World - In a nod to her status as working mum pop star, British singer Lily Allen has been touring both the festival and venue circuit in front of a backdrop of baby bottles laced with LED strips and controlled by Avolites Ai.

Allen first unveiled her baby bottles set - a concept conceived by acclaimed stage designer Es Devlin - at Glastonbury 2014 and went on to perform with the bottles throughout the US, UK and Europe in the autumn as part of her Sheezus tour. In January and February 2015, the tour continues to Asia.

The bottles were designed by bespoke lighting creators Light Ini

UK - Digital Insanity's Richard Bagshaw works on a wide variety of projects, from music festivals to movie premieres, and uses his Hippotizer media servers on projects week after week to great effect and success.

The last few weeks have brought a couple of prominent movie premieres to London's Leicester Square and Digital Insanity were all over the high profile red-carpet gala, which saw dozens of Hollywood stars grace the cobbles outside the Odeon Cinema.

The Interstellar world premiere took place on Wednesday 29 October with stars such as Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway

Switzerland - Auviso audiovisual solutions, one of Switzerland's leading players in the event equipment/services market, has purchased 14 high-brightness Barco projectors to raise its rental fleet to new levels of performance. The AV expert chose Barco's HDX- and HDF- projectors on account of their exceptional brightness, robustness and reliability, as well as the outstanding services provided by Barco distributor Baranday. With this order, auviso becomes one of the first Swiss AV suppliers to offer Barco's high-brightness HDF- and HDX- projectors.

Auviso is a market leader in central

Latvia - Dataton WATCHOUT helped bring a welcome burst of colour and light to the Latvian capital during darkest November. The Staro Riga 2014 Festival of Light attracted an estimated 500,000 visitors with light processions, art installations and architectural projections. Dataton WATCHOUT multi-display software provided projection mapping on four of the city's landmark buildings.

The Staro Riga Festival of Light is the biggest in the region and this year's event also celebrated Riga as the joint European Capital of Culture 2014. System integrator Solaris, based in Saint Petersburg an

UK - London-based large format projection specialist, The Projection Studio (TPS) created a stunning festive projection onto the central tower at Windsor Castle, which was enjoyed by all residents and visitors to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, Berkshire, over Christmas 2014.

Ross Ashton and his Projection Studio team were approached by Windsor's Town Centre manager Paul Roach after the success of Ashton's works commissioned by LOCOG for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which saw the same tower on Thames Street illuminated, together with two others, a display that attracted o

UK - Six high brightness Panasonic projectors will be used to light up King's College Chapel as part of the 2015 e-Luminate Festival in Cambridge.

Panasonic will once again sponsor the festival (11-15 February) and will team up with 3D projection expert Ross Ashton to project on to the iconic chapel.

Hartmut Kulessa, European product marketing manager at Panasonic said, "Digital mapping is becoming an integral part of how we celebrate at many public events. It is a relatively new and exciting way of engaging audiences, so we are delighted to demonstrate the best of digital mapp

The Netherlands - Green Hippo will be holding a free conference during ISE in Amsterdam in February 2015.

With the recent launch of Hippotizer V4 media servers and AViary Video Tools, this is an opportunity to find out more, have live demonstrations and hands-on play with the latest Green Hippo technology.

To register you interest in attending the conference please sign up on either of the website links below:

Hippotizer: http://www.hippotizer.com/calendar/70/105-ISE-2015-Show-and-Green-Hippo-Conference

AViary Video Tools: http://www.aviary-videotools.com/ise-conference-2015

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USA - The John C. Maxwell Leadership Centre at 12Stone Church in Atlanta honours the life and impact of John's global and generational leadership as an internationally recognized leadership speaker, author and pastor. In celebration of his continuing legacy, visitors today enjoy interactive audio-visual presentations of John's life and achievements across an immersive video wall controllable from several user stations. The engaging video and graphical content is driven exclusively by Renewed Vision's ProVideoPlayer 2 (PVP2) software, bringing exceptional reliability and quality to a cos

UK - Fifteen years after providing the complete audio-visual system for the Our Dynamic Earth attraction, Electrosonic returned to help the science centre bring Scotland's Time Lords to life. Electrosonic was charged with the design and systems integration of the AV elements, under subcontract to Studio MB, engineering the new exhibition with reliable components within a simple system architecture.

Scotland's Time Lords introduces visitors to the Scottish scientists who laid the foundation for the modern paradigm of plate tectonics. Three new interlinked galleries take visitors from a

UK - Having won awards from Live Design, PLASA and Prolight & Sound for their products and innovation, Avolites could be forgiven for simply tweaking some minor features in their Ai software. Rather than rest on their laurels, though, they have introduced a host of new features and improvements for latest iteration, Version 8, which they're describing as "everything you always wanted" in a media server.

Building on their initial success, Avolites Ai V8 is the result of a feature rich development programme lead by intensive user feedback.

Dave Green, lead developer for Ai e

Canada - Blueprint AV is a multi-use predictive software suite from Adamson that operates both in the 2D and 3D realm. Designed to provide Adamson clients with a user-defined level of detail, the software delivers extreme precision in any operating mode.

After extensive beta testing with key network partners, Adamson is releasing Blueprint AV via a licensing system that will allow end users to distribute a pre-determined number of copies to their team of technicians.

"The precision of the software has been proven in the field and we're very excited to be able to offer the compl

USA / Germany - Christie, the specialist in visual displays and audio technologies, has announced that it has acquired Cologne, Germany-based coolux GmbH, the developer and supplier of 3D compositing and rendering systems, best known for its Pandoras Box product family. coolux will be integrated into Christie's Global Market Solutions team, maintaining its office in Cologne, Germany.

Jennifer Smith, Christie's executive vice-president, Global Market Solutions, said: "Christie is committed to deepen its marketplace lead in supplying a total solution for advanced applications such

USA - Production Resource Group LLC, (PRG) one of the world's leading providers of entertainment and event technology solutions, has acquired Chaos Visual Productions. Headquartered in Burbank, CA, with an office in Bedfordshire, UK, Chaos provides full service video production for live events. Both PRG and Chaos have built a solid reputation in the industry for combining innovative technology with an international team of highly experienced industry professionals.

"Chaos Visual Productions will be joining forces with PRG Nocturne," says Mickey Curbishley, CEO, PRG Concert T

USA - Tightrope Media Systems' identity as a leading solutions provider across the broadcast/cable and digital signage industries has propelled year-on-year business growth since its formation as a standalone company in 2001. Looking to further bolster the company's sales and service team to support future growth across both businesses, Tightrope recently promoted five-year company veteran Kelli Smith to director of broadcast sales, and hired Richard Turner as digital signage regional sales manager.

Kelli, based in Raleigh, NC, now manages sales for ZEPLAY, Tightrope's choice for cost

UK - Organized for the 11th year in a row by global experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide and watched by millions across the globe, lighting design for the Mayor of London's New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza was created by lighting designers Durham Marenghi and Paul Cook exclusively using wysiwyg lighting design software from CAST Software. The lighting design ensured that the New Year was truly spectacular.

"We were tasked with putting London on the map alongside Sydney Harbour Bridge and Times Square, NYC," explained Marenghi. "The fantastic fireworks by Darryl

UK - Following a busy and successful first six months, VER Live has announced the appointment of Jonny Hunt as project manager. Hunt brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from the television and entertainment industry to the role and has hit the ground running. On arrival, Hunt managed his first television show for VER Live, ITV's A Funny Old Year for production designer Paul Houston. Hunt stated, "I'm pleased to be a part of this exciting new venture."

The expansion follows a string of successful and high profile video productions delivered by VER Live since it

Australia - Lighting designer and long-term ArKaos advocate, Francesco Calvi, turned to ArKaos MediaMaster Pro yet again to deliver the creative visuals for the 11th season of Big Brother Australia 2014, the popular reality television series.

The Big Brother House was located at Dreamworld on Australia's Gold Coast, from where the live shows, hosted by Sonia Kruger, were broadcast weekly over three months by the Nine Network, before culminating in a grand finale in December.

In a now-traditional move, Calvi used ArKaos MediaMaster Pro software to stream the creative visual ef

UK - Tony Award winning tenor Alfie Boe completed a very successful UK arena tour just before Christmas with video designed by Stuart Merser of Vis-A-Vis Video and the camera / projection package supplied by XL Video.

Stuart was asked by Boe's new management company Vector Management to direct the live video on the strength of his intricate and powerful work for Il Divo.

Over time, he has developed a distinctive visual aesthetic which works extremely well with this classical / musical theatre / pop crossover genre of music and style of performance, and ahead of this tour, he talked

Singapore - Creative Technology (CT) has announced the recruitment of Tom Casey to its Asia Pacific operation on 12 January 2015.

Tom will join CT's Singapore business as Project Manager reporting directly to managing director Chris Burke and will cover the Asia Pacific region.

An Australian citizen, Tom has previously worked in the UK, the Middle East, Australia and Singapore and is well versed in the business culture of the Asia Pacific region.

(Jim Evans)

The Netherlands - Green Hippo has released Hippotizer Version 4 which saw its official launch at LDI in Las Vegas in November 2014. At ISE 2015 the company will be showcasing the new systems to the European market.

Every V4 system features front panel indication of system status, removable hard drives as part of the STRATA Caddy System, all Solid State Drives as standard and the latest graphics technology to deliver unmatched performance.

The powerhouse of the range, Hippotizer Taiga redefines the possibilities within a single media server. Featuring 6x Display Port 1.2 or 6x DVI Du

The Netherlands - AV technology pioneer Peerless-AV will be exhibiting new additions to its portfolio of mounts, stands and emerging technology solutions in Hall 11, Stand H70 at ISE 2015.

New at this year's show is the Xtreme fully sealed, triple display outdoor kiosk, the next generation HDFlow wireless multimedia kit, and a range of video conferencing stands offering increased mobility, reduced system cost and improved aesthetics. Additionally, visitors will see first time demonstrations of an Xtreme display built into an outdoor kiosk, a fixed video wall floor stand and further vi

The Netherlands - For the fifth consecutive year, Dante's AV Networking World series of informative presentations and hands-on workshops will be held Monday, 9 February 2015 at the Amsterdam Holiday Inn near the RAI Convention Centre.

The free all-day event will feature presentations, training workshops and interactive panel discussions led by industry design consultants, AV installation contractors and IT networking experts. The event will also feature a major interoperability networking demonstration of Dante-enabled products and systems, several of which are debuting at ISE from th

UK - Working with video designer, Andrzej Goulding, XL Video are supplying projection and media control for the Theatre Royal Bath production of Saturday Night Fever, which is currently touring UK theatres.

The show, which is created in association with the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and is based on the classic 70s disco film of the same name, is directed by Ryan McBryde and choreographed by Andrew Wright.

This new production includes a multi-surface set which moves and changes throughout the show creating an ever-changing projection canvas. Andrzej Goulding's design calls

USA - Play Me!, an interactive 3D projection mapping spectacular created by French multimedia artists, Danny Rose for Vivid Sydney, an 18-day festival of music, light and ideas, has won the Judges Choice Award at the DIGI Awards 2015 in New York City.

"The DIGI Awards recognises the service providers who have gone the extra mile to ensure success for their clients, thereby furthering the digital signage industry as a whole. The Judges Choice Award winner impressed the team of experienced judges for its innovative use of technology and mass audience engagement, in a way tha

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