UK - out post distribution, the exclusive UK distributor of Mediaport?s Punchlight automated cue light and timecode display system is now stocking the new Studio Display XXL.

Coming in at 1.72m long by 33cm wide, the XXL display is billed as the largest automated timecode display system in the world.

Aimed at large post production houses or anywhere that needs to display timecode from a long distance, the Studio Display XXL is compatible with all existing Punchlight hardware allowing automated display of MIDI timecode from Pro Tools LE & HD, Cubase, Nuendo, Logic Pro, Digital Perfor

UK / USA - PLASA will update its members on a significant 12 months when it meets for its AGM and Members Lunch in a couple of weeks' time in central London.

It's just a year since members of PLASA and ESTA voted to merge the two Associations, and in the intervening 12 months, PLASA has reinvented key elements of its operations introducing a new membership structure, a new Governance system and election process, granting the vote to Organizational and Individual members, and launching a complete new PLASA logo and identity.

Whilst the day will reflect on the achievements of the last

UK - PLASA has revealed that Ruth Rossington, a former editor of LSi magazine and now Executive Director EU and COO at PLASA, is to leave the association at the end of 2011. Ruth joined the organisation in 1988, working initially as assistant editor on LSi, and becoming editor in June 1997.At the start of 2004, she left LSi to become a Director of PLASA, working alongside the events, media, membership, skills and technical teams. In the last 18 months, she has led the operational side of PLASA's merger with ESTA, working closely with Lori Rubinstein in North America to steer the first p

UK - XL Video supplied 119 panels of Pixled F-30 LED screen - totalling 114sq.m of surface area - plus crew for DJ and music producer David Guetta's recent UK tour - his first carrying a full technical production.

The F-30 was specified by Guetta's show/visuals designer and vibe engineer Ben Brett, who has developed a special piece of control software - Pilot - which is used to run the screen visuals. For this tour, in addition to the screen content, Pilot was running a back wall of 60 x LED moving lights positioned upstage of the rear section of F-30 screen.

The back screen compris

Belgium - ArKaos has announced the release of GrandVJ 1.5, which includes major new features and enhancements.

GrandVJ is a real-time video mixer software allowing VJs to compose up to eight layers of video on the fly.

The new GrandVJ 1.5 brings video mixing to the next level with the addition of two major new features: Transitions and ArKaos Connect VST plus several other great enhancements, says the company.

With the addition of 37 transitions, it's "even more fun to mix with GrandVJ 1.5". The transitions are distributed across the following groups: eight Fades - three

UK - Christie has extended its Mirage Series projector line with the launch of the Christie Mirage WU-L.

The Christie Mirage WU-L delivers "high resolution and rich pixel density, as well as continuous system calibration, in a small footprint unit capable of advanced 2D-3D visualisations". Targeted to the professional market, the Christie Mirage WU-L is suitable for all applications from entertainment, to museums and education, scientific research, manufacturing, and oil and gas exploration facilities, says the company.

The 1-chip DLP with RGB LED is the first Mirage Serie

UK - XL Video has announced the tragic loss of company director Des Fallon. Des was a key figure in the history of XL Video and a well known and respected character in the live event production industry.

XL Video has this afternoon issued a statement which reads: "With great sadness we announce the death of Des Fallon, XL Video director, production industry legend and incredible personality.

"Des passed away in his sleep on Wednesday night. Des's passion and dedication to his work, love of people and life, and incisive wit and humour was an inspiration to all who knew him.

Recycling Sets - Theatre companies can now advertise and recycle old sets and costumes on a new Freecycle-style website specifically designed for the sector. With the tag line "giving your unwanted set a new home", Set-exchange.co.uk has been launched with the aim of encouraging production companies to share unwanted sets, costumes and props with other theatre organisations across the UK for free. Companies including the Royal Court, Glyndebourne and the Lyric Hammersmith have already pledged their support to the website.

Set-exchange was set up by lighting designer and prod

World - PLASA has released a draft voluntary code of practice on Artificial Optical Radiation (AOR) for comments or observations from the global professional lighting industry.

The background to the document lies in the introduction of new EU Directive and national legislation regarding AOR, and the subsequent agreement, by manufacturers attending a presentation that PLASA's Ron Bonner and the Health Protection Agency gave at the PLASA 2010, that guidance should be created.

In short, the new legislation requires employers to assess the exposure to the workforce of AOR and if the exp

Benelux - Over 100 axes of Kinesys automation were utilised to move a host of scenic and visual elements for Dutch megastar Marco Borsato's recent all-action 3Dimensies (3Dimensions) shows. He played to over 210,000 people during a two- week period across multiple nights at the Gelredome stadium in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and the Sportpalais in Antwerp, Belgium.

The total count of 107 Kinesys motion controlled elements on this production beats the previously held record of 80 by the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest final in Oslo.

Borsato's set and lighting was designed by Ignace

Germany - It's easy to hide behind a wall of superlatives: bigger, heavier, brighter, bolder, sharper; and for Creative Technology this years' Eurovision Song Contest was all those things and more; but it's the little details that put the polish on this project, says CT.

"The spectacular creative design from Florian Wieder and Jerry Appelt stretched us in places we'd never been stretched before," said head of CT's Dusseldorf Office, Alex Klaus, and the man responsible for running the project.

The Wieder/Appelt design was dominated by a 1250sq.m expanse of Spider 30 LED scr

Macau - Opened in May 2011, Galaxy Macau was billed as Macau's first integrated leisure and entertainment resort, designed to help the region achieve its aim of becoming a diversified 'Global Centre of Tourism and Recreation'. LED screen manufacturer Lighthouse Technologies had successfully acquired the contract for the provision to the resort with a series of visual elements.

Lighthouse's first involvement with owner Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) was at the beginning of 2008, when it supplied two LED screens to GEG's flagship StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau Peninsula.

Lighth

UK - Calibre UK's HQView520 is a scaler/switcher/scan convertor designed to "address the very latest trends in AV system design and integration".

The HQView520 switches, scales, scan-converts and edge-blends multiple images - also performs warp mapping so that those images can be projected onto curved screens.

The new HQView520 will also perform sub-pixel precise image alignment for stacked pairs of projectors used for 3D applications.

Like the other products in the HQView500 series, the HQView520 has a 3G-SDI input and output capability, as well as backwards compatibili

UK - Le Maitre created a spectacular finale to the 2011 UEFA Champions League final at Wembley. As Eric Abidal lifted the cup for Barcelona, the skies above the arch lit up as a host of gold and silver mines and comets were fired some 220m into the air above the 90,000 capacity stadium below. This was the first time pyrotechnics have ever been fired from the famous arch and Le Maitre were "delighted to have been chosen".

The pyro display was the culmination of months of hard work for Karen Haddon, events director at Le Maitre and her team.

"The size of the task cannot

UK - Contracted by production manager Richard Bullimore and Playful Productions, Creative Technology (CT) has been chosen to provide full video solutions for the London West End production of Shrek The Musical.

CT's Barco 20K FLM R20 projector is located on the front of the Circle and positioned side on to ensure the audience's view is not restricted. With the beam deflected 90° via a mirror, the images are projected onto various stage elements providing life and texture to the set components and props. A 13m2 10mm LED screen, also provided by CT, is flown upstage to add to

UK - Goboland UK has chosen ABTT 2011 to launch its new website. The new user-friendly layout gives easy access to "all the information you need about Goboland gobos and products including the Black Steel Gobos, the famed Credit Crunch Gobo, GoboSlides, film slides, Black Holes, Tweakers and its bespoke etching service, Gobo Creative". Details of Goboland UK's specialist services for image size calculation, keystone distortion and pincushion correction and its Green Scene gobo recycling scheme are also to be found here.

To coincide with the new website, Goboland UK is also p

Belgium - ArKaos has announced its new hardware A30 media server. Built for the MediaMaster software, the A30 is the result of the latest research made by ArKaos in terms of raw performance but also structural strength, vibration protection and heat tolerance, says the company.

The case has been designed to allow a very efficient air flow. Several fans, protected by a dust filter, are located at the front of the case and can be easily serviced without opening the rest of the case. This is done through a special door that gives access to both the fans and the filter without exposing an

USA - Liberty AV Solutions, a division of WESCO Distribution has acquired Middleton, Wisconsin-based Intelix, a manufacturer of AV components and software. The move follows a successful conclusion to negotiations between Intelix and WESCO Distribution - Liberty's parent company - to acquire Intelix outright for an undisclosed sum. Liberty joined WESCO in 2006 as part of WESCO's acquisition of Communications Supply Corporation, of which Liberty is a subsidiary.

Liberty is an audio/visual (AV) supplier of solutions-based products ranging from bulk wire and cable to equipment enclosures

UK - The Point at Lancashire County Cricket Club recently teamed up with one of their preferred AV partners, Blitz Communications, to bring a complimentary training course for professional event organisers to the North West for the first time.

The day was dedicated to introducing a range of bespoke Blitz products and new technologies that assist organisers in making their events more cost effective, sustainable, interactive and innovative, and at the same time creating opportunities to generate additional revenue.

Commenting on the masterclass, sales manager at The Point Peter Ash s

UK - Saville Audio Visual provided the staging and AV facilities for the Premier League 2011 National Youth Development Conference at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. Keynote speakers included Sir Alex Ferguson and Everton's David Moyes plus guests including Sir Trevor Brooking. The event also incorporated the annual Premier League Youth Awards.

The 90ft-wide stage set featured three 16'x 9' screens, with video projection mapping in the centre section. This created a versatile branding solution which changed throughout the event. A newly installed production and edit suite at Saville Man

Italy - IBM Software Executive Briefing Centre in Rome has been designed to achieve a perfect space where visitors can experience the company's technology first hand thanks to an innovative video wall powered by Christie projectors.

This is not just a simple video wall, it is interactive, it can display Picture in Picture or be used as a white board. It gives IBM executives a platform to showcase IBM's software technologies and systems, with a broad application context helping visitors realise the capabilities of innovative technologies and systems.

Peter Dardarananda, manager at IB

USA - Audinate announced the introduction of Dante Netspander at InfoComm 2011 this week.

Dante Netspander allows scalable digital A/V networks to be built without current constraints. For the first time, Dante Netspander makes it possible to deliver tightly synchronised networked audio across subnets in a Layer 3 TCP/IP routed network, says the company. In addition Dante Netspander uses Dante's zero configuration networking capabilities to enable devices in a routed network to be discovered and easily managed. Dante Netspander will be made available as a powerful software application

USA - Christie unveiled at InfoComm 2011 the newest members of its MicroTiles solutions family, the Christie i-Kit touch interactivity kit, powered by Baanto ShadowSense, and the Christie JumpStart software and media server.

The Christie i-Kit, billed as "a breakthrough multi-touch interactivity kit suitable for large format displays", attaches to the perimeter of any large arrayed display up to 16 x 6, including Christie MicroTiles, allowing multiple users to interact simultaneously with a rectangular video wall with sufficient resolution and speed to support finger-based g

Malaysia - At the Malaysian Grand Prix, part of the Formula 1 World Championship, Mercedes GP Petronas held their high-profile annual event. In partnership with Anglo-Swiss watchmaker Graham London, they arranged a party with music, fashion and much more at Simfoni Lake in Kuala Lumpur's City Centre.

The 'Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team' celebration was organised by CD to raise awareness of premium partners Mercedes and Pretonas as well as serve as a business opportunity for Mercedes Benz Malaysia and Petronas clients and business associates.

Working with CD Events, Kumar Shan a

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