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

The Netherlands - Kramer Electronics will exhibit over 13 real-world solutions and technologies at ISE 2015. They will also provide training, education and networking opportunities and make several product introductions on stand 1.F20.

"To demonstrate working solutions in real-life settings, each with a presenter, is the best way to communicate the value - both business and technical - of our extensive product range in numerous vertical markets," said Aviv Ron, vice president business development and strategy at Kramer Electronics.

"We expect that our stand will outpe

USA - ArKaos will present the latest version of its famous GrandVJ software at NAMM 2015 this week at Anaheim Convention Centre, California.

GrandVJ 2.1 will be presented as a Beta version on the shared booth of ArKaos' US distributor American DJ and Elation Lighting (#5774 Hall B). Customers will have the opportunity to try out the latest features for themselves ahead of GrandVJ 2.1's full launch just one month after the show.

In a new development, GrandVJ 2.1 now includes compatibility with many new controllers from Akai. Demonstrations of this new interactivity will be available

The Netherlands - At ISE 2015, the centrepiece of the Hitachi Digital Media Group stand will be a spectacular curved display that highlights the use of projection mapping technology with multiple stacked 9000 series projectors.

"While Hitachi continues to bring new, innovative and sustainable projection solutions to customers, our emphasis at ISE this year is to demonstrate thought provoking and inspirational ways to use the products," said Axel Kutschke, senior manager, presentation products for Hitachi Digital Media Group. "With a broad selection of solutions from acr

UK - The final music show to be staged at London's Earls Court concert and exhibition venue - which is being demolished - saw indie rockers Bombay Bicycle Club deliver an enthusiastic and enigmatic set, complete with some very special guests including Dave Gilmour - in the final show of their So Long See You Tomorrow album campaign and world tour.

The set, lighting and video elements were designed by Squib, and XL Video supplied video production and crew for both Earls Court and the preceding tour which had originally started in April 2014.

The tour featured eye catching vide

UK - January began with another batch of celebrity housemates entering the Big Brother House. The Housemates are competing against each other, battling to be crowned the Celebrity Big Brother winner by the public.

Creative Technology (CT) has been supplying LED display solutions to the renowned reality TV show from its inception in 2000 and has recently been reconfirmed as the supplier for the 2015 series.

For this year's celebrity series, CT is providing the LED screen displays on the side of the house as well as those on the iconic Big Brother orbit eye. Additional LED MiStrip in

UK - XL Video UK has announced a major investment in new Barco projectors and lenses, as well as a large investment in video distribution equipment from Lightware. Both agreements support the company's commitment to regularly update their inventory with high quality, state-of-the-art video equipment.

XL Video has invested £1.2m in 30 of Barco's HDX-W14 projectors, including a quantity of their TLD+ Ultra Short Throw lenses. XL has selected the HDX-W14 units as they offer outstanding image quality and flexible light output.

The projectors feature a modular construction and comm

UK - Holo-Gauze, 3D display solution for hologram effects, is set to feature as part of the new series of Gadget Man for Channel 4 after wowing the show's producers, who were "hugely impressed" with its effectiveness, both on-set and on-camera. The ingenious, highly transparent metallic gauze was used to create a giant, revolving holographic vase of flowers during filming of a 'Date Night' episode. The show is expected to air sometime in the Spring.

Holo-Gauze is claimed to be the only gauze able to work with 3D polarised projection systems which use a minimum of two

Switzerland - Navori has announced the opening of a new office in Germany to support growing interest in its digital signage solutions across the German-speaking DACH countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company, which will soon unveil new branding, organizational strategy and products, has appointed Thomas Pollum to lead sales and business development from the new office, located in the City of Elmshorn.

Thomas comes to Navori with a history of success in director-level and management roles at BIS Germany (A Mood Media Company) and Samsung, among others. The Elmshorn of

UK - Brazilian footwear brand Melissa's London store launch attracted a VIP guest list most fashion brands would dream of, so the pressure was on for the store design to impress. The 6,000sq.ft store would follow the brand's 'Galeria' concept, found currently in the flagship stores in Sao Paulo and New York, where shoes are displayed alongside art installations and sculpture.

Melissa's brief to Intevi, the digital solutions provider appointed on this project, was to blend their artistic designs with suitable technology to bring their creativity to life. Intevi knew it was going to nee

UK - Cinelease has appointed Steve Smith as its Managing Director for the UK. Smith brings 30 years' of industry experience with him having formerly been the Group Managing Director of AFM Lighting and more recently Worldwide Managing Director of Panalux.

Steven M Ortiz (Cinelease global VP) comments: "We are delighted to welcome someone of Steve's calibre and proven track record to Cinelease. We view his appointment as a sign of our commitment to being the leading company in the UK. Steve Smith has a proven track record over many years that clearly identified him as being the pe

UK - Brazilian footwear brand Melissa's London store launch attracted a VIP guest list most fashion brands would dream of, so the pressure was on for the store design to impress. The 6,000 square foot store would follow the brand's 'Galeria' concept, found currently in the flagship stores in Sao Paulo and New York, where shoes are displayed alongside art installations and sculpture.

Melissa's brief to Intevi, the Digital Solutions Provider, was to blend their artistic designs with suitable technology to bring their creativity to life. Commenting on the project, Tom Scott, managing dir

The Netherlands - Panasonic Visual Solutions division has launched a training programme exclusively designed for visual professionals, such as resellers, system integrators, AV rental companies and distributors.

The Panasonic training programme includes several levels to develop Panasonic visual product knowledge and gain special certifications.

Split between projectors and display (which have three and two levels respectively) Panasonic partners can engage in free online training sessions through the Academy portal to gain Visual Professional certification.

When Visual Profession

USA - Audinate is taking its successful Dante AV Networking World events on the road to six North America cites. These free, full-day events are geared toward anyone involved with the design and installation of networked audio systems, including design consultants, system integrators and sound engineers. The interactive sessions will introduce attendees to the benefits of Dante and audio over IP networking, showcase example Dante installations, and feature of a full afternoon of hands-on training.

The events are co-sponsored by Audio-Technica, Bose, ClearOne, Focusrite, Presonus, Shur

EMEA - Scala has appointed Mike Gopal as area sales consultant for the Middle East and Turkey. Reporting to Damon Crowhurst, VP, EMEA, Gopal started in January, 2015. He will be responsible for building on and further expanding Scala's digital signage position in this expanding market.

With deep experience in the AV sector through his years at AMX, and more recently working with ESCO Singapore, Mike joins Scala from WOW Vision where he served as the regional sales manager - GCC & Africa.

"I am very pleased that I was able to convince Mike to join us, and lead our growth in this

Australia - Rental provider Gearhouse Broadcast has rolled in nine Lawo mc2-56 audio mixing consoles, 21 x Lawo V__pro8 video processor units and a Nova73 HD router for the broadcast of the first big international sports event of 2015 - the Australian Open tennis tournament.

Traditionally, the tournament attracts the tennis elite to the 30 tennis courts in Melbourne Park where, from 11 o'clock in the morning till late at night, they fight each other for the prestige of victory and the €2.1m prize money that awaits the winners of the singles games. The finals will take place on 1 Febr

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