UK / USA - As part of its ongoing merger activities and in response to the end of year departure of Ruth Rossington, executive director in Europe, PLASA has taken the opportunity to restructure its management team to ensure it continues to move the organisation forward while progressing a wide range of projects of benefit to members.

With effect from 1 October 2011, a new company structure will be put in place which sees CEO Matthew Griffiths heading up the association, whilst also temporarily overseeing the Events divisions in the UK and North America. Finance director Shane McGreevy becomes chief operating officer (COO) with responsibilities expanding beyond finance and core services into operational administration and personnel.

Lori Rubinstein, current executive director in North America, becomes the new director of membership, skills, standards & technical overseeing thes

Norway - Jens Heymans has been appointed country manager, Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) at projectiondesign.

Heymans has already assumed his position working to develop and implement a strategic growth strategy encompassing all business development as well as increased partner relationships in Germany. During late 2011 and 2012 Heymans will be integral in setting up a projectiondesign German office as well as to implement increased business in Austria and Switzerland. This includes the investment in local business development, marketing and technical support functions and personnel.

"Jens Heymans is another key addition to our investment in global growth that includes setting up of new offices, new personnel as well as significant expansion. His experience in strategic business management will give competitive advantage when supporting projectiondesign's partner

USA - PLASA has announced the finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2011. The PLASA Rock Our World Awards were created to honour groundbreaking achievement by its members and to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of the technology and the designer or integrator who applies it in a real world environment.

The finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

83rd Annual Academy Awards - Green Hippo, PRG, TMB

ALEXA Digital Camera System - ARRI

coolux Widget Designer 3.0 PRO - Coolux GmbH

DataGate Mk2 - ENTTEC

Disney World of Color - A.C.T Lighting, Fisher Technical Services, MA Lighting, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Creative Entertainment

EverGrip Molded Motor Control Cables - Lex Products Corp

Garsington Opera - Unusual Rigging Ltd (UK)

UK - Manchester-based lighting rental company dbn supplied large scale spectacular architectural lighting to Culture Liverpool for a special event celebrating both the 100th anniversary of the iconic Liver Building and the opening of the new Museum of Liverpool - the largest newly-built national museum in Britain for more than a century - both located on the City's famous Pier Head waterfront.

dbn's team was led by Pete Robinson. Their brief included the lighting of a live performance stage on the Pier Head and providing complimentary lighting onto the Liver Building itself, which framed a large format projection show created by Czech AV specialists Macula, using 35000 lumen Christie projectors.

On the Liver Building, dbn had ensured that light filled the space between the outer limits of the centrally positioned projections and the edges of the building, in the process, highl

Belgium / UK - ArKaos will be exhibiting at PLASA 2011 within the White Light zone (Stand 2-R23) where the team will be on hand to demonstrate its full range of products.

This year's show is the platform for the launch of ArKaos' new network protocol, Kling-Net, a protocol designed specifically to allow the distribution of real-time video data to remote display devices, like LEDs or LED panels, over Ethernet.

Kling-Net can transform the simplest of LED devices into an intelligent Kling-Net device that can talk to, and be controlled by, a Media Server. Auto configuration of devices upon start up dispenses with the need for complicated set up procedures. The Media Server can then read and change parameters from the device. This makes the whole process extremely fast and easy and minimises the potential for mistakes, says the company.

Costs are reduced because the devices do no

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) will attend PLASA 2011 (Stand 1-D32, Hall 1) to showcase and discuss examples of the many performance lighting, audio and AV system installations provided by the company.

ACSP design, supply and install lighting, sound and AV systems - as well as track and curtains, intercom and show relay. The company's previous installations range from a basic six circuit lighting bar, with a dimmer pack and lighting desk, to full blown theatre systems.

Working alongside designers and architects or directly for the performance venue, the company's fully qualified team of engineers will provide a first class finished system installation, on time and on budget.

ACSP has access to over 200 quality brands, including popular performance ranges from Chroma-Q, Jands, Spotlight, ETC, Philips Selecon, Pulsar, Sennheiser, Shure, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, JBL, Andol

Blitz has been selected as the latest member of the global AV Alliance, which is now represented by 46 event suppliers in 26 countries.

The AV Alliance is a network of leading event technical rental specialists committed to delivering performance, service and quality at the highest possible level. The network boasts 2,725 employees, undertaking 46,209 projects each year with equipment sourced from 210,676 m2 of warehousing. Alongside Blitz, England will be represented by two additional organisations; Smart AV and London Audio.

Munir Samji, Chairman at Blitz comments, "We are thrilled to have joined the AV Alliance and to now have access to unrivalled resources across the world. We already supply quite a number of events across Europe, but we will now be in a strong position to provide a comprehensive service in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South Africa."

Sim

UK - Lee House has joined Green Hippo in London as product manager for the firm's Hippotizer Media Server range.

House has a strong background in the world of lighting and AV, having previously worked at Flying Pig, High End Systems and most recently AC Entertainment Technologies. His role at AC was to build up the newly founded video division three years ago, a role which led him to gain advanced knowledge of the Hippotizer server range.

"I've been a huge fan of Hippotizer since its first appearance at PLASA in 2004 and distributing the product in the UK led me to become so close to the product I couldn't refuse the opportunity to step even closer by taking on the roll of Hippotizer product manager," says House. "This position is one I relish and I'm looking forward to the next phase of Green Hippo's evolution.

"The future developments and features in th

UK - Following success at ProLight&Sound earlier this year, Christie's new-look theatre arrives at Earls Court this weekend to take up its PLASA position in Hall 1, Stand E18. The Christie stand will once again present an integrated light show with video animations using Christie Nitro Solutions. Previewed at PLASA last year, this modular series of motorised moving yokes can provide up to 22,000 ANSI lumens of video projection, with the flexibility to allow the user to deploy the yoke with either a video projector or a LED light head.

Noted lighting director Bruno Corsini is tasked with creating and choreographing the show in a convergence of video and lighting-derived patterns. Corsini has a long list of accomplishments, including last year's landmark lightshow for Mexico's Bicentennial of Independence in the Mexican capital's main square.

As in Frankfurt, the PLASA display w

Christie has unveiled the next generation of its 3-chip DLP Xenon platform - the Christie J Series - at PLASA 2011. This new platform targets a variety of applications within the rental, staging and fixed install segments, requiring high brightness, superior performance and crisp, clear images - all in a compact, rugged and reliable package.

"The best image in the world just got better," said George Tsintzouras, senior director product management, Business Products, Christie. "Christie has taken its highly successful Xenon product line and evolved it with exciting new features like embedded Christie Twist that allows for image warping without the need to purchase additional electronics cards. Driven by a Xenon illumination system that offers the best colour reproduction and stability, J Series also offers lenses with Intelligent Lens System (ILS) functionality and three

A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., a leading one-stop provider of cutting-edge new and used professional equipment to the entertainment industry, showcases a selection of lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from its vast range of premium brands on Stand 1-E10, Hall 1 at PLASA 2011.

Teams from all of AC-ET's specialist product divisions will be there to discuss the massive multi-million pound stockholding of over 200 leading brands available from AC-ET's High Wycombe and Leeds offices for worldwide dispatch to over 80 countries - as well as in-house filter and cable manufacturing facilities and wide range of consumables - backed up by an emergency evening and weekend delivery service.

The A.C. Lighting division will showcase the new GLP Impression Wash One and Spot One high powered LED spot and washlight moving heads. The latest moving lights available fr

A.C. Special Projects Ltd (ACSP) will attend PLASA 2011 (Stand 1-D32, Hall 1) to showcase and discuss examples of the many leading performance lighting, audio and AV system installations provided by the company.

ACSP design, supply and install lighting, sound and AV systems - as well as track and curtains, intercom and show relay. The company's previous installations range from a basic six circuit lighting bar, with a dimmer pack and lighting desk, to full blown theatre systems.

Working alongside designers and architects or directly for the performance venue, the company's fully qualified team of engineers will provide a first class finished system installation, on time and on budget.

ACSP has access to over 200 quality brands, including popular performance ranges from Chroma-Q™, Jands, Spotlight, ETC, Philips Selecon, Pulsar, Sennheiser, Shure, Soundcraft, Allen & He

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which has just closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events Manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new d

Croatia - Whole Nine Yards Productions were contracted in May to provide production & overlay services to Europe's premier bass music festival. The Outlook festival is geographically split between Fort Punta Christo (a 19th Century abandoned fort) and a working harbour that was especially cleared for the festival. Playing host to nine principal music stages and over 400 appearing artists the design, planning and coordination of the festival was a complex endeavour.

Technical director Ben Price was responsible for a crew of over 200 and charged with the planning, design, procurement and coordination of all overlay and technical infrastructure. The festival required technical equipment from over six different European counties and the impressive supplier roster included some of the industry's leading companies including NUSSLI, Aggreko, RG Jones and HSL.

Planning commenced in Ma

UK - Avolites Media announced during the PLASA show formation of a strategic alliance with Immersive Ltd and is now sole manufacturer of a suite of products under the brand name Ai.

Immersive Ltd is a re-seller of the Ai system, integrating the Ai product range into their global business of design, animation, motion graphics and show production.

The Ai media server was showcased in the UK for the first time at PLASA 2011 with the aid of demonstrations and a show-reel presentation from a selection of Immersive productions which highlight the versatility and enormous potential of the Ai product range.

Avolites Media Ltd will release Ai media servers through the existing Avolites international distribution network. Meanwhile, Immersive Ltd will continue in its successful business of event production, experiential design and content creation for an expanding and diverse, high pr

Russia - The first week of August 2011 saw Green Hippo's head of Training Simon Harris give a three-day workshop at Moscow's Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, which was organised in conjunction with Green Hippo's new Russian distributor FMS Force Media Swiss AG.

Force Media are a management company representing several audiovisual and media organisations in Russia which range from online portals for audiovisual communities to educational and creative collectives. FMS Force Media pride themselves on their ambition to: "Promote creativity. From online portals that join communities virtually, to hardware products that run the largest stages internationally, Force Media Swiss's unique blend of management and strategy generates a demand for new media."

Green Hippo's workshops took place from 3-6 August and proved to be a great success, generating some

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which last week closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new

USA - Cold rain didn't dampen the spirits of the 60,000-person crowd who came to enjoy the free 15 September concert, Andrea Bocelli - Live in Central Park. But the 55-acre Great Lawn left many at a distance from the stage. So Pete's Big TVs was hired to bring the action up close to the masses via their video equipment.

Pete's Big TVs provided upstage projection and video screens on six delay towers. Two Christie Roadster HD30+ projectors provided upstage projection. A ton of fibre optic cables fed the video signals to the six delay towers, outfitted with six video screens, which provided up-close views of the action for the crowds throughout the Great Lawn. The delay screens were created from 610 high resolution flex LED panels - a mix of 15mm and 20mm screens. Though it rained steadily, the equipment performed flawlessly as it was designed for outdoor operation.

Worki

UK - Crestron has appointed Phil Breitschadel to the position of UK sales manager. Working out of the UK headquarters in Cobham, he will lead the UK's residential and commercial sales teams to help grow and develop new business, and expanding its product sales to all vertical markets. His previous position was with Verrex Ltd, a global AV integrator with offices in the USA, Asia and Europe.

"I'm really looking forward to Phil joining the Crestron team, where he can devote his considerable sales and strategic talents to meeting our business objectives," says Robin van Meeuwen, UK managing director and VP of international sales at Crestron. "As our head of UK sales, UK integrators and end-users will be well served by Phil's long-standing commitment to sales growth that can only translate into mutual business success."

"This is a fantastic opportunity for

UK - Yorkshire based digital system designers, 53 Degrees Ltd, have recently installed the first UK video wall using a new eco friendly video wall product launched earlier this year by Samsung. The video wall was installed at the Timberland Flagship store within the newly opened Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in East London.

The International apparel retailer, turned to the Leeds based company to help fulfill the brief that was to "bring the Timberland concept store to life through an engaging and emotional approach".

The giant video wall using the new Samsung screens, measuring 6.2m x 3.5m (36 x 46" screens), designed and installed by the company plays an integral part of the new Daiziel & Pow designed store and is used to showcase the latest seasonal outdoor experience stories. The large display screen takes centre stage on a recessed bulkhead at the

The Netherlands - Christie used the occasion of 'The IBC Big Screen' theatre screenings at RAI Amsterdam to deliver the world's first mass-audience demonstration of a 3D High Frame Rate (HFR) D-Cinema system using a single projector - the Christie Solaria Series CP2230 projector - in combination with other currently-available components.

"The RealD XL Cinema System and International Datacasting's SuperFlex Pro Cinema Event Player (PCEP) are available today, along with Christie's DLP® projectors, providing cinema owners and content owners with the foundation they need to realize new revenue streams from the projection of 'alternative content' sporting and theatrical events in 3D HFR," said Dr. Don Shaw, director, product management for Christie's Entertainment Solutions division.

Content showing the world-famous Cavalia equestrian production company in action was

UK - The inaugural Conference Scotland forum, presented by Saville Audio Visual in partnership with Edinburgh Corn Exchange and catering specialists Prestige Scotland, took place recently.

Conceived by Chris Lawson, manager of the Saville production team in Edinburgh, the conference was designed as an educational forum for the Scottish events market and the agenda was devised by polling the market, using social media to determine the most pressing issues of the day.

The topics chosen by the virtual community were Social Media, Event Content and Hybrid Events and the initiative attracted delegates from many different sectors of the industry. These included event managers, conference planners, corporate event teams and destination management companies, with many joining the event on-line or via Twitter.

The day was chaired by events journalist and consultant Richard John who f

UK - Bluman Associates recently projected an upturned VW logo onto London's disused Battersea Power Station with the tagline 'Das Problem' - a clear take on Volkswagen's latest campaign phrase 'Das Auto'. The event was part of international environmental activist network Greenpeace's crusade against Volkswagen's alleged opposition to key environmental initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions, and features the VWdarkside.com website set up by Greenpeace to help supporters rebel against VW's 'darkside'.

A Bluman Associates Storm Trooper displayed his projection know-how by beaming a large, modified image of Darth Vader onto London's Battersea Power Station as part of the event.

(Claire Beeson)

- Projection designs by Nina Dunn of creative agency Knifedge are to take centre stage when Northern Ballet's acclaimed production of Cleopatra goes on tour to Nottingham, Woking and Norwich this Autumn.

Whereas projection mapping is more conventionally used to wow a one-off audience with a single playback stunt seen from a single perspective, for Cleopatra Dunn has developed the technique to integrate with the live performance and change on cue and in tune with the piece.

The projection designs for Cleopatra play both scenic and emotional roles in the new production - adding atmosphere, depth and context to the simple set design, whilst still allowing the dancers maximum space to perform. It is the first time Northern Ballet has used projections in one of its productions, and projection designer Dunn has worked closely with her programmer, Sam Hunt, an

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