Barco visualization equipment brings 2004 Olympics to the world
KORTRIJK, August 20, 2004. Barco is proud to announce that the 2004 Olympics, currently held in Athens, Greece, are being broadcast to thousands of fans and spectators at the event throughout numerous locations in and around the historical city, using state-of-the-art Barco equipment.
Athens has been transformed into the host city for the 2004 Olympic Games, which take place from August 13th to 29th. Other regions such as ancient Olympia, Thessalonica, Volos, Herakleion and Patras, as well as municipalities around Greece are also be involved in the franchised Olympic Celebration sites program. With expected ticketed visitor numbers reaching well over 5.3 million, the Barco LED display and projection solutions used in the various sporting venues and entertainment locations throughout the country have a big task ahead.As recognized supplier of total solutions for visualization in sport and entertainment venues, and with high-profile display installations at Reliant Park Stadium (Texas, USA), Porto and Coimbra Stadium (Portugal) and the Hala Sazka Arena (Prague, Czech republic), it comes as no surprise that Barco has risen to preferred display solution provider to many of the venues hosting Olympic events.
Over the last months of the preparation for the games, Telmaco, the main system designer & integrator, in cooperation with Barco have installed two SLite 22 LED displays at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Faliro Piraeus and the Kaftatzoglio Stadium in Thessalonica. Both outdoor LED display solutions, measuring 48 square meters and 86.4 square meters respectively, are used during the games to entertain fans and spectators.
On August 13th, the biggest celebration of the world began with the Opening Ceremony at the Athens Olympic Stadium. The Opening Ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games signalled the return of the Olympic Games to the country where they were born, and also for this historical moment, Barco equipment was chosen to help create a breath-taking show. Jack Morton Worldwide, official producers of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, chose nine of Barco’s revolutionary XLM H25 projectors for use during the opening event.
Delivered by one of Barco’s foremost rental parnters, Creative Technology, London, the Barco XLM H25 projector was specifically designed for the demanding rental & staging and large events markets, which require powerful, reliable projectors that deliver outstanding images . The first DLP projector with a native wide-screen aspect ratio, native 2048 x 1080 resolution and light output of 27 000 Center Lumen, the XLM is the most powerful projector available on the market today.
Many of Barco’s foremost Greek rental partners, including Orama New Age, Podimatas Audiovisual, PPV and Tsili Productions, are also supplying LED and projection equipment to numerous sports and entertainment venues during the course of the Olympic Games.
In the LED product lines, both Barco’s outdoor LED solutions, the SLite and DLite and the high-resolution indoor LED product, the ILite 6 are popular choices with rental partners who need to help their clients convey larger-than-life images of all the action to the spectators. Many of Barco’s projectors, many of which are specifically built for use in temporary installations, are also proving popular display products.
“Having Barco’s visualization solutions chosen for so many high profile installations and venues at this historic event is a great honor,” states Stephan Paridaen, President Barco Media & Entertainment, adding: “Barco has been developing tailor-made visualization solutions for the sports market and event engineering industry for many years. We have always focused our R&D efforts on designing and developing products and solutions, which drive the technological evolution of these industries. Having so much of our equipment present at the many venues throughout Greece proves that our products are trusted by our clients. When ‘the show must go on’, clearly Barco remains the preferred choice.”
For more information about Barco or its products, please contact sabine.clappaert@barco.com or visit www.media.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.
