As part of its global expansion and the opening of new operations in Europe, Worldcom OOH, a media trading company specializing in OOH, DOOH and programmatic, has appointed Lydia Collins as head of international business development to lead its U.K. operation based in London. She spent the past six years at Clear Channel U.K. as a national direct sales consultant. She has an additional six years experience working with other major U.K. OOH providers such as Exterion Media (now Global) and CBS Outdoor…
Cooke Optics has appointed Craig Chartier to the role of technical sales manager, Americas. His territory spans the U.S. Midwest and East Coast, as well as Canada and South America. Chartier’s remit is to represent Cooke Optics to local clients, supporting sales and technical support activities. Chartier brings 30 years of industry experience to his new role. He began his career at GEAR Rental where he spent 18 years, managing day-to-day operations and leaving as VP of production services. He also held the role of general operations manager at ARRI Rental, and worked with BOLD Distribution as business development and marketing coordinator, while also providing technical sales support for cinema-centric products. He joins Cooke from a technical sales role at Zeiss Cinema….
Elation Professional and Obsidian Control Systems’ lighting products are now being distributed exclusively in Italy by Prase Media Technologies….
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More