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 the visual elements of the show representing the passage of the sun and the moon, an integral part of Shrek and Princess Fiona's story.

The entire video system is based around a pair of CT's Hippotizer HDs and ultimately controlled from the show's lighting desk.

Working with creative partner La

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 presenting a new catalogue at the show which can be downloaded directly from the website. Choose between Black Steel, Premier, Designer and Glass Gobo Collections.

Following its launch at PLASA 2010, Goboland UK will be promoting its GoboSlides, the economical film-based alternative to full colour

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 any cables or electrical connections. This is very handy when working on long tours.

The custom-made case provides a convenient display on the front which allows the server to be used without the need to connect to an external display. The front cover also provides a large LED strip that gives feedb

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 and mounts to power distribution products and more.

"Intelix has built a fine reputation among AV professionals over the last decade," John Dace, who leads the Liberty operation within WESCO, remarked following news of the WESCO acquisition. "The company will enable the analogue-to-

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 said, " We have appointed Blitz as one of our preferred partners of choice for our event staging and were delighted to be able to host this technology masterclass on their behalf."

Hosted by ITV weather presenter and news features reporter, Emma Jesson, the masterclass was introduced by B

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 Manchester was used to build the 3D Premier League logo plus event specific branding and Premier League club logos, which were all projected onto the set.

The centre section utilised another of Saville's newest purchases, a Christie Roadster HD18K full HD 18K lumen projector. Audio was via a d&b Q1 L

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 IBM Software Executive Briefing Programme in Rome, and mastermind of the project explains, "When customers come to visit us, we have to make sure they get the right impression about IBM. We want to provide an experience that is on par or better in what they would expect of IBM. We sell software s

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 that runs on target PC platforms specified by Audinate.

"A/V design consultants and contractors have been requesting solutions to route synchronized audio across subnets for large scale enterprise solutions such as campus-wide networks, universities, hospitals, theme parks, convention center

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 gestures.

Easy to install and operate, the Christie JumpStart is an affordable and high performance front-end content solution suitable for delivering informative and attractive content to 5-10 megapixel tiled digital displays such as Christie MicroTiles.

(Jim Evans)

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 and Yeap Hong Gee, early adopters of Hippotizer in Malaysia, created a video display for the occasion. They used two Hippotizer GrassHoppers networked via HippoNet and an HP Gigabit Switch connecting to four 15K Sanyo projectors to create some impressive curved screen projection. Front of House was c

UK - A.C Entertainment Technologies Video division and real-time media display experts, Green Hippo joined forces at the 2011 Museums & Heritage exhibition to show for the first time in the UK the new JigSaw stand-alone software.

Held in the Brompton Hall of London's Earls Court exhibition centre, the show attracted a wide range of visitors - including AV professionals and designers from the world of museums, tourist attractions, heritage venues, theme parks and edutainment - who turned out in impressive numbers to see the latest technologies, products and services available for their industry.

A.C. Video is the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for the innovative range of Green Hippo media server products, however the specific focus of the collaboration was to showcase JigSaw, a brand new multi-screen management system developed by Green Hippo.

JigSaw is a software contr

China - At this year's Palme Beijing exhibition, Shanghai based lighting and video company Kupo Shanghai Co welcomed Green Hippo director James Heron.

Arranging speeches and seminars at the show, Kupo, who have been working with Hippotizer for several years, presented the range of media servers to existing and potential clients. Various projects done with Hippotizer in China, such as the Nissan stand at the recent Shanghai International Automotive exhibition, and others from around the world, were showcased to illustrate Hippotizer's capabilities.

Targeted mostly towards technicians from the AV sector, James Heron presented Green Hippo to this specialised market, highlighting the company's 10 year history and the products flexibility and functionality as an all-round toolbox for any event.

The presentation and seminars were a complete success and to keep the momentum going H

USA - On 15 June at the InfoComm show in Orlando, Xantech presented Bensalem, Pennsylvania-based firm APA Music& Pictures with a special plaque commemorating the two-millionth installation of Xantech products and thanking them for their years of Xantech use.

The recent installation was performed at Mount Laurel, New Jersey's Twelve Thousand Building Conference Centre, housing training room and boardroom spaces for TD Bank. Xantech products, including the WIC1200Web Intelligent Controller and CWTC1010.4-inch Wireless Touch Controller, now form the foundation for the A/Vdistribution in several rooms in the building.

The ceremony was attended by APA's VP of sales and production Dave Pedemonti; Xantech president Graham Hallett; and Xantech director of business development Rick Seegull.

Pedemonti stated, "We are very proud to have completed Xantech's two-millionth installati

USA - PLASA Events, an operating division of PLASA - the lead international membership body for those who supply technologies and services to the event, entertainment and installation industries has announced its first regional event in North America. PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 will be held 22-23 February, 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas.

Modeled after the highly successful PLASA Focus: Leeds (UK), which recently broke previous attendance records in its third year, Focus: Austin will bring together members of the entertainment technology community to do business and network in a relaxed and friendly setting.

The two-day show will be reasonably priced for exhibitors and free to registered visitors. A unique hard wall booth package-including furniture, power and lighting-will level the playing field and give exhibitors a simple and affordable exhibiting experience. The show'

The Netherlands - Philips Digital Cinema Xenon lamps are specially designed to meet the demands of today's digital cinema projectors. Each lamp is customised by projector model to maximise projector performance and to provide the required light output for 3D presentations.

In addition to large-screen applications, digital projectors are now also increasingly being used for small screens and/or 2D applications. In order to respond more effectively to the specific requirements of those applications, Philips has extended its current Digital lamp range. The new Digital Cinema Xenon lamps make it possible for small-screen and/or 2D applications to enjoy the benefits of Digital lamps in a cost effective way, says the company.

With these latest additions, Philips now offers an extensive Digital lamp range that minimises total cost of ownership, no matter which projector, screen or fi

UK - Central Presentations (CPL), West Midlands and Bristol, UK, based AV rental specialist co-ordinated and supplied a full technical production package encompassing video, lighting & sound for the Overkill stage at the 2011 Glade Festival.

The completely sold out two-day event returned to the summer festival calendar in a new location, Houghton Hall near Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

Overkill at Glade 2011 was project managed for CPL by Nick Diacre from the Bristol office. It is the second year that CPL has supplied the complete stage production package to Overkill and the fifth year that Diacre has been involved. Performers inc;luded Eskimo, African Hitech, The DJ Producer, Ed Rush, MachineDrum, Jacky Murda, 2 Bad Mice and many others.

The venue was a 20m dome from Gaia Nova, which was a challenging space in which to work in from a technical angle, with everything having to be rig

Asia - This summer Green Hippo is focusing on expanding their Asian market share with various Green Hippo staff visiting old and new customers across the region.

Green Hippo's strategy includes sales manager Samantha Bailey spending time in Xian doing an intensive course in Mandarin before attending PALME Beijing with sales and marketing director James Heron back in May. Bailey comments, "One of the key issues we have found dealing with China is the language barrier. Learning to speak Mandarin, whilst certainly challenging, will reap long term benefits for the company and result in closer ties with customers in this region."

After a successful show, James Heron went on to conduct seminars with Chinese distributor Kupo and attended several key client meetings in Beijing and Shanghai.

Next month focuses on PALME Singapore where Green Hippo will be present at Broadcas

Denmark - When the TietgenSkolen school in Odense began its search for a new large-scale media display solution, dnp partners, Audio-Visuelt Centrum, Denmark recommended dnp's Supernova Infinity optical front projection screens to the architect who was leading the search.

Morten Rasmussen, key account manager at Audio-Visuelt Centrum (AVC), explains, "The new screens were intended mainly for displaying computer presentations and TV programmes. A traditional fixed-frame screen was one option they considered, but the architect objected to the blackout blinds this would require. A better solution was therefore needed."

Destined for use in a newly built amphitheatre/stage on the school's site, the main challenge was finding a screen that would enable quality viewing in this brightly lit area.

Morten Rasmussen continues, "From experience, we knew that dnp's Superno

France - Christie has announced the appointment of Dominique Denis to the position of market development manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Nitro Solutions.

While maintaining his role as events sales manager for France, Denis will also be responsible in his new role for developing Christie's Nitro Solutions range of moving yokes for video projection and LED and Xenon lighting systems, for the EMEA market.

"Dominique's appointment is an affirmation of the substantive work he's done in the events market since he joined the company in September 2006 and reflects Christie's determination to work toward the convergence of the lighting and video projection businesses," says regional director Pascal Gervais.

"The ProLight + Sound trade fair in Frankfurt confirmed the potential for the growth of Christie's Nitro Solutions products in a high-demand mark

France - On the occasion of its television debut on TNT and to mark its new positioning within France, the financial information radio station, BFM Business (NextRadioTV group), was outfitted with an ultra modern set. A core part of the decor, the Christie MicroTiles video wall reinforces the visual experience that focuses on financial information.

After 10 years on the FM band, BFM became BFM Radio in order to minimize any confusion with BFM TV, a continuous news channel that is also part of the NextRadioTV group. At the end of the first half of 2010, BFM Radio was broadcasting on some 30 frequencies in France. In November of that year, BFM Radio became BFM Business, a "media outlet unlike any other in the world" according to its CEO Alain Weil. BFM Business is distributed via all ADSL TV packages and on TNT in Paris. The channel targets high-level professionals, part

Czech Republic - Projection Partnership turned to its hire fleet of Christie HD10K-M projectors, when asked to support global pharmaceutical company, Lundbeck A/S on its recent International sales & marketing meeting at the Prague Hilton.

Working alongside Lundbeck A/S' above the line advertising agencies and content providers, the 1920 X 1080 high-definition projectors met the complex multimedia challenges, under the direction of Graham Grimshaw, director of g2-Live Ltd, to give the audience a 360 degree visual experience in an enclosed oval environment.

Projection Partnership's brief was to supply a system capable of projecting onto a 5:1 aspect ratio curved three-screen centre display. Measuring 13.75 x 2.75m and edge-blended to provide a resolution of 5400 x 1080, the addition of a further two 1920 x 1080 side screens provided a total resolution of 9240 x 1080.

These two

Greece - ARX Systems, the Australian based designer and manufacturer has announced the appointment of Athens based Audio & Vision as their new distributor for Greece.

ARX managing director Colin Park said, "We're excited to be working with the Audio Vision team in Greece, they're enthusiastic about the possibilities for ARX and our products amongst their extensive client base.

"Audio Vision are an expanding force within the Greek Pro Audio Industry and are in close contact with Greek Audio Professionals across the installation, live sound and broadcast market sectors."

After more than 12 years servicing the professional audio industry Audio Vision now distribute product ranges including DPA Microphones, Nagra, Switchcraft, Tasker, Audac, Coolux, CM Columbus McKinnon and Swefog.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Systems integrator IVC Media was back at Wimbledon this year, supplying support services for its TV and signage distribution system.

"IVC Media was originally associated with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) way back in 1995 when the company installed the original analogue video over Cat 5 structured cabling and RF over coax," explains John Smith, managing director of IVC Media. "Since then, in 2007, the club worked with us to implement new IPTV technology across their updated high speed data network and each year we have staff on site to support all the TV distribution of the whole tournament."

"Where realtime coverage is required for commentary booths a Mediastar system works alongside the IPTV system," continues Smith. "RF and IPTV distribution of channels to public/private areas within ground include the referees' tower, comm

UK - QHotels, the award-winning collection of 21 hotels across the UK, has announced a £1.7m investment into its IT facilities, making it the only hotel group in the UK to offer a massive 90 megabits per second (Mbps) dedicated bandwidth for conferences. The investment will also see all guests provided with free, unlimited internet access.

David Kelly, Director of IT at QHotels, said, "This investment gives us an incredibly strong IT product that really is the cherry on the top of our Total Meetings Package. With the explosion of video conferencing, our ability to offer 90Mbps bandwidth is a real point of difference for us, especially for international clients who require high definition video conferencing facilities.

"We now have a very distinct, unique selling point, which I am confident will help us to attract and maintain conference business. Indeed,

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