USA - New York's Radio City Music Hall saw the commencement of the 68th annual Tony Awards on Sunday 8 June 2014, with a flamboyant Hugh Jackman hosting the show and a live broadcast televised on US network CBS.

The Tony Awards are a place of recognition for achievements in Broadway productions over the past season and this year's ceremony saw an array of shows from Aladdin, Hedwig and the angry inch, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun to Les Miserables, Of Mice and Men as well as Rocky. With such a wide line-up the 15 Musical

USA - On 9 June, the Galen Centre in Los Angeles became the centre of the gaming universe as Xbox held a global briefing for media and Xbox fans at the annual video game show, E3. Broadcast live on Spike TV and on the Internet, some 140 Elation ELAR Q1 colour changing Par lights supplied by Illumination Dynamics made their debut in the elaborate stage set.

The Microsoft Xbox 2014 media briefing is used as a platform to launch new games, as well as take a look at previously announced games. Lighting design for the event was handled by Emanuel Treeson of NYXdesign, who specializes in cr

USA - Founded in 1891, Seattle University is a Jesuit Catholic university and law school in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighbourhood. More than 7,400 students are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs within eight schools and colleges.

The university's Father LeRoux Conference Centre, located in the Student Centre building, is a large, multipurpose room used for live presentations and special events and for movies and video presentations. The Conference Centre can be subdivided with an air wall to accommodate two simultaneous events.

Last year, Seattle University hired Sparlin

UK - Working with marketing agency Arnold KLP and creative production agency DesignScene, XL Video have supplied an LED video wall for the Volvo V40 promotional roadshow currently being shown in some of the UK's largest shopping malls.

Through June and July 2014, the promotional display featuring the LED video wall visited the Bullring in Birmingham, Metro Centre in Gateshead, Cabot Circus in Bristol and finished up at the Silverburn in Glasgow.

The presentation area included a Volvo V40 R Design display car, which allowed shoppers to sit on board and experience the car, an array of

Austria - Everyone is familiar with the idea of a rock concert, but few events take the word 'rock' as literally as the recent series of outdoor gigs staged in Norway by the Pink Floyd tribute band Puls. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Kilden-Fjaereheia quarry in Grimstad, the band played six sold-out nights to audiences who were wowed not just by the music but by the spectacular projection-mapped backdrop that was created courtesy of AV Stumpfl's Wings AV multi-image control technology.

Event design and production for the Puls concerts was the responsibility of Norwegian company

Qatar - With just eight years to go until they host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, Qatar was keen to get as involved as possible in this year's biggest international football tournament.

Qatar's Brazil 2014 Fanzone, was a specially built, open-air venue with a three tier retractable roof located in Katara Cultural Village. Using a prototype of one of the systems that Qatar is developing to use in stadiums when it is their turn to host the World Cup, the venue was cooled to ensure the environment, if not the atmosphere, was kept at a regular and comfortable temperature for all fans.

Wit

UK - XL Video renewed its long and productive working relationship with Robbie Williams, supplying a custom video solution and crew to his current and massively popular Swings Both Ways tour.

XL's project manager was Phil Mercer with Nilkanth Patel overseeing the technical aspects and, for the first time on a Robbie Williams tour, Jon Shrimpton was live camera director.

Once again the stage set and visuals took on a completely new and different dimension and the aesthetic was carefully crafted by show producers Lee Lodge and Willie Williams, both also involved in commissionin

Portugal - Among the things that have made The Voice such a runaway international hit is that every country seems to find its own different way of enhancing the show, adding a local feeling to what has become a global phenomenon. This is very evident looking at A Voz de Portugal. In 2011, it introduced a rule change that allowed viewers to vote back losers of battle rounds for live shows. This year the Lisbon-based show raised its game again, by taking pixel mapping on its set to a new level with the Nexus 4x4 LED panel from Chauvet Professional.

Marco Silva, LD and prog

UK - Chester Cathedral has seen a 300% increase in visitor numbers following an innovative, £1.3 million project called 'Cathedral at Height'. The project primarily consisted of building a multi-sensory audio visual presentation in the chamber to help attract a greater family audience.

A combined team of architecture and heritage experts including Pure AV, a leader in AV solutions, were called on to deliver the results and overcome specific challenges.

The chamber's louvre windows, for example, meant that the technology would need to cope with damp, wind and cold, while the ca

UK - Projection mapping and video content specialists Bluman Associates projected the Palestine flag onto the Houses of Parliament in the early hours of 1 August to raise awareness of The Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Bluman worked with the organisation to implement the guerrilla marketing stunt.

The team, led by Pod Bluman, were in situ on Westminster Bridge for just four minutes; just long enough to ensure the PSC's photographer could take publicity photos.

(Jim Evans)

UK - XL Video supplied video solutions for studio recordings of Series 12 and 13 of the popular Endemol UK/Remarkable Television show, Pointless. The familiar Pointless set includes several video elements that are key to the quiz show, hosted by Alexander Armstrong and quizmaster, Richard Osman which is recorded at Stage 8 of Elstree Television Studios, and broadcast on BBC1.

For the questions screen, XL Video project manager, Jeff Bailey, specified one of XL's high brightness Barco HD-20 projectors, which fed the 3.2 x 2.32m screen. The high brightness unit, which suppl

UK - Avolites and Avolites Media continued their strong association with Glastonbury Festival with an impressive array of equipment and an eager team out in force to support friends and colleagues alike.

With no less than three headline acts on the main stages controlled by Avolites, as well as numerous other acts and stages, the festival proved an excellent opportunity to showcase the power and versatility of the range.

The first of those headliners, Arcade Fire, brought the Pyramid stage to a climactic close for day one with a set list spanning their four albums. The band put on a

UAE - Creative Technology's Middle East operation has recently recruited Ed Jarman in the position of senior project manager at their Dubai Investment Park offices. Ed will be heading up day-to-day project management and project development. Working alongside Mark Woodhouse, general manager of CT's Dubai operation, Ed will also be supporting existing and building new relationships with clients throughout the Middle East.

Ed brings with him a wealth of expertise having worked in the Middle East region since 2010. During his time in the AV industry he has trained as an audio and video e

UK - The Eagles brought their History of the Eagles tour to London's O2 Arena in June in a worthy celebration of a lifetime of work. Performing classics and songs from their top-selling documentary, the concert is an exploration of one of the world's biggest-selling and culturally significant American bands.

Butch Allen, in collaboration with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe and the band, designed the set and show. PRG provided lighting & rigging and worked alongside PRG Nocturne UK, who supplied video and a live camera package for the show.

Lighting director Dave Hill and

UK - Arcstream AV, specialist provider of interactive technologies and special effects for events and permanent installations, has supplied an interactive floor to the new reception area at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The reception area has been done out in a seascape theme, so Arcstream created an interactive floor that looks like a rock pool. It's a fun idea that lets children play and looks good too.

The company has also provided an interactive floor and touchscreen table to Step by Step School for autistic children. Both feature Snowflake ABC software so that the children can

UK - At PLASA London 2014, Harting (Stand No. G15) is featuring its RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems for asset management in the theatre and touring environment, along with rugged connectivity solutions for audio-visual multimedia events.

Harting's RFID technology can be applied for improved asset management for entertainment rental/hire companies and for theatres which share equipment for touring shows. The Ha-VIS RFID system offers a high degree of flexibility to simplify the implementation of scalable solutions in different application sectors.

The system combines ru

South Africa - "This really is awesome," said Nick Britz of DWR. "Vectorworks has become a standard in the South African industry for technical drawings and it also integrates very well with ESP Vision." Training of the product will be held regularly.

Developed by Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., Vectorworks software is a line of industry-specific CAD and BIM solutions that allow designers to advance their ideas from concept through to completion. Users range from architects to lighting and scenic designers.

While great ideas begin in the mind of the designer, Vecto

UK - XL Video, working with US conference and event production agency metroConnections, supplied a large-scale audio-visual solution for the IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors) International Conference at London's ExCel Centre.

The event, which comprised a 1500 delegate main auditorium and 9 breakout rooms in Excel's Capital Room, took place over three days in early July.

For the auditorium presentation, XL supplied a giant 20m x 11m projection screen, flown behind the stage. The screen was stretched on to about 1.8 tonnes of Tomcat truss surround and created the backdrop for the p

USA - Mobile production specialist TNDV has five trucks and six flypacks crossing the country on any given week, but for one week in June most of the fleet and crew remained in Nashville for the CMA Music Festival, accommodating a live broadcast TV shoot plus video and audio production across multiple downtown stages.

TNDV's relationship with the Country Music Association is enduring, delivering full-service mobile production for several annual events including pre-show festivities for the CMA Awards each November. The CMA Music Festival is the most immense, encompassing many outdoor

UK - Projection artist Ross Ashton and his company The Projection Studio are again making a massive impact at Edinburgh's world famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, producing fabulous giant projections which are mapped onto the castle wall and running throughout the epic spectacle.

The event's chief executive and producer is Brigadier David Alfrey and this year's theme is Our Home, Friends and Family with hundreds of Commonwealth participants playing a part in the show in a big year for Scotland, which has just hosted the hugely successful 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Ashton c

UK - The busy summer of festivals has shown no signs of slowing down just yet, with Avolites and Avolites Media storming onto the scene for another weekend at Secret Garden Party 2014 with five stages controlled by Avolites, and Avolites Media featured on the main stage. The festival, held in Abbots Ripton, welcomed a huge and eclectic line up of acts including headliners Fat Freddy's Drop, Public Enemy and Little Dragon, to cement its position as one of the most hotly anticipated festivals of the year.

The boutique weekender attracted in excess of 20,000 festivalgoers keen to witnes

UK - Originating from the USA, Electric Daisy Carnival made its second trip to the UK this July, transforming Milton Keynes's outdoor National Bowl into a 28m pixel entertainment spectacle.

Aside from the music, the video production delivered a spectacular environment with LED screens surrounding all 360 degrees of the national bowl and with weird and wonderful performers and the combination of LED light displays, pyrotechnics and lasers, it was clear that Electric Fly wanted to make the event just as visually appealing as the music itself.

Musically, this year's EDC delivered a div

Australia - MultiTouch, manufacturer of the 48x MultiTaction displays forming part of The Cube at Queensland University of Technology, has announced its attendance at this year's Integrate Expo (26-28 August) on stand E40 at the Dome in Sydney's Olympic Park.

Featuring on MultiTouch's stand will be an interactive wall comprising 8x 55" Ultra Thin Bezel MultiTaction displays showing MultiTouch's MultiTaction Experience app. MultiTaction 55" tables will also be on display, demonstrating a range of applications including a bespoke Glenfiddich whisky application.

"We're d

USA - Discovery Park of America has opened in Union City, Tennessee, offering visitors a world-class entertainment and educational experience with more than 70,000sq.ft of exhibits on nature, science, technology, history and art. Electrosonic provided audio-visual equipment for most of the ten exhibit galleries in the three-level space of the new Discovery Centre.

The primary benefactor of Discovery Park of America is the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation, which has donated approximately $80m to the creation of the park and endowed a programme for its continuing operational s

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