UK - Leading provider of professional AV equipment, Audiologic has secured the exclusive UK distribution for Ely-based Spectra Displays. Spectra manufactures an extensive range of LED displays, signs, video displays and LCD media panels suitable for a large range of applications.

As Audiologic continues to expand the scope and facility of its AV operation, this relationship adds a significant and high-quality range of products to its visual provision, whilst for Spectra, entering a partnership with an established, well-connected AV distributor is set to open up and grow new markets. Audiologic's engineering and technical focus on customer needs and correct specification aligns perfectly with Spectra's own ethos in this respect and the potential for mutual advantage is clearly evident.

Andy Lewis, Sales & Marketing Manager for Audiologic comments on what he clearly sees as

Germany - As in past years, the Production Resource Group (PRG) created their spectacular Highlight Show in the Festhalle at Prolight+Sound 2016.

The first show took place at the event of the LEA Awards, where a spectacular laser display accompanied the performance of the musical group Glasperlenspiel. Afterwards, during the exhibition, the highlight show was played every half hour, showcasing the high quality equipment and show creation capabilities of PRG.

Besides the conventional lighting, video projections and the powerful sound system, an extraordinary and exceptional laser show took place.

More than 400W of laser power were implemented, including the world's-first presentation of a completely new show design lighting fixture - the RTI NEO SIX RGB white light beam arrays with analogue modulation and beam deflection. This new fixture allows for creating twist and w

India - On 6 April, India's National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) opened its long-awaited Science Exploration Hall - an impressive new exhibition centre within the famous Kolkata Science City. The new Exploration Hall features three galleries, which together tell the story of human evolution.

Eight HDX-W20 FLEX projectors from visualization expert Barco, set up by VizExperts, bring a breathtaking 360° view on human evolution in the crispest of colours.

Established in 1997, the iconic Science City is India's largest science centre. "Our goal is to bring science to the people, and to young people in particular. To stir their enthusiasm, we make our message as fun and interactive as possible, by using state-of-the-art technology," says A D. Choudhury, Director of NCSM, science city park.

When in 2013, Science City decided to build a new hall fully dedicated to an

USA - The growth of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) continues apace, as a further seven international companies, at the forefront of digital video production and delivery, opt for membership. Avid, Dejero, Ikegami, IntoPIX, Matrox, NEC and TVU Networks have swelled the ranks of the alliance in the last few weeks.

Avid led the revolution in audio and video editing over 25 years ago. Its software-based, non-linear editing system is a television and video industry standard, providing the tools needed to create, manage, store, distribute, and monetize content.

"The smooth transition to IP is going to depend on customer confidence in the interoperability of equipment in the production and distribution chain," Tim Claman, vice president of platform and solutions at Avid. "At Avid we're fully committed to supporting standardization efforts that facilitate this interope

USA - Green Hippo has announced that from April 2016, Cory Froke has joined the Green Hippo US team as product specialist, based in Burbank, California.

Cory has a strong background in the world of lighting and AV having previously worked at PRG Nocturne / PRG Concert Touring, Chaos Visual Productions, DWP Live and Entertainment Lighting Services (ELS).

Cory's role will be product specialist, meeting and engaging with both our current and potential US users; liaising with both development and the marketing team to ensure that the Hippotizer media server range and all its newest features are bought directly to US customers.

Green Hippo CEO, Emma Marlow stated, "The US is an important market for Hippotizer, and we're delighted to have someone of Cory's experience and knowledge in our US office. He has a real passion for media servers and understanding of how Hippotizer a

UK - Making the audience the focus of attention turns the usual aspect of arena events on its head, but then there was nothing 'usual' about WE Day at the SSE Arena, Wembley on 9 March. WE Day is an inspirational event, fusing the energy and enthusiasm of young people - in the words of the organizations' website - "to empower a new generation to shift the world from 'me' to 'we' - from a focus on the individual to the power of the community."

And it's that audience focus which immediately validates such noble sentiments as Jason McKinnon, who designs the event in collaboration with executive producer Lina Beaudin explained. "It is a pretty amazing event. The audience can't buy tickets; they earn their way into the arena by taking action on social issues that are important to them."

To put that in context, the young people that attended earned their place through participat

UK - When the opportunity arose for PRG XL Video to support London's latest in-vogue theatre venue, Found111, and Emily Dobbs Productions' latest show, Bug, PRG XL Video quickly realised the potential of the space and talent connected to it and were delighted to come on board working with lighting designer Richard Howell lighting the play, as well as supplying a small, but versatile lighting package for the themed bar area.

Found111 is a pop-up theatre performance space run by Emily Dobbs Productions in the old Central St Martins School of Art & Design on Charing Cross Road. Emily explained her reason behind embarking upon such a project. "When the prospect of taking on an alternative space in the heart of the West End came along, what really attracted me to it was the chance to create a level of intimacy that is rare in the West End.

"A venue where the space become

Germany - MDG's stylish new stand at Prolight+Sound was a popular gathering place for those interested in the best of atmosphere generation. The stand was busy on all days with visitors interested in products across the board, and receiving demonstrations of the Atmosphere range, the Me Family, the IceFog Series of low-fog generators and the award-winning, theOne. Customers also benefited from fabulous videos that showed on screen how to unleash the full potential of some of the larger generators that the environs of a trade show were not able to accommodate.

One of these was the new Me8 fog generator which was launched at the show to great excitement. The biggest of the Me Series, the Me8 is an 8-nozzled monster capable of pumping out a massive 800m3 of fog per minute. Visitors were able to witness the speed at which it could fill a 60m x 30m x 8m (15,000m3) space with thick

Germany - Arkaos PRO enjoyed one of its busiest shows to-date at Prolight+Sound with a constant stream of visitors coming to discover the latest developments in ArKaos PRO software. The stand demonstrated the video mapping capabilities of the ArKaos PRO MediaMaster 4.2 software with an intricate array of 3D shapes outlined to perfection as projection surfaces.

Visitors were able to try MediaMaster out for themselves to understand just how easy it is to achieve complex results with ArKaos' software and to put any questions to the ArKaos sales team first hand. The versatility of MediaMaster as a total solution-in-one software continued to impress everyone: visitors confirmed that ArKaos technology was fast, easy and comfortable to use, enabling anyone to work with it. They agreed that the ability to use flash files, and MediaMaster's mapping features were great advantages, and e

UAE - The company, that until recently, has focussed mainly on corporate events having taken a sabbatical from rock and roll for a year, made a dramatic U-turn in March '16 to support three concerts in the UAE including Nicky Minaj and the Autism Rocks Festival in Dubai that featured Flo Rida and Tyga. Protec also provided the lights for the very first Korean cultural convention that took place in Abu Dhabi's du Arena on 25 March featuring performances by K-Pop artistes, boy group BTS, Taeyeon from the group Girls' Generation, Kyuhyun from Super Junior, Double S 301, hip-hop group Monsta X, girl group Spica and pop star Ailee.

The Nicky Minaj concert organised by the newly formed 117Live, headed by Thomas Oveson (who was previously with Done Events) was held at Dubai's latest entertainment venue - named Autism Rocks Arena. Protec provided lighting, video and rigging for the sh

UK - Lang, one of Europe's leading AV technology rental companies, has committed to purchase 50 Panasonic PT-RZ31K projectors, the 28,000 lumens laser phosphor projector launched at ISE 2016.

The 3-Chip DLP Solid Shine series, which has been designed specifically for large venue applications, is the brightest projector Panasonic has ever launched.

Lang supports many of Europe's leading projection mapping events, including the Bucharest iMapp Festival and Moscow's Circle of Light, where it will look to integrate the PT-RZ31K in future shows.

Tobias Lang, CEO of Lang AG, said, "We are convinced that, over the next few years, the rental market will fully transition to laser technology. In order to lead this shift, Lang AG has carried out a technical evaluation of the RZ31K projector and its alternatives. We feel that due to the robust and reliable laser concept, the outst

UK - A.C. Video, a sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) is hosting an Open Day on Tuesday, 26 April 2016 at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, to demonstrate the latest innovations from their portfolio of cutting-edge brands.

With only a week to go, there are still some free places left for the informal event, which will showcase the division's UK-exclusive brands at the forefront of video production in the entertainment and AV integration sectors. These include Green Hippo media servers, ProLights high performance video displays, Just Add Power receivers and Luminex Ethernet switches.

Other featured brands include Draper, Christie Digital, Philips Signage Solutions, AViary - and from the company's Audio sales division, Dynamic Audio Device.

In addition to a product overview and 'hands-on' training sessions, A.C. Video will also demonstrate how these co

UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of global event technology provider Production Resource Group (PRG), has announced an addition to its corporate account management team.

Thomas Walsh joins PRG XL Video from Hawthorn, where he was a project manager, supplying multi-discipline production services to a variety of events. Events Thomas has delivered include the Coronation Festival Gala at Buckingham Palace.

Prior to working at Hawthorn, Thomas graduated from Leeds Beckett University with an honours degree in Creative Music and Sound Technology, and subsequently gained broad industry experience working as a technician and production manager for Aztec Event Services.

Thomas will report to Guy Vellacott, PRG XL Video's director corporate group, who comments, "We're really pleased to welcome Thomas Walsh to the team. He has a strong technical knowledge of event production a

UK - West Midlands UK based production and live video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) delivered a stunning wid, escreen projection system plus lighting and sound production for Big Day Out an event for ITV Commercial sales teams staged at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire.

A series of motivational talks and presentations, interspersed with choreographed entertainment and magicians, took place in the venue's lecture Theatre for which CPL supplied a 12m wide by 4m high projection screen, fed by Panasonic 12K laser projectors.

This was installed by a CPL crew project managed for CPL by Lee Gruszeckyj and Liam Griffiths. The three projectors were flown side-by-side in the roof and controlled via a Barco E2 management system.

The client's brief was that they wanted a large digital backdrop to help provide an 'immersive' experience for their staff.

Using the

UK - Canadian singer-songwriter Claire Boucher, who performs under the moniker of Grimes, recently made several appearances in the UK as part of her Ac!d Reigns tour.

The production, in support of her 2015 album Art Angels, used a versatile floor lighting and console package from PRG XL Video in Germany as they played venues across continental Europe before shows in Manchester, Dublin, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham and Glasgow. For the sell-out extravaganza at London's Brixton Academy, lighting designer Sarah Landau called on PRG XL Video's UK senior account manager Roy Hunt to help add a little additional razzmatazz to an already impressive light show with an overhead lighting rig.

Roy said, "Sarah's artistic and creative reputation is exceptional and the opportunity of working with her on any project is exciting, especially something like this."

With

USA - Superstar DJ Eric Prydz premiered his EPIC 4.0 shows in America this spring, backed up by his 'dream team' of long-time entertainment technology collaborators, RES, to create a colossal visual show driven by Avolites Ai S4 servers.

Playing a total of seven shows spread across New York's Terminal 5, LA's Hollywood Palladium and the San Francisco Armory, EPIC 4.0 was the fourth incarnation of Prydz's assault on the senses.

The behind the scenes team is comprised of Mark Calvert of RES as production director, Liam Tomaszewski as creative director and VJ, Ross Chapple as lighting designer, Ian Gotts as tour production manager, Dave Green as Ai programmer, PRG, PRG Nocturne USA and Lightware USA.

The core element of the ambitious show was another magical-looking hologram, which seemed to float centre stage in front of Prydz as he performs.

"The visual effect for t

Germany - Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) recently marked the two-year anniversary of its global partner network programme with the second PRG Alliance Summit. Under the theme Gearing Up To Success, the Summit took place during the Prolight + Sound 2016 trade fair at the Festhalle Messe Frankfurt.

Since its inception, the PRG Alliance has grown in both size and reputation, and now offers technology, services and support to event producers in a total of 25 countries.

There are now 15 member companies which make-up the PRG Alliance. The newest addition is DB Schenker - the first member supplying services other than audiovisual. DB Schenker supports the Alliance members with specialized logistics for events with a large worldwide presence and multi-modal transportation requirements.

The PRG Alliance Summit is already a key date on the calendar for members, allowi

USA - When global medical equipment giant Smith & Nephew was looking for images to dress up its booth at the Arthroscopy Association of North America convention, the company didn't have to search any further than the event's host city. Over 17m people visit Boston every year, easily placing the city among the top ten tourist destinations in the United States. Many are no doubt drawn by the picturesque and historic structures that help give this city its compelling character. Darren Lussier and Brian McNamara of Image Production Services drew on these local images to create a 'Boston-Scape' wall at the Smith & Nephew booth, using the PVP X3 LED video panel from Chauvet Professional.

For the doctors and other medical specialists from around the world who attended the convention, images of Fenway Park, Faneuil Hall and the like provided a welcome respite between lectures on weigh

UK - UK - London live music venue KOKO has invested in an Avolites Arena console to offer more live lighting control than ever before for its impressive roster of bands.

Since the club's restoration and reopening in 2004, transforming it from the Camden Palace into KOKO, some of the music world's biggest names have performed in the space, including Madonna, Amy Winehouse and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The venue continues to attract a diverse mix of emerging musicians and global superstars.

KOKO's head of lighting, Hannu Finnila, has been using Avolites consoles for more than 15 years and is now using the new Arena console on a nightly basis.

"The Arena console is the best desk for what we need to do at KOKO, because we have different bands in every night, meaning I have to do a lot of busking," he says. "As every gig is different, the Arena is already making my life much

USA - Production Resource Group LLC, (PRG) has announced a new brand for their creative LED special projects team, formerly a subsidiary of XL Video. Now known as PRG Projects, the team, led by Frederic Opsomer, is renowned for creating and providing innovative custom video solutions.

Frederic's team are based at PRG's location in Ostend, Belgium. The new PRG Projects team will also incorporate, and work more closely with, the former XL Video research and development team based in Shenzhen, China. The combined expertise of the team has already been responsible for realizing some of the most technology forward designs and custom installations in concert touring, large-scale spectacles, television, and sporting events, including ceremonies in Athens, London, and Sochi over the last several years.

In addition to working with the team in Ostend, PRG Projects in Shenzhen will c

Belgium - Barco has announced that Mr. Eric Van Zele, CEO, plans to retire later this year. In anticipation of Mr. Van Zele's retirement, the Board appointed Mr. Jan De Witte, a former corporate officer of the General Electric Company, as CEO-designate. Mr. Jan De Witte will join Barco's Core Leadership Team in June 2016 to effectively take over as CEO as of 1 October 2016.

Mr. Van Zele will continue to serve on the Board of Directors to ensure continuity of leadership and strategic focus for the company.

Mr. Charles Beauduin, Chairman of the Board, commented, "Under Eric's leadership, Barco became a global market and technology leader as well as a more focused and leaner organization. His drive for strategic innovation and customer intimacy has helped to harness Barco's entrepreneurial culture and shift the company's strategic direction towards more value-added software-e

USA - Originally founded in 1984, the Bethel World Outreach Church has seen its ministry grow to where they currently hold worship services in six locations nationwide.

As part of this growth, the worship family located in Brentwood, TN, recently underwent a building campaign to expand their ministry even further and in doing so they wished to make LED video a part of their worship services. While attending the WFX tradeshow in Nashville, Senior Pastor James Lowe found his solution for the new facility which was FLEXLite 6.9mm LED video tiles from PixelFLEX.

"With our Bethel Build Campaign underway, we were also about to undertake a month-long sermon series where our pastor wanted to show HD video elements during the message," began Technical Director Garrett Hestla. "This was something entirely new for us and since we wanted to bring LED video into the new facility as wel

UK - Visual production expert FIX8Group is expanding its dry hire division with the addition of a wealth of new products under the direction of the company's technical director, Nick Charalampidis.

Charalampidis, who has been with FIX8Group since early 2013, is now responsible for enhancing the division's dry hire inventory with industry-leading products, carefully selected to suit almost all requirements.

"Before joining FIX8Group I worked with Green Hippo for five years, so my knowledge of Hippotizer servers and software is second to none," says Charalampidis. "I am adding an array of Green Hippo kit to our stock, including the Boreal, Karst and Amba servers, with the new, powerful, v4 software."

FIX8Group's technical mission is to always give the best service possible - to supply servers set up in the correct way and loaded with the right software to suit the user's

Germany - Lasers are becoming more and more popular and especially mobile DJs and smaller nightclubs often request a product that is easy to operate, is capable of projecting tunnel effects, layers and some basic shapes and figures, and most importantly can write custom messages as running text. And of course the laser should be RGB and white light for being able to make the projection fit in with the lighting design.

This is quite demanding, but the new Laserworld EL-500RGB KeyTEX offers all these features. Besides being a normal laser system that can be run stand-alone, in sound-to-light mode or controlled by DMX, it also comes with a remote control plus a keyboard for entering text, animating it and doing colour changes. The Laserworld EL-500RGB KeyTEX is the successor of the Laserworld ES-400RGB, as it has all the features seen previously in the ES-400RGB - but adds much m

Latest Issue. . .