Christie picked up the award for Projector of the Year for Boxer 4K30 at the AV Awards in UK.

The Award was given by the panel of judges at the annual event organized by AV Magazine in UK who said, “At last there is a 30,000 lumen projector that isn’t the size of a small car.”

James Belso, senior sales manager for the UK and Nordics, accepted the award on behalf of Christie with enthusiasm, saying, “I can’t say how pleased I am about Boxer being recognized. We had an internal launch at our global headquarters - with the boxer Lennox Lewis as guest of honour. The entire team came back with a buzz; we all knew we were on to a winner as soon as we saw it.”

Belso built on the judges’ tongue-in-cheek observation: “To halve the size of a projector and introduce a host of features at the same time isn’t easy," he commented. "Boxer was the result of vision and over three years of work by Jeevan Vivegananthan, our senior director of product management, who I would really like to mention.”

Vivegananthan worked with some 30 engineers to bring the vision of Boxer to life; and throughout, rental stagers across the world were asked what they wanted in the ideal projector. “We knew we had the technological ability to build a 30,000 lumens projector at 68Kg,” he says. “We went backstage with our customers to see their challenges. For me, being able to see customers’ reactions was one of my greatest rewards. We spend years building their wish-list.”

Go Christie Boxer 4K30: Projector of the Year, Says AV Magazine Awards

China's Leyard Optoelectronic Co., Ltd. (provider of LED display products and ancillary systems) will buy America's Planar Systems, Inc. (display and digital signage technology).

Leyard will acquire all of the common stock of Planar for a purchase price of $6.58 per share or a total value of approximately $156.8 million.

While the deal may be done, the transaction is subject to specified closing conditions, including approval by the shareholders of both Planar and Leyard, and antitrust and other government clearance.

The pending acquisition augments Leyard’s existing range of LED display products and enables Leyard to expand its position outside its Chinese home market. As far as we know at this point, the intention is that Planar staff retain their positions.

Victor Li, Chairman of Leyard, says, “We believe that Planar and Leyard complement each other and that this acquisition will create significant synergies. We intend to strongly support the continued growth of the Planar business, with standalone management, under the broader Leyard umbrella. This acquisition demonstrates Leyard’s ongoing commitment to expanding its global presence. The combination of Planar's strong customer relationships, respected product offerings, and history of innovation across the organization, together with Leyard's market leading position in emerging video wall technologies create inspiring solutions for customers.”

We told you this was coming: Chinese companies that have grown exponentially based on a huge home market will eventually buy their way into US and European markets.  Planar has experienced a solid year, and it's on track to boost this year's overall revenue by 17.6%. Meanwhile, the China home market is weaker with the yuan devaluing and other domestic issues. This is the time when China turns outward-- when the home market stalls.

Expect more deals by end of 2015 as Leyard's Chinese competitors react, not willing to let Leyard get too big a headstart in overseas markets (because Leyard will turn any overseas profit to financing attacks to take more domestic market share).

Go Leyard to Buy Planar

Calibre launches its range of scaler-switchers (HQView625 and Calibre HQView770) built from its own HQUltra, the world’s fastest single-channel 4K presentation switching performance technology.

Calibre’s own virtual-ASIC video processing technology provides these scaler-switchers with three functions in one product. The more powerful in the range, HQView770 scaler-switcher, offers…

In Projection Mode, HQUltraWarp provides real-time adjustable 4K warp & blend for fast and easy screen calibration.

In LED Mode, HQUltra provides LED-optimized 4K scaling with a pixel-accurate algorithm that preserves image detail even with significant downscale, a key requirement for driving LED videowalls with good quality images.

In Presentation Mode, HQUltraFast gives the user unprecedented switching speeds, changing visually instantly between input channels in 0.25 seconds.

The 11 video inputs and four identical video outputs include 4K HDMI with 4K50 & 4K60 4:2:0 support, HDBaseT and 3G HD-SDI.

Tim Brooksbank, Chairman at Calibre says: “The HQView770…It’s the ultimate live events scaler-switcher.”

Go Calibre Launches HQUltra, World’s Fastest Single-channel 4K Presentation Switching

Following the largest single sponsorship deal for the benefit of UK horse racing, The Qatar Goodwood Festival witnessed a first in UK horse racing with more than 120 linear metres of high res digital signage along the final furlong and finish post.

If that signage looked familiar, you might have recognized ADI’s digiBOARD from Premier League football grounds, rugby stadiums and arenas. (digiBOARD features in 13 of 20 Premier League grounds)

The specific digital solution for the Qatar Goodwood Festival, created by LED specialists ADI as the exclusive screen supplier to the Goodwood Estate features 8 staggered 8 metre digiBOARD panels along the final furlong and a 60 metre long digiBOARD strip at the finish post-- all with outdoor 10mm SMD.

The digiBOARD solution is complemented by some of ADI’s other products, including the iCONIC 100+ screens (cited by the company as “the world’s largest, highest resolution mobile LED displays”).

Nick Robinson, Screen Rental Director at ADI comments, “We’ve taken one of our proven technologies and created a bespoke digital platform that met the unique requirements of the event sponsor and the venue. The result is visually spectacular, creating outstanding brand exposure that engages race-goers at the Festival and TV audiences. It has also created an attractive aesthetic in horse racing that’s never been seen before in the UK.”

Headline partner Qatar-- as well as sponsors Jaguar Land Rover, Neptune Funds and NatWest-- improved their sponsorship via full motion advertising in an audience engagement solution that surpassed the traditional audience engagement of static boards. And the signage operator gained the flexibility to change content depending on the race and the time of day (maximizing commercial opportunities as well live information (like race winners) for spectators to enjoy.

Go ADI LED Screen Solutions