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Video and AV

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The continuing expansion of automation control specialist Crestron has brought two new recruits to its UK facility in Kingston-upon-Thames. Ken Weller joins as sales & business development manager. His move, after seven years in custom development with hi-fi/home cinema loudspeaker specialists B&W Loudspeakers, reflects Crestron’s own increasing penetration of the high-end home automation market.

Weller is joined by Amy Hutchings as sales and administration co-ordinator, who brings a wealth of experience in similar capacities with internet companies, AltaVista and Razorfish. She will bring her own PR skills to bear as the first point of contact for Crestron’s increasing client base. Announcing the appointments, Robin van Meeuwen, managing director of Crestron UK, said: "These appointments are designed to consolidate our relationships with key customers. As our business

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That is the upbeat message from PLASA’s new Show Director, Sue Saint. Celebrating its 25th year, the PLASA Show is the world’s pre-eminent light, sound and audio-visual event, attracting major brands every year, and this year is no exception.

Stand bookings are currently at 82%, with top names such as Vari-Lite, Sennheiser, Martin Professional, Denon, BSS Audio and Total Fabrication already booked. The show pulls in over 13,000 visitors from the UK and abroad each year, having become the main marketplace for the £11billion entertainment technology industry.

"The show is evolving continually," commented Saint, "and one of the key trends emerging is the growing number of manufacturers choosing to exhibit in their own right, rather than rely solely on representation through distributors. In addition, many long-standing exhibitors, including Numark, Peavey, S

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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For the crowds who thronged the banks of the River Thames to witness this year’s Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, it was one of the most memorable races in recent history. And as the lead chopped and changed constantly, the only certain way of monitoring progress for the live audience was via the two giant i-mag displays provided by Screenco.

The company supplied a 50sq.m 25mm high brightness display at Putney Bridge and an auxiliary 10sq.m, 15mm LED mini mobile rig, anchored at Furnival Gardens in Hammersmith - a popular meeting place for supporters of both crews. Contracted by sponsors Aberdeen Asset Management, Screenco worked through event organizer and production manager, Dominic Reed.

Commented Screenco’s project manager Steve Purkess: "We have been providing a turnkey package for the Boat Race since Aberdeen Asset Management became involved four years ago, and

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Storm at the Mandalay Bay Resort is one of the latest cutting-edge shows to add to the glitz and glamour of the famous Las Vegas Strip. In Storm, performers dance and sing to live musicians against the backdrop of ‘nature’s powerful forces’. A combination of live concert event, Broadway theater experience, and Las Vegas dance spectacular, Storm is a musical journey of human emotion expressed through the forces of nature.

As part of the show’s huge technical set-up, Electrosonic Systems was commissioned to design a system which would reliably retain 35mm film clips produced for the Storm show, and display them on three screens. Crucial to the system was ease of operation in conjunction with live actors, musicians and dancers. Two of the screens are Saco LED (12ft wide x 9ft high and 8ft wide x 6ft high). The third is a Stewart screen 3

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Paradigm has been providing the BBC with two DNP wide angle screens for News at Six and News at Ten. Commissioned by Shooting Partners, a specialist in production management, the screens are positioned within the studio behind the main presenters, and are being used on every show for the weather, interviews with outside sources and for feature item illustrations.

Rob Hopkins at the BBC said: "We carried out a test to compare various screens and projectors on the market and the viewing angle and brightness of these screens came out on top." Mark Holdway of Anna Valley - the new display division of Shooting Partners - commented: "The brief was to be able to view the screen from a variety of angles whilst maintaining image brightness and uniformity. The DNP screens fulfilled this requirement perfectly."

(Lee Baldock)

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Screenco’s involvement in the TV sensation Pop Idol has led to them supplying an LED display to the Pepsi Chart Show - and it’s all thanks to Gareth Gates. Management of the Pop Idol runner-up had been so impressed with the screen during the series that they requested that the same display form the backdrop to his appearance in a Gareth Gates TV Special - and Gareth’s record company BMG were happy to oblige.

Several weeks later, Initial TV approached Natasha Blake of Screenco and booked 11sq.m of 15mm LED high brightness display for use on the Pepsi Chart Show. Initial TV production manager, Vivienne Pheysey, explained: "We spoke at length to Gareth’s record company, who thoroughly recommended the screen. Anything less than an LED display would not have been bright enough."

Artists using video reinforcement on the show included Express 2 featuring Da

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MCL Manchester have supplied a four-camera PPU with Sony DFS-700 video switcher - all running Serial Digital Interface (SDI) - to the British Swimming Championships and Commonwealth for use at the new Manchester Aquatics Centre. The company also fielded the latest Sony MAV-555, instant digital hard disk editor and replay machine, utilising Sony’s latest MPEG IMX technology.

The camera system ran a serial digital feed to the new Barco DLite 7 LED screen, supplied by Screenco, whilst the audio system, in what was potentially an acoustically challenging venue, was installed by Dimension Audio - making this a real Avesco family affair. MCL Manchester supply full digital camera systems, giving greater flexibility over location, cable runs and reliability as well as allowing digital effects to enhance the presentation. MCL took this opportunity to trial the Sony MAV 555 hard disk recor

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In a spectacular West End ‘first’, Lighthouse LED video technology will take the lead visual effects role in the new Queen-inspired musical We Will Rock You, written by Ben Elton, which opens at London’s Dominion Theatre on 14 May. This is the first time LED video screens have been deployed as the major staging effect in a West End musical, and in We Will Rock You, the screens are being used in ways that go beyond the staging of the most adventurous TV show or live event.

The musical’s story is set 300 years in the future, when the world is a bland place in which music and musical instruments have long been banned, but a bohemian subculture is determined to bring them back to life. The show is designed by rock’n’roll veterans Willie Williams and Mark Fisher and directed by Chris Renshaw. The upper, everyday world is represented by such

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MCL Manchester has been officially appointed audio-visual contractor for The Skills Show 2002. The Prince’s Trust event, which will take place between November 13-16 this year, will be held in 55,000sq.m of temporary structure on a disused docklands site in Salford Quays. Designed as a celebration of skills, which will motivate and inspire young people to learn, and encourage them to aspire to excellence, ‘Skillcity’ will house extensive exhibition and demonstration areas, a live performance stage and comprehensive conference facilities.

The show will draw on MCL Manchester’s considerable experience in staging large-scale events, with previous projects including Creamfields, Party in the Park, Manchester Millennium Celebrations and many more. MCL will be providing audio, video, lighting and staging requirements for the organizers and will be preferred suppliers

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Italy’s longest-running TV event, the annual five-day Sanremo Festival of Italian Song, now in its 52nd year, featured a stage set with one of the largest video screens ever seen in Europe. Produced by state-owned broadcaster RAI, artists included Michael Bolton, The Cranberries, Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Kylie Minogue, Alanis Morissette and Britney Spears.

The high-technology show featured an all-digital fibre optic linked audio set-up using a Stagetec Cantus/Nexus control system and a JBL Vertec PA. For the first time, the show’s set was designed around an LED screen, with no less than three Lighthouse LVP1010 screens. Stefano Montesi, RAI’s technical head at Sanremo, says the idea for the LED screens was set designer Gaetano Castelli’s. They were supplied by Eurovideo, a Lighthouse rental partner based in Casarsa Della Delizia, who also handled inst

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Creative Technology North America provided display technology, screens and technical expertise for the recent 74th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, better known as the Oscars. ABC aired the live event nationwide to an international audience of approximately one billion viewers.

Creative Technology was responsible for an impressive quantity of display devices including large scale projection equipment, screens, LED panels and plasma displays. Using a total of 14 Digital Projection and 11 Christie Digital projectors, CT displayed the evening’s images onto a variety of screen sizes and shapes. For the extremely bright ‘Best Picture’ screen, CT utilised Digital Projection technology, including two 15 SX and one 25 SX projected onto a 16ft x 29ft Stewart screen. The ‘Cinerama’ screen consisted of a massive 18ft x 72ft Stewart Aeroview 100 screen that was masked

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The Avesco Group has secured a major contract to supply AV services to Manchester 2002, for this year’s Commonwealth Games events. Negotiated by Group Business Development Director, Dave Crump, it will become one of the largest single projects ever undertaken by Avesco, and has earned the company the status of ‘Official Provider of Audio Visual Services to the Manchester 2002 XVII Commonwealth Games.’

Few UK companies have the resources to be able to service such a wide range of venues and sporting activities simultaneously, and Dave Crump confirmed that the implementation should require participation from almost every company within the Group - notably Screenco, MCL Manchester and Dimension Audio. Crump himself will be co-ordinating the overall project as well as the Screenco activity, while Jamie McAffer will be project managing for MCL Manchester and Mark Boden for

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Conventionally, sponsors at the Royal Opera House have a physical corporate presence at the venue. But in a complete break with tradition on April 4, Audi became the first sponsor to light the outside of the building with its corporate brand at a performance of the ballet Giselle, with Darcey Bussell dancing the title role.

In addition to lighting the exterior of the Royal Opera House, two Audi cars, one a vintage 1930s model and the second, the latest A4 convertible, were also on display. In support, Fourth Phase London and DHA Lighting joined forces with Pandemonium Events to make sure the evening was a success. To light the two cars Fourth Phase London used Source Four Pars and a Source Four profile. The cars were lit in open white, whilst the profile was equipped with a DHA monochrome gobo and projected the famous Audi rings onto the pavement between the cars. Two Mac 500s, also f

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Adam Hall Ltd, one of Europe’s largest suppliers of flight-case fittings, has just announced the release of an addition to its ‘Astroboard’ range of panel materials. ‘Astrodiamondboard’ has been the result of ongoing research and development work on modern lightweight flightcase panel materials. The research is proving to be a major benefit to the flightcase industry, allowing it to expand into many other areas where it has been essential that protection cases must be of the lightest materials possible. 7mm brown ‘Astrodiamondboard’ is now available off the shelf.

(Ruth Rossington)

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The first of the Dixons Group’s ElectroWorld stores in Budapest recently opened its doors. To impart the core ‘value for money’ message effectively and dynamically, the store uses a 10m2 Lighthouse LVP1010 (10mm pixel pitch) LED screen installed above the home cinema section of the store. The screen sits directly above a room that has been designated for customers to sample these high-end consumer products.

"Originally, the store was going to use a combination of conventional projectors and projector cubes," says Lighthouse’s Dave Gunn. "But once they saw the brightness of LED screen, they were bowled over by its dramatic effect, which also meant that they would not have to reduce the levels of ambient light in that part of the store, which would have been the case with projection."

Lighthouse has developed a number of strategic alliances w

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BarcoEvents receives orders for over 5000 square feet (450 square meters) of its award-winning LED displays during the first quarter of 2002, posting a growth of over 50% over the same period last year. The division, one of the fastest growing within the Barco group, boasts several substantial orders this year, including orders by US-based wholesale rental giant VER (Video Equipment Rentals), multi-national event engineering companies PSL Group (USA & UK), the Avesco Group’s Screenco & Creative Technology (USA & UK), as well as VPS (France), Imag -Video (USA) and AV Teknik (Sweden). BarcoEvents has already received LED orders in excess of US$25 million during the first quarter of this year.

According to industry market research data, BarcoEvents counted over 60% market share (by value) of the total global LED rental market during 2001. The recently-released growth figures indicat

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A new multi-storey themed café bar in London’s chic Mayfair area, Café Grand Prix has been developed by a consortium of Monaco-based financiers at a cost of nearly £10million. Now London’s largest bar and restaurant, it takes its style and name from the famous venue located on the legendary Rascasse bend at the Monaco Grand Prix race circuit in Monte Carlo.

Onyx Projects were asked by architects Smith Caradoc-Hodgkins (SCH) to design an integrated AV solution after the two companies had worked together on developing the Rainforest Café concept. There are three individually styled restaurants contained within the vast 22,000sq.ft footprint on the site for the former Thomas Cook head office - occupying the ground floor and two basement levels. The feature area - La Rascasse Restaurant - is a large, 170-cover banqueting room, which is also available for corporate functions

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Show Presentation Services (SPS) has just completed a number of events for children's charities, including the Microsoft NSPCC Ball, Scene and Heard's fundraising event, the Rhys Daniels' Trust Valentines Ball and the Children of Achievement awards, all of which took place in London.

Microsoft corporate social responsibility manager Sarah Foxall commented: "SPS was able to proactively think through the difficult issues presented by the event, and come up with solutions that allowed us to put on a great evening for our guests. With the generous support of our suppliers like SPS the Microsoft Charity Ball has been able to raise over £360,000 for the NSPCC over the last eight years." Ray Lowton, SPS's head of sound, said: "We try to make these events as painless for charities as possible. Working with charities is always rewarding and we like to feel that we can find time

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Westlife kicked off their ‘World of Our Own’ global tour in Europe with a spectacular lighting rig supplied by Bandit Lites and video expertise from XL Video. By the end of the European leg of the tour in June alone, Westlife will have played to nearly a million people, and the tour is destined to be one of the most successful and high profile of the year.

The lighting design was a collaboration between the show's technical director Phay MacMahon and LD Barry Halpin. MacMahon also designed the stunning in-the-round stage and set (both on the ground and in the air). With in-the-round being the most challenging of live performance perspectives, MacMahon and Halpin have created a breathtaking show full of drama and surprise. Bandit Lites - who also supplied Westlife's first tour last year - mustered over 120 moving lights - including 45 Martin MAC 2000s, 40 MAC 600s, 20 MAC 50

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Harnessing two decades of projection engineering know-how, Christie has announced the launch of its new line of single-chip SXGA DLP rear-screen tiling projection systems - the CS70-500Xe stackable display cube and the RPMS-500Xe rear projection module.

Both projection systems are engineered and manufactured at Christie’s IS09001 registered facility and are designed for applications where high reliability, long-term performance and stability are critical. The CS70-500Xe stackable cube displays native SXGA (1280x1024) resolution across a 70in diagonal high-contrast, high-gain screen, manufactured also by Christie. The depth of the CS70-500Xe is only 34". Using a 500W CERMAX Xenon user-replaceable lamp, the CS70-500Xe projects over 700 cd/m2 (nits) ANSI brightness. The double speed, six-segment colour wheel ensures long life and high reliability.

The RPMS-500Xe is the rear

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XL Video is supplying chart toppers Muse with video equipment including a Catalyst playback system for the next 17 weeks. This is believed to be the first European tour for Catalyst. Muse’s video system utilises High End Systems’ revolutionary Catalyst image processing system, two Barco G10 ELM projectors and a rear cyc.

Muse’s creative designer Oli Metcalfe was so impressed with the demonstration organised by XL Video’s Des Fallon that he immediately recommended Catalyst to the Band. They then visited High End’s Ealing office, and were blown away with the system’s capabilities. XL’s Mark Hughes is rigging the system, and Metcalf is controlling the Catalyst via DMX from his Wholehog II (with extender wing) console. Metcalf is running a wide assortment of video clips and media via the Catalyst including stunning abstract patterns, water effects,

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Wybron has revealed the latest development for its Autopilot II: automated camera control. The company's popular control system, created to turn regular moving lights into automated followspots, now also allows a camera to follow moving objects or people automatically.

First demonstrated at PLASA 2001, where visitors to Wybron's stand could see themselves captured on a camera controlled by the Autopilot II, the system should prove invaluable to smaller television or film production companies, where staff are at a minimum. Easily operated, a transmitter carried by a presenter or actor sends out signals to receivers, which are connected to the Autopilot II controller. Mounted onto a moveable platform controlled by the Autopilot II software, a camera will then follow the person carrying the transmitter, ensuring they're kept in the frame. The Autopilot II was used with High End Technobeam

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Winner of the 2001 LDI Award for Product of the Year Scenic Effects, and 2001 Eddy Award Lighting Product of the Year, Rosco’s ImagePro is now being launched across Europe. Already hugely successful in America, the ImagePro offers an easy, inexpensive solution for projecting photographic quality images, from the iris slot of an ETC Source Four, Altman Shakespeare, Strand SL or Selecon Pacific lighting fixture.

Projections have already proven to add individuality and effectiveness to an exhibition stand, theatrical production, conference, product launch or film/television production. Anywhere that a temporary projection may be needed is where the flexibility of ImagePro will be indispensable. The image is created on a plastic iPro slide with full colour high quality images printed on high temperature plastic. Rosco has hundreds of images available for immediate use, catalogued on

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Imagine the challenge of producing an event where your six star performers each weigh seven tons and are four metres high, three metres wide and up to 10 metres long. This was the task facing One Box Productions when launching ERF’s new range of trucks at Telford International Centre on 24 April.

The launch, to ERF’s dealer network and key customers, was particularly important because it is the first time ERF trucks have incorporated cabs developed by their parent company MAN. For One Box managing director David Langdon and his team, the challenge was to develop a show concept that would communicate the company’s heritage, the driver benefits of the new range and allow a large-scale product reveal. The solution was a dramatic AV presentation projected onto a 40ft high, 130-degree arc of drapes. This was delivered using Blitz Vision’s Suite P system and an array

  1. Bryan Adams
  2. Christie lights up screen for Star Wars Episode II
  3. RentalDesk assists management of demo stock
  4. Screenco chooses Barco for Commonwealth Games
  5. CT NEC in print
  6. Dome duo re-united
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