UK - A new event aimed at conference organisers and event managers is to be staged in Birmingham on 3 September by conference specialist Saville Audio Visual.

Engagement is seen as the key word at conferences and events today, as audiences become more discerning in the fast paced world of technology. Organisers looking for new and innovative ways of keeping audiences engaged can see the newest solutions here, with on-the-spot demonstrations and advice from one of the UK's leading creative technical teams.

Midlands Conference Tech Expo takes place at the CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham B1 2LF on 3 September from 9.00am to 3.00pm.

The event will allow visitors to experience the sheer impact of the latest high resolution LED display technology first hand, plus much more.

Saville event manager Vicky Fennell says, "Organisers looking to make a BIG impression at the

Mexico - Daktronics in conjunction with Mexican partner Pantallas Publitronics, was called on to provide two new LED video displays for Estadio BBVA Bancomer, home of C.F. Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. The displays were installed this summer and are ready for C.F. Monterrey, commonly known as Los Rayados, to take to the pitch for their first match on 2 August, the eighth edition of S.L Benfica's Eusébio Cup.

"We are excited to work with Daktronics to bring a better overall experience to our fans and sponsors for interaction, information and statistics at every event held at Estadio BBVA Bancomer," said vice president of C.F. Monterrey Tonatiuh Mejía. "We worked with world leaders in every aspect of creating this facility which will be a tourist icon for the city, designed with iconic materials from our states and equipped with the highest audio and video

Russia - Big Screen Show are a Russian group of companies providing AV services for concerts, exhibitions, presentations, sports and other large-scale events and shows. They aim to provide highly qualified specialists and the right equipment to meet the most demanding and discerning customers.

BSS is a Rental and Production company and a long-time supporter of Hippotizer Media Servers. The company has a large selection of Hippotizer V3 Media Servers and have used them on an array of projects and events.

Last month, Big Screen Show purchased four Boreal V4 systems. Big Screen Show owner Evgeny Marinichev explains why he decided to upgrade from his V3 systems to V4. "It is almost three years that we're using V3 and it has proved itself as a powerful and multifunctional server.

"But power is never enough, and we need more outputs and higher resolutions from servers. A

Europe - Panasonic has launched a major upgrade to its flagship large-venue projector, with the release of the quad-lamp, three-chip, 20,000 lumens DZ21K2 Evo Series.

The 3-chip DLP, DZ21K2 Evo updates the brightness projector, which debuted at the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Hartmut Kulessa, European projector marketing manager at Panasonic, said, "With Panasonic's powerful new Real Motion Processor to enable 120 Hz driving speed, Panasonic has refined the Evo series' optical engine to enhance focus performance, resulting in improved image clarity, all from an extremely compact body."

Other upgrades include a Digital Link single LAN cable connection, two 3G-SDI inputs (PT-DZ21K2 and PT-DS20K2 only), and a newly developed picture enhancement system (Detail Clarity Processor).

Panasonic has redesigned the lamp modulation system, which low

USA - Aspiring magicians are invited onstage to show their tricks and fool the magician-comedian duo Penn & Teller in a new series on the CW Network, Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Video equipment rental company Pete's Big TVs played a part in the magic, providing LED video panels, projectors and crew.

The 13-episode season, taped in the Penn & Teller Theatre at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, airs Monday nights at 8/7 Central Time. Throughout the season, Penn & Teller search for the best up and coming magicians in this competition. If Penn & Teller can't explain how the trick was done, they are officially "fooled" and those tricksters will open for the duo's ongoing stage show in Las Vegas.

Production designer is Anton Goss, creative director at Consortium Studios in Los Angeles, whose projects range from game show, awards show and talk show sets to studio desi

UK - Over the past year, White Light has continued to expand both its services and expertise across a variety of entertainment fields. Whilst remaining the leading theatrical lighting supplier, the complete production solution specialist has recently supported touring concerts for artists such as 50 Cent and Frankie Valli, historic occasions such as the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary, as well as festivals such as the Winslow Hall Opera and Glastonbury. One of the most significant developments has been its expansion into audio and video. As a result, White Light now requires a team of freelancers who can help support the company as the demand for its services in both areas continues to grow.

At the start of 2015, White Light formed its very own audio department. Fronted by Head of Audio Lee Dennison, who formerly worked at Delta Sound/Sound by Design, the department was created to

Azerbaijan - The first ever European Games took place in Baku, Azerbaijan 12-28 June. During 17 days of sporting and organizational excellence, more than 6000 participants from the 50 European countries competed in 20 sports in 18 venues, winning more than 800 medals.

The Opening Ceremony for the games was held in the newly built Olympic Stadium on 12 June. During a two-hour spectacular event, produced by Dimitris Papaioannou, the Olympic Stadium was transformed into a magical stage of artistry and performance, enchanting the audience, as well as viewers around the world with Azerbaijani's history and culture. There were highlights from poems by Poet Nizami, pomegranate symbolism, traditional mugham chant and rotating and emerging sceneries featured by 300 performers.

Green Hippo played a part in this historic event. At the beginning of the opening ceremony, showing the dry cr

USA - Elation Professional's new EPT6IP high-resolution LED display panels played a key role at NY CityFest with Luis Palau, a free outdoor concert held 11 July on the Great Lawn in New York's Central Park. Boston-based rental and production company Audio Spectrum Inc. provided all of the LED video screens and staging for the event, some 280 EPT6IP panels in all, some of which were sub-rented from Elation dealer Gemini Light, Sound & Video. Lighting design for the event was by Gordon Painter and Kevin Shaw.

The Elation EPT6IP panels were used for large stage wing portrait walls on each side of the stage, as well as on delay towers, to show live video and graphics throughout the show. Each wing was eight panels wide and 14 panels tall (16' wide x 30' high) with each delay tower seven panels wide and four panels tall (15' wide x 9' high).

"There were approximately 60,000 at

USA / UK - To combat theft, an epidemic that annually costs the motion picture/television industry millions, PLASA has introduced Rental Guard, an enhanced alert system and missing equipment database consisting of three distinct tools.

The Rental Guard Database and Notification Module allows anyone to report stolen equipment and receive notifications of recent thefts at no charge. Companies or individuals buying, selling or servicing equipment can quickly check serial numbers to determine if equipment has been reported missing or stolen.

New customer Inquiries allow PLASA members to solicit information about potential customers from PLASA's international membership to help determine credit worthiness or legitimacy. The Questionable Customer Alert notifies recipients when a PLASA member suspects that a potential customer may not be a legitimate renter. Use of the New Customer I

UK - On 25 July 2015, the Tate Modern in London hosted a very special one day event in their Turbine Hall.

As part of the Turbine Festival 2015, video designer, Icarus Wilson-Wright, was asked to transform the Turbine Hall with a new look for the event. To support this, he asked d3 Technologies, XL Video, and Barco to assist in realising the project.

One of the most striking features of the Turbine Hall is its height - 35m at its tallest - and in order to create a new look for the event, Wilson-Wright aimed to change the shape of the room.

Using dozens of fire-retardant paper strips, up to 25m in length, rigged from near the hall's glass roof light, Wilson-Wright filled the ceiling space with a combination of coloured lighting and subtle projection which changed throughout the day.

In total 10,000m of paper strips were used to change the look and feel of the room. Two Barc

Italy - Genelec has appointed PRASE as its Italian distributor for AV-Install and home audio products. MidiWare will continue to distribute Genelec's professional line of products.

Located in Noventa di Piave near to Venice, PRASE has been operating for more than 20 years as an AV distributor.The firm constantly updates the professional training of its technical staff, allowing them to transfer their knowledge to the market, ensuring added value for its customers.

Jarmo Masko, international sales manager for Genelec said, "This company is full of energy, with an enthusiastic team lead by the Prase brothers, Alberto and Ennio. They have highly skilled personnel as well as their own R&D in order to match the future needs of skills to maintain various applications and systems, from railway stations to home theatres. We believe they have the dedication and enthusiasm required

Although it was the 22nd year of the major Scottish music festival, this was the first time it was held at its new site in the grounds of Strathallan Castle in Perthshire. T's former home at Balado airfield a few miles down the road was finally vetoed last year after long-running health and safety issues about pipelines which run directly under it.

Some of the biggest names in music made their way to Scotland in July for the three-day festival including Jessie J, Labrinth, The Libertines, The Script, Noel Gallagher, Stereophonics, Ella Eyre and Twin Atlantic.

Twin Atlantic, headlined the Radio1 Stage at T in the Park this year. Lanz Short, content designer and programmer reports, "I designed and made some content for the show. Specifically their hit song Heart and Soul. I also set up VideoMapper and made custom DMX personalities and programed the Amba so that the lighting

The HSBC Headquarters Building in Hong Kong's Central district - Norman Foster's remarkable machine-like structure, had been the subject of a facade lighting project in 2003 which became 'A Symphony of Lights'. HSBC HQ was one of 24 of the most significant buildings that joined Hong Kong's permanent nightly light show that year.

Twelve years later, illumination Physics was commissioned to help bring to life the first wave of HSBC'S 150th anniversary messages. A complete update of the façade lighting and the integration of three large media walls followed.

In 2003, the HSBC main building was equipped with the best lighting technology available at the time. The LED revolution had yet to take hold. The first step of illumination physics' plan for this building upgrade was to bring the façade lighting up to date. The photometric requirements for this building are very precise. Few plan

UK - PSCo, the trade only AV distributor and rental specialist, is showcasing the latest innovations from its leading manufacturer partners at the PLASA Show 2015 (London's Excel - 4-6 October). Visitors will be able to view PSCo's must-see 3-2-1mm LED line-up of Absen products on its 70m² stand, alongside innovative LCD displays including the new Samsung High Bright and video wall displays, and the stunning new Samsung 105" display - the largest professional display available in the world.

"Following the success of last year's PLASA, we are excited to be showcasing so many new technologies from our rental and sales portfolio for system integrators and live events partners," says Stuart Holmes, managing director of PSCo. "We will have new technologies across mu

UK - Each summer the great and the good of folk music visit the picturesque university city for the Cambridge Folk Festival.

This year, the site at Cherry Hinton Hall saw the 51st Festival, with main stage headline performances including Joan Baez, The Proclaimers, Frank Turner, Joan Armatrading, and Passenger.

With three days of sunny weather, the central arena outside the Main Stage tent was packed with festival-goers. To ensure that those outside the tent had an excellent view of the artists onstage, the event organisers, Cambridge Live, called on XL Video to supply a pair of outdoor LED screens.

Two 9m2 screens were requested, as in previous years, and XL's project manager, Paul Wood provided XL's own ROE Visual MC-7 7.5mm resolution, indoor/outdoor LED. The screen was selected for its good visibility in daylight, weatherproofing, and high resolution, giving the audience

USA - The newly-renamed Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration has opened new galleries in the former Kitchen and Laundry Building of the immigrant processing and detention station, which operated from 1892 to 1954 in New York Harbor. Dedicated to the story of immigration in the years following Ellis Island's closure, the galleries mark phase two of the Peopling of America Center. Electrosonic provided AV support for phase one, which covers immigrant arrival in the Pre-Ellis era, and opened in 2011, and returned to complete phase two following a long delay caused by Hurricane Sandy, which struck the Northeast in October 2012.

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation raised the funds for and oversaw the project and engaged ESI Design as the exhibition designer, with Michael Schneider as technical lead.

For phase two, Electrosonic was tasked with installing all the rac

UK - To create a spectacular opening for the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, 59 Productions, with the Edinburgh International Festival, created The Harmonium Project.

The free outdoor event drew in crowds of approximately 19,500 people and combined the music of John Adams' choral work Harmonium, made especially by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus conducted by Peter Oundjian, with visually stunning projection mapping onto the Usher Hall in central Edinburgh.

The 34-minute performance of The Harmonium Project integrated scientific data captured with the support of the Centre of Design and Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, who collaborated on the project to examine the effects singing has on both the performer and the listener.

Having worked with them succ

Maldives - Working for local technical production and solutions company Pop Joy headed by Asad Haneef, London-based large format projection specialist The Projection Studio (TPS) was asked to assist in providing spectacular pitch video projections at the Galolhu National Football Stadium in Malé, for the Maldives 50th Independence celebrations.

TPS was asked to get involved in the project because of its reputation of projecting onto spectacular buildings and for major ceremonial events which have included the Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.

TPS had just three weeks from receiving confirmation to producing finished content for the 30-minute finale section of the show, which featured a cast of hundreds, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) marching band and display team, sky divers and 40 members of the MNDF - which all u

Australia - Rockhampton's Pilbeam Theatre, in Queensland, is a thriving 1000-seat lyric that sees a wide variety of productions on its stage. Concerts, musicals and corporate events are regular fixtures, and with a thriving community arts scene, often quickly produced and tightly turned around. Ashley Salta, the theatre's technical supervisor, often employs projected media effects on their in-house produced productions to save budget, space, time and effort.

"We produce a lot of musical theatre," explained Ashley. "We often project video content like rain, clouds or other moving textures onto the set or cloth to bring the stage to life. It also means we can avoid creating a piece of set with that imagery on it. Until recently, we'd been using QLab, but that meant someone had to operate it separately, and we had to load in content for each new show. So I was lookin

UK - Working with designer, Jonathan Paul Green, XL Video has supplied a package of video projection, screens and LCDs for the latest series of the topical panel game, Mock The Week, produced by Angst Productions for BBC Two.

The show, which is hosted by Dara O Briain and features panellists Hugh Dennis and Andy Parsons, is filmed before a live studio audience shortly before its air date. This ensures that the topics for improvisation are relevant to current news subjects.

The studio incorporates a range of different video elements. The show logo incorporates a world globe, inspired by the show's theme tune, News Of The World, by The Jam. This is recreated using a 6ft diameter Repro H screen, located behind O Briain, which is built into the set and rear-projected via one of XL Video's Panasonic 10k projectors.

Upstage of the main improvisation area, a 16ft x 9f

USA - Striving to make the undergraduate student experience as fulfilling as possible, the University at Buffalo Student Association hosts a series of memorable events throughout the year. As the organization got set to produce the EDM concert Electric Tundra headlined by Bingo Players and featuring 3LAU and DNNYD, the local production staff was asked to create a high-energy atmosphere inside the Alumni Arena, and needed lightweight LED video panels that could also create quality HD projections so they chose the FLEXCurtain HD from PixelFLEX.

"On Electric Tundra we had the challenge to present a national headlining act with limited setup time on a small stage with a video wall, all on a tight budget," began production manager, Katie Gilliland, University at Buffalo Centre for the Arts. "Inside the 6,500 seat arena, equipment cannot be hung from the r

UK - Blackout continued its longstanding relationship with Somerset House, supplying rigging and drapes for this year's Summer Series and Film4 Summer Screen events during July and August.

Blackout worked alongside production manager Jon Howes, within a team of contractors, who year on year collaborate with the venue's management and sponsors. The team work to facilitate both events and aid Somerset House's transformation into a concert setting and then an open air cinema.

This is the eleventh year running Blackout has worked on the Summer Series concerts, supporting promoters Metropolis Music. This year the concert featured performances from Passenger, George Ezra and Jessie J and attracted crowds of up to 3,000 people.

Blackout provided all of the stage rigging as well as two truss wings, which flanked either side of the stage, to hang the PA systems and branding, negating

UK - Matthew Griffiths is to step down as PLASA CEO. A statement from PLASA reads: Over the past few months it has become clear to the boards and executive management of PLASA that a fundamental redesign of our business model and structures are necessary due to the increasingly difficult trading conditions currently being experienced. For the organisation to remain of service & benefit to the membership we represent, it is imperative that our expenditure can be funded by an affordable and sustainable income. To that end, the PLASA Governing Body has decided that there needs to be complete review of its businesses.

In light of the above and after 17 years as PLASA's chief executive officer, Matthew Griffiths has decided that now is the right time to step aside which would help kick start and facilitate a fresh set of ideas and approaches needed for the next chapter in PLASA's dev

UK - The latest AniMotion live painting, digital art and music show is presented by Aurora Nova at George Herriot's School as part of the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The power of original painting created in real-time and projected onto stunning architecture accompanied by live music is a special collaboration between projection artist Ross Ashton, virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and acclaimed visual artist and painter Maria Rud.

The location for this magical outdoor experience - Venue 316 of the Fringe Festival - is the quadrangle at George Herriot's School. The high impact art is being projected onto the side wall, of the beautiful 17th century chapel - which becomes part of the world renowned Festival, famous for showcasing new, innovative and thought-provoking works.

Says Ross, "We are extremely excited to be performing at the Fringe and exceptionally

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