Barco has announced the launch of its XPR range of high-end 4K media servers. Together with the XHD range launched last February, these complete the Barco Media Servers range. The new offering adds 4K capabilities, "unparalleled user-friendliness and elaborate preview functionalities" to Barco's impressive list of end-to-end visualization solutions.

The Barco Media Servers range will be available in three versions: the XHD-200, XHD-400, and the brand-new XPR-600. The XHD series are shipping now, whereas the XPR series will ship from end of September 2015 onwards.

"Media servers play a pivotal role in creating mesmerizing visuals for a live band, spectacular 3D projection mapping, thrilling theme park rides or showstoppers at an event or exhibition", explains Peter Pauwels, director strategic marketing V&H and entertainment at Barco. "With the addition of the

UK - Vortex Events' Matt Gourd and Iain Rendle have a combined knowledge of over 20 years in the events industry. Their company provides both dry rental of all their equipment as well as full production support for everything from musical productions, TV shows and dance events to touring productions, festivals and corporate events.

Having recently purchased a Hippotizer V4 Karst media server, Vortex Events will be putting it to the test immediately on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury this coming week.

Matt Gourd, "We looked at many different media servers and having used a wide range onsite for events, it was easy to see that the V4 range was one step ahead in many ways. These include the value for money and great support they offer. The Karst will help us realise some complicated mapping projects and visualise them at the design stage. This means we can easily translat

USA - Standing out is always important in the world of television, but never more so than during Upfront's Week, an annual event that sees networks pitch their upcoming programmes to potential sponsors.

For the Fox Broadcasting Company this meant renting the historic Beacon Theatre on Broadway, and bringing in a bevy of stars like Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny of The X-Files fame, Lea Michele, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a musical performance by the award-winning cast of Empire, Jennifer Hudson and dancers from the cast of Grease Live! to entertain guests. Adding a dramatic visual element to the high-profile proceedings were two giant video screens set off by the striking light of over 60 Nexus 4x4 panels from Chauvet Professional.

Lighting designers James Schipper and Rachel Miller of Kinetic Lighting (Los Angeles) worked with scenic designer Anton Goss t

USA - The Manchester Grand Hyatt is Southern California's largest hotel. Its 125,000sq.ft of flexible ballrooms and breakout rooms remain booked without pause. However, that tight schedule, while a blessing in every other respect, became the principle challenge in an extensive renovation of the hotel's AV system. Due to their ease of programming, cost effectiveness and complete flexibility when expanding via Dante, San Diego-based Audio Associates chose a number of Symetrix SymNet Radius 12x8 open architecture networked DSPs and affordable SymNet xIn 12 and SymNet xOut 12 I/O expanders as the audio heart of Manchester Grand Hyatt's new AV system.

"This is a large, multi-phase project," explained Eric Evans, sales engineer at Audio Associates. "Most of the system is up and running, but as the work expands to other floors and other areas, we will be installing more

UK - Event technical delivery expert FIX8Group has appointed Helen Marenghi as project coordinator.

Helen's role will be predominantly to support FIX8's existing project managers across all current and future events/projects and other company related work. It will also involve implementing and managing various operational processes and software that will help the company manage its time and equipment more efficiently as the company continues its rapid growth.

Helen brings a wealth of experience to FIX8. Her recent roles have included senior events manager at Cuffe and Taylor Ltd and working on prestigious shows such as the Rod Stewart Tour 2014 and Lytham Proms Festival. She has also worked as assistant video and graphics producer for WorldWide Shows (WWS) on the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Closing and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies and lighting and content viewing room assistant

UK - A.C. Video, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has been appointed as an authorised dealer for the Philips Signage Solutions product range - bolstering the company's line-up of leading-brand complementary video system technologies.

Incorporating the latest advances in display technology, MMD - the leading technology company and brand license partner for Philips Signage Solutions - delivers first-class picture performance along with practical design and convenient features for both integrators and end users, such as SmartPower, SmartControl, FailOver and Clinical D-Image proprietary innovations available across models in the range.

The signage line-up includes the entry-level Q-line featuring eco-friendly SmartPower functionality for power consumption savings of up to 50%; the E-line with FailOver backup and SmartControl technologies for future-proof conn

UK - XL Video, working for Production North, supplied all video production - LED Screens, IMAG cameras / PPU and crew - for the most recent UK tour by hi-energy pop-rockers, The Vamps.

The tour included several arena shows and was the largest to date for the rising stars who originally met via You Tube around 2012, as well as the first for Global Live, the new 'live' division of Ashley Tabor's UK-based Global Entertainment - and a co-promotion with AEG Live

The Vamps stage / set and video design was evolved by the tour's technical director Iain Whitehead (Production North) and lighting designer Peter Barnes, and included 145sq.m of XL Video's ROE Visual MC-7T LED screen. The lively IMAG mix was cut by Dan Ormerod, and video was a major part of the overall aesthetic that made the show and its presentation exciting, interesting and enjoyable to watch.

Video screens were the mo

Spain / Portugal - Currently underway throughout Spain and Portugal until October, the Crambo 360° Experience is intended to educate and create awareness of Absen LED technology for end users, integrators and rental companies in the Iberian AV industry.

Organised by exclusive Spanish distributor for Absen, Crambo Visuales, the roadshow - which began on 29 April in Bilbao - recently stopped at Madrid, La Coruña, and Barcelona, as well as Valencia, Sevilla and Malaga in June before hitting Lisbon, concluding on 15 October in Valladolid.

"The 360 Experience is our most important marketing exercise of 2015," commented marketing manager of Crambo Visuales, Mercedes Fuster. "It is an ideal opportunity for us to meet our clients in their natural habitat, and ultimately improve relations trough learning about their real needs."

With a showroom filled with va

USA - Holo-Gauze, the 3D display solution for hologram effects, has been utilised as part of the key performance presentation on the opening day of the eighth annual World Science Festival in New York. Light Falls: Space, Time & An Obsession of Einstein extensively featured Holo-Gauze to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's discovery of the general theory of relativity.

World Science Festival took place 27-31 May at venues throughout New York City. Designed by 59 Productions, Light Falls combined Holo-Gauze holographic effects animation and dramatic portrayals to trace Einstein's electrifying journey to the conception of his theory. World Science Festival founder Dr Brian Greene and an ensemble cast saw their dramatic performances enhanced by Holo-Gauze.

"It was an honour to be able to contribute to the eighth World Science Festival," says Holo

UK - AV systems integrator Saville Audio Visual has announced a set of record breaking results for 2014, with turnover increasing 12% to top £40m for the first time in the company's long history.

Group finance director Colin Nixey said, "Our major emphasis has been a planned strategy for growth alongside improvements in business efficiency. The most pleasing aspect is that both of the company's key trading arms have played a major part in this success.

"With 14% growth, the AV Systems division has improved its share of the growing, competitive audio visual and unified communications installation market in the UK. This has been strongly supported by a 10% growth in turnover for our Conference & Live Events division, winning new business nationally and internationally."

The company has recently demonstrated its confidence in the conference industry with an

Belgium - ArKaos MediaMaster Pro has been chosen as the most versatile and user-friendly media software for Event Services at Ohio University.

Event Services is responsible for providing production support in Baker University Center (a student centre with state-of-the-art conference and event spaces), Templeton Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium (a 2000-seat concert hall), The Convocation Center (a 13,000-seat arena) as well as offsite locations.

ArKaos MediaMaster Pro has been used in support of the many university and community events that take place on and off-campus since it was first introduced by Jeremy Schaffer, associate director of operations and production for event services.

"We use Arkaos MediaMaster Pro for many different events from corporate and social functions to our University Commencement Ceremonies," says Schaffer. "Primarily we utilise M

USA - ROE Visual has launched its new Black Onyx 3.47mm and 5.21mm high resolution LED panel with showcases at Prolight and Sound in Europe and Infocomm in Orlando. The screen is the latest addition to ROE's impressive range of rental and staging focused products and has already been added to the inventories of a host of rental houses throughout Europe, the US and Asia.

Black Onyx is the first ROE product to come equipped with Brompton processing as standard and ROE is now rolling out the Brompton processing on the rest of its range. Already shipping with Brompton is the successful Magic Cube series (7mm -18mm) with others products set to follow.

Roelof Bouwman of ROE Europe said: "At ROE Visual we have built our reputation on quality, innovation and customer service. As well as delivering class leading image quality ROE Screens are some of the fastest and easiest to rig

UK - PSCo has launched the PSCo Training Academy, a new series of training courses designed to empower its customers to know more, and arm attendees with the skills to take advantage of the latest technologies. The first course completed in June was the Absen Certified Engineer (ACE) accreditation for rental partners.

As the only Absen authorised training house in the UK, PSCo trained 32 live events customers over a two-day period on product features, application scenarios, control systems, maintenance and troubleshooting. On completion of the training course, attendees took a test to be awarded Absen Certified Engineer status.

Ram Malocca, director of CMT Events, attended the course and commented, "I can't extoll enough how professional the training was and of course the training personnel. The PSCo team spent all day with us, and were excellent. They were able to answer

UK - West Midlands-based Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) returned to Glastonbury as part of the Arcadia Spectacular, for which the company provided Panasonic projection onto the legs of the giant spider.

The massive construction lurked ominously on what is now a designated area of the site set aside for the Arcadia team's immersive show. This year the new Arcadia 'Metamorphosis' show - complete with awesome technical production, radical aerial stunts and the very best dance beats - was one of the most talked-about and enjoyed events of the Festival.

After working with Arcadia last year, MD Matthew Boyce commented, "We were delighted to be back at Glasto this year and working with Arcadia's hugely ambitious new show and their wonderful team of people - all of whom ensured that the 'spectacular' concept thrilled and entertained record breaking crowds each night."

The

UK - Bristol-based lighting and visuals specialist Fineline Lighting renewed their long term working relationship with Glastonbury - at least 24 years to date - and supplied lighting for the Acoustic Stage, Astrolabe Theatre, Cabaret and Circus venues and also the WOW stage in the Silver Hays dance area, featuring some of the best underground DJs.

Says MD Rob Sangwell, "We all love working on Glastonbury and imbibing the spirit of the festival, and are very proud of our history with the event. I have seen many changes over the years, all for the better. The excellent line-ups plus the clamour to perform and be part of the community makes it even more special."

Fineline has built up the décor element of the Acoustic Stage over the years and especially more recently to include lush red drapes, and masking around the stage and in the ceiling, which really enhance

USA - Continuing their work with some of the world's highest profile EDM artists, XL Video worked with DJ/Producer Bassnectar to light up Colorado's legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater with an abundance of LED, as well as supply control systems and crew for two shows in late May.

This is the fifth year Bassnectar has played at the renowned outdoor venue and production manager, Marc Immerman, contacted XL Video to ensure the video for the show would match the spectacular surroundings.

XL Video's touring projects director, Gareth Jeanne worked with Bassnectar's team to specify over 300 tiles of XL's ROE Visual MC-7 high resolution LED for the multi-surface stage design.

Mimicking the shrinking perspective of the venue, LED columns were arranged each 2 tiles wide, and 9, 8, 7 and 6 tiles high on each side of the stage.

Surrounding the performers, a 16x8 tile LED screen was flown

UK - Live video and production specialist Central Presentations Limited (CPL) has launched a new tablet and smartphone App version of their Black Book product catalogue.

It's been developed specifically for the fast moving world of live events and as a more convenient and environmentally friendly alternative to the 150 page printed rental catalogue which is renowned for its wealth of useful information including technical specifications and data for over 500 products, together with all the latest CPL hire rates.

The CPL App is designed to allow technicians, account handlers and production managers quick access to all the information they need wherever they happen to be - whether it's in the middle of a greenfield festival site, up a mountain or even in a regular venue or in their offices.

Says CPL's Matthew Boyce, "The book has been a huge hit and is well loved b

UK - Lighting designer, Tim Routledge, has employed a quantity of Ayrton MagicBlade-R and MagicPanel-R LED fixtures on Take That's Live 2015 tour.

One hundred and twenty-eight Ayrton MagicBlade-R LED fixtures and 54 MagicPanel-R units play a vital role in Routledge's design where they form an inherent part of the rig, delineating the outlines of production designer Misty Buckley's creative set design and providing a spectacular and versatile backdrop to the band centre stage.

Creative director, Kim Gavin, devised a show that exhibits a high degree of theatricality with artists performing across a large multi-level main stage that loops right out into the arena. Routledge's brief was to produce a very theatrical look in keeping with the design but overlaid with a huge "pop punch". "The MagicBlades certainly gave me this," he says.

Routledge outlined the ou

UK - Analog Way has announced a new partnership with the AV rental specialist company Paragon Projection in the UK. Effective 1 July, Paragon Projection will have Analog Way's LiveCore systems available for rental all over the UK.

Analog Way, based in the Midlands and Central London, provides high-end projectors and professional display equipment for exhibitions, conferences & training seminars. Paragon Projection is adding Analog Way's LiveCore series of Premium Presentation Mixers to their inventory. Several Ascender 16-4K and Ascender 48-4K units will be available for rental from 1 July.

Mark Davies, sales manager at Paragon Projection Ltd states, "We have been looking into investing in high-end switching equipment for a while now and when Analog Way launched their LiveCore series we realized it was the perfect solution. One of the key factors' when making our decision

Finland - In a different approach to indoor arena lighting, Finland's Hartwall Arena features an innovative LED video system integrated with its ice hockey rink. The arena, which is home to the Jokerit of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and Finland's National Men's Hockey Team, was recently modernized to enhance the fan experience with significant upgrades to its lighting, video displays and digital signage.

As part of the arena's modernization ice hockey rink equipment designer, manufacturer and supplier, Icepro OY, created a concept to integrate lighting within the stanchions supporting the rink's glass safety dividers. To realize their vision Icepro worked with Finnish A/V Integration firm, Studiotec, to develop a lighting design that included more than 940 of Martin Professional VC-Strip LED video fixtures.

The system is built into the stanchions between the glass divi

UK - Panasonic has launched a new series of glass-free 4K displays aimed at the rental and staging market.

The glass-free versions of the 98" and 84" LED LCD panels (TH-98LQ70L & TH-84LQ70L) sit alongside the company's existing large 4K displays. The decision to add the LQ70L models was based on requests from the rental industry for a lighter and brighter version, gained by the removal of the protection glass.

Like the existing models, the displays offer 3840 x 2160 resolution and include Panasonic's new generation of image enhancement technology, for fine, life-like images.

They have inbuilt 3D-LUT colour correction and 6-axis colour correction, a special latticed aluminium frame to resist twisting, while portrait orientation is also possible without any effect on the screen.

The displays can up-convert non-4K sources to a higher level of image quality and movin

Azerbaijan - A spectacular two hour opening ceremony featuring US pop star Lady Gaga, inspired by Azerbaijani culture and starring more than 6,000 athletes from 50 countries in front of 68,000 enthralled spectators, launched the inaugural European Games in Baku.

The Ceremony, held in Azerbaijan's ancient city Baku, featured the history of the nation, its paintings, poetry and industries represented by images and shape shifting scenes using special effects on the stage set designed as the shores of the Caspian Sea.

The opening ceremony is the latest in a long list of major ceremonies delivered by Creative Technology (CT) which includes the last three summer Games alongside Commonwealth, Asian and Arab Games in India and the Middle East. The opening also represented the culmination of over a years' work for Creative Technology in the negotiation, planning and ultimately delivery

UK - A.C. Video, a sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) - and the exclusive UK distributor for the Hippotizer media servers range - will be hosting a Hippotizer V4 UK Open House event on Friday 14 August 2015, in conjunction with the manufacturer at their headquarters in North London.

The occasion will showcase the new V4 range alongside other leading video brands available from AC-ET, including AViary Video Tools, Prolights, Luminex, Philips Signage Solutions and Christie Digital.

The informal event consists of a choice of morning (10:00am - 2:00pm) and afternoon (2:00pm - 6:00pm) classroom-style sessions providing hands-on training with the completely redesigned line of Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers running the new V4 software, which is designed to meet the demands of shows today and tomorrow. The previous Hippotizer V3 range received multiple awa

The Netherlands - Albert Deltour has been appointed commercial director at Creative Technology Holland.

Deltour's career has included senior roles at De Hallen Studios in Amsterdam, Backbone International, Natura Artis Magistra in Amsterdam and as founder and owner of the Amsterdam Convention Factory and the events communications agency; Deltour & Waerts.

"Throughout his impressive career Albert has proved to be an experienced practitioner and manager who fits in an organisation like Creative Technology," said Christ Elsten, managing director CT's Holland operation. "We are very excited that Albert is joining our company."

Albert Deltour added, "I am looking forward to working with Creative Technology. The company produces fantastic audiovisual projects around the globe many delivered from its Dutch base. The challenge for me - along with the CT coll

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