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Video and AV

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UK - coolux Pandoras Box 5.1 software release is now available and will be highlighted by its UK distributor TMB at the PLASA Show (9-12 September, Earls Court).

Building on the success of Pandoras Box Version 5.0 launched at PLASA last fall, over 50 distinct improvements and upgrades have been added, including Media Encryption, 3D Warping, and a new Matrix Patcher.

"The new user-friendly Version 5.1 software package makes Pandoras Box a yet more powerful creative tool, uniting state-of-the-art rendering technology with intuitive live media and show control," says the company.

Features and improvements include:

New Matrix Patcher: Relocate individual pixels for creative setups when working with conventional LED processors, e.g. Barco, Daktronics, Galaxia/Winvision etc. A time-saver for repositioning pixels, even with unconventional LED fixture shapes.

Timeline

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UK - If, like the rest of the world, you were completely blown away by the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the technical teams responsible for turning Danny Boyle's vision into reality!

The first session to be revealed in The Olympics Uncovered programme at PLASA 2012, Backstage at the London 2012 Ceremonies is your chance to hear technical director, Piers Shepperd, and team present an overview of the mega staging, flying, audio, AV and special effects behind the London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies.

The bumper line-up includes:

Piers Shepperd - technical director

Jeremy Lloyd - technical manager - technical design and staging

James Lee - technical manager - aerial & closing ceremonies

Nick Jones - technical manager - lighting AV and power

Scott Buchanan - technical manager - services and special projects

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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UK - The PAI Group has delivered an integrated display and digital media scheme - incorporating advanced high brightness window displays from Paradigm AV - for DFS' first high street store, which has opened on Tottenham Court Road in central London.

The retail space marks the debut of the sofa brand's new design concept that has been developed to complement the company's latest advertising campaign.

DFS appointed design consultants 20.20 to devise the in-store experience, with the overall aim to appeal to the urban demographic. The furniture retailer had aspirations for technology that could be easily incorporated within the shop fit to display their digital media content, devised by advertising agency Krow Communications.

Following previous project successes with 20.20, the PAI Group was asked to realise the technical visions of the design team, successfully harnessing tech

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UK - The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games saw the main stadium transformed into a huge array of LED video pixels, mapped to the space inhabited by the entire audience. Developed by Tait Technologies, the pixel tablet has become the latest product to emerge from the expanding range of Tait's available rental systems. Producing over 70,500 pixel tablets for the entire stadium seating grid saw video emerge from its two dimensional world to become 3D; the audience members integrated into the show itself.

"The assembly of dispersed LED pixels to form very large video images has been with us for some time," explained Frederic Opsomer, CEO of Tait Technologies, who drove the development of this new device. "But never before has it been done on such a scale, and with such organic animation." Opsomer is referring to the fact that the LED Pixel Tablets

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Olympic Success - Friday night's hotly anticipated Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games was a huge success for all involved and, as well as kick-starting the Games in spectacular style, provided a worldwide platform to showcase Britain's incredible flare for putting on one hell of a show! Huge congratulations go to all involved. We hope our upcoming coverage in the combined August / September issue of LSi goes some way to documenting your incredible achievement . . .

The World Responds - The UK's TV audience for the opening ceremony peaked at 26.9m, the BBC has said. The average viewing figure for Friday's four-hour show was 22.4m, making it the UK's 13th most watched programme ever. The programme also had an 82% share - almost twice that of the previous high for an Olympic opening ceremony, in Barcelona in 1992. UK viewing figures for the opening ceremony of

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UK - Le Maitre has announced the addition of seven new products to their ProStage II professional range of pyrotechnics.

Falling Star is billed as "an incredibly bright star" and is available in 10 different colour versions, that falls under gravity over 30ft.

8' Ice Gerb is a dazzling spray of silver sparks with a bright white flame, projecting upwards to 8ft high.

Saxon offers a 20ft spray of projected rotating silver sparks - similar to a Catherine Wheel effect.

Gold Glitter Waterfall gives a 12 second stream of gold glittering stars falling 16ft.

13mm & 23mm Flashpots feature red, green or white -with rolling smoke, flame and a report.

SPD#1 is a 'robotics' effect - also known as an Electric Fault Simulator, producing a small flash and a spray of directional silver sparks to 10ft.

"We are really excited about the new additions to the PSII range as

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USA - The evening of 28 June 2012 saw a one night art installation in the form of a 3D mapping projection. This and other events were paying tribute to and celebrating the artistic legacy of art icon Keith Haring and were sponsored by Tenga of Japan. What makes this different from other similar events in NYC is that this was a fully permitted projection and not a 'guerrilla' execution.

The building selected for this spectacular show was The Maritime Hotel in New York's Meatpacking District (South Manhattan). Pearl Media Productions, a subsidiary of Pearl Media, managed and produced the entire project from concept to completion, including media content, installation and operation. Pearl Media's real estate division negotiated with the residential landlord of / and the hotel on which the projection and control area was placed, taking great pains to ensure the integrity of the even

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UK - The two companies that made event history by developing the digital artistry and technology behind the London 2012 Opening Ceremonies 'human-powered' video screen signed a global partnership agreement on Saturday 28 July. The partners are both behind the digital magic that enveloped the audience at Friday night's performance and plan to build on their joint offering to create immersive experiences for events worldwide.

Tait Technologies specialises in combining video and scenic technologies and provided the technology behind the largest ever video screen at the Opening Ceremony, which literally engulfed the audience. The screen is composed of 70,500 individual, full colour Pixel Tablets with a resolution five times that of HDTV and a height of 413ft.

Crystal is a creative agency which specialises in digital imaging and 3D animation. Crystal London created the stunning ani

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UK - Christie today announced its partnership with Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's (DFAIT) 'Invest in Canada'. Christie has provided two striking digital displays featuring Christie MicroTiles and Christie Entero LED rear projection cubes at Canada Olympic House in Trafalgar Square.

Operating from 27 July to 12 August, in addition to being the Canadian Olympic Committee's space for athletes, their friends and their families, Canada Olympic House hosts business leaders and government dignitaries and showcase Canada's leading industries and businesses. Christie is among the select technology companies invited to participate.

Christie's partnership with DFAIT at Canada Olympic House in London includes a large lobby display of up to 37 Christie MicroTiles and four 72" diagonal Entero cubes, the world's first LED-based ultra-high resolution pro

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France - Christie has entered into an exclusive partnership with Crystal CG, a leading digital media company, to supply innovative visual display solutions for the new Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) multimedia exhibition and information centre in Paris.

The Centre, a collaboration between Crystal CG and BIE and 100 percent funded by Crystal CG, will be dedicated to the history of world expos. It will house a permanent exhibition highlighting BIE's accomplishments, presented on the latest multimedia technologies from Christie. It will also feature meeting rooms to discuss expositions, large-scale events and a comprehensive digital research library for delegates, scholars, students and future Expo organisers. The Centreheld its official grand opening on 27 July 2012.

Crystal CG is a major Christie AV partner in China and the Official Digital Imaging Service Provider

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USA - Tri-Ed / Northern Video Distribution reports that it is expanding its partnership with Bosch Security Systems to now include pro audio and intercom products from the company's Communications Systems brands Electro-Voice and RTS, along with Bosch public address products.

"Tri-Ed/Northern Video is one of our most established partners in the security products marketplace," says Shawn Dahya, key account manager with Bosch Security Systems, "and expanding their portfolio to include Bosch Public Address, Electro-Voice pro audio, and RTS intercom products makes it easy for our customers to add a communications component to their purchase, and all with the high level of support and service that Tri-Ed/Northern Video is known for. We are very pleased to take this important partnership to the next level, and look forward to passing the advantages on to our customers.&

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Australia - Audio-visual staging company AVCorp has recently supplied audio systems for several large events held at Sydney's Allphones Arena where they are a preferred supplier. Each gig required a completely different PA set up but due to the flexibility of their JBL VRX and PRX speakers that was not an issue for AVCorp.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme rally, with the Prime Minister as a guest speaker, saw the stage positioned in typical fashion at one end of the arena. The PA system comprised of two hangs of five JBL VRX 932LAP speakers and some VRX subs.

"The system was actually too loud," commented Michael Papas, managing director of AVCorp. "You could hear low frequency reflections from the roof which muddied up our sound. We dropped the level a little and it gave us very good speech intelligibility with good coverage. I knew we would get the cove

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UK - A recent string of high profile appearances has seen Tinie Tempah at some of the most prominent music events of the summer, along with Chaos Visuals. "Tinie Tempah's creative director Willo Perron presented us with the initial concept in late May. Perron is an outstanding conceptualist; this was to be something very special, kicking off with the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend," explained Alex Leinster, Chaos Visual's MD. "Willo's idea was bold but fitted perfectly with such stage events where we see many artists pass through in short order. From our perspective the core of Willo's staging concept for Tinie was a series of wheel mounted columns between two and four metres tall, all clad in LED video."

Leinster appointed Andy Tonks to the project for Chaos: "Antony Randall, Tinie's show producer consulted with myself and Alex and led the realisation of W

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UK - AV suppliers to the event production industry, Harmony Audio Visual, recently chose the Roland M-300 Digital Console and S-1608 Digital Snake as a solution for the multi-room element of an extravagant audio and visual production to mark the opening of a multi million pound music centre at one of the UK's most prestigious schools.

Stars of the music world, including musician and songwriter Richard Stilgoe OBE and Julian Colbeck, joined opera singer Dame Felicity Lott DBE for the official opening of the new £3.2m Monkton Senior School Music Centre. Located at the prestigious Monkton Combe School in Bath, the new centre will provide facilities to pupils of all musical abilities under director of music, George Bevan, but will also be available as a rehearsal and performance space for professional musicians.

Over 1000 guests attended the weekend opening event and were tr

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Spain - XL Video, working with Live Nation Spain, supplied LED, cameras and PPU for the inaugural Ibiza 123 festival.

Ibiza 123 is the first music festival to be held on the island, and played host to a diverse line-up of artists featuring global superstars Sting, Elton John and Lenny Kravitz; live performances from chart stars Labrinth and Tinie Tempah; plus sets from DJs including Tiesto, Fatboy Slim, Chase & Status, Luciano, and David Guetta!

For the three-day festival, held on the San Antonio coast, XL Video was asked to provide an LED package which would highlight not only the first 123 Festival but also herald the first ever full music festival in Ibiza.

To achieve this XL Video specified an LED backdrop measuring 16m wide by 9m high, made from Pixled's F-30. F-30 was selected due to its suitability for outdoor use.

Three circular LED displays of decreasing size were

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UK - UK-based video and AV specialist Central Presentations (CPL) continues its investment in premium brand technology and is one of the first UK rental companies to take delivery of the latest Yamaha CL5 digital mixing console.

CPL already has a large stock of Yamaha LS9 and other desks. One reason the CL5 was chosen is that it runs on the same operating principals as these, so all their engineers who are used to working with Yamaha digital consoles will be able to use the CL5 immediately, and quickly familiarise themselves with its many advanced features.

The CL5 system was supplied to CPL by the Birmingham office of LMC Audio Systems.

CPL managing director Matthew Boyse explains that they were keen to be among the first AV rental operations in the UK able to offer their clients all of the benefits offered by the new CL series.

"The compact size and weight for 72 ch

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Australia - AV company Scene Change has purchased a Jands Vista S1 console to accompany their existing Jands Vista I3 console.

"We've been more than happy with our Vista I3 and it made sense to purchase another console that was already in line with what we were using," commented Jordan Renouf from Scene Change. "By adding the Vista S1 we've gained more functionality and because it is the same software as the Vista I3, the ease of usability for the guys has been very simple."

Renouf states that the surface of the Vista S1 is particularly good with a good number of playback handles for such a small surface.

"Again, it has a similar surface to the Vista I3," he added. "The Vista is such an intuitive console - easy to use and quick. Because of this intuitive design it's very quick to patch and program and have a show up and running quickly. Als

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UK - Following their debut in the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, the 'pixels' and Crystal's animations immersed the audience in a celebration of British music at last night's Closing Ceremony.

Danny Boyle said: "Every Olympic ceremony aims for a major technical breakthrough. Our remarkable audience pixels have opened up amazing new images, effects and spectacle, but most of all they have enabled our live stadium audience to be part of the ceremony in a way that's never been possible before."

Directed by Kim Gavin, the Closing Ceremony assembled stars of the British music scene from 1967 to 2012 performing their biggest hits. Working closely with Gavin's creative team, Crystal created 27 animated sequences, totalling the length of a feature length film to accompany the songs that brought Britain's musical heritage to life.

Over 10,000 pixels wide, the animations requ

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UK - ArKaos, creators of an acclaimed range of media servers and VJ software, will be showing the new Stage media server and MediaMaster Pro 3.0 software at this year's PLASA Show.

MediaMaster Pro 3.0 is the latest version of the software that powers ArKaos' complete range of media servers, and which can also be used to turn any powerful computer - Mac or PC - into a fully-fledged media server capable of running live or programmed HD video shows.

"A key feature of MediaMaster Pro 3.0 is the ArKaos Video Mapper extension, which allows easy mapping and masking of video onto irregularly shaped surfaces, whether that be an unusually shaped screen or an entire building. The Mapping Editor provides a fast, intuitive user interface complete with undo/redo implementation, making creating even the most complex maps a breeze," says the company.

"The ArKaos Stage media s

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USA - Andy C played the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas on 8 June as part of his latest US tour.

As a technical person himself, Andy C wanted to provide a live audio visual experience showcasing what is possible when you "merge the leading technologies from sound and video into one system and hand the controls over to the number one drum and bass DJ in the world".

The Alive tour produced by Made Up Ltd brought in Picture Works who specified Green Hippo's Hippotizers.

"The Hippotizer was the only media sever capable of creating the complete multimedia, fully interactive, audio visual performance that Andy C required," says Jon McMullan, project manager, Made Up Lld.

The DJ booth took inspiration from the Alive logo which was one of the main features. This 8 x 4m structure made up the face with one GrassHopper containing 10GB of HD Media and 20,000 l

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UK - A number of important additions to the London edition of the PLASA Professional Development Programme have been announced. The 80 free-to-attend sessions form the backbone of the 2012 edition of the PLASA Show, which takes place on Sunday 9 - Wednesday 12 September, live at Earls Court in London. From the creative minds of world-renowned LDs and sound engineers, to the visionaries of tomorrow's technology, the PLASA Professional Development Programme is the largest free knowledge sharing event of its kind.

"The new style programme forms a roadmap for the next twelve months in theatre, live concert and touring, live events and installed environments. PLASA 2012 continues to be the place where pace setters converge to share expertise and ideas, and we are delighted by the concentration of talent coming to London this September, it is simply phenomenal. Anyone wishing to

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UK - Avolites and Avolites Media (Hall 1, booths F18 and G15) are set to launch three new products and new Titan Operating system at PLASA 2012. It will see Avolites Ltd presenting the launch of the Titan One virtual console and Titan Version 6, while Avolites Media will showcase the Ai Infinity Media Servers and launch the ground breaking Sapphire Media console.

Known for their professional and friendly approach, the team from Avolites will be on hand to offer individual demonstrations and detailed technical information about the fully comprehensive visual control range.

Avolites Titan V6 not only offers support of Titan-Net distributed DMX but also a host of new features such as the ability of Assignable Global and Individual Rate Masters to enable over-ride of BPM and Times, Auto-legend for Colours, Gobos and Video Clips as well as to hand draw into your Pixel Mapper with A

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UK - Following three successful years at XL Video in the US where he oversaw the Los Angeles office, Phil Mercer has returned to his native UK to take up the role of group head of concert touring.

Mercer's brief is to develop the Concert Touring division of XL Video globally, by working with XL's offices in the US and mainland Europe to provide artists with a seamless touring solution across multiple continents.

"I'm hugely excited by my new role within XL Video," says Marcer, "and the responsibility that comes with keeping us visionary in our approach to the industry; in terms of providing cutting edge display technology, high skilled crew, efficient packaging and unequalled service.

"With live show revenues increasingly replacing CD sales as the main income stream for most touring artists, this places equal importance on high production standards and va

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UK - Green Hippo will demonstrate "that the industry's easiest media server has just got easier". Previewing a host of new and innovative features on their PLASA stand, Hippotizer has been given a functionality and user interface makeover, allowing operators to create and programme with improved simplicity and ease.

Following on from a year of expansion in staff and premises Green Hippo Ltd are pleased to focus on making one of the world's favourite media servers simpler, improving work-flow and production times, says the company.

And once you've experienced the product come and meet the team that makes all this possible on stand 1-G6 at Earls Court, London.

(Jim Evans)

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  5. The PLASA Show announces 2013 move to ExCel
  6. Pete's Big TVs brings Elvis to life
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