UK - Blitz North has been appointed as the sole AV and technical staging provider to the Liverpool Music Awards. Sponsored by the City Council, the awards are a key part of Liverpool's International Music Festival, held over August and September.

Ellie Phillips, founder and director of the awards, commented, "After meeting with Ian, it was clear that Blitz were going to be the right team to work with, alongside our events management and catering team. They demonstrated the creative flair we were looking for, essential for the awards, while remaining professional and extremely reliable. I'm looking forward to the ceremony at St George's Hall knowing how spectacular it is going to be in their hands."

Chris Jordan, Blitz Communications' head of sound added, "We have a strong background in the world of theatre and music and we welcome the opportunity to be involved

Germany - Osram has for the first time achieved maximum image quality for pure laser-based projection with a combination of laser and phosphor materials. The new phaser technology contains modules which do not need to be replaced during the complete service life of the projector. They will be used for the first time in projectors from the end of this year.

Until now only green light was generated via laser with laser-based projectors - LEDs were responsible for the blue and red primary colours. With phaser technology, where 'phaser' stands for phosphor and laser, Osram for the first time presents a process which achieves outstanding image quality with projection by the use of laser, made possible by blue laser diodes. The beams of the diodes are focused directly onto a wheel coated with red, yellow and green phosphor. When the wheel rotates the colours are generated in sequence,

UK - The Kings of Leon have a busy and varied schedule this summer in Europe. Venues range from indoor arenas like the O2 in London and the LG at Birmingham's NEC though to outdoor festivals like the Tennant's Vital Festival in Belfast and Denmark's Smukkeste Festival at Skanderborg. In between are the more intimate spaces of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and the iconic Roundhouse in Camden Town. Paul Normandale's design has to have more than a modicum of flexibility at its heart.

The video element of the design is all supplied by Chaos Visual Productions - eight screens of differing sizes are arranged in a classically Normandale asymmetric form. "Although the optimum height for this rig is 50ft there are occasions when that can be reduced to 15ft. I also had to bear in mind that, on a festival stage, our rig could only occupy the last 10ft of the upstage area to allow other

UK - Green Hippo has announced that along with their ever developing range of products, the team behind it all is expanding even more with the addition of Zep Mouris and Vlad Voina, software developers, and product design intern Rhian Wellington.

Mouris, who started at Green Hippo as an intern has developed his programming skills whilst working towards finishing his degree and has been a great addition to the team from the get go.

Voina joins the team as a graduate from Goldsmiths University with a BSc in creative computing and he has shown great enthusiasm working at Green Hippo and in the industry

Wellington, a BA industrial design and technology student at Brunel University joined in July working closely with the Hippotizer range.

(Jim Evans)

Malaysia - Originally founded in Johor Bahru, Malaysia by Presbyterian missionaries from England, the English-speaking congregation of Holy Light Church celebrated its 60th anniversary with the completion of a gleaming white new church building. To ensure clarity for speech and music, this new worship hall has installed a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system.

The hall's architecture features a high-peaked ceiling and ample windows which give a feeling of natural light and open space. This design also introduces reverberation for choirs in traditional worship services, though these same acoustical conditions introduce problems for both spoken word and amplified contemporary praise bands. To find the best solution, the church went to Danny Kinchang of Selangor, Malaysia-based First Live Sound Sdn. Bhd.

"The church's range of worship styles coupled with its reverbe

Mauritius - The Gearhouse Group of companies recently took charge of all technical requirements ahead of the 63rd FIFA Congress hosted in the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre (SVICC) in Mauritius.

The opening was held on 30 May and the congress took place on 31 May, and Gearhouse was the first choice for executive producer and creative director David Bloch to partner with, in executing the opening ceremony.

Originally, Pieter Joubert (technical director - opening ceremony) was briefed to advise on the technical and set aspects of the ceremony only, but it soon became apparent that the actual congress would require extensive support as well, due to the limited resources available on the island. As both the opening and the congress were to take place on the same stage, in the same venue, with only 12 hours and a rehearsal in between, this became quite a challeng

UK - Projection Advertising transformed the appearance of 94 Baker Street, the Grade II listed one-time base for Apple Records and the Apple Boutique, as part of the 31 July event to launch the luxurious new Apple Apartments.

Utilising two 15K projectors to create a light projection, Projection Advertising adorned the building -on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street - with a contemporary interpretation of the famous psychedelic-style mural by Dutch group The Fool, which had originally adorned the Apple building in its heyday. The image was projected with the strapline 'another beautiful place for beautiful people' - echoing Paul McCartney's description of the Apple Boutique as 'a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things'.

"It was wonderful to play a part in such an historic occasion," explains Tom Burch, managing director of Projec

South Africa - Christie has today announced a deal with MGG, one of the largest rental staging companies in South Africa, for four Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP purpose-built, event-staging projectors. These will be the first of the new J-Series projectors to be deployed in Africa.

MGG has been steadily increasing their investment in Christie Pro-AV systems, starting with LCD and 1-chip DLP, moving to 3-chip DLP, UHP illuminated M-Series and now onto the J-Series digital projectors.

Mark Gaylard, owner of MGG, said, "Over the last couple of years we have purchased a number of Christie products and have been particularly impressed with their quality and reliability, so when we were looking for projectors that could enhance our capabilities and offerings, they had to be Christie."

Gustav Barnard, technical and education manager at Stage Audio Works, added, &qu

South Africa - In March earlier this year, Kilowatt AV raised R35 000 for the charity Songo, besides supplying the full technical support, at The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

"Every year Kilowatt AV chooses to back a charity," commented Dillon Jearey, managing director at Kilowatt AV. "We feel that by doing this we can add significant value with cash and services donations. We look for charities that do not facilitate basic life needs but rather focus on inspiring people and helping them get excited about life and the awesome opportunities it presents. For the last two years we have supported Songo, a charity that uses cycling to inspire and uplift a community."

Kilowatt AV's main drive for their charity is entering a team into the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle tour and then raising money through suppliers and other friendly companies. DWR Distribution w

UK - Neets have announced its new exclusive distributor in the UK as Sahara Presentation Systems Plc.

Sahara Presentation Systems Plc is a trade only distributor and manufacturer of Audio Visual (AV) products including major brands as well as their own brands of audio solutions, mounting products, and more traditional presentation products including rail systems, dry wipe boards and notice boards.

The agreement, which sees Sahara distribute the full Neets portfolio means Sahara can offer a comprehensive range of control systems, connectivity and input panels predestined for classrooms, board rooms and conferencing facilities.

Shaun Marklew, sales and marketing director at Sahara says, "I am very pleased with the addition of Neets to our product portfolio adding great connectivity products and value for money for our resellers."

Carl Harper, screens and connectivi

USA - Twenty shows, 20 acts, 20 days! Hippotizer saddled up at Houston's Reliant Stadium and went the distance at this year's Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The annual Texas extravaganza featured nightly concerts by some of the biggest names in music, enhanced by video content wrangled and programmed by John Dickson of LD Systems, Houston.

Six outputs from three Hippotizer HDs delivered synchronized video playback to a variety of video displays supplied by LD Systems and Screenworks. Eight 8'x 16' "filler screens", with a total of256 WinVision 9mm tiles were rigged above center-stage between eight 29' x 16' HD Toshiba IMAG screens showing live content. Expanding and enhancing the filler displays were stage footer and header rings, and stage backdrop, all comprised of 3868 Barco MiTRIX 24mm LED panels. Seamless video content displaying across every one of these dispa

Switzerland - On Saturday 10 August a giant movement of people cascaded through downtown Zurich with almost 1m fans joining the 22nd Street Parade celebrating from 1pm to midnight right next to Lake Zurich.

Top acts like Bob Sinclar, Fedde Le Grand, Nicky Romero, Westbam and NERVO entertained and excited the crowds on eight large stages and 30 music trucks with further performances provided next to the festival site.

Nicky Romero and NERVO performed their acts on the main stage next to the Mythenquai (the former site was blocked by construction works), which were supported by a large light spectacle and a big live laser show. Acts on two further stages the Bürkliplatz and at the concert hall were also supported with many laser light systems from Laserworld.

Altogether Laserworld used laser light systems with a total output power of up to 200W, which were controlled by profe

The Netherlands - Creative Technology has announced that Edwin de Haan has joined the project management team of Creative Technology working out of CT's Holland operation.

Effective 1 August 2013, de Haan brings with him a wealth of experience in managing large complex video productions on a national and international basis, having spent seven years in a similar position at XL Video in the Netherlands.

Jeroen Jongenelen, general manager of CT's Holland operation commented, "We are delighted that Edwin has agreed to join CT. With his industry experience, I am confident that Edwin will be supporting CT's business development and continued growth. We look forward to his contribution to our Holland operation."

(Jim Evans)

China - As part of Creative Technology's (CT) commitment to offer the latest and most innovative equipment, CT's Asia Pacific operation reports that it has just placed an order for Barco HDX W20 Flex Projectors. This investment is a subsequent order following the delivery of the Barco FSN system earlier in the summer.

The Asia market - in particular mainland China - is demanding a similar level of quality of equipment as that in the European and the US markets and CT is aware of a noticeable rise in the amount of incoming events into the region, says the company. With CT's Asia Pacific operation offering full service of video, audio, lighting and rigging, the in-house team of Western and Chinese engineers and project managers provides total solutions to our clients.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Calibre UK is celebrating 25 years of success in the electronics design, creation, manufacture and delivery of innovative processing, image scaling, scan conversion and LCD electronics products to market.

Tim Brooksbank, chairman at Calibre UK commented, "Achieving this milestone has been immense fun. We've sold a lot of great products and have built some valued relationships. Here's to the next 25 years."

Founded on 8 August 1988, Calibre UK established itself as a small business in the technology and software sector and quickly built a reputation for electronics excellence.

Calibre UK originally designed and manufactured custom test equipment for CRT monitor and television factories, primarily for automated picture analysis and calibration on production lines. This spun out initial product lines such as I2C-Bus development and associated test tools. In the e

China - SWIT Electronics Co is a high-tech enterprise, specialising in developing and manufacturing products for the broadcast industry occupying an area of 16,660sq.m , in Nanjing National Level Economic and Technological Development Zone.

SWIT has gained a great reputation worldwide for their outstanding and innovative products over the years and with their passion for technology, they've showed great interest in supplying Green Hippo products.

"Green Hippo has firmly established their position within the areas of broadcast, live events, architecture and more, with a strong product line and a supportive technical team. We are very excited to represent Green Hippo in China, and to introduce Green Hippo's range of products here in China. We will help new users to discover the power, flexibility and the system's ease of use," says William Xiao, SWIT president.

SWIT

UK - XL Events continued a long term working relationship with the Brainiac phenomenon, supplying sound, video and lighting production to the Brainiac Live show which made its West End debut at The Palace Theatre in London.

The UK creative producer is Dan Colman, and XL Events' director Rich Rowley has been associated with the show that 'laughs in the face of science' for the last six years, ever since it first went 'live' and on the road in 2008 following an award winning five year run on Sky TV. During this time it has acquired a serious cult following.

Rowley, also the sound designer in addition to his role as XL Events' PM says, "Each time we take Brainiac to a new venue or on another tour, it takes on an innovative format bringing fresh ideas and fun to the equation. I continue to really enjoy working on it."

One of the biggest challenges for staging th

Canada / USA - Liberty AV Solutions announced a new distribution partnership with DataVisual to better serve Canadian commercial audio-visual integrators from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

Consisting of Liberty Wire and Cable, Fibertron, PanelCrafters, and Intelix, Liberty AV Solutions' entire product line will be available to DataVisual's customers, including their lines of cable, connectors, plates, panels and electronics.

"We are excited to be a Liberty AV Solutions distributor," said Benoit Kislisch-Lemyre, general manager of DataVisual. "The breadth of products available to our customers from Liberty will strengthen our portfolio in supplying the highest quality products in the audio visual communication markets."

DataVisual's extensive coverage of the Canadian integrator market will help cement Liberty's presence in the audio video and data inst

UK - On 27 June 2013, ACC Liverpool hosted Accelerate 2013, a flagship festival dedicated to high-growth businesses.

The event gathered 2,000 delegates, all with the ambition to boost Britain's economy. The conference objective was to motivate the best of British business to strive even higher and equip them with the inspiration and insight to do so.

The production needed to be innovative and colourful to reflect the positive mood of the event and create an atmosphere that would leave attendees feeling galvanised.

The audio visual was provided in-house by 14 members of the ACC Liverpool production team, who worked closely with organisers Liverpool Vision for six months in the planning stages.

Leaders from the world of commerce, headlined by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, delivered speeches to entrepreneurs and business owners and took part in debates and discussions lookin

China - The location was especially selected, the scenery perfectly prepared: FAW-VW Audi Sales Division China celebrated a spectacular show for their annual Ice & Snow Experience event with a spectacular outdoor staging. This year it took place in the Chinese ski resort Changbaishan in 1'500m above sea level in January 2013. Nearly 500 spectators from Europe and Asia were present and enjoyed the outdoor snow performance - at -30°C air temperature.

For the presentation of different Audi cars of the Q and Quattro series, a complete slope was prepared with snow-hills, big illuminated brand and car model signs and a gigantic lighting setup. This helped in changing the scenery quickly and put additional focus on the very model presented.

A central element of the performance, however, was the use of especially controllable snow cannons: Not only did they provide a special refle

Germany - coolux recently completed their move to their new premises, close to the region's largest broadcast studio complex in Cologne, Germany. The makers of the award-winning Pandoras Box systems had more than just a successful house move to celebrate, however, as the 10th anniversary of the company's foundation fell on 14 August this year.

The founders aimed to "think outside the box of traditional video playback technology, and to cultivate an open mind for innovations in order to make a leap in what is feasible in real-time video", the company says. "What began as a niche technology has steadily grown into an indispensable part of the modern AV industry in all its forms". Today, Pandoras Box media servers and related software systems can be found in varied markets from event venues to broadcast studios, on cruise ships and inside modern museums and visi

UK - PLASA Events has announced the launch of the 2013 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which will be presented in the new AudioLab Arena during PLASA London at ExCeL on Monday 7 October at 6.00pm.

The PLASA Show is regarded as a major international launch-pad for new products. During its history, it has seen hundreds of product innovations introduced to the market - a trend which we expect to see continued at the 2013 event. The PLASA Awards for Innovation aim to emphasise this focus on true innovation. The procedure for entry ensures that all nominated products are vetted to show that they offer something new to the industry:

"The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products which advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety."

All successfully vetted products are judged a

UK - Named in memory of Tony Gottelier, the industry innovator and commentator who passed away in 2006, the Gottelier Award aims to recognise product developers who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related field.

The shortlist of nominees is generated from invited suggestions from a panel consisting of PLASA team members, PLASA Regional Board & Governing Body members, regular contributors to LSi and LSA magazines, and past winners of the Gottelier Award.

All PLASA Members and pre-registered visitors to PLASA 2013 are eligible to vote, and will receive an email inviting them to place their vote at the PLASA Show website. Voting closes on Friday 20 September and the winner will be announced at the PLASA Show on Monday 7 Octobe

The Netherlands - Milestone AV Technologies reports that its Europe office in Weert, Netherlands, has a new state-of-the-art product showroom showcasing the latest AV solutions. After joining together the EMEA operations for its Chief, Da-Lite and Projecta brands under the same roof in October 2011, Milestone has made significant enhancements to the facility, including the addition of the state-of-the-art showroom for demonstrations and hands-on training opportunities. More than 40 installed solutions are on display, including mounts, racks, screens and other AV accessories.

The showroom demonstrates a wide range of vertical market applications, including digital signage, education, rental and staging, video conferencing, video walls, workstation, interactive, home entertainment, broadcasting and corporate.

"It has been exciting to connect our brands and bring our compreh

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