UK - West Midlands UK technical production and rental specialists Central Presentations Ltd. (CPL) supplied the design and full technical production - video, lighting, audio, set - including a bespoke projection screen - and staging - for the 2014 TaxAssist Accountants' AGM. The event was staged in the Caernarfon Suite at the Celtic Resort & Conference Centre in Newport Wales, UK.

CPL's team was headed by dynamic project manager Jimmy Smith who was working to a brief that required a clean, contemporary conference environment for the daytime sessions, which would be quickly and seamles

UK - Artist Maria Rud and projection specialist Ross Ashton took their innovative AniMotion concept to Durham Cathedral - a blend of digital art and live music that enveloped the stunning architecture - with a performance by virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, flautist David Heath and music producer and DJ Dolphin Boy.

Rud's live painting was mapped to the wall of the Cathedral Library which borders onto the cloisters - the first time that this part of the stunning Romanesque architecture had been utilised for a projected artwork. It was also the first time that the public had

Europe - Creative Technology (CT) has made a number of changes to its European and Middle Eastern business structure in recent weeks.

These changes all form part of the Avesco Group's strategy to consolidate and redefine its operating businesses in response to the rapidly changing and developing market circumstances in the UK, Europe and around the world.

From 1 May all of Avesco's operations outside the UK will be united under the Creative Technology brand. Alongside this consolidation there are a number of significant management changes.

In Holland the JVR business will be merge

UK - London's Leicester Square was chosen as the venue for the world premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - the latest instalment of the Marvel Comics franchise from Columbia Pictures.

The glittering premiere was attended by the stars of the movie including Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Dane DeHaan. For the red carpet exterior of the cinema, XL Video were brought in to provide a video solution including multiple LED screens and media control.

XL Video's project manager, Mark Rooney selected the company's new MC-7 LED which displayed the logos and character image

Denmark - After a very successful contribution to last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, Barco reports that it is to be the Official Technical Event Partner of the 2014 edition. During this week's semi-finals and finals in Copenhagen, 32 Barco projectors and three Encore presentation switchers, provided by rental partner Mediatec Solutions, will project sharp images and video, in crisp detail, onto the cube-shaped central stage.

Eurovision 2013 was an all-Barco show powered by a total of 60 Barco projectors, including 26 units of the high-brightness HDQ-2K40. That same

UK - XL Video is supplying a large customised curved LED screen for James Blunt's current "Moon Landing" world tour, together with cameras and PPU, projection and crew.

The 9.5m high by 9m wide Pixled F-15 screen was specified by the tour's show's production designer Paul Normandale, who together with Lighting Director Glen Johnson and XL Video, started working with Blunt in 2005. This fourth world tour is by far the largest to date in terms of production.

The idea was that the onstage video should be curved at the back and offer the appearance at times that he's walking o

USA - Visitors to Brookfield Office Properties' new corporate headquarters on the 15th floor of 250 Vesey Street in Lower Manhattan, New York, will be met with a massive and ultra high-resolution video wall. Composed of 36 ultra narrow bezel 55" screens, the video wall tells the story of Brookfield as a company, with stunning high resolution visuals and motion graphics driven by Dataton's Watchout multi-display system.

The video wall project was conducted via a partnership between Union Design, which created over an hour of original content, and Warren Z Productions, which conduc

UK / USA - Trade-only AV specialist PSCo is offering AV and IT resellers and rental companies an opportunity to win an exclusive VIP trip to InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas, 18-20 June. The competition kicked-off on 4 March and will run until 30 May. Three winners will be picked at random and announced on 2 June via the PSCo website as well as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook channels. To enter, simply visit www.psco.co.uk/infocomm

"InfoComm is an event that has been overshadowed by ISE in recent years, but the level of new and innovative technology on show makes it a must see event,&qu

UK - Electrosonic will provide corporate and oil and gas industries an in-depth look at the latest audio-visual and collaboration solutions at its Technology Day on 4 June at the AECC in Aberdeen. Over 30 leading technology companies are participating at this free event.

The event will give attendees a real insight into how state-of-the-art technologies can increase productivity and communication between teams, as well as how new collaborative technologies can improve business performance.

During the Technology Day, a member of the Electrosonic team will guide each visitor through t

UK - Trade-only visual specialist PSCo has announced the signing of an exclusive distribution agreement with Absen Optoelectronics, a market leading Chinese manufacturer of LED displays. The partnership unites the expertise and experience of both companies to offer customers in the UK access to the very latest LED displays with a dedicated local service centre and in-house technical support for both rental and fixed installations.

Stuart Holmes, CEO of PSCo, said, "We have reviewed a number of different LED manufacturers, asked our partners for their feedback and researched the m

UK - UK-based technical solutions and video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) kicked off 2014 with a busy schedule and a proactive programme of shopping which sees major investments in new projectors, screens, cameras, media servers, sound and lighting equipment to help facilitate an expected busy year ahead.

The purchases include premium brands like Avolites, Barco, Clay Paky, Clearcom, d&b, ETC, Panasonic and Yamaha.

CPL's MD Matthew Boyse explains that a robust start to the year included a series of bold procurements which were "A mix of completely new purchases and

UK - Projection specialists Projection Artworks has worked with the Lift Agency to produce an electrifying video-mapping show for the launch of Mark Cavendish's collaboration with cycling brand Specialized, following the launch of his CVNDSH brand last summer.

The 90-second show - which was custom-designed to fit the unique architecture of the Yard in Shoreditch - was the centrepiece of a press event unveiling the cycling star's exclusive line of high-performance activewear and cycling accessories. It centred around six arch-shaped alcoves surrounding the audience and featured bespoke

UK - Projection artist and digital art specialist Ross Ashton of London based The Projection Studio has created three new eye-catching son et lumiere shows for Colchester Castle, UK, comprising a giant projection onto one of the Castle's internal wall, accompanied by dynamic soundtracks created by sound artist Karen Monid.

Ashton was approached to produce the show following his work at Caerphilly and Norwich Castles plus numerous other heritage projects where his video projections have brought building histories to vibrant life in colourful, accessible, informative and highly entertai

UK - HSL supplied lighting and LED screen to the UK leg of the new You Me At Six Cavalier Youth tour, featuring an inventive lighting design by Louis Oliver who has worked with the indie rockers for the last five years, in which time they have steadily gained a solid live fan base and a cult following.

It's the first time that Oliver - whose other current clients include Plan B, Chvrches and Five Seconds of Summer who just hit number one in the UK charts - has worked on a full production tour with HSL as a supplier. His account was project managed by the inimitable Mike Oates.<

UK / The Netherlands - Avolites Ltd. and Avolites Media Ltd. have appointed Fairlight as their sole distributor for the Netherlands as of 1 May 2014.

Koy Neminathan, sales director for Avolites Ltd, comments, "I am very excited about working with Fairlight on an exclusive basis. We will now attain the resources necessary to promote our range of lighting and video control on a larger scale. Our relationship goes back well over 20 years and the foundations we have built allows us to hit the ground running. We have arranged dates for seminars, workshops and a comprehensive marketing

UK - Arcstream AV, specialist provider of interactive tech and special effects for events and permanent installations, supplied a range of cutting-edge technologies for the Pepsi Experiential Cube, part of the #LIVEFORNOW campaign, which was open to visitors from 5-9 March at Observation point on London's South Bank. Commissioned by DesignScene, Arcstream supplied a videowall, an interactive floor, and a fog screen.

The videowall was a 65" display behind frosted glass. The display showed a life-sized man trapped behind an ice wall. He appeared to bang against the ice when people

Benelux - With a 50 year history in the industry, Phlippo have become one of the biggest competitors in the Benelux area for equipment hire and full production support. Phlippo provides both dry rental of all their equipment as well as full production support to everything from musical productions, TV shows and dance events to touring productions, festivals and corporate events.

Phlippo consists of two companies. A rental branch, Phlippo Rental, which deals with rental activities and Phlippo Productions, which works on all the production support. Offering a wide variety of equipment i

UK - Sony has announced today it has partnered with Joss Stone and Big Earth Productions to provide production equipment for the singer's record-breaking Total World Tour. While Joss will be performing in every single country on earth, in the most comprehensive world tour ever attempted by a musician, a two man production team will use Sony equipment - including wireless microphones, handheld camcorders, and Sony ActionCams - to capture her journey.

Having started on 28th March 2014, Joss Stone has already begun her mission to play at least one gig in every country on the planet, and

UK - Avolites and Avolites Media's industry-leading range of control consoles and media servers will be available for hands-on demos on Stand 69 at this year's ABTT Theatre Show.

The Avolites team will be exhibiting its 'ultimate in live control' Sapphire Touch and new Wing, offering an additional 30 Motorised Faders and third hi res touch screen. Avolites' hot off the press Titan Mobile Fader Wing - which enables expansion of every Avolites Titan console, giving direct access to extra handy features - will be on stand for demo and hands-on experience.

The entire Titan range, two Ti

UK - Panasonic has expanded its line-up of professional digital signage displays with the launch of a 65 inch LED screen.

The Full-HD TH-65LFE7 is aimed at digital signage applications and mid-sized conference room installations and is equipped with a narrow bezel, designed to blend aesthetically in to conference rooms and provide eye catching commercial settings.

The display features a 10.8mm (0.43 inches) bezel and depth of only 52mm (2.1 inches). It includes standard connection terminals (HDMI x 2, DVI-D, PC-IN) as well as control terminals (RS232C, LAN, IR-IN/OUT) needed for pro

UK - XL Video is again providing full video production - including projection, LED screens, media server control and full camera / PPU package - to the critically acclaimed Arcade Fire Reflektor world tour, for which set and visuals have been carefully sculpted by show designer Richard Stembridge.

The band are well known for their penchant for the experimental, the off-beat and for embracing creative challenges. Stembridge worked on the last tour, The Suburbs in 2011 as video designer and has now taken on the role of show designer with great enthusiasm.

XL Video's proj

South Africa - LD Renaldo van den Berg and production manager Victor Vermaak from Johannesburg based design and technical production specialist AV Unlimited created a spectacular lighting scheme utilising Robe moving lights for the South African leg of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone launch.

The VIP gala dinner event was staged in a special Super Dome structure built by In2structures and erected adjacent to the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Illovo, Johannesburg. AV Unlimited was brought on-board to create the technical production design by event producers Mela Events, and Robe moving

Australia - TDC - The Technical Direction Company is deploying the full range of its professional and technical expertise in providing core technology and services to Destination NSW for the sixth annual Vivid Sydney festival.

Running from 23 May to 9 June, Vivid Sydney is a celebration of light, music and ideas that will see the centre of New South Wales' vibrant capital transformed by a series of state-of-the-art visual and creative art installations.

"This is our third year of working with Destination NSW on Vivid Sydney, providing a huge range of technologies including 3D m

UK - Relationships that have had a big influence on Gary Barlow's latest tour. Barlow is a master of his genre, as he has amply demonstrated by selling out all 17venues around the UK. His first solo outing onto the arena circuit, show director Kim Gavin along with designer Tim Routledge and production director Chris Vaughan, elected for a minimalist approach to staging, but with an emphatic widescreen approach to video.

Tim Routledge comments, "Gary wanted to keep as close to his audience as he had on last year's theatre outing. At the same time we needed a bigger show to suit th

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