UK - LED screen, drapes and special FX specialist S+H Technical Services supplied its Glux 10mm LED screen to the recent UK tour by 10cc. The tour’s production manager, Dave Cobby, also looks after the video elements on the road, and he specified the screen, returning to S+H, the Ilfracombe, Devon based company which has supplied previous 10cc tours including the 2016 40th anniversary celebration of seminal album Sheet Music. Dave has worked with the band since 2006, and this time around took on both roles. “It’s always a pleasure doing business with S+H’s Terry (Murtha) and the team. We get a great deal and the 10mm screen is exactly the resolution and quality that we need.” The screen was configured as a continuous 8m-wide by 5m-high surface upstage. The requirement was for a lightweight and easy to rig solution that was adaptable and practical
USA - Barco has agreed in principle to sell the Medialon brand and Show Control activities to 7thSense Design. The team behind 7thSense Design has led the acquisition to form a new company, Medialon Ltd., which will acquire the Medialon brand and Show Control activities from Barco. The sale is set to be completed by 1 July. The transfer does not include the Overture product suite, which will continue to be owned by Barco. Eric Cantrell, product manager for Medialon within Barco, will lead the new Medialon business as vice-president of business operations. He comments: “The decision by Barco to transfer the Medialon show control activity is driven by Barco’s continuous effort to focus on core activities, comprising of display and image processing technology, in conjunction with strengthened partnerships across the value chain in the entertainment market.
UK - Creative technical event production company Hawthorn has appointed Jolene Price, who has joined the company as business development manager. Price will support the development of new business for Hawthorn’s live event technical production service. Before joining Hawthorn, she held the position of sales, events and marketing director at Rail Media and brings with her over 19 years of experience in sales and events. Scott Rooney-Ashby, account director at Hawthorn, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Jolene to Hawthorn. She brings a wealth of experience to the position and with her previous experience in the industry, I believe she will be a great asset to the team. Investing in our people is vital to developing the service we provide to our clients and maintaining the extremely high-standards we are renowned for delivering.” (Jim Evans)
China - Absen LED products have been used to create a large DOOH display that towered 15m high above the exterior of the Hua-Yang Plaza Hotel in Luoyang, where the month-long Peony Culture Festival took place. The festival, which occurs each year from mid-April to mid-May, sees the peonies in full bloom and various folk performances staged around the gardens. The Hua-Yang Plaza Hotel is situated in the middle of Luoyang National Peony Garden, Luoyang National Flower Garden, Wangcheng Park and the Peony Square, which made it a suitable location for the billboard to provide warm welcome to all of the visitors that journeyed from across the globe. The display itself - made up of Absen’s A1699 product - measures 730sq.m and offers a pixel density of 6760 x 420, making it the highest resolution OOH LED screen ever seen in the city. Absen’s A1699 is an updated ver
Europe - Universal Pixels provided video packages for Spice Girls in Dublin, Snow Patrol in Bangor, and The Chemical Brothers in London across an action-packed Spring Bank Holiday weekend. The video specialist supplied over 1,450m2 of LED screen, multiple 3G camera packages, disguise GX2 servers, and a total of 26 crew over the three shows. When it comes to big shows like this, the devil is in the detail, explained Universal Pixel’s Phil Mercer: “We know from many years of experience in delivering large-scale shows and tours that pre-planning and the correct preparation before equipment and crew get onsite is fundamental. We pay close attention to each project and simplify things wherever we can, so that everything runs as smoothly as possible.” Kicking off on Friday 24 May, the hotly anticipated Spice Girls comeback show at Dublin’s Croke Park welcomed an audi
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will demonstrate its extensive and exclusive portfolio of leading theatrical technologies - including new lighting, audio, rigging, and video products - at the ABTT Theatre Show 2019, taking place on 5th - 6th June at London’s Alexandra Palace. Highlights from AC-ET will include Chroma-Q's multi award-winning Color Force II cyc, wash & effects and Inspire house lighting LED fixtures, featuring colour-mixing homogenised optics. Showing at ABTT for the first time will be the Vista 3 by Chroma-Q lighting and media control system. Prolights fixtures on stand will include the Pixie Wash XB, a 280W single source LED wash luminaire and the Jetspot4Z, which features full CMY colour mixing and a custom optical system. Meanwhile, the Luminex Luminode Ethernet & DMX processor, first unveiled at Prolight + Sound, will al
UK - Calibre has announced a further set of features to its recently-introduced AiO (All-in-One) LED display. “From an image quality point of view, it can be difficult for customers to choose between one LED display and another,” explains Willy Tsai, managing director at Calibre UK. “With the development of the new AiO LED Display, we chose to focus on functionality that is less visible - but that is no less important when it comes to the practicalities of deploying videowalls. The result of that development work is an LED display that not only features outstanding image quality, but that is easier and faster to install than alternative solutions - and is also significantly safer in operation.” The AiO LED Display features an integrated power control system with low standby power consumption and an efficient power supply - minimising long-term cost of ownership
USA - Audinate has announced its CEO Lee Ellison is retiring in September, with the company’s CTO and co-founder Aidan Williams (pictured) set to replace him in the role. Ellison is to retire on 13 September following the release of the company’s 2019 full year financial results. David Krall, Audinate’s chairman, comments: “Lee has been a key contributor to the growth of Audinate, and the results speak for themselves. Under Lee’s leadership as CEO over the past 11 years, Audinate has become the global market leader in audio networking for the professional AV industry. Lee led the company through its successful IPO in June 2017, and since its listing, Audinate has consistently delivered strong results and record growth. “Together with Lee and the Board, we developed a succession plan over the last year to ensure a smooth transition of the CEO role. Ou
UK - Wakefield-based Backstage Academy recently presented a graduation showcase, which saw third-year students assessed across five presentations. The students were assessed in a project-based environment, with each team working under a project manager. The event was supported by many industry partners, some of whom had arrived fresh from attending PLASA Focus Leeds. Vice-principal Rachel Nicholson explained the idea of designing real world concepts - effectively transforming black box studio/stages into coruscating jewels - had grown out of the Live Visual Design & Production course. “It’s the first time we’ve presented the work in this fashion,” she confirms. “The team looked back at last year and decided they wanted more scope to visualise. Our live visual design course has always been project based, so we adapted that to the other courses - which seem
UK - London-based technical event specialists Light Fantastic Production Services supported Voxburner with a full design and technical solution for YMS London. YMS LDN is Europe’s largest youth marketing festival, part of a series of global events demystifying the changing trends, habits and attitudes of the consumers of the future. Held over two days at the Old Truman Brewery, YMS19 LDN was the largest Youth Marketing Strategy event to date, welcoming almost 2,000 delegates and over 150 speakers. Working closely with Voxburner to deliver an engaging visitor experience, Light Fantastic Production Services provided a comprehensive equipment and support package covering all technical elements, including lighting, audio, video, set and staging. Commenting on the show, LFPS project manager Andrew Maxted says: “Handling all aspects of the technical requireme
USA - AV Stumpfl will present its new AT64-SHIFT system for large mobile projection screens and the new PIXERA mini media server at this year's InfoComm in Orlando. With the AT64-SHIFT, it's possible to assemble a large mobile projection screen and to adjust its height in a matter of minutes, says the company. No extra measuring is needed to ensure that the frame is level, due to a clearly marked height scale. Based on the same principles as the T32-SHIFT, the AT64-SHIFT projection screen legs can be used for much larger mobile projection screens and are compatible with all mobile AV Stumpfl screen systems. Another highlight of AV Stumpfl's InfoComm booth will be the new PIXERA mini hardware. PIXERA mini is an ultra-compact media server, perfect for digital signage and multi-display applications. The PIXERA mini is a 1U and ½ 19“ product. Two PIXERA min
UK - This April, competitive gaming platform FACEIT partnered with the PUBG Corporation to host the first global event of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ 2019 Esports season. The multi-stage tournament held at London’s ExCel saw 24 teams battle for the championship. Bluman Associates were commissioned to provide full video display solution and management. The FACEIT platform is home to 12 million registered users, hosting 34 million monthly games with up to 90,000 gamers playing at any one time. The summit included teams from North America, Europe, Korea, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Oceania. Streamed to registered internet and television viewers, the tournament started with three days of broadcasted heats, followed by three days of finals as the players competed for a $400,000 prize pool in front of live and broadcast audience. The
Australia - The Star Casino in Sydney has unveiled its immersive indoor light and water display, featuring a crescent-shaped video screen based on Black Onyx LED panels by ROE Visual. The Grand Foyer experience at the Star Casino in Sydney, combines LED screens, aquatic water fountains, lasers, light and live performances to offer an interactive arrival experience for its approx. 20,000 guests that pass through the foyer every day. Big Screen Projects were commissioned by Ramus Illumination to supply the LED equipment for the refurbishment of the Grand Foyer, the total immersive installation amounting to a 22m dollar investment for the Star Casino. For this project Big Screen Projects have been working together with lighting specialists Ramus Illumination, who specialise in the design of grand-scale theatrical experiences that encourage public engagement.
India - QSC is celebrating the inauguration of its new SAARC headquarters in Bengaluru. The new 9,270sq.ft office serves as a business development, management and support hub for QSC systems, live sound and cinema businesses in the region. It also acts as a training and demonstration area and includes a 13,760sq.ft terrace for customer events. “Over the last few years, QSC has been dedicated to growing its international presence, and this new entity is a crucial piece of that strategy,” says Markus Winkler, SVP, EMEA South Asia, & managing director QSC EMEA GmbH. “As we continue to experience tremendous growth in SAARC year-over-year in all our business units, this dedicated facility will allows us to accelerate our growth trajectory in the coming years.” “Our business partners in SAARC have been instrumental in our success and will continue to be our mai
UK - On the three days before Good Friday, the streets of central Birmingham were taken over by The Birmingham Passion Play 2019, an ambitious, contemporary retelling of the Easter story, organised by Christian charity and theatre company Saltmine Trust, with support from The Passion Trust. To help bring the creative vision to life, Saltmine partnered with UK audio visual production supplier SFL. The Saltmine Trust Theatre company puts on regular public, partner, and education tours, as well as one-off shows, all inspired by the Christian faith. Even for Saltmine though, The Birmingham Passion Play 2019 was an ambitious undertaking as it was delivered on the move - a travelling street performance that started at Birmingham Bullring, progressing along New Street to Victoria Square, and finishing inside St Philip’s Cathedral - effectively making the stage over half a mile w
UK - CUK Audio has announced plans to move into new premises in East Kilbride. The new building, which is currently being fitted out, is situated in Peel Park around 10 miles from the company’s existing Glasgow HQ. It will provide space for the distributor’s expanding back office, sales and technical teams and also house five training suites and a distribution centre with over 750 pallet locations and 1000 small item locations. CUK is expected to move in on 5 June. Stuart Thomson, CUK MD, comments: “When we moved to our current Glasgow location back in 2010, we thought there was more space than we could ever need. However, since then, we have delivered year-on-year growth which has accelerated since a change in ownership and the restructuring of the company in to four divisions two years ago. Over the past year, it became apparent that we were very near th
USA - Wiz Khalifa’s Coachella performance was filled with dramatic moments. But for the Grammy-nominated star’s long-time lighting designer Jason Bullock, the real drama started about 24 hours before the show began. It was then that the New York-based LD received the ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 desk from Upstaging that he would use to run his 90-universe show. “Coachella is a very important festival for all artists involved, so there was some pressure,” acknowledged Bullock. “I didn’t see the ChamSys desk until I arrived at the festival. I built the patch and show file in a Viz room on the site. Being able to build a show with a few hours and only get on the lighting system for three hours made time of the essence. ChamSys was the ideal tool, given that I was in a crunch. “The Sahara Tent at Coachella was primarily EDM acts,” said Bullock. “Since Wiz brought
Qatar – The world’s largest permanent video projection installation has opened at the new National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ). Inside 21 billion pixels are being processed every second by nine Avolites Ai Q3 servers, alongside another 163 Ai Miami software licences, running on 1U 8K media servers custom designed by the London-based visual technologists, RES. The video projection aspects of the project involve a series of ‘Art Films’, which were produced by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) in collaboration with handpicked directors and videographers, to immerse visitors in a journey through Qatar’s past, present and future aspirations. The projections cover a vast area, co-created by RES, MAN Enterprise / EMPTY Joint Venture and the DFI. “Avolites Ai is always our go-to software for demanding projects like this - the AIM Codec and Salvation Engine are both powerful
UK - “Mark Owen came to our first meeting and before discussions had even begun proposed we use the spherically rendered Take That logo from the cover of the new Odyssey album for the stage show.” This was how the band’s long-time tour director, Chris Vaughan of CV Productions, revealed the kernel of the concept. “No idle thought, Mark’s idea was a fully formed vision, with a huge panoramic screen behind it, and video adorning the total surface of the sphere; this would come to be the defining image of the tour.” Vaughan quickly called upon the technical prowess of Video Design, who had supported Take That’s previous outing in 2016 and the engineering skills of Brilliant. “The key is knowing how to respond to extreme conceptual design,” was Vaughan’s assessment. “That, and the willingness to do so. A 10m diameter rotating sphere covered in high d
UK - Maestra Group has made some major sound, lighting and video equipment investments recently in the London office, including white sound and lighting kit, which will ensure all its clients have the most flexible and dynamic solutions available for their shows and events. The equipment is proving especially popular for car launches and other automotive events, fashion shows, corporates, industrials and expo stands as well as for art exhibitions, parties and architainment applications, where white equipment is often better suited to blend into the environment than traditional black. The kit includes a substantial purchase of 30 x custom coated white Robe moving lights – 12 x LEDBeam 150s, 12 x Spiider LED WashBeams and six Pointe multipurpose fixtures which bring Maestra London’s total stock of Robes to over 100 including black versions of these three types and ot
Europe - Shawn Mendes chose the Netherlands to kick off his nine-month world tour. The set, premiering in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, revealed a large circular video wall as the eye-caching center-stage piece, comprising of ROE Visual Carbon CB5 LED panels. Based on the simple, yet visually strong light design by LD Louis Oliver a massive circular video wall looms over the stage, creating a dramatic setting. “We wanted to keep the performance space organic, allowing the technology to hide in the background,” Oliver says. “With the design, we wanted to craft bold environments for Shawn to perform within.” The total stage set-up comprises of a circular stage with steps on the left and right leading to two 9m wings. This gives a wide 280-degree sightline for the audience, while the front seats curve around the stage to bring them as close as possible to the artis
Ireland - A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ireland (AC-ET Ireland) has provided Explorium National Sport & Science Centre with a Green Hippo Hippotizer V4+ media server to control their LED display. Based in Dublin, Explorium uses sport to inspire children and adults alike to discover the wonders of science. The centre features three key areas - Science, Sport and Junior, with each one offering a range of interactive experiences. Jackey Chai at Explorium required a media server to control the centre’s LED display, which is a central point of focus at the entry to the internal auditorium and visitor centre. The display is used to play various visual effects such as a waterfall, and promotional videos. Understanding Jackey’s needs Aaron Cripps, managing director of AC-ET Ireland, recommended a Green Hippo Hippotizer Amba+ media server. Aaron visited Jackey a
UK - West London lighting and video rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment has expanded its fleet of vehicles with a new artic and trailer – a Volvo FH460 Globetrotter Euro 6 tractor unit, complete with a 45' Schmitz Cargobull low-ride Tri-axle semi-trailer. This vehicle - chosen for its efficiency and dynamics - is an investment made for the convenience of trucking equipment to tours and festivals across the UK and Europe. It will also offer clients an additional element of cost-effectivity as Colour Sound can offer independent trucking services for large one-offs. The truck will be especially busy during the upcoming festival season and will help streamline overall production logistics by reducing the off-site pick-ups required. “All our vehicles have been bought with a view to making our operations as flexible and versatile as possible to suit client n
USA - NEP Group has announced the promotion of Graham Andrews to global president of NEP live events and CEO of the Creative Technology Group. The announcement follows significant growth in NEP’s live events operating segment over the last several years, growing from two US-based businesses in 2012 to today a family of six brands and one of the largest live events platforms in the world. As global president, Andrews will continue to report to CEO Kevin. Rabbitt and oversee NEP live events globally to help each division accelerate growth, service clients across geographies and cross-sell services from NEP’s other operating segments. Andrews has worked in the live events industry since 1976, beginning his career as an audio engineer working on theatre and music productions around the world. Rabbitt says: “We have great opportunities ahead of us – and the r
