UK - The Avolites Media team has announced that it will be running a series of presentations on the company's multi-award winning Ai Media Server and Titan V7 software at PLASA Focus in Leeds on Tuesday 30 April and Wednesday 1 May 2013.

The sessions will provide an overview of the latest features of the Titan V7 and Ai Media Server as part of the Lighting and Video - the Integration, the Benefits, the Future presented by Avolites Media.

"We will be introducing the latest cool features, including 'AVTO MAP', making mapping tourable; 'wow factor' rotational mapping; and o

USA - Axxis, Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky, has developed a versatile presentation and reveal set using Martin EC Series LED video panels as its main visual element. The set, made up of a curved LED wall turntable and LED columns, can be used for a variety of purposes, including product, speaker or band reveals and was inspired by the Axxis design team, led by Stewart Davis.

The system was conceived in early December as Stewart was flying back from a client visit in Tampa. "Their directive was to 'push the design envelope' and at 30,000ft, inspiration hit," explains Davis.

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd. will be showcasing products at PLASA Focus 2013 from a selection of the leading brands which it distributes, including Chroma-Q, Jands, High End Systems, Spotlight, SGM, PixelRange, Chauvet, LedGo, Green Hippo, Christie Nitro, Soundcraft, RCF, BroadWeigh, Columbus McKinnon and many more - on stand N-E2.

Chroma-Q's new award-winning Inspire high output, RGBW colour-changing LED House Light and AutoLED II ultra-bright (16,430 lumens) daylight white LED moving head fixture will share their UK tradeshow debut at PLASA Focus 2013. Also on s

UK - For the sixth year of BBC Worldwide's CBeebies on Tour, XL Events joined in the fun once again, supplying LED, camera system, playback and custom LED set elements.

The huge tour, which saw Justin Fletcher MBE bring together his favourite CBeebies characters for the very first time, was a brand new Easter egg-stravaganza!

The spectacular rock and roly-poly show, which toured UK arenas across the three week Easter school holiday, playing up to three shows per day, included Robert The Robot and Little Monster from Justin's House.

The main upstage screen was made up of XL'

UK - Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio have designed and co-ordinated a permanent 270 degree video projection installation featuring an adaptation of their highly successful work Illuminata at Caerphilly Castle in Wales for CADW, the official guardian of the built heritage of Wales.

The show was originally a large format projection extravaganza created by Ashton and projected onto two buildings in the Castle's main courtyard for two short festival events in 2010 and 2011. This proved so popular and accessible that CADW wanted to integrate it as a lasting tribute to the colo

UK - XL Events supplied LED screen for the UK premiere of Iron Man 3 - the latest installment of the blockbuster Paramount Pictures and Marvel Enterprises franchise - at an event staged in London's Leicester Square.

To display logos and character images from the movie, the design called for vertical LED "banners" which towered above the waiting crowds in the Square's gardens. Each banner was 3m high and mounted on a 2m high plinth to ensure that the LED was visible from all around the cinema.

XL Events supplied 147 tiles of Pixled FX-11 outdoor LED which was rigged

Belgium - ArKaos Pro has announced the appointment of ESL as its new exclusive distributor for France. The agreement is the first new appointment since the formation of ArKaos Pro was announced at Prolight & Sound, Frankfurt.

ESL will be exclusively responsible for promoting, distributing and servicing ArKaos Pro's stage and stadium media servers as well as the ArKaos MediaMaster Express and Pro software across the whole of France.

Established in 1992, and with offices in Montpellier and Paris, ESL introduced the first comprehensive catalogue of stage lighting in France and has prov

South Africa - Calibre UK has extended its global reach still further with the appointment of Prosound as its new distribution partner for sub-Saharan Africa. Based in South Africa, Prosound is an experienced distributor and rental company with several decades of expertise in supplying professional sound and lighting equipment under its belt.

With more and more of its customers also requiring hardware solutions for multi-screen shows and installations, the link with Calibre UK was a natural progression, according to Prosound's technical director, Mark Malherbe: "Our reputation ha

UK - XL Video is supplying nearly 400sq.m of LED screen, plus 72 VersaTUBE LED battens and crew to Blink TV for the UK and European legs of One Direction's Take Me Home world tour.

The Pixled F-12 and F-30 screen has been specified by the tour's production designer Paul Normandale, who's worked with XL on many previous occasions including Coldplay's 2012 Mylo Xyloto tour, when he first used the then just launched F-12 surface.

"It was faultless," he comments. "It's always a pleasure dealing with Phil Mercer and XL - everything is very smooth and easy.&qu

Lebanon - X Factor is one of the most successful casting shows worldwide, and the same is true for X Factor Arabia which started broadcasting in March 2006. The current run of 20 shows is again based on the original British concept.

Video for X Factor Arabia, recently produced in Beirut, Lebanon, relied on an MA control system consisting of two grandMA2 light and six MA VPU plus (Video Processing Units).

Stephan Flören of LichtUnit GmbH, who worked as video supervisor and specified the MA VPU, the grandMA2 consoles and the video system, explained why he chose M

UK - Innovation Productions is preparing itself for a busy summer with new additions to its already extensive rental stock. The company provides hire and sales of lighting, sound, video and staging equipment and is add new additions to all areas of its range from leading brand names, including Clay Paky, Martin Professional, Sennheiser, Christie Digital and DPA - with further additions planned for the coming months.

Andrew Pygott, the company's managing director and himself a respected lighting and systems designer, commented on some of the additions.

"Clay Paky Sharpys were se

UK - London- based lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) has made a substantial new investment in LED screen with the purchase of 100sq.m of BT6 6mm pitch high resolution surface.

The product has been manufactured specially for CSE to their specifications and will join the company's existing stock of BT12 and BT37 screens, all from the same factory, designed and built to the same exacting quality standards.

CSE's MD Haydn Cruickshank comments: "It was clear that we needed a high resolution screen, in particular for our corporate work. Following good

Slovakia - The Gothic Cathedral of St Elizabeth in Košice became the glowing centrepiece of the city's Opening Ceremony celebrations for its year as European Capital of Culture in a spectacular lighting scheme featuring Robe and Anolis LED fixtures.

The overall OC event lasted two days with over 1000 artists performing in 70 different locations in and around the city. The Cathedral - the largest in Slovakia - was lit for the entire time, providing a jaw-dropping backdrop for the finale of the OC.

The idea of illuminating elements of the Cathedral first came from Branislav Bernár f

Olympic Honours - The London 2012 Olympic Games have taken three awards at this year's British Academy of Film and Television Arts Craft Awards. The Olympics opening ceremony picked up a best director award while Super Saturday - when team GB scooped six gold medals - won for best sound. The Paralympics, broadcast on Channel Four, took best digital creativity.

Hamish Hamilton who directed the TV broadcasts of the London 2012 opening and closing ceremonies, was also honoured on the night with a special award in recognition of his "outstanding creative contribution to the industry

South Africa - Keystone Productions were awarded the role of production company, and MGG Productions as technical supplier, for the Nestle Conference and Gala Awards, held in two different venues at Champagne Sports Resort which is surrounded by majestic mountains in central Drakensberg. With over 30 presentations, each with a different theme, lighting could not take a back seat and included Robe and Clay Paky at a function where video predominantly featured.

This was the first time Nestle hosted a single event for the entire company. It was aptly attended by a thousand employees who

UK - XL Video supplied LED screens, cameras, Hippotizer media servers and control for the high profile London show by chart-topping and Grammy Award winning New York based indie pop band, Fun.

The video and lighting design was by Paul Normandale. He was approached by management and asked to come up with an inventive concept specifically for the sold-out Hammersmith Apollo show on the band's latest UK tour. Once again, he teamed up with XL Video to help make this happen, working closely with XL's Project Manager, Gareth Jeanne.

The video design was based on a poster of the band. Norm

Germany - A record-breaking 113,000 visitors from 142 countries attended this year's Musikmesse and Prolight+Sound expos in Frankfurt. This statistic spelt success not only for the show but also for Christie, who returned to Hall 9 as exhibitors in their own right after a break last year.

Pride of place went to the Nitro moving yoke series. The company welcomed existing and new customers to hourly presentations given by Christie field application engineer, Jan Walter, in which he compared a Christie YK100 single arm projection yoke (specifically designed for Christie M Series and Chri

USA - On 17 March, Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, celebrated the ministry's 40th anniversary by hosting a weekend event titled ReEnvision. The weekend was intended to reflect on how Harvest grew from a small church into one of America's mega-churches with one of the largest evangelical outreaches in America and the world, Harvest America.

Harvest lighting designer and programmer Christopher Eguizabal was tasked with lighting the event, as well as a special dinner for Harvest guests and staff to be aired on television. The lighting rig therefore ne

UK - The opening day of PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013 was tremendously busy, with packed aisles, full seminars, and dozens of new products to see on the show floor.

Here are 10 reasons to join us today:

* Audio legend Tony Andrews delivers his Keynote Speech What is Good Audio?

* Martin Audio debuts the MLA Mini

* Ambersphere presents Clay Paky and the Laws of Physics

* Award winning sound designer Gareth Fry gives his seminar Creative Manipulation of Sound

* d&b audiotechnik tell you Why Size Matters

* The ABTT discuss qualifications and competence i

UK - Innovation Productions Ltd is preparing itself for a busy summer with some new additions to its already extensive rental stock. Innovation Productions provide hire and sales of lighting, sound, video and staging equipment have added new additions to all areas of their range from leading brand names, including Clay Paky, Martin Professional, Sennheiser, Christie Digital and DPA. Innovation Productions have other additions planned over the coming months.

Andrew Pygott the company's managing director and himself a respected lighting and systems designer commented on some of the addi

UK - QED fielded no fewer than 19 Christie high-end projectors to meet one of their most complex projection-mapping challenges ever for BBC's Red Nose Day.

The 25th edition of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day 'Funny For Money' TV broadcast has so far raised a record amount of £75m for charities in the UK and Africa and was watched by millions of people across the UK.

Brought in by content creators, Framestore Labs, and working in the main studio at London's BBC Television Centre, QED fielded their front line armoury of Christie high-brightness 3-chip DLP projectors, including eight

Belgium / Japan - ArKaos has announced that it has signed an agreement with Dirigent Corporation Japan for the exclusive distribution of the ArKaos GrandVJ product range.

"We are very excited about this new collaboration with Dirigent," says ArKaos business development manager, Agnes Wojewoda. "Dirigent has been established for a very long time and is ideally placed to bring our GrandVJ range to the Japanese music market. The team is very eager to start distributing our products, organizing workshops and product training and is in an excellent position to offer full and

UK - When the BBC wanted to celebrate the completion of its ambitious Your Paintings project - an online catalogue of 212,000 oil paintings in public ownership - Mark Rackstraw, assistant producer of BBC Learning (under whose department it fell), had the idea of simultaneously projecting some of the artworks onto 30 landmark buildings and heritage sites around the UK on the day of the celebration.

The remarkable feat of carrying out this projection - at 5pm on 8 February - was undertaken by Keyteq; and at every site they deployed Christie LX1500's, outputting 15,000 ANSI lumens

UK - Stage Electrics has announced a management buy-out (MBO) of the business from the estate of David Whitehead. The MBO was fully supported and agreed by David Whitehead prior to his stepping down from the role of managing director in May 2012 as a way to position Stage Electrics for future growth and security, the company says. David Whitehead sadly passed away in February 2013 after a courageous fight against cancer.

The new shareholders - Trevor Smallwood, Dan Aldridge, Bob Smith, James Irvine, Anna Western, Adam Blaxill, Adrian Searle and Ian Tregaskis - combine considerable bus

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