CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
25 August 2009
Implementation Investments
XL Video Uses PTC® CoCreate® For Flexibility And Speed In Product Design
PTC® announced that XL Video, international leader in video screen design and rental, creates its customized major event screens and transportation with PTC CoCreate®. CoCreate is PTC's explicit modeling and data management software that provides companies with a lightweight and flexible approach to designing products. XL Video created screens for the 2008 European Soccer Cup Championship, the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, nearly all Formula 1 Races and concert tours for pop stars including Robbie Williams, George Michael, U2 and Kylie Minogue.
XL Video has locations in Belgium, Germany, the United States, France and the Netherlands. Large scale projects and customized systems are developed at headquarters in Belgium and then built to order by local partners. XL Video not only builds rectilinear screens but also special shapes and designs such as the curved screens created for the Robbie Williams Close Encounters Tour and the fifty 2.100 mm diameter spheres created for the Emmy and MTV Awards shows. XL Video also rents screens for events such as trade shows, fashion shows and conferences.
Developing screens for such high-profile international events requires perfection in detail on often very tight, non-negotiable production schedules. XL Video first outsourced design jobs to its supplier, Espeel, who uses CoCreate Modeling. "To simplify the exchange of drawings and designs, we implemented CoCreate Modeling as well," said Andy Demeulenaere, design engineer at XL Video. "We found CoCreate so easy to use and so perfect for the creation of our customized products that we expanded our team and now design almost exclusively in-house, which is very efficient and provides us much more freedom. As a result, we can also grow our knowledge base very quickly, which in turn means we can be much more innovative."
The team meets customer-specific requirements by using CoCreate Modeling to modify an existing design. They then derive 2D drawings for suppliers. Design data is managed with CoCreate Model Manager™. "The XL Video design strategy is principally trial and error-based, which requires a flexible solution that allows for major unexpected changes at any time during the design process," said Demeulenaere. "CoCreate Modeling leaves us free to do what we want, which allows us to place our efforts into developing new products quickly. We are nearly always under intense time pressure, so that the ability to design rapidly, efficiently and flexibly in short cycles is crucial for our success."
Flexibility, profitability and speed are particularly important for us because we are growing rapidly - on average 25% per year," said Kristof Soreyn, technical director at XL Video. "Rapid growth demands considerable organization and resources. We couldn't imagine achieving and maintaining this level of expansion and success without CoCreate from PTC."
"CoCreate explicit modeling is a perfect fit for the design strategy requirements at XL Video," said Martin Neumueller, CoCreate product management director. "With the explicit modeling approach users quickly and easily create 3D designs and modify models through direct interaction with geometry. The lightweight and flexible approach is ideal for companies who create highly customized products."
About XL Video
XL Video was founded in 1996 as a tight collaborative arrangement between several companies in West Flanders, Belgium. Today the company employs ca. 250 people and achieves a group turnover of approximately 75 million euro per year. XL Video is the international market leader in video screen design and rental. The company is a supplier for the events market and concerts, creating special shapes and designs as well as rectilinear screens in any size. Some customers include Formel 1 Events, Olympic Games, Robbie Williams Close Encounters Tour, Emmy and MTV Awards.
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