New York and Toronto - Hachette Book Group USA (HBG), one of the largest trade publishers in the U.S., has announced that it will upgrade its digital asset management (DAM) system with a solution powered by North Plains Systems Corp., a leading provider of digital asset management software. more

HSL supplied 7 Robe Digital Spots, a set of custom built DMX winches, full lighting, rigging and crew for designer Rob Sinclair’s innovative look for the Human League’s 2007 Festive tour.

Unlike the current trend for bands from the 1980s and 90s reforming, the Human League have never stopped performing. They still have a solid fan base, attract new devotees of classic 1980s electronica and are actively producing new work. more

Burbank-based ad agency Eclipse tapped the talented team of artists at Riot to promote the newest version of “Area 51,” a video game title to be released by Midway Games this month. The new commercial entitled “Blacksite” is currently airing nationwide.

To view the new commercial, go to: http://www.riotny.com/client_area/area51/pr more

The award-winning editorial team from New York’s Outside was asked to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in June by production company Local Theory to help promote the Nokia N93i via an integrated marketing campaign. MTV was so impressed with the project, that they requested a 22-minute version to air on the cable network tonight, December 20, 2007. The 22-minute piece was edited by Outside’s Jerome Wilson with Assistant Editor Greg Payton. more

Specially Written Track By Award-Winning Music Company Will Be Made Available On iTunes With Portion Of The Proceeds Going Towards Charity

Endless Noise, an award-winning music and sound design company, recently collaborated with Warner Bros. Records R&B artist Jessi Malay on a new holiday track. A portion of the proceeds will be donated towards charity. more

A complement of Clay Paky lighting fixtures has been selected for “Disney’s High School Musical: The Ice Tour,” a live fusion of songs, dance and team-spirited fun inspired by the pop-culture sensation and Disney Channel Original Movies, “High School Musical” and “High School Musical 2.” The show, produced by Feld Entertainment and Kenny Ortega, made its world premiere in New York City September 29 as part of an unprecedented global tour featuring three companies playing more than 100 cities across the US and locations in Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia and Europe. The ice tour will include never-before-seen choreography, costumes, lighting, special effects, projection and scenery. more

Hollywood, Fla. – (December 26, 2007) –The Stanton Group, a leading audio equipment company operating Stanton Magnetics, Cerwin Vega!, and KRK Systems, is proud to announce the addition of Chris Celtrick as National Sales Manager. Chris is a seasoned MI sales professional with a track record of meeting and exceeding sales goals. Now with the Stanton Group, Chris will be responsible for servicing and growing Cerwin Vega’s, KRK Systems’ and Stanton DJ’s current dealer network. “As with all Stanton Group management, Chris possesses the unique combination of experience, intelligence, personality and integrity. I believe Chris’ industry experience and know-how will be a real asset to our U.S. sales team,” explains Bryan Pistone, Stanton Group VP of Sales. more

Santa Fe Springs, CA. - Dec 21, 2007 - Enhance Technology Inc., the market leader in enterprise and OEM storage systems, is proud to unveil its next generation UltraStor RS16 IP-4, a 3U 16-drive Quad GbE iSCSI enterprise-grade independent RAID storage system. The new RS16 IP-4 is the latest addition to the award winning UltraStor RS series family with a built-in 64-bit RAID controller for mission critical applications that demand nothing short of superior performance and reliability. Some of the key features include Snapshot, N-way Mirror, RAID-6 data protection, automatic background data regeneration, dynamic online volume expansion and Multi-Path I/O support for Windows workstations & servers. more

The Kaiser Chiefs wanted something completely different video-wise for the latest arena leg of their tour, so set and lighting designer Richard Larkum came up with the idea of having 5 portrait screens crowning the top edge of the stage.

XL Video was asked to supply kit and crew. The project was handled for them by Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer, who also initially suggested they use Jon Shrimpton to direct the show’s camera mix. more

NOTE: to view USA Transformer spot please click on www.bigsmack.tv and click on page four (at the far right) for Transformer promo (first one in strip)

BIGSMACKtv (www.bigsmack.tv), a new creative design/production boutique specializing in the creation of broadcast promos, motion graphics, and entertainment branding recently completed a series of promotional spots for USA Network’s ongoing “Characters to Watch” campaign.

The first assignment required BIGSMACKtv to craft a ‘Characters to Watch’ :60 vignette to promote the DVD release of Transformers. For the second project, the multi-faceted creative shop wrote and produced two promos for the theatrical release of Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem (AVP-R), which hits theaters Christmas day. BIGSMACKtv applied the USA ‘Characters Welcome’ branding to the Transformers characters, Optimus Prime more