UK - Sarah Cox, a well-known member of the AV industry, starts her new position at Green Hippo Ltd. within the company's sales team as technical sales manager for several European territories including France, Italy and Spain. Additionally, she will also spend some of her time as a HippoSchool trainer, working alongside head of training Simon Harris.

Previously Cox spent three and a half years with TMB, Green Hippo's exclusive Hippotizer distributors in the Americas.

Working closely with TMB's clients in the UK, Sarah spent a great deal of her time on the road, providing demonstrati

UK - Kent- based creative event specialist Eclipse Presentations has expanded with the addition of three new key personnel.

Charles Steward has been appointed as head of managed services, to head-up and drive the fast-growing Eclipse Services division of the company.

John Michaels and Martin Worman join as area managers, who will help co-ordinate Eclipse's dedicated site teams working across the 18 high-profile central London venues for which the company provides event services, technical production and AVL equipment.

Steward's background includes 10 years of operational experienc

The Netherlands - Christie will be celebrating its 10th year at IBC 2013 (13-17 September, Hall 9 Stand C17) with the first European presentation of a number of new products.

The company will be supporting IBC TV and the IBC conference programme, and is once again the supplier for digital cinema projection at the IBC Big Screen experience.

First up is the Christie Brio - a presentation and content sharing solution which enables meeting participants to share across multiple locations, running audio and video presentations from their own smart devices wirelessly without the need to in

Belgium - September sees the launch of ArKaos GrandVJ 2, the latest version of the highly successful ArKaos GrandVJ software for VJs, DJs, clubs and musicians.

The new software brings "sparkling new features that answer the demands of customers in the forefront of the action". Two versions are available: GrandVJ 2 and GrandVJ 2 XT which includes a VideoMapper feature.

New Features for GrandVJ 2: new interface; VideoMapper module (XT version); new software activation system; improved performance; new effects plus support for audio files.

GrandVJ 2 comes with a new interfa

UK - Lighting design and rental company Siyan chose Avolites consoles for this summer's Lovebox musical extravaganza in East London's Victoria Park. This year saw the company step up to the Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch Pro for the main and second stages respectively.

"Historically, Avolites consoles have been Siyan's first choice at Lovebox," explains project manager Jez Johnstone. "For the past few years we've used the D4 range for FOH at the main stage, with the Expert on the smaller stages. With technology moving forward, it was a natural progression to spec the Sa

UK - The David Bowie is exhibition was one of the most successful and technically complex shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. Opening to rave reviews on 23 March 2013 it was the best selling exhibition in the museum's history. David Bowie is is now on world tour starting at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada this month.

Design and Production company,59 Productions and interiors and exhibition designers Real Studios collaborated on the David Bowie is exhibition design. Expert systems integrator, Sysco AV configured the museum's existing invento

UK - XL Video UK have again supplied all video elements to the Icelandic band Sigur Rós for the latest UK and European festival leg of their World tour, supporting their new Kveikur album. XL has been constantly involved with supplying the band's visual requirements for the current 18 month worldwide tour.

Sigur Rós's provocative and interesting live visuals are a collaboration between LX and stage designer Bruno Poet, the band's artistic director Sarah Hopper, Damian Hale the editor for Third Company and video director/Catalyst operator Ray Gwilliams, all working towards cre

UK - XL Video are the multi-award winning AV experts responsible for the projection of video director Richard Turner's innovative video display on Roger Waters' The Wall Live concert tour.

To help XL Video bring the shows to life, forty units of Panasonic 20,000 lumens PT-DZ21KE and PT-DS20KE projectors are being installed into the grand scale stadiums and arenas, as the musician delivers 27 electrifying rendition performances across Europe running until autumn 2013.

Roger Waters comments on the technology of the show, "This wide wall stadium show couldn't have been done

UK - Projection and digital art specialist Ross Ashton collaborated with Russian artist Maria Rud to present Dark Matter a dynamic 'AniMotion' live performance painting projected in giant format on to the Institute of Astronomy library in Cambridge. The event embraced painting, music and projection mapping It was the world-wide launch of this concept, complete with live music from flautist David Heath, vocalist Fay Fife and DJ / producer Dolphin Boy (Andy Levy).

The one-off event also coincided with the launch of the 2014 e-Luminate Festival in Cambridge - which in February wil

UK - From Thursday 19 September, a derelict Southwark building will play host to an interactive light sculpture by artists Marcus Lyall and Mark Logue.

The public will be invited to have a cathartic yell or scream inside the building. Each scream will generate an instant light composition that illuminates the entire building.

The unique quality of each scream will create the colour and movement of the light composition through a unique computer program which will analyse the sounds in real-time.

The installation will be visible to thousands of passers-by on Borough High Street bet

UK - Four years after initial product launch, Christie MicroTiles continue to captivate audiences with high resolution, high brightness displays that bring digital content to life in rich, vivid colours. Now Christie has taken another step forward in near seamless video walls by offering a new screen option for its multiple award-winning technology: the Christie MicroTiles S310 screen.

Featuring the same optical performance and construction as the S300, the Christie MicroTiles S310 screen is slightly larger and features 0.7-millimetre seams (compared to 1.3-millimetre seams for the S3

UK - Last week at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy, Russian artist Maria Rud in collaboration with The Projection Studio's, Ross Ashton and Panasonic Visual System Solutions presented a fusion of artistic colour set to a backdrop of hypnotic music. AniMotion is a live performance which takes an experiential approach to live art presentation, with Maria Rud painting on a light box which is then digitally captured by a Panasonic AG-AF101 camera with a large imaging sensor and streamed live to a large screen.

Dark Matter AniMotion was created by Maria Rud and Ross Ashton in

UK - Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical supplied its new LED Stair product to the red carpet launch of the 2013 series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

The LED Stair was specified by the show's designer Patrick Doherty for the launch event, which was staged at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood UK.

The 11th edition of the massively popular series has moved to a new much larger home at Elstree, and for this, Doherty has again specified S+H's Pea-light starcloth.

For the launch event, Doherty wanted something visually different and spe

UK - The LS-Live production rehearsal arena in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was the chosen film location for pyrotechnics and special effects company Le Maitre, who used it to shoot product demonstrations for around 50 promotional videos.

Le Maitre needed a large studio space that could provide enough height for their higher effects such as the Mines and Comets, as well as Falling Stars, Cascades and Waterfalls, and they needed full blackout. The 17,664 sq ft rehearsal arena in South Kirkby was a suitable location with a height of 54 ft to the underside of the gantry. LS-Live's in house

UK - ArKaos, Belgian-based pioneers in interactive video technologies, will be exhibiting in the White Light Zone on Stand E56.

The ArKaos team will be demonstrating ArKaos MediaMaster which recently toured the world with The Killers' Battle Born tour, mixing live camera feeds with visual content in real time across a complex array of multiple surfaces and video walls. New for the show will be MediaMaster 3.2, the latest software version which brings even more new features. MediaMaster 3.2 is available to existing MediaMaster 3.0 users as a free upgrade.

Also on show will be ArKaos

UK - PLASA London 2013, which takes place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013, is putting out a final call for entries for the 2013 PLASA Awards for Innovation, before the deadline of Friday 27 September. More than 25 entries, ranging from audio interfaces and lighting controls to Ethernet switches and luminaires have been approved so far. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in the new AudioLab Arena on Monday 7 October at 6.00pm.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products that advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practic

UK - PLASA London 2013 will host a plethora of global, European and UK product launches for the pro-audio and entertainment lighting industries at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013. Many of the new products on show are also candidates for the 2013 PLASA Awards for Innovation.

Chris Toulmin, Head of Events, PLASA London 2013, said: "Visitors come to PLASA London expecting to see the latest products and technologies, and they will not be disappointed with the wide range of exciting product launches at the show. We are proud that so many manufacturers choose PLASA London to launch

Germany - Laserworld has launched a new product range, the Proline Series, to fill the gap between the budget solutions of the Club Series and the more professional Pure Micro Series.

Two power levels are provided in a first step - the PRO-700RGB with up to 700mW power, and the PRO-1300RGB with up to 1.300mW power. In contrast to the Club Series projectors the Proline units come with the bright 637nm red, which increases overall visibility. The small housings and the light weight make the units perfect for applications in nightclubs, bars or for mobile DJs. Due to the compact setup an

UK - In perhaps one of the more unusual live music projects this year, electronic music artist Scanner has teamed up with the Heritage Orchestra for Live_Transmission: Joy Division Reworked. The project is a musical and visual reinterpretation of the work of one of the UK's most influential bands.

Live_Transmission sees a selection of Joy Division songs deconstructed by Scanner and reinterpreted by the "ferociously non-classical" Heritage Orchestra to a backdrop of dismantled Joy Division imagery.

Visuals for the show were provided by Matthew J Watkins of the

UK - Over a couple of summer evenings way back in 1989 a small group of friends performed Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to raise funds for the care and support of children suffering from life-limiting or terminal illnesses. Today, The Pepper Foundation is a registered charity which raises funds for The Pepper Children's Nurses who provide care 24/7 for children throughout the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire area. The Pepper Rock Event Show is performed each year over two weeks in the Centenary Theatre within Berkhamsted School in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

UK - When the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series visited Wales for the UK leg of their global cliff diving championship, XL Events was on hand to ensure all the action was captured for the crowds of excited spectators.

With competitors diving from a height of 27m from the top of the Pembrokeshire cliffs, XL Events needed to ensure that spectators in both of the cliff viewing areas had an excellent view of the 14 divers from nine different countries.

To achieve this, XL Events installed two Lighthouse R7 LED screens, one at the top and one at the bottom of the cliffs, and each measur

UK - Projection and LED screen rental house Anna Valley has made a "major investment" in Avolites Media's industry-leading Ai Infinity servers and the Sapphire media controller.

The West London based company - which delivers cutting-edge visuals technology to some of the UK's biggest shows including X Factor, Million Pound Drop, Britain's Got Talent, and many events, conferences and award shows - is working closely with Avolites Media to offer the industry powerful solutions to push the boundaries of on-screen displays.

"Having looked at the marketplace we want

UK - PLASA London 2013 is ready and raring to go, with new attractions, free seminar sessions with high calibre speakers and excellent networking opportunities all lined up for the visitors from all sectors of pro audio, lighting and stage technologies. Those that have not yet registered can still save 50% off the door price by signing up at www.plasashow.com. Over 15,000 industry professionals have already registered for this year's PLASA London event, which takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

PLASA London is supported by Platinum Sponsor Robe Lighting, Gol

UK - Creative Technology has introduced the G10 Carbon Fibre LED system which will be promoted at PLASA London 2013 (Stand E70).

CT's latest innovation is a full colour, high brightness, super lightweight 10mm LED display weighing a mere 11kg per m2. At less than half the weight of previous comparable systems the G10 offers massive advantages in terms of production opportunities and reduced freight costs, says the company. The extraordinary weight saving means a native resolution HD screen measuring 207 m2 can be built weighing only 2.3 tonnes. Alternatively typical on stage effects a

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