disguise announces its expansion with new appointments to its senior team, to further strengthen disguise’s position and support network worldwide. Bill Collis was appointed as Chairman of the Board in early 2018, bringing significant senior leadership experience within the film and video industry to his new position, with over a decade as the CEO and then President of the Foundry. Bill built the Foundry organically transforming it from a London based niche visual effects software company into a high growth global force in development and distribution of media post production tools and product design technology.

For the kick-off of the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf on December 29 and 30, 2018, HDwireless was in action for the host broadcaster ZDF. The overall technical planning and the implementation of the host requirements were realized by the company "TopVision" under the leadership of Achim Jendges.

Al Mamlaka TV, a 24/7 HD news channel and Jordan’s first state-funded public service broadcaster, went on-air in July 2018. Although funded by the government, Al-Mamlaka (“The Kingdom”) offers public broadcasting services and is therefore neither state-owned nor commercial. It runs as an independent voice and delivers news and broadcast shows on both linear and OTT platforms. Jordan’s new public broadcaster resides in a completely new six-storey facility in King Hussein Business Park, Amman, which provides around 8,000sqm of space. This was a greenfield project without any legacy infrastructure or media equipment. Work started in August 2017 and commissioning was done in January 2018. April 2018 saw the successful completion of the project and official handover.

CP Communications, a leader in innovative solutions and services for live event productions, has appointed Jerry Gepner as Chief Operating Officer. Reporting to CEO Kurt Heitmann, Gepner will drive strategic and business development efforts to help transform the company into a broader media-centric solutions provider that goes beyond its core broadcast focus.

Earlier this month, Yahoo Finance launched eight hours of live streaming financial news coverage. It’s the latest example of a digital-native news outlet getting into streaming news to capture more audience attention on mobile devices and to compete for television dollars.

NewTek today announced the release of LightWave 3D® 2019, a new edition of the production-proven graphics and animation package that refines the artist’s workflow to make creation of complex, photo-real animation and imagery faster and more efficient. Leading the list of improvements are the revolutionary new integration tools with Unreal Engine for real time data transfer to the world’s leading game engine. The system performs automatic discovery to make the workflow entirely seamless.

Newly formed 501(c)3 nonprofit Veterans-TV Inc. (VETV, www.veterans-tv.org) is preparing to launch hands-on professional television production training courses for veterans of the U.S. armed forces, law enforcement veterans, and firefighters who have lost their employment due to injury or attrition. VETV is creating a mobile classroom within Denali Gold, a remote production truck donated to the cause by NEP, and will provide courses in cities across the U.S. when integration of donated broadcast equipment is complete.

Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, has joined forces with the National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (Belarus TV) to deliver optimized, end-to-end workflows and infrastructure for the broadcaster’s four new outside broadcast (OB) vans. Designed and built by German OB specialists Broadcast Solutions GmbH, these new vans will produce and deliver coverage of the 2019 European Games, taking place in Minsk from June 21-30, 2019.

ES Broadcast Hire is expanding its European operation with the opening of an office in Rome, Italy. The office will be managed by Mario Sperelli, who joins the company as Hire Manager for Italy.

Christie Lites – one of the largest, busiest and most well-respected lighting production and rental operations in North America - has made a major commitment to Kinesys automation, with the purchase of Elevation Liftket 500Kg chain hoists as their flagship automation products going forward – both 200V and 400V systems - for North America and Europe.

Panasonic has introduced a new handheld camcorder, the first in a series set to combine advanced connectivity functionality with high end image production for broadcast and streaming applications. The AG-CX350 camcorder spearheads the series, and is the first camcorder in the industry to provide NDI | HX connectivity1. This ensures smooth video transmission and camera control over IP for live events and web distribution, and means the camera can be built in to larger systems working alongside Panasonic PTZ camera systems equipped with NDI|HX and the Panasonic Live Production Center (AV-HLC100).

Sony is planning to merge its European business into its Dutch arm to soften the impact of a no-deal Brexit, according to Financieele Dagblad.

The unit will be responsible for the company’s electronics business in Europe, including TV sets, but not the movie and TV channel businesses, and the deal will be completed on March 29 2019.

A spokesman for Sony Benelux confirmed to the Dutch paper that the Sony office in Hoofdorp, Netherlands will become the Japanese company’s headquarters in Europe.

The Berlin-based manufacturer Stage Tec has provided six AURUS platinum consoles for Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. (RAI), the Italian public broadcaster. Two of the six consoles are equipped with 48 faders, the other four with 40 faders. The delivery was supplemented by a NEXUS router and a NEXUS Base Device per console. Each of the routers is equipped with five RMDQ audio DSP modules.

A remarkable outside broadcast truck, UHD1 HDR, built for Swiss production company tpc using technology from Imagine Communications, completed its first live broadcast – a match in the Swiss National Hockey League in Zürich on October 19, and is now in regular use. To deliver high-performance and multiformat capabilities across a broad range of productions, the truck uses standards-based IP connectivity. Providing extensive functionality in a compact form, the truck is the first step in tpc’s aggressive programme to move to an all-SMPTE ST 2110 production and delivery infrastructure.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary tour at the end of last year, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds showed it has lost none of its momentum or ability to thrill.