China - With over 10 years of experience in advertising, photography, film and television production, the Shanghai MuShang Advertising Co is familiar with the use of technologies to enhance customer experiences. Its latest brainchild, MuShang XR stage, uses cutting-edge technology including Brompton Technology LED processing, ROE Visual screens, Mark Roberts Motion Control cinebots, Unreal Engine and disguise media server hardware, to deliver visual creativity and high-quality productions.
“We’ve been working in the creative industries for over a decade and know all too well the complexities associated with large-scale, outdoor production settings,” explains Henry Sha, the founder of Shanghai MuShang Ad CO. “From manpower to lighting equipment, to tons of things in between, we wanted to bring a more efficient and cost-effective way of doing productions to our clients. Virtual production technology was exactly what we needed to bring infinite possibilities to businesses and production companies, as well as cut costs and reduce our carbon footprint.”
Located in Shanghai, MuShang XR stage features a large LED wall measuring five metres tall by 12m wide, made up of ROE Black Pearl BP2V2 LED panels and driven by two Brompton 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors. disguise vx 4, vx 2 and rx II servers running Unreal Engine are also part of the set-up, with Mark Roberts Motion Control high-speed cinebots completing this array of game-changing production equipment.
“Brompton is the industry’s gold standard in LED processing for video walls so there w

Singapore - SurgeX has appointed Generation AV as its sales agency in the Asia Pacific region. The agreement will see Generation AV staff based in Asia providing a full service, encompassing sales, training and technical support for the brand in pro audio, residential and pro AV markets.
“We’re very happy to be working with Generation AV, which has the specialist expertise and regional market understanding that we need to help grow our presence in APAC,” comments Justin Peyton, director of sales EMEA and APAC at SurgeX. “Generation AV has an excellent record of delivering for brands, and we’re excited to work with them to further establish ourselves in this territory with our extensive range of power management solutions.
“This deal will also be of huge benefit to our existing partners in the region, who will now have access to a team able to provide local specialist support, without needing to overcome time zone differences by liaising with our team members from farther afield in the UK or the US.”
Singapore-based Generation AV has team members in Singapore, Philippines and India. It will support SurgeX’s entire surge elimination and UPS product range.
“It’s exciting to be working with SurgeX, and we greatly value the trust they have placed in us to provide real-time support in APAC,” adds David McKinney, managing director of Generation AV. “SurgeX is a strong and complementary addition to our portfolio of leading brands, and we’re looking forward to meeting customers and adding value to the brand. We have establish

UK - Educational roadshows led by BlackTrax specialist Tom Boucher have been outlining to students the creative possibilities BlackTrax offers to live event professionals. Students have been bringing their ideas to life by using CAST’s innovative technology.
“Taking BlackTrax into an educational environment has introduced students to technology that they will come across in the workforce. It has given students the ability to create scenarios, ask questions and really get to grips with BlackTrax as a system and the numerous integration possibilities,” says Tom Boucher.
Many questions were answered, and the system was put to the test, right down to students calibrating a BlackTrax Real system themselves and learning how to get their educational wysiwyg license.
“I really enjoyed using the BlackTrax system, I thought it was intuitive and relatively easy,” says Confetti, University of Nottingham student Jamie Lawrence. “I had a lot of fun playing around and doing the testing with the system. The teaching style was excellent with relevant information. Tom was open to answering all and any questions relating to my dissertation. The visit was massively beneficial, my dissertation probably would have fallen flat on its face without it.”
The tour visited schools that deliver relevant programmes where BlackTrax experience is beneficial in preparing students in advance for their careers in live events, theatre, and broadcast.
“It was superb having BlackTrax in The Lir Academy [Dublin] working with our final year technical students

Poland - Cavatina Hall, which opened at the beginning of the year in the city of Bielsko-Biała, is the first concert hall in the country to be built and managed entirely from private funds.
This multi-functional building, combining office and cultural spaces, is set over six storeys on more than 9,000sq.m and includes a recording studio as well as a 1,000-seat concert hall.
Its AV infrastructure is woven into a sophisticated digital/analogue network, designed around an Optocore backbone, feeding a multiplicity of signals to an L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound system from a pair of roving DiGiCo Quantum 338 consoles, operating from four different locations.
These were specified and delivered by system integrators Audio Plus, along with the latest stage mechanics and AV technologies, including sound and light tracking, variable acoustics and visual information systems.
Warsaw-based Audio Plus were heavily involved from the outset. One of the key aims was the successful distribution of signals between the FOH stations to the stage, the recording studio and third party OB vans. This has been carried out using integrated high-performance Optocore digital network devices and third-party converters, which can handle up to 1,856 digital signals.
While the analogue signals delivered to the consoles are have already passed through a 96-channel analogue splitter, deployment of the Optocore devices enables a further 96 analogue signals to be processed via more than 40 connection boxes. This creates maximum versatility, enabling a myria

Turkey - Pioneering virtual production house MGX Studio recently delivered the country’s first film with car chase action scenes, enabled by a LED stage powered by Brompton Technology processing.
Owned by MGX Film and based in Istanbul, MGX Studio is Turkey’s first virtual production (VP) studio and, since its inception in 2021, has already delivered a number of high-profile productions, including projects with Netflix and award-winning Turkish production company, Autonomy.
The studio set up comprises a 9,600×1,536 pixels resolution 100sq.m curved LED wall, along with 125sq.m of LED ceiling panels, which are used for lighting and reflections. This configuration is powered using three Brompton Tessera SX40 processors and five Tessera XD 10G data distribution units to provide a 10-bit colour depth image.
Entitled Anka, the film’s plot concerns the rising career of a racing car driver. Investor and owner of MGX Film, Müşvik Guluzade, was a pivotal figure in the realisation of the project. His commitment included personal involvement at ground level in driving training of the actors and staging action and special effects scenes.
“We were very proud last year when MGX completed a feature film project called A Better Tomorrow, where 85% of material was shot using virtual production. The fact that this technology has led to Turkey's first action car chase film has roused great excitement,” says Guluzade. “MGX’s virtual production technology enables directors and filmmakers to create enriched interactive environments f

USA - ADJ is expanding its COB Cannon Series of LED wash fixtures as well as its new range of lighting products incorporating lime LED chips with the introduction of the COB Cannon LP200ST.
Featuring a powerful light engine, smooth colour mixing and wide beam angle, this flexible professional wash lighting fixture can be used for a wide variety of applications.
The COB Cannon LP200ST harnesses the power of an efficient 200W COB (Chip On Board) LED light source, which generates a potent and even output with no colour shadows. This efficient light engine combines red, green, blue, amber and lime LED chips to allow the creation of a huge gamut of colours as well as white light with a variable colour temperature of between 2300K and 9900K. The inclusion of the lime LED chip helps certain colours to appear more vivid and also boosts the CRI to in excess of 90. The LED engine has an approximate lifespan of 50,000 operational hours, which essentially removes the inconvenience and expense of lamp replacement.
Offering a wide native beam angle of 80°, allowing a large area to be washed with vibrant coloured light, the COB Cannon LP200ST is also supplied with a useful lens kit. This comprises both 40° and 50° lens options, which easily and securely clip to the front of the fixture to provide a narrower beam angle when required. Barn doors for directing the light output are also available as an optional accessory.
A variety of operational modes make this fixture suitable for use in all kinds of permanent installation and temporary event applications,

UK - The Guildhall School of Music and Drama will host short courses on sound design and video projection at the end of July.
Taking place concurrently from 25-29 July, Sound Design for Theatre and Introduction to Video Projection Mapping are available to anyone aged 16 or over for a fee of £525 (£1,035 inclusive of accommodation). Teaching will take place daily and the training will be given in person only.
Led by Video Design lecturer Angeline Ferguson, Introduction to Video Projection Mapping is aimed at beginners. Learners will find out how to prepare and project video onto a 3D structure using industry standard video projection software Resolume Arena 7 and Adobe After Effects. They will also be introduced to the basic principles and techniques of digital video mapping, including designing concepts for projection mapping, creating content and sourcing material online, preparing digital content (file types, resolutions and codecs), setting up hardware (computers, projectors and real-world objects), keystoning, image correction and distortions. The course is for anyone interested in video projection, or those who would like to try something new, though ideally, learners would have an interest or experience in digital art, graphic design, video editing, technical theatre, gaming etc.
Sound Design for Theatre is for anyone with an interest in sound design, its manipulation and use in a theatrical or narrative context. The course will introduce learners to the practical, creative and technological aspects of sound desi

USA - Brompton Technology revealed its latest solutions for video processing during InfoComm 2022. The company showcased its LED processing solutions for live events, broadcast, and virtual production.
During the show, Brompton was also recognised with an InfoComm 2022 Best of Show Award in the AV Technology category for its Tessera v3.3 software. This release introduced new calibration features such as PureTone and Operating Modes, which enable rental companies and studios to have more flexibility and scalability with their stock, and also added support for the ACEScg colour gamut and the ability to display tracking markers for the Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking system.
Additionally during InfoComm, Rob Fowler, director of business development at Brompton, addressed AV professionals in a session about how virtual production has affected design trends in LED panels and processing. He was joined by Matthew Ward at Fuse Technical Group; Wayne Romanowski, director of LED Services at 4Wall Entertainment; and Cassidy Pearsall, Applications Engineer at ARRI, Inc. for a lively discussion on potential impacts of virtual production and the industry’s future.
InfoComm 2022 also coincided with the beta release of Brompton’s Tessera v3.4 software, which introduces Extended Bit Depth and Stacking features to further enhance image quality and drive new workflow efficiencies.

UK - Following recent contract wins at three of the UK’s leading event venues, AV and entertainment technology company Anna Valley has promoted Dan Orchard to the role of venue director. The newly created position sees Orchard assuming responsibility for both commercial and operational aspects at all the venues where Anna Valley is the preferred audio-visual partner, reporting directly to the board.
Over the last 18 months, Anna Valley has established itself as a significant service provider to the UK’s venue sector. The company signed a preferred partnership agreement with ExCel London in December 2020, was appointed by Tobacco Dock as their new AV service partner in June 2021 and expanded their existing AV maintenance contract with The NEC Group to help deliver events at the venue as part of their Preferred Supplier Programme in January 2022. Anna Valley is also the in-house audio-visual supplier to the Emirates Stadium and The Grove Hotel.
The dedicated venue managers and on-site teams at each venue will now report to Orchard who will be responsible for ensuring that Anna Valley’s exceptional client service and delivery standards are upheld at each location as well as for building a strategic model for expansion.
Orchard joined the Anna Valley team as director of business development for the rental division in 2017 after four years as group business development manager at Blue-i Event Technology. Since joining, he has been instrumental in establishing Anna Valley as a leading technology and service provider to the event industry, growing

Germany - Manufacturer of professional 3D audio technology Holoplot has announced that its X1 Matrix Array loudspeaker has taken home Best in Show awards from both ISE 2022 and InfoComm 2022.
These events marked the first public unveiling of the X1 Matrix Array following two years of delays and cancellations of industry trade shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Holoplot also picked up the 2022 Stand Design Award - organised by Exhibitor magazine, with Illuminarium winning Best Multipurpose Venue at the Mondo Awards for its Atlanta location, where X1 is an integral part of delivering next immersive experiences.
Thomas Barker-Harrold, head of marketing at Holoplot said: “We couldn’t be happier with the validation X1 received from our peers in the AV industry. Picking up not just one but two Best-in show awards at ISE and InfoComm is an enormous stamp of approval, and testament to all of the hard work that has gone into making X1 a reality.”
Hundreds of industry professionals attended Holoplot’s packed demos at Industrial AKROLL in Barcelona and AV Vegas to see (and hear) what’s possible with a Matrix Array. Those that stopped by the stand at InfoComm were also given a sneak peak of the new X1 rigging system, due to be released later this year.

Switzerland - Imverse, a company providing volumetric pixel solutions, has secured $4.8m to develop its software platform, expand its team, and roll out its products globally.
Imverse has created a solution for volumetric content and live hologram, which uses a proprietary volumetric pixel (voxel) graphics engine which is capable of live capture, rendering and streaming of multiple holograms in real-time for telepresence applications. This is in contrast to polygons, which currently dominate the virtual and augmented reality space.
As a result, Imverse can create full-body volumetric 'humans' without industrial cameras or powerful computing equipment, and with low latency, says the company. This enables the delivery of volumetric content at the same rate as mainstream video conferencing technology such as Zoom or Teams.
Imverse Holo enables creators and businesses to set up multi-camera systems for live volumetric video capture with no need for green screens or cloud services. It is currently compatible with between one and 10 Microsoft Azure Kinect cameras connected to a single PC, enabling both real-time and recorded holograms. Features include 3D videoconferencing, holoportation and holographic calls.
Holoportation, allows remote virtual work, collaboration and real-time interactive 3D content creation and consumption. It also enables producers and consumers to edit, interact, and manipulate content in real-time.This is the foundation of highly personalised virtual experiences where people can control nearly every aspect of the content th

UK - There is a new name in the UK’s AV installation market - Flipside AV. The new brand is a result of the changing business model for the London-based systems integrator, Flipside Soundsystem, which has seen the company close its rental business to focus purely on installed AV projects.
“This name change has not happened overnight, it is the result of a gradual shift in our priorities at Flipside,” explains Flipside AV MD, James Cooper. “As we have evolved as a company, the AV installation side of the business has gone from strength to strength and become the main driver for where we see our future.”
Alongside the name change, Flipside AV has also completely redesigned its website to provide a clear focus on what the company does. The redesign covers the services Flipside AV offers, as well as the solutions it can provide and the venues that it will typically serve. In addition to this are a series of case studies and insight articles that provide a greater understanding of the way that the company works.
“The new website that we have created provides a much better reflection of who we are as a company and what we can do,” says Cooper. “We have loved going back through some of the amazing projects we have worked on to put together the case studies, while the ability to share some of our insights into AV integration has been an interesting process for the whole team.”
With the new site launched and the name change official, the Flipside AV team are looking forward to the start of a new era of growth for the AV installation

UK - The Immersive Experience Network has held its inaugural Live Experience Summit, bringing together over 150 creators of immersive and interactive experiences to debate the future of the sector.
The Immersive Experience Network has been established to support creators making new work, developing audiences and growing financially sustainable companies. The Network’s strategy is centred around encouraging collaboration by building a community of creators, facilitating knowledge-sharing and undertaking research to grow the sector.
The community includes genres from across the immersive sector, including immersive theatre, scare attractions, escape rooms, Location based VR/AR, experiential art, immersive audio, Live Action Role Play (Larp), themed attractions, Alternate Reality Games (ARG) and transmedia experiences
The inaugural summit, held on 31 May, included a session on the topic of commercial strategy for immersive, where Farouk Deen and Mark Sarfo from Nexus made the case for private investment and Meri Mance and James Sinclair-Smith from Mance Communications discussed testing the market with PR, whilst James Seagar from Les Enfant Terribles spoke about the benefit of being agile and being able to move between performance mediums in order to make a profit.
There was a session on finding venues for site-specific shows with contributions from Bertie Watkins and Charlotte Potter from Colab who spoke about their experiences finding and running venues for immersive theatre. Meanwhile, David Ralf from Theatre Deli spoke about their work an

USA - The One Canvas Solution from Calibre UK has won an AV Technology and Installation InfoComm 2022 Best in Market awards at the recent InfoComm show in Las Vegas. The awards were judged by team of InfoComm CTS-qualified technology managers, integrators and consultants.
“We’re grateful for the industry recognition of our talented R&D team’s innovation to our One Canvas Solution,” comments Mike Novak who is newly-appointed to manage the North American market at Calibre UK.
The Calibre One Canvas Solution is suitable for large-scale and multi-screen 4K conference applications. The HQPro1000 scaler/switcher with 4K50/60Hz 4:4:4 RGB processing and 4K EDID management can manage up to four LEDFusion Pro screens with flexible screen layout at any one time using a simple control interface. A Quad2K card is available for optional splicing for four 2K output as necessary.
Coinciding with InfoComm, Calibre held a Calibre New Product Preview Showcase event at Westgate Las Vegas from 9-10 June, revealing the One Canvas Solution incorporating the Calibre LEDFusion Pro with splicing features across multiple screens. “We welcomed AV buyers, consultants and end users to see Calibre product plans and test out the new splicing features of the One Canvas Solution ahead of their future projects,” adds Novak.

UK - Visual storytelling technology platform disguise has released its new flagship media server: the vx 4+. Purpose-built for technically demanding productions, installations and shows, the vx 4+ is designed ‘to ensure maximum content quality and playback performance, enabling productions to push boundaries and captivate audiences like never before’.
With the capability to handle twice the amount of video layers versus its award-winning predecessor, the new disguise vx 4+ machine ramps up storage performance and significantly improves video throughout, with up to 100GbE in bandwidth for higher resolution live video.
“Production teams are perpetually seeking to push the boundaries of what is possible, with many experimenting with new technologies and workflows, using real-time content or using video content at unlimited scale and complexity. As these ambitions grow, playing back large-scale content reliably without latency remains a challenge,” explains disguise chief product officer Raed Al Tikriti.
“disguise vx 4+ addresses the pressing need for an ultra-reliable high-performance server capable of handling the most demanding bandwidth-hungry, data-rich video processing. Built on our team’s deep understanding of the needs of today’s productions, installations and large-scale shows, the vx4+ offers our customers cutting-edge technology, that works with the disguise modular ecosystem of solutions and offers the most reliable and effective solution for your production.”
Integral to the disguise modular ecosystem and working wi

Germany - As the exclusive global manufacturer of Philips professional displays, PPDS is dedicated to helping integrators learn about and test the latest technologies, products and opportunities that can help grow their businesses. Building on its strategy to bring seamless global business locally, PPDS has launched its first full-solutions showroom in Munich, featuring Philips professional displays and virtual collaboration systems from ClearOne.
The new 155sq.m showroom is designed to highlight new solutions for various spaces and client types, with dedicated rooms set up to demonstrate how new technologies can be integrated to optimize conference rooms, meeting rooms, retail spaces, classrooms, hotel guest rooms and even home offices. According to Christian Krela, channel manager for PPDS in Germany, the new Munich showroom is the company’s first demo space to focus on full-room solutions with collaboration and streaming technologies.
“Integrators trust PPDS to provide innovative display products for every kind of project, and the new Munich showroom demonstrates how leading third-party solutions like ClearOne’s collaboration gear can complement our Philips class-leading displays to meet the needs of modern businesses,” Krela explains.
“We designed this space to ensure local integrators and end-customers can gain hands-on experience with whole-room solutions that include displays, cameras, microphones, speakers and control systems to help them make decisions regarding room designs and technology solutions.”
Each different space

Spain - Christie will showcase its cinema technologies designed to meet the needs of every screen size at CineEurope, taking place 20-23 June at Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona (CCIB).
A selection from Christie’s range of Xenon, RGBe and Real|Laser projectors, and new Cinergy theatre management platform, will be available to view in MR 134, as will Christie Vive Audio and Christie CounterAct, with Care222 - the first UVC disinfection technology with proprietary optical filter that can be used when people are present.
“We’re excited to gather with the industry at an exciting time in cinema’s continued recovery,” says Adil Zerouali, senior director EMEA Cinema, Christie. “Since our last visit to CineEurope, we have further broadened our range of solutions to make Christie an outstanding choice for exhibitors seeking an impactful cinematic experience with high return on investment, regardless of screen size.
“CineEurope is a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with our European partners, meet new people and discuss how our technologies can elevate cinema to deliver even more memorable experiences and deliver on budget for exhibitors.”
On show at CineEurope, featuring Real|Laser and CineLife+ is the CP4435-RGB, which is designed for mainstream theatres with its long-lasting light source providing over 50,000 hours of stable DCI brightness.
Christie’s CP4420-Xe cinema projector will be on show for the first time in Europe. Featuring 4k technology with CineLife+ electronics.

UAE - The recently opened Dubai Hills Mall is a destination in a popular tourist spot, offering opportunities for shopping, dining and entertainment. It is also home to The Storm, the fastest indoor rollercoaster in the city; an adventurous ride that stands 50m tall.
Showcasing the latest innovations in engineering, The Storm features a vertical launch to 50m in just five seconds. The 670m track weaves throughout the entire mall building, making it a spectacle to watch and a unique experience for riders.
Experiences operator Emaar Entertainment created the concept of the rollercoaster set into the heart of the shopping mall. They appointed engineering experts Cundall to design and deliver The Storm. As the lead design consultant, Cundall provided a range of services including structural engineering and lighting design.
To fulfil the design, Creation Gulf were brought into the project. As a provider of architectural lighting and systems, Creation Gulf worked closely with the design and engineering teams to enhance the experience of The Storm.
Creation Gulf were able to utilise the comprehensive portfolio of products from lighting control experts Pharos Architectural Controls to deliver the brief, comprising multiple dynamic lighting effects on the façade, including the most important effect of all: replicating lightning as found in an actual storm. Additional content was also created to simulate fireworks, the UAE flag, and other effects.
For the interior visuals of the rollercoaster, Creation Gulf provided a system capable of creating m

Australia - Lightware Visual Engineering has opened new offices in central Sydney. Located in the Newington Technology Park and surrounded by the Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney harbour, the new APAC HQ features a dedicated training centre, a showroom, a tech lab, a warehouse, and office and meeting spaces. All Sydney-based Lightware staff will be working from these new headquarters.
The opening of the new office is the next strategic step in expanding the company’s global footprint. It will be a central hub for customers and partners across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, providing sales support, after-sale technical support, on the ground customer support and product demonstrations for all of Lightware’s products. Newington Technology Park is a hub for major technology brands in the region, including Viewsonic, Bose, Sony, Ainsworth, Pelican, CAE and Barco - and now Lightware Visual Engineering.
“We are excited to relocate to the new state-of-the-art offices that will contribute to accelerate the growth of Lightware Visual Engineering in the region and will have a positive impact on our enterprise, live events and e-sports customers, and members of our staff in Australia,” says Jason Lewis, general manager in Australia, Lightware Visual Engineering.

Australia - After a three-year hiatus, Vivid Sydney 2022 is now underway. Millions of expected visitors will descend on the 8km Vivid Sydney Light Walk that’s packed full of large-scale projection mapping, LED screens, wayfinding and high-powered media server technology linking the Festival’s 50 installations and projection artworks from Sydney Opera House to Central Station.
Festival director Gill Minervini, who directs her first Vivid Sydney in 2022, explains: “For 12 years we’ve relied on TDC working behind-the-scenes to deploy the brightest, most powerful technology on a grand scale helping to reinvent Sydney’s urban landscape and using it as a unique and colourful canvas capturing the essence of Sydney’s soul.”
Michael Hassett, founder and managing director at TDC - Technical Direction Company - adds: “Each year, Vivid Sydney gets bigger, brighter and bolder.”
TDC is deploying 110 projectors across 27 sites. “Making sure that each installation is perfect to the exact millimetre is what we do at TDC,” explains Toby Waley, operations at TDC. TDC has 30 video technical crew working on Vivid Sydney. Toby Waley says: “There’s understandably a lot more detail and fewer last-minute changes that can be made working in a post-pandemic environment.”
TDC is deploying the latest Barco laser projectors. Karl Johnstone, technical project manager at TDC said: “With the added brightness uniformity and design we can configure them in different ways that better serve the imagery on the buildings. They are more compact, more h

USA - Xytech has appointed Keith Buckley as the company’s president and CEO, succeeding Richard Gallagher, the company’s founder. Gallagher will now advise the company’s board as envisioned when Xytech was acquired by Banneker Partners in December 2021.
Most recently, Buckley served as the CEO of Federos, an AI-optimised analytics and automation software solutions provider for complex networks that was recently sold to Oracle. He previously served as president and CEO of The Switch Enterprises.
“I’m joining Xytech as the company is poised for significant growth, and look forward to leveraging Xytech’s highly skilled team, strong base of product offerings, long history of core successes and its world-class customer base,” Buckley says. “The investments we’re planning and will execute upon in the immediate future will substantially increase Xytech’s value across the media and broadcast industries.”

UK - The eyes of the world were on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Concert to witness a host of big-name singers perform on a specially created stage in front of Buckingham Palace. As the royal family, politicians, dignitaries and the public looked on, a show fit for a queen unfolded, backed by LED screen content driven by Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 media servers.
More than 200sq.m. of Roe Black Quartz LED screens, supplied by Creative Technology, were erected on the stage, which surrounded the famous Victoria Memorial statue in front of the Palace. These were split into one large LED screen upstage centre, and eight LED pillars edging out toward the audience.
Tasked with media server programming was Matthew Lee, who was approached by lighting designer for the event, Nigel Catmur. “We had two Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 servers, one main and one backup,” says Lee. “LED screens were fed from two 4K canvases, with other outputs used for my own monitoring, and as confidence feeds to the OB trucks. The Boreal+ MK2 servers were chosen for the amount of outputs and inputs required, and their power.
“Having used Hippotizer for a long time, I'm always impressed with the ease of use, the power of the new systems, and that development is continuous. Also the support team are excellent when you need something.”
The team was presented with the challenge of tight programming and rehearsal time, with on-site get-in, set up and testing restricted due to the huge number of events and people involved in the wider event. “The dress rehearsal actually only ha

USA - Calibre has appointed Mike Novak as sales director for North America. Novak hits the ground running with the Calibre New Product Preview Showcase event in Las Vegas revealing a One Canvas Solution incorporating the Calibre LEDFusion Pro with splicing features across multiple screens.
Novak is based in Buffalo, New York. He has taken up the position at Calibre from Daktronics, where he managed various verticals including airport and transit, out-of-home advertising, spectaculars and reseller/AV groups, and developed new markets and revenue streams.
“The Americas is the single largest market for growth in high-performance LED systems and solutions,” says Steve Su at Calibre. “I’m delighted to welcome Mike Novak to the Calibre team during our rapid growth phase. His leadership, collaborative style and experience in setting up sales strategy and channel development will be leveraged to establish Calibre as a preferred supplier of LED video displays.”
Mike Novak adds: “Joining Calibre at this stage of their evolutionary growth is an exciting prospect. Calibre is already well known for their reliable processing technology and customer service and we will build on that foundation with localized support for our growing customer base, expanding into new markets and applications.”

UK - Brompton Technology has announced two major feature advances as part of its Tessera v3.4 software release: Extended Bit Depth and Stacking. “These features enhance our already compelling feature-set, which is well-established as the processing of choice for both major live events and film and television production,” says Brompton’s CEO, Richard Mead.”
Extended Bit Depth unlocks higher PWM bit depth output with a free firmware update for all existing and new panels fitted with the Brompton R2 or R2+ receiver card. Up to 3.3 additional bits of precision improves low-brightness performance – reducing visual artefacts and bringing out additional detail and nuance in dark areas of the image. This substantial increase in dynamic range offers a significant boost in performance that is hard to ignore for ICVFX and other LED on camera applications.
With Extended Bit Depth, you can also reproduce HDR content up to 10 times darker than previously possible, without compromising peak brightness for HDR highlights.
Many setups utilise multiple processors working together to drive different parts of a single LED screen. The second new feature of Tessera v3.4 - Stacking - which is available on Tessera SX40 and S8 processors, allows multiple processors in a setup to be controlled together in unison. Tessera v3.4 is now available as beta software for evaluation.