UK - XL Video has renewed its long standing working relationship with Depeche Mode supplying cameras, control, LED screens and crew to the band who have just kicked off the first UK and European leg of their Delta Machine world tour.

Depeche Mode's 33 year career has seen them sell over 100m records worldwide . Also acclaimed for being constantly at the cutting edge of live performance visuals, video has played a defining role in their stage shows over the years through the influence of their inspirational artistic director, Anton Corbijn.

The look of the Delta Machine show - incorporating the video elements - was designed by Corbijn in close collaboration with lighting designer Paul Normandale.

In addition to the IMAG, Corbijn has produced eight mini-movies which are interspersed throughout the show.

XL's project manager Phil Mercer comments, "We are de

Belgium - Visualisation specialist Barco has signed a deal with FVC for the distribution of ClickShare. FVC will be distributing Barco's wireless presentation and collaboration system across the Middle East, North Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.

FVC has offices in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and a growing network of channel partners in 45 countries. This broad geographical reach and market leadership have played a major role in Barco's decision to join forces with FVC.

Another important factor in Barco's choice for FVC is the fact that ClickShare fits in with the latter's existing offering. With the addition of Barco's presentation solution, FVC can now present its clients with an all-in-one package for a state-of-the-art meeting room, including video conferencing, networking, information security and, now, wireless and smooth running presentation equ

USA - Elation Professional has introduced the EZ6, a high-resolution 6mm indoor LED video display panel whose affordable price, light weight and modular quick assembly make it suitable for visual displays at nightclubs, concert venues, live stages, exhibit halls and public spaces who want the excitement of a video screen without overstepping their budgets or getting bogged down by complicated installations, says the company.

Powered by high-quality Tri-Color 3528 SMD LEDs, the EZ6 will impress viewers with its uniform colour, high contrast and sharp, clear picture, making it a video superstar. It features 6mm pixel pitch, 1,800-nit brightness and 960 Hz refresh rate, producing high-definition graphics, text, logos or images -- limited only by your imagination! Wherever it's used, the EZ6 offers reliable performance and easy setup. The 22.7" x 22.7" (576mm x 576mm) squa

UK - Green Hippo has designed a Hippotizer overlay for the Mackie MCU controller, giving ease of use when working with Hippotizer media servers. The hardware provides motorised faders making navigation between layers and observing changes during Timeline playback easy.

Mackie also features high accuracy level fades (greater than standard MIDI control change values) with three additional MIDI ports on the device for connecting additional controllers or other MIDI gear (which can be used with the MIDI2 component).

The Mackie controller software provides a hardware interface for programming timelines and the quick programming of cue-based timelines. Timed parameter fades can automatically be inserted when recording cues and can easily be customised to provide quick access to commonly used parameters for any eventuality.

Large networks of Hippotizer can be controlled using a sin

Germany - XL Video has streamlined and optimised its corporate structure in Germany. Previously the enterprise was represented in Germany by two separate companies: XL Video of Hamburg and XL Solutions of Düsseldorf. It also had offices in Munich, Berlin and Nürtingen. On 1 July, XL Solutions and XL Video merged. The main office, with 25 employees, is now on the Hamburg site, whilst Düsseldorf, with 18 employees, is home to the branch office. From now on, Denis Papin, formerly managing director (CEO) of XL Video of Hamburg, and Thorsten Lipp, who held the equivalent post with XL Solutions, will share responsibility for the merged company, which will trade under the name "XL Video".

XL Video of Hamburg was founded in 1998 by René de Keyser and Denis Papin, with the latter at that time assuming the role of Managing Director. Under his leadership, XL Video grew

UK - For the European launch of the Huawei Ascend P6 in London, XL Events supplied a multi-screen blended projection, HD camera system, media servers and control.

Chinese electronics giant, Huawei, recently introduced their flagship Ascend P6 smartphone to gathered media in London. Huawei's creative event agency, Uniplan of Hong Kong, designed an immersive 180 degree projection onto gauze followed by a reveal at the end of the presentation to give attendees access to the experiential area behind.

To realise this creative Uniplan engaged production company Imagine Believe to produce the launch event at the Roundhouse, in London's Camden.

To provide the video element of the launch, Imagine Believe's production director, Tom Attenborough, contacted Mark Rooney, project manager at technical supplier, XL Events to design and specify the video for the show.

For the main multi-sc

UK - XL Video continues its long association with singer Robbie Williams, supplying over 46,000 Barco FLX-24 pixels, HD camera system, D3 control, IMAG screens and crew to the Take The Crown stadium tour.

XL's project manager Phil Mercer is working closely with the tour's production manager Wob Roberts

The camera mix is being crafted by Stefaan 'Smasher' Desmedt and the stage set which includes a back wall video screen and a huge video mapped scenic piece of Williams' head, is designed by the late stage architect Mark Fisher. Artistic director and lighting designer is Willie Williams and the show's producer is Lee Lodge.

The impressive 12.6m high by 7.5m wide 3D head was modelled from a scan of Williams' face and is fully pixel mapped. It is central to the elegant theatrical visuality of the stage, and is fitted with the 46,000 Barco FLX 24 video pixels - the same one

UK - London venue the Brewery has confirmed Blitz Communications as its exclusive in house audio visual supply and production partner. The five-year agreement will commence on 31 July.

James Varah, sales director, at the Brewery comments, "We are thrilled to be welcoming Blitz to become part of The Brewery family at a key point in our history. Our business has grown significantly in the last eighteen months, and we are now hosting more events than ever before. The breadth of Blitz offering was instrumental in our decision, and we feel will enhance our already comprehensive event service."

(Jim Evans)

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd provided spectacular video projection for the British Racing Drivers' Club's (BRDC) dazzling annual British Grand Prix party at Silverstone racing circuit.

Staged every year on the eve of the F1 Santander British Grand Prix, this year a party was held for the first time at the BRDC Farm, which is adjacent to the celebrated race track.

AC-ET's technical manager, James Bawn, decided to bring the façade of the space's Georgian building to life. For this he used dynamic, high-speed racing footage from the BRDC's own film archive. To achieve the overall look Bawn specified a Green Hippo GrassHopper controlling Barco HD20K Projectors and TV One signal transmission for the projection.

BRDC's Stuart Pringle was delighted: "It was fantastic to see the BRDC Farm transformed into a dynamic, visually vibrant space full of light and

UK - The Emirates Stadium, the North London home to Arsenal Football Club was the venue for an unforgettable night on 1 June with American rockers and Grammy Award winners, Green Day. This was their first stadium show in London since 2010 and formed part of the Uno, Dos, Tré, Tour. The video element of the show was supplied by Chaos Visual Productions who are continuing a packed schedule of events this summer.

The band, who, despite their mainstream successes still adhere to their punk ethos, chose not to deviate from their stripped down look to the stage allowing the video crew to concentrate on the band members (and audience members) playing on stage. Video director, Blue Leach was given pretty much carte blanche to interpret his vision of the show onto the two 29Sqm Barco OLite 510 screens either side of the stage.

"The band wanted a very clean look to th

Souith Africa - Green Hippo has announced Electrosonic SA cc as their new distributor in South Africa.

Electrosonic SA cc, a leading supplier of stage, theatre and entertainment lighting for over 21 years, has similar ideals and the same passion as Green Hippo, says the company. It sees this partnership as an exciting extension to the range of world class brands that it represents, such as Martin Professional, CM Loadstar, ADB, Compulite Litec and Milos Structural Systems.

Entertainment lighting manager Bruce Schwartz says, "We are really honoured to represent Green Hippo, and see the tighter integration between video and lighting growing even further with this partnership. We look forward to offering the backup, service and knowledge that Electrosonic is renowned for, on the entire range of Green Hippo products and growing the world-wide rental network."

Green Hip

South Africa - Christie has named Stage Audio Works as its authorised service centre for South Africa.

Through this appointment, Stage Audio Works will provide the following technical support services to Christie's customers in South Africa: technical telephone support , service and repair Christie products under warranty and a local inventory of parts and consumables for Christie products

This arrangement will help to support the fast growth of Christie's business in South Africa since the opening of its first Southern hemisphere branch office in Johannesburg this time last year.

Dale Miller, vice president EMEA for Christie explains, "Our business in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa has grown quickly since investment in our Johannesburg branch office. Now the appointment of Stage Audio Works to the role of Authorised Service Centre allows us to maintain the high st

UK - Working for event management company MEDIAmaker, XL Events recently supplied multi-screen projection, mapping, live interactive elements, camera system and audio systems for a corporate conference and awards ceremony serving 1200 delegates and guests.

The event, held at Telford International Centre, was spread across a total of six rooms, as well as being webcast live to an invitation-only microsite which allowed attendees in remote locations to login and view the awards in the evening.

In the primary room the main focus was a twin projector blend using two of XL's Barco FLM HD20s on to a 13m x 4m screen. The blend was controlled by an Encore unit, also from XL Events, which was programmed and controlled by Charlie Archer.

This screen displayed keynote presentations, awards films and other graphical elements.

Either side of the main screen two stacks of flown boxes we

UK - West London based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) supplied lighting equipment, LED screen and crew to lighting designer Rich Gilson for the recent Die Antwoord (The Answer) show at London's Brixton Academy.

The South African Zef rap-ravers Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er have a massive international cult following, a reputation for hugely energetic shows and visceral, raw, insightful - often controversial - videos that embrace numerous South African sub-cultures, all of which are self-directed.

Gilson has worked with them since last year. He designed the lighting for this latest three week UK and European tour based around the Brixton performance, where they brought in a full production.

He was extremely pleased when Colour Sound were also confirmed by promoter SJM to supply equipment for the gig, having worked with them on many previous occasions. "

UK - Blitz North is supporting the BBC in delivering their Summer in the City programme, a season of sport, fun and family entertainment aimed to promote becoming active in sports.

Staged in the MediaCityUK Piazza, the series of events are planned around the summer's major sporting events, and recently featured the Women's European Football Championships. A comprehensive technical solution was provided by the Blitz team, featuring all-weather staging and audio systems, and IP rated power distribution for the entire site to cover every eventuality. Video support included a miniature HD outside broadcast system, enabling relay of VT, off-air and live camera images to MediaCity's big screen.

John Crompton, project manager for Blitz Manchester, commented, "Delivering the perfect solution required careful consultation with all parties involved, including the FA and the

UK - Every year since 1993, the Goodwood Estate in Sussex, UK has hosted the Festival of Speed; a motoring event celebrating the greatest automotive marques and vehicles.

XL Events, working for client Shelton Fleming and their producer, Dan Rees, supplied an innovative interactive audio and video package for Audi UK's brand activation at the 20th Anniversary Festival of Speed event.

Audi's stand, the largest at the show, was located in the manufacturers' area and incorporated 1,700sq.m of external show space and a 400sq.m pavilion in which the experience was staged.

Based on Audi's victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 & 2013, the experience presented a series of Audi innovations that were designed for high performance racing and now feature in road cars.

Teaser and competition promotion videos were presented on four waterproof outdoor plasma screens from XL Events as

UK - Blitz North has been appointed as the sole AV and technical staging provider to the Liverpool Music Awards. Sponsored by the City Council, the awards are a key part of Liverpool's International Music Festival, held over August and September.

Ellie Phillips, founder and director of the awards, commented, "After meeting with Ian, it was clear that Blitz were going to be the right team to work with, alongside our events management and catering team. They demonstrated the creative flair we were looking for, essential for the awards, while remaining professional and extremely reliable. I'm looking forward to the ceremony at St George's Hall knowing how spectacular it is going to be in their hands."

Chris Jordan, Blitz Communications' head of sound added, "We have a strong background in the world of theatre and music and we welcome the opportunity to be involved

Germany - Osram has for the first time achieved maximum image quality for pure laser-based projection with a combination of laser and phosphor materials. The new phaser technology contains modules which do not need to be replaced during the complete service life of the projector. They will be used for the first time in projectors from the end of this year.

Until now only green light was generated via laser with laser-based projectors - LEDs were responsible for the blue and red primary colours. With phaser technology, where 'phaser' stands for phosphor and laser, Osram for the first time presents a process which achieves outstanding image quality with projection by the use of laser, made possible by blue laser diodes. The beams of the diodes are focused directly onto a wheel coated with red, yellow and green phosphor. When the wheel rotates the colours are generated in sequence,

UK - The Kings of Leon have a busy and varied schedule this summer in Europe. Venues range from indoor arenas like the O2 in London and the LG at Birmingham's NEC though to outdoor festivals like the Tennant's Vital Festival in Belfast and Denmark's Smukkeste Festival at Skanderborg. In between are the more intimate spaces of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and the iconic Roundhouse in Camden Town. Paul Normandale's design has to have more than a modicum of flexibility at its heart.

The video element of the design is all supplied by Chaos Visual Productions - eight screens of differing sizes are arranged in a classically Normandale asymmetric form. "Although the optimum height for this rig is 50ft there are occasions when that can be reduced to 15ft. I also had to bear in mind that, on a festival stage, our rig could only occupy the last 10ft of the upstage area to allow other

UK - Green Hippo has announced that along with their ever developing range of products, the team behind it all is expanding even more with the addition of Zep Mouris and Vlad Voina, software developers, and product design intern Rhian Wellington.

Mouris, who started at Green Hippo as an intern has developed his programming skills whilst working towards finishing his degree and has been a great addition to the team from the get go.

Voina joins the team as a graduate from Goldsmiths University with a BSc in creative computing and he has shown great enthusiasm working at Green Hippo and in the industry

Wellington, a BA industrial design and technology student at Brunel University joined in July working closely with the Hippotizer range.

(Jim Evans)

Malaysia - Originally founded in Johor Bahru, Malaysia by Presbyterian missionaries from England, the English-speaking congregation of Holy Light Church celebrated its 60th anniversary with the completion of a gleaming white new church building. To ensure clarity for speech and music, this new worship hall has installed a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system.

The hall's architecture features a high-peaked ceiling and ample windows which give a feeling of natural light and open space. This design also introduces reverberation for choirs in traditional worship services, though these same acoustical conditions introduce problems for both spoken word and amplified contemporary praise bands. To find the best solution, the church went to Danny Kinchang of Selangor, Malaysia-based First Live Sound Sdn. Bhd.

"The church's range of worship styles coupled with its reverbe

Mauritius - The Gearhouse Group of companies recently took charge of all technical requirements ahead of the 63rd FIFA Congress hosted in the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre (SVICC) in Mauritius.

The opening was held on 30 May and the congress took place on 31 May, and Gearhouse was the first choice for executive producer and creative director David Bloch to partner with, in executing the opening ceremony.

Originally, Pieter Joubert (technical director - opening ceremony) was briefed to advise on the technical and set aspects of the ceremony only, but it soon became apparent that the actual congress would require extensive support as well, due to the limited resources available on the island. As both the opening and the congress were to take place on the same stage, in the same venue, with only 12 hours and a rehearsal in between, this became quite a challeng

UK - Projection Advertising transformed the appearance of 94 Baker Street, the Grade II listed one-time base for Apple Records and the Apple Boutique, as part of the 31 July event to launch the luxurious new Apple Apartments.

Utilising two 15K projectors to create a light projection, Projection Advertising adorned the building -on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street - with a contemporary interpretation of the famous psychedelic-style mural by Dutch group The Fool, which had originally adorned the Apple building in its heyday. The image was projected with the strapline 'another beautiful place for beautiful people' - echoing Paul McCartney's description of the Apple Boutique as 'a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things'.

"It was wonderful to play a part in such an historic occasion," explains Tom Burch, managing director of Projec

South Africa - Christie has today announced a deal with MGG, one of the largest rental staging companies in South Africa, for four Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP purpose-built, event-staging projectors. These will be the first of the new J-Series projectors to be deployed in Africa.

MGG has been steadily increasing their investment in Christie Pro-AV systems, starting with LCD and 1-chip DLP, moving to 3-chip DLP, UHP illuminated M-Series and now onto the J-Series digital projectors.

Mark Gaylard, owner of MGG, said, "Over the last couple of years we have purchased a number of Christie products and have been particularly impressed with their quality and reliability, so when we were looking for projectors that could enhance our capabilities and offerings, they had to be Christie."

Gustav Barnard, technical and education manager at Stage Audio Works, added, &qu

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