gap in his company's rental fleet after seeing the Christie MicroTilesT launch at February's ISE Show in Amsterdam.

"I surround myself with good technical people, but my strength is seeing opportunities - that's my niche," he says. "There was clearly a buzz surrounding MicroTiles, and I could see immediately it was the product I had been looking for."

Aztec was originally formed in 1989 but Robson took over one of its divisions following a successful MBO in 2006. Around half their work is in the exhibition sector and while they see opportunities for MicroTiles in this area. Last year they also set up a creative arm, Aztec Digital, enabling them to develop their own media.

These two factors presented a compelling argument for invest

  1. Christie chosen again by D-Cinema Korea
  2. DNP takes Supernova to InfoComm
  3. PLASA 2010 AGM - Don't forget to cast your vote!
  4. Hawthorns works with the MoonWalkers
  5. VideoMapper's debut tour with Editors
  6. PRG chooses Barco for Shanghai pavilions
Page 252 of 335

Latest Issue. . .