Barco’s creative visualization solutions add glamour to Paris Car Show.

Over the past five years, Barco displays have featured on many of the world’s leading auto manufacturers’ booths. From Porsche, Audi, Saab and Pirelli to Corvette, Lexus and Volkswagen, all have used Barco’s state-of-the-art displays at one of the world’s leading auto shows. From Paris to Tokyo, Frankfurt to Detroit, Barco’s revolutionary ILite 6XP or its tiny MiPIX ‘Lego block’ LEDs have helped create show-stopping booths in an environment where glamour and glitz is the order of the day.

Barco enters the lucrative car show industry in 1999, initially capturing almost 50% market share with its early LED display solutions. Over the next four years, Barco increases its focus on developing display solutions tailored at the needs of the demanding entertainment and event markets. By developing innovative products such as the popular ILite 6XP, the ultra-high resolution ILite 3 or the award winning MiPIX LED blocks, Barco ensures a growth in market share from 50 to almost 90 percent.

“Over the past five years we have seen a marked evolution in the needs of the Events market,” states Barco Media & Entertainment president, Stephan Paridaen. “Five years ago, automotive manufacturers used LED displays mostly in a straight-forward 4 by 3 aspect ratio. The screens were part of the booth, but architectural integration still lacked the finesse of the creations we see on shows today. At this year’s Paris Car Show, a trend that has been growing over the past few years culminates beautifully in some of the most creative booth designs seen to date. LED displays no longer feature as ‘stand alone’ imaging devices, but are artfully integrated to become part of the booth structure, blurring the lines between imaging, lighting and architecture,” adds Paridaen.

This year Barco’s displays will form part of, amongst others, the Mercedes Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, Corvette, General Motors, Alfa Romeo, Lexus, Toyota and Ford booths. With set-ups which include curved, concave LED displays which move 360 degrees around a booth (Opel booth, by Barco rental partner Creative Technology), or MiPIX blocks which have been integrated into walls to become invisible until they are switched on (Toyota booth, by Barco rental partner ETF Event Engineering), Barco is proud to announce that over 31 automotive manufacturers have chosen its display solutions for the 2004 Paris Car Show.

“Our worldwide network of rental partners has delivered a total of some 700 square meters of equipment to this year’s show in Paris. With a strong belief in our “technology enabled, market driven” approach, we provided on-site support to our rental partners throughout the critical build-up phase of the show. Whereas Barco started out as equipment supplier a mere five years ago, we have evolved with the market and its needs to become a reliable strategic partner to our clients. With rental partners from as far afield as the USA, Italy, Germany, the UK and Belgium providing equipment to the show, it is important for them to know that Barco is there to support them during even the most critical times. It also demonstrates our unfaltering belief in the reliability of our equipment and the importance of the long-term relationships we aim to build with our clients,” states Barco Events General Manager, Steve Scorse.

The Barco LED display systems are represented at the Paris Car Show via many of Barco’s worldwide rental partners including CT (Creative Technology), ETF, Eletech, VideoRental, Euphon, STS communication, Gahrens & Batterman, Sono, ICT, VPS, Perfect, Procon, Novid and XL Video.

Photos of the Barco displays at the Paris Car Show will be available on September 27th. Please contact sabine.clappaert@barco.com if you wish to receive copies.

For more information about Barco’s products, please visit www.events.barco.com

About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco has a network of subsidiaries, distributors and agents in almost 100 countries. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company.

For more information, please contact

Inge Govaerts
Public Relations Manager
Barco - Media & Entertainment

Telephone +32 56 36 8052
inge.govaerts@barco.com