UK - Creative technical event production company Hawthorn brought the bright lights of Las Vegas to Battersea Evolution for the Waitrose Supplier Gala Dinner 2017 on 19 May 2017. Following a Vintage Vegas theme, Hawthorn worked with client Entertee Events to transform the venue into a show-stopping party venue. Not only providing an opportunity for the company’s suppliers to network with the executive board, commercial directors, category directors, and senior traders, the evening also raised vital funds for the charity GroceryAid. With 1,500 guests seated across 147 tables, Entertee made the most of Battersea’s large versatile space. Decorated with crystal chandeliers, entrance tunnels made from Hawthorn’s lavish blue velvet drape and thirty-two palm trees wrapped in fairy lights, guests were transported back to the golden age of Vegas. Hawthorn also created ten
UK - Depeche Mode’s career spans four decades and a reputation for musical originality has kept them relevant and at the cutting edge in delivering one visually and sonically inspiring performance after another. Blackburn lighting rental specialist HSL is the main lighting and video contractor worldwide for the current Spirit tour. They are partnering with CT to deliver the video package. The raw, stylish, industrial production design is by creative director Anton Corbijn, who has always pioneered video as an essential vehicle of live production. Lighting has been designed by Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of SRae Productions and is being directed on the road by their associate LD, Manny Conde. The Spirit tour is being production managed by Tony Gittins and plays a mix of stadiums and arenas. HSL’s project manager Jordan Hanson is working closely with CT’s
UK - The British Museum Experience (BME), a new museum dedicated to popular music honouring the global influence and history of British music and artists, is now open and in full swing at the Grade-II listed Cunard Building in Liverpool. At the heart of the attraction, the main stage show is powered by a 7thSense Nano-SDI media server featuring a specially produced digitally-projected performance by music legend Boy George, and a large-scale stage hologram – all integrated by DJ Willrich. The BME was originally housed inside London’s O2 venue between 2009 and 2014 – while a few items from the original site were recyclable, the new permanent home and themed zones of the BME have seen a full technology and content refresh. Visitors are taken on a chronological journey of British music history from 1945 to the present day as told in eight state-of-the-art inte
UK - Okulus, the production design company working alongside creative director Paul Caslin, and 24/7 Productions, were behind the Canadian singer-songwriter’s recent Illuminate World Tour, creating attention-grabbing looks, with Hippotizer Boreals and Taigas. The Hippotizer Taigas (one active, one backup) fed a 1920 x 640 curved, 9mm LED wall, which served as the performance area’s main backdrop to display the visuals, triggered via timecode. The team also integrated the video director’s live camera feeds into the content. A key technical aspect for the Okulus team was Hippotizer’s ability to beautifully integrate with Notch, the ‘real-time graphics workhorse’. Effects here included a 3D model of Shawn Mendes – using an Xbox camera focused on Shawn DSC – which Okulus placed into pre-programmed environments. The team also used the set-up to manipulate IM
UK - The Vienna-based Dynamic Projection Institute, designer and manufacturer of the Dynamic projection system, has appointed Polestar Productions as its UK partner. The Dynamic Projection Institute’s high tech Mirror Head system enables a projector’s output to be dynamically moved anywhere within an 180° by 90/162° arc under the control of DMX / Art-Net or the comprehensive software package provided as part of the system’s MDC-X Media Servers. The software's features include Show Automation, Time Scheduling, Media Manipulation, Geometric Corrections, Seamless Transformations, Image alignment with Soft-edge and Show Pre-sets. System Control is Via the MDC-Touch Remote Control, a web-based app or DMX / Art-Net control. The Mirror Head systems versatile design
UK - Universal Pixels, has become the latest rental and video production staging specialist to add Epson’s laser projectors to its product portfolio. Established just six months ago, UK based Universal Pixels has already supplied bespoke video solutions for some of the world’s best known bands. The impressive line-up includes names such as Radiohead, The Killers, Blondie, Robbie Williams, Gorillaz, Rick Astley, Primus and Agnes Obel. Universal Pixels is using Epson’s EB-L25000U laser projectors as part of the staging for Radiohead’s current world tour, Moon Shaped Pool, which includes a headline performance at Glastonbury this weekend. London grime collective, Boy Better Know also used two of the 25,000 lumens projectors to launch its takeover of London’s The 02 on August’s bank holiday weekend, and Rick Astley’s recent tour included a laser projec
UK - RealSound & Vision Ltd, the Oxfordshire-based sound, stage lighting and AV system integrators who have achieved UK-wide success and recognition within the education sector, has announced the appointment of David Wilkins as their sales manager. Wilkins is well known in the lighting industry with previous roles at Northern Light, Selecon and Strand. He now adds this experience to broaden the multidisciplinary skill set at RSV. On joining, Wilkins commented that: “It will be an exciting opportunity to drive the Company forward”. David Nibbs, managing director, added: “I am very pleased to have David on board as part of our team and I’m sure that he will be successful in significantly raising the RSV profile and our levels of successful business in Education and elsewhere.” (Jim Evans)
UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of Production Resource Group (PRG), has announced two new additions to its music team. Robert Watson and Michael George have both joined as account managers and bring a diverse range of talent and experience to PRG. Michael George has joined the company from Blink TV where he specialised in filming and streaming of live events – a service PRG XL has already begun to offer with the live streaming of Stormzy’s recent sold-out Brixton Academy shows. Stefaan Michels, director of music, PRG XL Video, comments: “It’s a pleasure to have Michael join the team. He’s great to work with. It is exciting to expand into the live streaming market and with Michael’s expertise and high standard of delivery, it’s sure to be a resounding success.” Robert Watson brings more than a decade of experience in live production, working a
UK - Anna Valley helped LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) celebrate their new £28.2m training centre by providing AV for their official opening event on Wednesday 14 June. Attended by Royal Patron HRH Princess Alexandra and alumni including Brian Cox CBE, David Suchet CBE, Ruth Wilson and Jemma Redgrave, the event showcased the new theatres and training spaces that are transforming LAMDA’s west London home. Anna Valley provided a turnkey AV solution for the event’s gala performance. Guests in the 200-seat Sainsbury Theatre watched students perform against the backdrop of a developing photographic timeline which was projected using two 21k projectors onto a 14.4m x 7m cyclorama fed by a Macbook Pro running Qlab. Because space in The Sainsbury Theatre was limited, Anna Valley also filmed the event using two Panasonic AW-UE70 4K remote-head cameras a
UK - The Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London has just completed a three-week run of Robert Anton Wilson’s play, Cosmic Trigger, directed by Daisy Campbell and produced by The Cockpit Theatre. Dave Wybrow, artistic director at The Cockpit contacted PRG XL Video for help in solving a video projection conundrum they encountered whilst planning to stage Cosmic Trigger. Dave discussed the challenges they faced, bringing their creative visions to life: “We’d wanted to produce Cosmic Trigger at The Cockpit for a long time, I’m not only a huge fan of Robert Anton Wilson, but also the seventies American counter-culture he represents so well. Cosmic Trigger is a complicated piece to produce, it’s basically a play within a play within a play—and is more a play about ideas than it is about characters. “Previous productions have been prese
UK - The new Christie DHD1075-GS and Christie DWU1075-GS 10,000 ISO lumen laser phosphor projectors combine many of the potent features from the Christie HS Series, including more powerful grid-based warping and blending with Christie BoldColor Technology, all in a compact form-factor. With both projectors, Christie continues to ensure that sophisticated, high brightness projection is accessible to the more budget-conscious user at a low cost of ownership. Whether used in fixed installations or event staging, the DHD1075-GS and DWU1075-GS are durable, rugged and built for extended, heavy use over a period of many years while delivering super-quiet operation and a powerful, vivid presentation, says the company. “Significantly more advanced than original GS models, we’re taking 1DLP to higher levels of brightness, and image quality using Christie BoldColor Technolog
South Africa - Phil Blue, sales manager at Green Hippo, joined with DWR Distribution to deliver a week-long training programme to Green Hippo’s South African distributor’s client base. Sessions were led by Phil with logistical and technical support from DWR’s local staff. First stop on the Republic of South Africa schedule was Cape Town, where Phil gave an illuminating session, including using DWR’s Hippotizer Boreal and Karst set-up to take attendees through ZooKeeper – Hippotizer’s interface, which allows for real-time control of the engine and all its components. Phil then flew to South Africa’s east coast to take a session in DWR’s Durban office. The day again covered ZooKeeper, as well as ideas regarding using Green Hippo products in Durban’s churches and theatres, such as the historic Playhouse Theatre. Phil then journeyed to Johannesburg where
UK - Following on from a highly successful event in 2016, creative agency Imagination has once again produced Make the Future London and the Shell Eco-marathon Europe, a four-day event held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. The event promotes innovation and future technologies, and includes a variety of family-friendly activities and exhibits to educate and entertain. Imagination’s global project director, Lynda Hickey, and event technical director, Matt Francis, called on PRG XL Video to supply lighting, rigging, and video technology for the event, as the company was able to provide technology across all three disciplines. PRG XL rigging account manager, Ade Stead, worked with Imagination’s brief to specify and build rigging structures for the outdoor stages, LED screens and lighting, and truss and supports for the lighting in multiple m
USA - Voted for and recognised by the industry, AV Stumpfl received accolades for Wings Engine Stage media server and Monoclip screen system, both showing for the first time at InfoComm 2017. On 13 June, Monoclip won the Rental & Staging Award for Best Projection Screen. It has all the features of the Monoblox system with a full clean profile without studs and press snaps. The Monoclip's entire frame block unfolds and the snap joints lock automatically for an ultra-fast set-up process. The MonoClip vinyl surface can be stretched easily and attached to the frame with patented QuickClip hooks. This gives the surface a perfect mat, seamless accurate fit to the projected image. The fully upgraded Wings Engine Stage media server also won a Rental & Staging Award for Best Show Control Product. It combines a durable hardware platform with automatic camera based softed
UK - Digital and live production experts, Really Creative Media, has invested over £300,000 in Panasonic’s latest laser projectors, for its busy summer of touring and fashion events. Really Creative Media has announced a major investment in Panasonic’s new PT-RZ31KEJ 30,000 lumen laser projectors, demonstrating the company’s commitment to its high-end offering to events clients. The new projectors will predominantly be used for music touring, but also for projection mapping and corporate events. The PT-RZ31K Series offers detail-rich colour performance and accuracy, high brightness and advanced mapping capabilities. The laser light source means a more consistent brightness throughout the life of the projector. This, combined with its compact form and high brightness, make it ideal for use in live events. The product offers up to 20,000 hours of maintenance
USA - Christie has announced Christie Terra, a line-up of new products to help customers leverage the benefits of the Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) Alliance, which promises a standardized approach to maximize the scale, scope and user-experience of AV-over-IP system architecture and performance. Comprising an expanding line-up of transmitters, receivers and control hardware and software, Christie Terra solutions enable the design and integration of SDVoE-compliant systems that are simple, flexible, highly-scalable and affordable. Built on standardized SDVoE technology, Christie Terra solutions support video formats up to 4K at 60Hz and provide unprecedented performance capabilities transporting and processing of uncompressed, zero-frame latency, artefact-free video over affordable 10G Ethernet components. Christie Terra will be on exhibit in booth 2553
UK - Victoria House in London’s Holborn was home to the 2017 NEC Solutions Showcase and Green Hippo’s UK team played a key role in delivering one of NEC’s sweetest exhibits to 1,500 trade visitors. A Hippotizer Boreal Media Server created a ‘virtual sweet shop’ set-up, using a total of 11 screens, three Datapath X4 video splitters, and playing back 4K video. The resulting display immediately grabbed the attention, and show visitors immediately grabbed some time with Green Hippo’s on-hand team of technical experts. The NEC-hosted event is a valuable opportunity for Green Hippo to demonstrate its cutting-edge line, as well as meet and greet hundreds of members of the trade. Recognised as one of the UK’s leading events at which to ‘bring technologies to life’ Green Hippo was one of 36 NEC partners present at this ninth show, and the Boreal’s sweet shop
USA - As part of the continued development of the Event Master screen management systems, Barco has introduced two next-generation 4K60p video interface cards. With the new 4K tri-combo input and output cards, single cable 4K60p is supported via DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0 and 12G SDI. 4K tri-combi I/O card for Event Master with full 4K@60 4:4:4 12-bit processing at low latency and a rugged modular design that supports easy field upgrade, Barco’s family of advanced screen management processors - the Event Master series - have become the de facto high performance processing solution for rental and staging. The Event Master processors, E2, S3-4K and EX, have proven to be extremely flexible, supporting powerful scalable solutions for shows of all sizes. Whether supporting multiple smaller shows with single units, or combining multiple processors to support the needs of a
UK/USA - Leisure and entertainment technology consultant and designer, Eric Lehman, has joined media serving solutions company, 7thSense Design, as business development manager. With more than 30 years’ experience in the design and development of some of the world’s leading public attractions, Eric will be based in Orlando, Florida, working with customers in the immediate region and across North America. Specialising in the technical design and specification of world-class audio visual installations, particularly those with high pixel density, large-format projection requirements, Eric’s career has seen him work with, and contribute to the commercial success of, respected companies including Electrosonic, Solid Control Inc., and Mad Systems, in addition to his own consultancy business Lehman A/V Consultants. His installation portfolio includes many high-profile attract
UK - After 40 years as the leading British advertising awards, this year the British Arrows combined their Craft and Awards shows into one big ceremony –The British Arrows. Held at Battersea Evolution on 31 May 2017 and hosted by TV comedian Rob Delaney, over 72 Campaign Arrows and 32 Craft Awards were handed out to the cream of the advertising crop. Hawthorn was on hand to deliver the full technical production for the evening. Hawthorn has delivered the technical production for the British Arrows Awards since 2011, with the design and production values increasing in specification and complexity each year. With this year seeing the two events combine into one special show, the team at Hawthorn worked closely with the British Arrows producers to deliver a stand-out experience for the 1000 guests. With the concept for the evening following an open room format, guests h
Europe – “Showtime is showtime” – a simple phrase used by Matt Finke, general manager and creative director of loop light GmbH, to sum up how they put on some of the most thrilling live shows for big brand names in Europe and make them go without a hitch. Relying on technology to deliver on the day, they recently added a further 10 Christie Pandoras Box Quad Server Systems, opting for the highest configuration of the latest Pandoras Box Sever, PK5 with 14.4TB SSD storage, sync/genlock option and 10GB network LAN. The move doubles the number of servers loop light already has in its high-performance portfolio. “Productions are becoming more and more demanding. We want to offer our clients an unrestricted service when it comes to productivity and flexibility – really give them a complete toolkit with no compromises,” explains Finke. No stranger to the software and
Australia - The Australian TV industry’s biggest night, the 59th annual Logie Awards, were held at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium on Sunday 23 April 2017, broadcast live on the Nine Network. Always a great opportunity for the broadcaster to show off its tech capabilities, fantastic visuals were spread across three huge screens onstage, a wrap-around screen surrounding the audience, and pixel mapped to onstage fixtures and LED chandeliers. Helming the mission-critical media server and console operation was Lynden Gare, director of Melbourne-based lighting and production company Colourblind, who relied on Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Media Servers to ensure that the show went exactly to plan. Green Hippo is no stranger to the world’s biggest televised events, with their Media Servers used on The Eurovision Song Contest and The Academy Awards. At the heart of Lynden’s
Europe - Kiev delivered on its promise to present an awesome show and Green Hippo technology was key to the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest looking better than ever. Bringing together a crack team of skilled practitioners, this year’s Green Hippo Eurovision team’s video production heavily featured in the visual design of the show. Highlights included a large LED wall behind the stage, LED floor, Pixel-mapped lights and a projection-mapped arch over the stage. To help ensure the polished performance the MA2 and time code-driven set-up used a total 16 Green Hippo Boreal touring Media Servers, all running Hippotizer V4.2.1 software. At any one time, up to nine of the Boreals were active, driving a complex set-up. In addition to Green Hippo itself, various companies supplied the legion of Green Hippo Boreals: DigiGobos / Beacon Gobo Group: exclusive Green Hippo distribut
UK - The Vamps recently completed a sold-out arena tour of the UK as part of the first leg of their world tour, before joining up with Little Mix as they head in to Europe. Lighting, video and rigging technology and services were supplied by PRG XL Video - with lighting design by Peter Barnes and video content direction by Stuart Merser, using the latest live image manipulation tool: VideoDust. Created by Stuart Smith and his business partner Phil Woodhead, of Brighton based technologists Thundering Jacks, VideoDust is a user-friendly, intuitive tool for creating original video content in real-time from a live source. Stuart Merser has been the only video director outside of Thundering Jacks to use VideoDust/Cat combination on touring productions, he explained why he is such a fan: “I’ve been touring for over twenty years and VideoDust is one of the most impressive tools
