PARIS — Traditional pipe and drape may not have gone the way of the horse and buggy yet, but LED displays with video graphics are becoming increasingly dominant in the trade show world. Barco reports that for this year’s Mondial de Automobile in Paris, its LED displays are used on over 70 percent of the booths at the show.
LAS VEGAS — The Eyecandy Sound Lounge at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino has a touch-activated dance floor made of LED tiles using an array of 140 pressure sensors that track the dancers’ steps and generate interactive visuals under their feet. The 20-foot-by-14-foot dance floor was integrated by Canadian-based Réalisations.net using a Medialon Show and Media Control system, which uses a database of still images and videos for the underfoot visuals.
BURBANK, CA — Electrosonic has named Leonardo Freitas to the new position of associate vice president of product distribution. He will be based in Burbank and report to Electrosonic president Jim Bowie. Freitas was formerly regional director for Latin America at Tandberg.
SURFERS PARADISE, Australia —The lighting rig at the Gold Coast Arts Center has been updated with eight new Robe ColorWash 750AT Tungsten moving lights. Robe’s Australian distributor, the ULA Group, provided the Arts Center with the Tungsten lights. “We needed some new fixtures, and the Robe Tungsten’s were the best choice for excellent reliability and great features,” said Chris Dbais, technical manager
KANSAS CITY, MO — Melissa Etheridge makes no secret about her concern for the environment. She won an Academy Award for her song featured in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s film on global warming. She also posts “Green Tips” on her Web site, www.melissaetheridge.com . So it’s only fitting that for her 2008 Revival Tour, Etheridge’s lighting director David Hamilton helped keep things green with an LED fixture that saves energy, lights the stage with fewer fixtures, and has lamps with a long life, resulting in less waste for landfills.
LAS VEGAS — This year’s LDI Conference & Tradeshow took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Oct. 24-26. More than 400 companies put their cards on the table from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24 and 25, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26.
When Keith Urban joined Kenny Chesney’s 2008 Poets & Pirates tour, the F LED 11 semi-transparent LED screen chosen by production designer Marc Brickman went along for the ride. Supplied by XL Video, the F LED 11 is one-fifth the weight of comparable LED tiles, simplifying installation in venues with low rigging weight limits, and XL Video can provide an optional lightweight touring frame as well.
L’ASSOMPTION, Quebec — Stageline Group opened a second building here that has been built to comply with LEED certification standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for energy efficiency specified by the Canada Green Building Council. The new building, in fact, runs on hydroelectricity, and the operation of the building does not rely on the use of fuels at all.
DANIA BEACH, FL — Elation Professional announced that Everlast Productions, based here, will serve as Elation Professional’s East Coast service center. The move will enable customers on the East Coast to have warranty and non-warranty authorized repairs on Elation products performed at Everlast by technicians trained at Elation’s factory in California.
GETTYSBURG, PA — The Museum & Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, which opened earlier this year and recently unveiled its restored Cyclorama painting, uses a wide assortment of AV gear to help inform visitors and give them a sense for the historic significance of the battlefields nearby, which served as a turning point in the American civil war.
June 9-12, 2009 China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex Guangzhou, China www.light-building.messefrankfurt.com
June 16-18, 2009 Messe Berlin Berlin, Germany www.showtech.de