BARCO selected for U2 Elevation Tour 2001

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XL Video to use BARCO‘s state-of-the-art LED video walls and high brightness projectors for the much anticipated U2 World Tour and to expand its rental fleet with another 40 square meter LED walls.


Miami, March 26, 2001. The leadership of BARCO and XL Video in the field of large screen visualization for concerts and other events is confirmed once again. During the next five months BARCO‘s LED systems and projectors will offer thousands of fans of the Irish pop group U2 a front row „seat“ during the U2 Elevation World Tour. XL Video has provided over 40 square meter of DLite 10 LED video wall, 4 ELM G10 DLPTM projectors and 6 BARCO 9000 Series LCD projection systems to make this arena tour into an absolutely thunderous event.

In 1992 U2 used over 200 BARCO video cubes during their ZOOTV Tour. For their colossal POPMART in 1997, the band broke new ground in the music concert industry by using LED technology. Today, U2 once again has turned to the world leader in large screen visualization by choosing BARCO‘s high brightness DLPTM and LED projectors and state-of-the-art LED video walls. These modular visualization systems allow the reproduction of multimedia video- and computer images on very large surfaces, even in open air in broad daylight. The durability, the fast and easy replacement of modules and the smooth set-up and dismantling in all possible environments make these BARCO systems the perfect solution for concerts.

The U2 Elevation Tour 2001, the band‘s first tour since 1992, kicked off on March 24 in Miami to visit 34 North-American cities, including Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Cleveland, Chicago, Montreal, Detroit, Washington and New York. It wraps up June 21 in the Continental Airlines Arena of E. Rutherford, NJ. A European tour, which will follow the North-American dates, will begin July 6 in Kopenhagen and will include not only shows in Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, but also in Antwerp, a concert that was sold out in a few hours‘ time.

XL Video offers every individual in the audience a front row „seat“. This global leader in the field of visualization for concerts and other events has recently bought almost 100 square meter of BARCO DLite on top of the many BARCO projection systems they already dispose of. This has resulted in a long list of references, among which the tours of The Spice Girls and Bryan Adams, the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta and Times Square New Year‘s Eve Celebration in New York, to name only a few. XL Video is clearly the perfect partner for an event such as this Elevation Tour.

René De Keyzer, Managing Director of XL Video, stated: „The BARCO LED video walls are an incredibly reliable product, which is of utmost importance in our business. Put on top of that the astonishing picture quality and the full commitment of everyone at BARCO and one can imagine that the decision to offer their product to our client U2 was an easy one. I’d like to express my appreciation for the effort of everybody involved at BARCO for the U2 Elevation World Tour.“

Stephan Paridaen, Business Unit Manager for BARCO‘s Daylight Display Systems Division, stated: „XL Video supplies only the most technologically advanced visualization systems. With its global presence they are one of the few companies who are able to handle big worldwide productions. The LED displays and projection systems will once again provide outstanding close-ups during the concerts. It goes without saying that the fans will be able to enjoy their idols as if they were all in the front row.“

For the U2 Elevation Tour 2001 XL Video uses material and systems of Barco Projection Products and Barco Daylight Display Systems, two Business Units of Barco Projection Systems. Barco Projection Systems is one of BARCO’s four key activities alongside BarcoView, BarcoVision and Barco Graphics. In 2000, the entire BARCO group, without BarcoNet, which was split off from BARCO in the second half of 2000, delivered a turnover of euro 751 million. Approximately 50 % of this turnover is realized outside Western Europe. BARCO has a network of subsidiaries, distributors and agents in 97 countries throughout the world. BARCO has been quoted on the Brussels Bourse since 1986, and is now quoted on Brussels/Euronext. BARCO is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company.

XL Video is a global leader in the rental market for high-end display technology for the special events industry. XL Video focuses solely on providing the most advanced video display products. They have been selected to provide display systems for some of the world‘s highest profile events, such as the Spice Girls World Tour, The Bryan Adams European Summer Concert Tour, The Annual Meeting of the Ford Motor Company, The Kentucky Derby, The US Open Golf Tournament, the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Times Square New Year‘s Eve Celebration and the MTV Sports & Music Festival.

You can find more information about BARCO on the web: http://www.barco.com

 

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