UK - ArKaos has released the latest version of its popular video-jockey software, GrandVJ, in time for the busy festive season. GrandVJ 2.1 users will have access to a whole range of new features to make their parties and events easier to run and more creative than ever, says ArKaos.

GrandVJ 2.1 is the result of intensive development from the masters of video manipulation, and has been comprehensively tested and approved by ArKaos aficionados. "We are always keen to hear the feedback from our loyal following to ensure that ArKaos software remains ahead of the market and provides the best experience and capabilities for all our GrandVJ users," says ArKaos' Managing Director, Agnes Wojewoda. "We think this version of GrandVJ is going to be welcomed by users old and new who will be keen to put it into action on their Christmas and New Year events."

GrandVJ ver

Finland - Matrox Graphics reports that the Kamppi Centre shopping mall in Helsinki has upgraded its digital signage installation with a 14.4m-high LED screen powered by Matrox Mura MPX Series video wall capture & display cards.

Selected by integrator Craneworks to power the installation - roughly three times the size of its predecessor - Mura now delivers the platform to showcase everything from advertisements to live events.

Craneworks, who also manages the day-to-day operation of the digiLED outdoor screen, leverages a Mura MPX-4/4, four-input, four-output board, inside an HP Z600 system, to display content from various inputs, including a Mac mini media player, local DVI input, and live feed. Mura also scales and switches between content for different ad campaigns, with the resulting signage seen by the 700,000 Kamppi customers every week. Meanwhile, Matrox MuraControl fo

UK - The multiple award-winning Christie Boxer is now available in 2K. The high brightness 2K model continues the standard set by Christie Boxer 4K30

The new Christie Boxer 30 is built for rental staging applications including concerts, amusement parks, projection mapping, live theatre and conventions, as well as permanent installations including museums, planetariums, higher education and houses of worship.

Omni-directional with integrated Near Field Communication (NFC), a preview screen and 1,500-hour lamp-life to 70 percent brightness, the 30,000 lumen Boxer weighs 160 pounds and features 2K imaging with optional upgrade licenses to 4K DLP. Utilising the same rigging frame, lenses, lamp modules and projector controls as the Boxer 4K30, the Boxer 30 expands the Boxer family and introduces a resolution upgrade path.

Christie Boxer 30 has six mercury lamps housed in two 3

The Netherlands - Peerless-AV today has announced Join the winning team with Peerless-AV as the theme of its stand (11-E70) at ISE 2016, in celebration of the 2016 UEFA European Championship scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July.

The stand will have a football stadium layout with themed zones and content highlighting specific Peerless-AV product selections, including a host of new European launches. Visitors will be invited to show off their striker skills in an interactive penalty shoot-out game to win spot prizes and enter a competition prize draw for two tickets to the final of Euro 2016. One lucky winner will be drawn at random by ISE managing director Mike Blackman on Day 4, Friday 12 February.

Gordon Dutch, managing director, Peerless-AV Europe, commented: "We're excited to go live with our theme for ISE 2016. Whoever wins the Euro 2016 Fin

UK - PLASA Focus Glasgow 2016 returns to the SECC with another distinguished seminar programme that will deliver two days of free pro audio and lighting presentations discussing the latest technologies for the live entertainment technology industry.

Thought provoking speakers include Grant Anderson, the Scottish Lighting Designer, in collaboration with lighting, AV and sound specialists Black Light who designed the popular Botanic Nights - 2015, a unique night-time experience. Grant Anderson explains how the light installation evoked an emotive reaction from the audience.

Anderson comments: "In Scotland, it's often said that you can experience four seasons in one day. Visitors to Botanics Lights have been able to experience four seasons in just one night. It made perfect sense to me to combine nature and light with seasonal changes as the three are inextri

UK - Following on from their successful run of festival shows across the summer, when Major Lazer confirmed their autumn UK tour, they contacted PRG XL Video to supply a flexible video package of LED pods, DJ booth and screens across a variety of venue sizes.

Phil Mercer, PRG XL's Music Group director, worked with Major Lazer's production manager, Joel Stanley, and lighting and visual designer, Kyle Kegan, to create a custom-built video setup which could be varied in size according to the venue.

Using Pixled F-12 LED, the video team worked closely with All Access, who constructed the staging for the tour, to create four pods and a DJ booth. Everything was prepped together to ensure the construction precisely fit the LED tiles. Joel Stanley explains, "We wanted a more scalable design for this tour, and having video and staging prepped together made everything much easier

Germany - Full service event services and exhibition provider, Matrixmanagement in Stuttgart has purchased AV Stumpfl Wings Engine Raw 4K uncompressed triple stream 4K50/60 media servers for use in high-profile events and exhibitions projects. In addition to the own servers

Georg Rössler, founder and CEO of Matrixmanagement states, "Our advertising, exhibition and event customers are demanding more detail and finite, brilliant presentations on larger projection and LED screens for exhibitions and events globally. We are uniquely positioned to offer them the best server technology and combined services to achieve their objectives."

Thierry Heldenbergh, managing director at AED Display adds, "Following our initial purchase of 15 Wings Engine Raw media servers in September, we supplied Wings Engine Raw media servers to Matrixmanagement through our AED Lease prog

Denmark - Recent exhibitions at the Museum Sydøstdanmark in the Danish town of Køge have presented various physical and visual challenges.

Danish system integrators AV-Huset worked closely with dnp denmark to come up with two very different solutions in order to overcome these difficulties. In spite of space restrictions and low ceilings, they were able to deliver the desired image quality via their proprietary Supernova optical display platform.

The specification of a 80" (2.33:1) dnp Supernova STS and similar size dnp Supernova Blade, equipped with 08-85 screen material, came about when the museum was setting up two new exhibitions, and wanted each to make a dramatic opening statement. One of the museum's exhibition designer/developers, Carl-Henrik Hansen, explains, "We wanted to captivate the audience with size and content, and felt projection was

UK - Christie has announced the launch of AccuFrame Pro. Pro software reduces visual artifacts, like smear, that contribute to "negative training" - a simulated environment that gives false visual and motion cues by targeting low-to-mid intensity content at the pixel level, without reducing brightness caused by shortening the time each frame is displayed in a simulator.

"By reducing smear at the pixel level, images appear sharper and moving images look more realistic," says Curtis Lingard, product manager, Christie. "AccuFrame Pro eliminates the need for additional projectors to compensate for the loss of brightness by targeting low-to-mid intensity content, where most simulated content falls."

AccuFrame Pro is activated via a licensing process for any Matrix StIM WQ, Matrix SIM WQ and Mirage WQ-L projector in the field, thereby improving existi

UK - With the confirmation of a substantial new contract and the continued growth of major events in the region, UK conference and live event technical services provider Saville Audio Visual has welcomed two new faces to the North West events team.

Sam Ward started her AV career with Saville before moving on to embrace a diverse range of roles within the industry over the last 17 years. Working as business manager from the Manchester office Sam will draw on her wealth of experience in live events to establish new levels of engagement with both existing and prospective clients.

Supporting her in this mission is sales and account manager Jennifer Toothill, herself a specialist with over seven years' experience in high profile corporate client events, venue support and business marketing/advertising management

"We are pleased to announce that our existing contract with

UAE - Eclipse Staging Services has purchased two Green Hippo Hippotizer V4 Taiga media servers to add to their video inventory.

Simon Harris, Green Hippo's user experience / training manager went out to Dubai at the end of September to provide the busy video crew at Eclipse with three days of Hippotizer media server training. The Eclipse video team were in the middle of supplying and setting up full technical production for Dubai Music Week, so it was convenient for them to be able to have training at their video warehouse.

"I thoroughly enjoyed training the video team from eclipse. They took to Hippotizer V4 like ducks to water and to see the product quickly exceed their high expectations was an absolute pleasure. Eclipse have a very talented team of technicians and I can't wait to read about the projects they use their systems on in the near future," commented Si

UK - Not yet a year old and Video Design has visibly made its mark on the touring and event industry. With systems currently out on Duran Duran and Marina and the Diamonds, since the company's inception in February of this year it has provided screens and video infrastructure for Take That's latest tour; Wear the Rose at the O2 London for the Rugby World Cup and all of last summer's concert events at Hyde Park.

"Yes you could say it's been a busy start," said the Video Design founder Alex Leinster, "in fact we've only now found the time to launch our company website. But for a young company we have a solid base of experience and frankly there's nothing we like better than engaging with a variety of demands. What we've done for Marina and the Diamonds and Duran Duran are good examples."

Show designer for Marina is the LD Rob Sinclair who comments, "Ma

USA - Light is central to the art of multimedia artist Tupac Martir, who's been called a "light magician" and "creative visionary" for illuminating concerts for Elton John, Sting and Beyoncé, major festivals like Coachella, and London Fashion Week shows for designers Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and the late Alexander McQueen.

Graduating in 2000 from Omaha, Nebraska's Creighton University with a bachelor's degree of fine arts, Martir tapped Avolites' Tiger Touch II lighting control console when he returned to his alma mater this fall to present a special art installation called Unique, a self-described giant "graphic novel" brought to life with light and shadow.

"Using new and old etching techniques, the story is told through twelve chapters, with eight drawings per chapter," Martir describes. "The 96 drawings are th

Europe - Engineering and automation specialist WIcreations is supplying multiple automation elements and control to the massive Rester Vivant tour by French megastar Johnny Hallyday, who is known for impressive and spectacular live shows and a great rapport with fans which has spanned a remarkable career stretching back over six decades.

Belgium-based WI was approached to produce an automation solution for three distinctive digital and scenic set elements - a huge skull, six moving video screens and five moving lighting pods - by Hallyday's production director Roger Abriol. WIcreations has enjoyed a long and productive working relationship with Roger who has looked after Hallyday's tours since the start of his career. WI is one of his go-to companies for automation, creative engineering and thinking 'out-of-the-box'.

WI's project manager is Koen Peeters. Chris Das is

Denmark - The use of Panasonic AV technology has brought the prisoners and guards back to the corridors, detention blocks and cells of Faengslet Prison Museum in Horsens, Denmark.

From tussles between prisoners on the gangways, to the clanging of heavy cell doors, to the distinct smell of cannabis drifting down the cell block, the museum has so faithfully recreated the sights, sounds and smells of prison life that visitors feel the closure in 2006 never actually happened.

Central to the multi-sensory experience are the 56 Panasonic projectors, which help create shadows through the halls and the sight of heavy set prisoners in the toilet blocks.

The majority of these are Solid Shine laser projectors, including a total of 46 PT-RW330, 2 PT-RZ470 and PT-RZ475 projectors placed throughout the prison. Solid Shine projectors were chosen due to impressive brightness and contrast

USA - The Frank Gehry designed New World Center is not only a huge asset for New World Symphony audio fellows, it is also a world class performance space available for hire.

It would be a given that the designer of some of the world' best concert halls and a conductor with the stature and experience of Michael Tilson Thomas would make a fantastic design, but no corners have been cut in installing the latest media equipment to cover all requirements. The 756-seat Performance Hall and the smaller Sun Trust Pavilion are fully equipped for live performance and recording and share two multi-track surround capable control rooms. HD video recording and projection is also available for those hiring the spaces.

Originally set up to record 64 tracks at 24bit/48kHz, it became apparent that the majority of the major opera and concert venues had installed Pyramix and Horus/Hapi Networked

USA - To kick-off the holiday season, World Outreach Church, Nashville, created Give Thanks, a celebration designed to repurpose this season with hope and thanksgiving held at the Bridgestone Arena. Filled with inspirational speakers, a musical performance by Martina McBride, plus an energetic percussion display by Stikyard, production designer Scott Moore, Go Live Productions, needed a video backdrop that could highlight the unique performances onstage, but also capture the essence of the message being delivered. So working with Nashville-based Elite Multimedia, a PixelFLEX rental partner, Moore created a video design using 140 FLEXCurve 8mm LED video tiles.

"I've been involved with Give Thanks for the last three years, and each year the design process is entirely dependent upon what the programming material is going to be," began Moore. "I knew I

USA - Elation Professional is a new sponsor of the AV Alliance (avalliance.com), a network of the world's leading event technology rental specialists.

Active in 47 countries on six continents, the AV Alliance acts as a quality seal with AV Alliance members involved in over 100,000 projects a year. The AV Alliance is committed to professional service at the highest quality and is devoted to creating synergies among members to further professionalize the industry. Of the many sponsor benefits is the opportunity to network with AV Alliance member companies, which includes AV rental companies from all over the world.

"We are pleased to have Elation Professional on board as a sponsor of the AV Alliance," stated Nico Ubenauf, member of the AV Alliance Board of Directors and CEO of German production company satis&fy. "Elation continues to become a more visible player

USA - Asbury United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma has chosen an ArKaos PRO Stadium Server running ArKaos MediaMaster 4.0 software to handle the environmental projection mapping at their church. Lighting director, Tim Ottley, uses it to present some stunning visual backdrops across their 300ft wide/30-60ft tall walls to enhance both modern and traditional services.

This Christmas season sees the interior of the church awash with imagery, produced by Jason Yang of Invisible Element, based on the Christmas story and depicted in colourful visuals reminiscent of stained glass. Advent is a season of anticipation and Ottley's theme is to present a beautiful and welcoming environment as the congregation enters each week in the build-up to Christmas.

"Our aim was to create a short video clip as an opening sequence to the services over the five week period of Advent,"

Europe - Panasonic is set to launch a new HD LED video wall display series, equipped with the industry's narrowest bezel.

Aimed at digital signage applications in public spaces with high environmental light levels and the rental and staging market, the TH-55LFV60W and TH-55LFV6W displays are set to be launched in December 2015 and January 2016 respectively.

The LFV60 has a brightness of 700 cd/m2 is finished with a glossy anti-reflection treatment and is aimed for applications like fashion retail, it complements the existing TH-55LFV70 which has the same brightness and treatment.

The LFV6 has a brightness of 500 cd/m2 and comes with an anti-glare treatment. Thanks to the industry's narrowest bezel of 3.5mm, video wall images on both are virtually seamless. The video wall also has a wide viewing angle of 178?, thanks to an IPS panel.

Enrique Robledo, marketing manager a

UK / USA - d3 Technologies has appointed Matthew Cotter as Technical Sales Specialist based on the US West Coast. Cotter has been a lighting director and media programmer for the past 15 years, primarily working in television and on theme park spectaculars. He shared an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series" with his colleagues for Dancing with the Stars in 2014.

Cotter joins a growing US team representing d3 nationwide. "Matthew is a very strong addition to the team, and we're excited to welcome him," says Hans Beijer, Vice President of Sales for d3 Americas. "Matt came highly recommended by mutual friends in the industry and I fully understand why. He's bright, quick, committed and very much hands-on. His start with our team has been both impressive and very pleasant. I'm looking forward to a strong

UK - PRG XL Video, the UK division of Production Resource Group, is expanding its team specialising in corporate events.

The company has announced the addition of Nick Knowles, who joins as a senior account manager, based at the company's Hemel Hempstead location.

Knowles has worked with PRG XL Video on numerous occasions on a freelance basis, having specialised as a Technical Producer and lead Video Technician on a range of high profile projects including conferences, meetings and brand activations.

Prior to his time as a freelancer, Nick worked at Spirit Design as a lighting designer. His expertise in both lighting and video make him the ideal addition to the newly combined team.

Knowles comments, "After a long productive relationship with XL Video they approached me and asked if I wanted to come on board as part of the team. For me the time was right, and I cou

USA - A group of broadcast and media industry suppliers including Grass Valley, Imagine Communications, Lawo and Snell Advanced Media have collaborated to form the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS).

This new, independent trade association's mandate is to bring IP solutions to market that offer complete interoperability, are based on open standards, and integrate seamlessly into media workflow environments to foster industry innovation and efficiency. The group's efforts will be focused on promoting the adoption, standardization, development and refinement of open protocols for media over IP, with an initial emphasis on VSF TR-03 and TR-04, SMPTE 2022-6 and AES67.

As broadcasters and other media companies look to use IP workflows to speed and streamline the movement and management of increasingly complex content and adapt their businesses to better compete with other con

UK - Sometimes the most original solutions are formulated from the most haphazard moments of abstract thought. Take Steven Douglas, LD for the Killers frontman, Brandon Flowers: "I had a weird thought while we were in Las Vegas for rehearsals of the promo leg of the tour way back in March. I was looking out of the window at the beam coming from the top of the Luxor Hotel and was wondering how much brighter and more defined it would be if we could switch off all the other ambient light coming from the rest of the strip. It got me thinking about how I used wash lights on stage to light the band members; how I can lose impact sometimes from the all spot and beam fixtures.

"So I started thinking if I could find a way to light the band members from really close up. Then I wondered, 'Would I need so many wash lights?' And, as a resuIt, I would also have a whole lot of black

Latest Issue. . .