Green Hippo

Green Hippo at PLASA and LDI 2008

Green Hippo at PLASA and LDI 2008

It’s that time of the year again when everyone can breathe a sigh of post PLASA/LDI relief. Despite some late nights setting up and a few worrying moments when it looked like the beer supply had dried up, both shows were a resounding success for Green Hippo.

Yet again we broke the mould with stands that were both alive (check out all that greenery!) and completely kicking, with friends and customers from as far afield as Japan and Australia relaxing in the PLASA Hippo Café.

With real foliage and funky tables and chairs to complete the forest feel, the Green Hippo stand really stood out from the crowd. In addition to demonstrating the famous Hippotizer HD and Stage we introduced the new HippoCritter and HippoPortamus and all our customers were excited about the new opportunities these products could bring to the table.

The HippoCritter replaces the Express and offers 4 layers of 720 x 576 or 2 layers of 1280 x 720. Weighing in at a mere 2.5kgs the HippoCritter is ideal for installations, fixed and architectural, nightclubs and by using LAN, shows where the unit needs to be attached to trussing or placed in an odd spot.

The HippoPortamus comes in a laptop version and is perfect for those operators on the road. With its windowed preview mode, operators can pre-program shows on the move, eliminating downtime on trains and planes and allowing efficient and cost effective time management.

Both models come with all the functionality of the Hippotizer Stage and Hippotizer HD, with PixelMapper, Timelines, Effects, Media Manager, Keystone and ScreenWarp as well as all the other great components you have come to expect from a Hippotizer.

As usual Sean Westgate & James Heron provided outstanding presentations for the Plasmas on the stand, which drew the attention of lots of potential new customers and showed the versatility of the Hippotizer product range.

Meet the Critters made its first appearance and was a constant source of entertainment with Ola Melzigs infamous “James *^?*:$£* Heron” interview ringing out across the show every hour.

Animated animals brought to life by our resident experts Nigel Sadler and Tom Etra were rear projected onto handmade screens and given voices with witty customer interviews and “Critter Chat” between some old fashioned operators, realising just how fantastic todays Hippotizer really are. Highlights included Nigel’s gorgeous gorilla and Tom’s accents which jumped from Yorkshire to Indian to Jamaican to Yorkshire again, phew!

You will be able to see the Critter interviews online very soon at www.green-hippo.com with a fantastic X factor worthy rendition of “Mud Glorious Mud” to be added imminently!

The interactive LightPaint feature also proved very popular and old and new customers alike were busy experimenting. This stunning new feature gives you the ability to use digital artist style painting tools, live directly within the Hippotizer and is ideal for drawing live masks & adding text and pictures to shows in real time.

Yet again the Hippotizer was the media server of choice on many of our customers and colleagues stands and in addition to the units at Green Hippo over 9 Hippotizers could be found around PLASA rocking their exhibition stands with a further 5 rocking LDI stands. This was not only a testament to the quality and all round flexibility of the Hippotizer but a test in speed and efficiency for Tom and Nigel as they ran the length and breadth of the shows helping set up!

We also introduced a new member of staff at PLASA this year. Samantha Bailey has joined the team as a new Account Handler. The existing sales team have done such a great job increasing business we needed another pair of hands and she will take over some existing accounts as well as focusing on new territories for Green Hippo. Samantha is a specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe and proved this when presented with a bottle of vodka from one of our Polish customers.

We can’t end the report without mentioning our existing Account Handler and trainer Simon Harris whose demonstrations of the product were once again second to none. With a constant supply of water and redbull by his side to ease the strain on his voice Simon demonstrated all day long, stopping only to eat and use the bathroom (not at the same time though we might add!) Well done Simon!

Perhaps the best thing about the PLASA show this year was the constant stream of colleagues, customers and most of all friends to the Green Hippo stand. The Hippo Café (a nice description for funky tables, chairs and copious amounts of alcohol) was a hive of activity and it was a pleasure to see that it was always busy. The atmosphere was fantastic with everyone raving about the great new products as well as just chilling out at the end of the day, sharing some beers with their favourite supplier.

LDI, held in Vegas this year was especially fantastic for us as it coincided with the wedding of two of Green Hippo’s closest friends, Joan Lyman and Ola Melzig. Green Hippo was honoured to be invited to share in this special day and joined friends from across the industry & indeed the globe to celebrate their marriage. Highlights included Joan and Ola’s opening dance, the speeches and the very generous open bar! Joking aside though it was a wonderful evening and everyone at Green Hippo wishes Joan and Ola all the very best for the future.