Issue 7 March 2026
AV World Editor
Martin Addison FRPS
martinaddison22@gmail.com
AV World is designed by Martin Addison and Andrew N Gagg
AV World is published approximately every two months in the Autumn to Spring period. and contains news and information from the world of AV.
If you would like us to advertise your event or send a review of an AV related activity, please send to the editor at the above address.
Cover photograph by Martin Addison
Welcome to the March issue of AV World!
The first signs of Spring are starting to appear, and the new AV year is well underway.
AV World has now passed its first birthday, and continues to bring reports and news from recent AV events at home and abroad.
The Peter Coles International AV Competition has just happened, under the new stewardship of Malcolm Imhoff and his team, and details and photos are contained in this issue.
Ian Bateman FRPS MPAGB AV-EFIAP APAGB
The event was a great success, and its very gratifying to know that the competition is in a safe pair of hands. Many subscribers will have known Peter personally, and appreciate what a tremendous force for good he was in AV.
Lots of Peterʼs AVs have been archived on YouTube, and its well worth looking at his work. My own favourite has always been ʻSarahʼ, made in collaboration with Sheilah Peel and if youʼve not seen this one Iʼd recommend you have a look. Itʼs his most viewed sequence by far, and the current viewing count is more than 97,000.
The link to the ʻAVPeterʼ channel is:
https://www.youtube.com/@avpeter
Ian Bateman
FRPS MPAGB AV-EFIAP APAGB
March 2026
You are cordially invited to attend the 2026 WCPF AV Competition, which will be held on 18th April at Woodbury Village Hall EX5 1LX. The hall has superb projection facilities which are ideally suited to viewing AVs on a big screen.
Leigh
AV at the Film Factory Sunday 19th April 2026
As the date of this very special AV event gets closer, we want to draw your attention to one of the elements of the day our research tells us is particularly popular:
Your Own AV on the Big Screen !
Send us your finished AV, your work in progress AV, your pride and joy AV, your unusual “what do you reckon to THIS one guys?” AV !
We will project it BIG-STYLE ! With a powerful, professional-quality true4K projector and superb Dolby Digital surround sound.
Experience the magic of seeing your AV screened in a real, professionally-equipped boutique cinema, normally busy running blockbuster movies for the public but privately hired for this event thanks to the generous sponsorship of the RPS AV Group.
Just send your AV (must be mp4 and can be any resolution up to and including 4k) to the organisers at nwavday@gmail.com and make clear if itʼs just for entertainment or if youʼd like experts to provide constructive comments.
Please note this part of the day will be first-come first-served so send your AV asap!
PLUS we have three great presenters ; Paul Kittel FACI, Colin Balls FRPS APAGB, and John Smith CPAGB APAGB H LCPU Hon LWPA.
NB: ANYONE can buy a ticket, you donʼt have to be a member of the RPS, any club or organisation.
Places for this one-of-a kind AV event are limited so BOOK NOW! Use this link to go to the RPS NW AV Day booking page directly, just copy it into your browser.
https://events.rps.org/en/4LrdQ66/the-north-west-av-day-at-the-film-factory-5a2NN2AzTlh/overview
There is now an updated list of lecturers in AV available for clubs and societies to use.
This is available on ISSUU and this is the link: https://issuu.com/royalphotographicsociety/docs/av_lecturers
If you would like to be included in future editions or know someone else who would, then please contact the editor whose email is in the front of this publication.
To book, visit: https://rps.org/groups/audio-visual/events-and-talks/
March 2026
21st March ‒ ZOOM ‒ 1400 to 1630
AV Group Members Talk: AVs from the Archives
19th April ‒ LIVE - 1000 to 1700
AV at the Film Factory
Live AV, inspiring speakers, 4K projection, cinema seating, surround sound, easy motorway access.
The Leigh Film Factory, Spinners Mill, Leigh, Lancashire WN7 2LA
May 2026
9th May 2026 - ZOOM - 1400 to 1600
DaVinci Resolve with Martin Addison FRPS
A demonstration on using DaVinci Resolve for AV workers. Martin will demonstrate the basics of the programme and this is intended for those who have never used or have just started using the program.
The session will also include finished examples of AVs created in DaVinci Resolve
March 2026 - ZOOM
Challenge 321
March 2026 - ZOOM
Trophée de Paris, France
March 2026 - LIVE
North and East Midlands (NEMPF)
18th April 2026 - LIVE
Western Counties AV Comp (WCPF) at Woodbury
28th March 2026 - ZOOM
La Coupe Lumiere, France
25th April 2026 - ZOOM
All acceptances and awards from the 7th PECC International AV Festival
23rd/24th May 2026 - ZOOM
Jurassic Coast International AV Salon, UK
13th June 2026 - LIVE
Jurassic Coast Int. AV Salon, UK Gala Show at Woodbury
10th October - LIVE
EAF Audio-Visual Trophy
Photographs from the Peter Coles International Competition
Peter Warner: Commended for ʻ I Am A Manʼ
Raymond Barnes: Highly Commended for ʻGrowing Up Under the Nazisʼ
Alastair Taylor: IAC Bronze Medal for ʻSummoned by Bellsʼ
Sue Warner: Commended for ʻAgainst the Oddsʼ
Howard Bagshaw: Highly Commended for ʻPayez Iciʼ
Richard Brown: IAC Silver Medal and the Geoffrey Round Trophy for ʻToy Storyʼ
Cathy Fordham: Winner of the IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition receiving the Peter Coles Trophy for ʻI Kissed a Lot of Frogsʼ
Malcolm Imhoff: Highly Commended for ʻWalking on Waterʼ
Richard Brown: receiving the Jessop Rose Bowl for the Best Entry from the CEMRIAC Region for ʻToy Storyʼ
Cathy Fordham: Winner of the IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition with the Peter Coles Trophy for ʻI Kissed a Lot of Frogsʼ
The full list of Peter Coles results are on pages 38 and 39
Photographs from the 2026 MidPhot Competition
With thanks to Lu Ducket from the MCPF for the Photographs and Layout. The Photographs were by Keith Watson.
With thanks to Lu Ducket from the MCPF for the Photographs and Layout. The Photographs were by Keith Watson. Photographs from the 2026
Photographs from the 2026 MidPhot Competition
With thanks to Lu Ducket from the MCPF for the Photographs and Layout.
The Photographs were by Keith Watson.
The full list of Midphot results are on page 37
THE EAST ANGLIAN FEDERATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES
ACCORDED PAGB PATRONAGE No. 2026-019
To be held on Saturday 10th October 2026 at The Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambs. CB22 6RN Commencing at 9.45am
Assessed by two top A-V judges
Howard Bagshaw MPAGB, ARPS, FIPF & Alastair Taylor ARPS, DPAGB/AV, AV-AFIAP
Rules and entry forms will be available by the end of February 2026 on the downloadable documents page of the EAF website – www.eaf.org.uk
By Peter Warner ARPS
I first visited Oradour-Sur-Glane in France over 30 years ago.
It is an experience I have never forgotten.
As we walked up the road approaching the village there was a small roadside kiosk and two signs, ʻRememberʼ and ʻSilenceʼ. From there we walked up the hill and entered this devastated village.
In my AV I have tried to capture the emotion I felt as I walked along the street and in and out of buildings. After the massacre, a new village was built nearby and the original was left as a memorial to those who died.
The emotion I felt when I walked into the church where 247 women and 205 children were burned alive by the Nazis is something I will never forget.
Walking around I asked myself, ʻDo I take any pictures?ʼ I felt very uncomfortable looking through my lens but thought, ʻThis story needs to be told.ʼ
642 people were killed in that massacre, the men shot in their legs with petrol poured over them and then set alight.
It is incredible to think that anyone could do such a thing, but, sadly, this was not an isolated incident.
The Nazis had a policy of ʻcollective punishmentʼ which meant that whole communities were punished for the activities of the Resistance.
Lidice, near Prague, in what was Czechoslovakia, experienced a similar fate in 1942 where 340 people were killed in retaliation for the assassination of SS Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
When I first put this sequence together it showed just the ruins of the village and an outline of its horrifying story. Someone in the audience asked me what happened to the perpetrators? I realised that I didnʼt know so I set about researching the topic.
What I found was shocking. Of the 62 Nazis that survived the war, some the Germans refused to extradite to France for trial, the rest were tried and convicted but only served a short time in jail and all but one were pardoned within 5 years.
Such injustice. Do we ever learn from history?
International Festivals
Challenge 321 March Annual
IAC Peter Coles Int AV Comp, UK March Annual
Adelaide AV Fest, Australia March Biennial FIAP
Trophée de Paris, France March Annual FIAP
Port Elizabeth CC (PECC), South Africa April Biennial FIAP
La Coupe Lumiere, France April Annual
Jurassic Coast Int. AV Salon, UK May Annual FIAP
APS International AV Salon, Australia August Biennial FIAP?
Irish Photographic Federation (IPF) October Annual
RPS International AV Festival UK (IAVF) November Biennial FIAP
Pomeranian Diaporama, Poland November Annual FIAP
San Donato, Milanese, Italy November Biennial FIAP
AV Makers of South Africa November Annual
UK National Festivals
RPS National AV Festival (NAVC) September Biennial
Great Northern October Annual
UK Regional Festivals
Midland Counties - Midphot (MCPF) January Annual
North and East Midlands (NEMPF) March Annual
Western Counties AV Comp (WCPF) April Annual
Southern Counties AV Comp (SCPF) October Annual
East Anglia Federation (EAF) October Annual
All dates are approximate and may change. Details will be available later
Watch the Jurassic CoastAV on YouTube:
Closing date 31st March 2026
The Challenge 321 is an international contest for short Diaporamas with a max runtime of 3:21 Minutes. This short runtime is the "Challenge" for the Authors.
The idea of the competition is to have an international exchange of audio-visual work.
By submitting their work, authors do participate in several adjudications in different countries.
The authors send their AV-sequences to the organisers in Germany by web transfer. The organisers will distribute the AVs to various hosts in several countries for judging.
Each host returns a score list and the organisers will create a total result. The best authors receive prizes financed by the entry fees.
The organisation team consists of Achim Maier and Klaus Fritzsche (all Germany).
If you have any questions or comments, let us know. Write an E-Mail to: info321@challenge321.org Web Link
Closing date is 30th March 2026
If you have enjoyed reading this publication, please pass it on to anyone who may be interested
Midlands Counties Audio Visual Competitions (Midphot-AV)
Venue: Live Event on Saturday 24 January 2026
Judges: Linda Gibbs MPAGB, AV-AFIAP
Edgar Gibbs FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP
Awards: Presented by the PAGB President – David Gibbins and the MCPF President Ralph Ducket
Photo Harmony (Music Poetry and Song) Competition
Winner 3 Mysterium
Runner-up 12 Down by the Sea
Highly Commended 6 Cotswold Love
Highly Commended 11 Winter
Highly Commended 4 Spirit of the Rocks
Commended 1 Morning Dew
Commended 13 Efflorescence
Peter Warner - Beacon Camera Club
Keith Watson - East Midlands AVG
Martin Fry - Cheltenham CC
John Holt - Wolverhampton PS
John Holt - Wolverhampton PS
Martin Addison - Worcestershire CC
Martin Addison - Worcestershire CC Commended 15 Fruits de Mer
Andrew Gagg - Worcestershire CC
Open-AV Competition
Winner 31 Against the Odds
Runner-up 30 Watling Street
Highly Commended 29 Summoned by Bells
Highly Commended 21 Toy Story
Highly Commended 18 Bring Him Home
Commended 28 The Tail of a Tall Ship
Sue Warner - Beacon Camera Club
Howard Bagshaw - Stafford PS
Alastair Taylor - Newport PC
Richard Brown - Sutton Coldfield PC
Howard Bagshaw - Stafford PS
John Lloyd - Beacon Camera Club Commended 27 Québec
Commended 24 I Am a Man
Audience Vote (Martin Fry Award)
Overall Winner 21 Toy Story
Gordon Nicklin - Wolverhampton PS
Peter Warner - Beacon Camera Club
Richard Brown - Sutton Coldfield PC
Andrew Gagg Award (For narrative, including writing, delivery, fluency & expressiveness)
Winner 31 Against the Odds
Sue Warner - Beacon Camera Club
Awards
Winner:IACPeterColesTrophy&IACPeterColesGoldMedal:
Cathy Fordham - ʻI Kissed a Lot of Frogsʼ
RunnerUp:IACGeoffreyRoundTrophy&IACPeterColesSilver Medal:
Richard Brown - ʻToy Storyʼ
3rd Place:IACPeterColesBronzeMedal
Alastair Taylor - ʻSummoned by Bellsʼ
BestAVfromCEMRIACregion:TheJessopRoseBowlTrophy:
Richard Brown - ʻToy Storyʼ
HighlyCommendedCertificates,allequallyplaced.
Jan Burt & Jane Barnes - ʻAccording to Timʼ
Malcolm Imhoff - ʻWalking on Waterʼ
Howard Bagshaw - ʻPayez Iciʼ
Francesca Gernetti & Carla Fiorina - ʻDisconnectedʼ
Il Triangolo Magico Multivisione - ʻYour Absence is my Choiceʼ
Raymond Barnes - ʻGrowing Up Under the Nazisʼ
CommendedCertificates,allequallyplaced:
Maurilio Caricato - ʻThe Silence of Wingsʼ
Jean-Michel Calut - ʻWith Your Eyesʼ
Tim Harvey - ʻArtist, Author, Itinerant, Spyʼ
Sue Warner - ʻAgainst the Oddsʼ
Peter Warner - ʻI Am A Manʼ
Mike Pill - ʻThe Cityʼ
Audience Vote
Winner,IACPeterColesGoldMedal:
Richard Brown - ʻToy Storyʼ
JointRunnersUp-
Alastair Taylor - ʻSummoned by Bellsʼ
Peter Warner - ʻI Am A Manʼ
4th Place
Jean-Michel Calut - ʻWith Your Eyesʼ
5th Place
Francesca Gernetti & Carla Fiorina - ʻDisconnectedʼ
AV News is the journal of the RPS AV Group and is free to all members.
If you are an RPS member, but not part of the AV Special Interest Group, a small extra payment on your annual subscription to join the group will give you the opportunity to read this publication and also to take part in regular events, both live and on zoom organised by the group.
The AV News offer
• The ability to interact with content - live links to websites and AVs.
• Articles to inspire you to create, exploit new technologies, and develop new skills.
• Hear about AV competitions, events happening across the UK and internationally.
• … and much more as we develop the future direction of the journal - informed by your feedback.
• Cost has been a key factor - it is important to provide value for money for AV SIG members. Page limitations posed by a printed publication do not apply - content is not limited by printing constraints.
• We also needed to exploit the interactive capabilities of the technology - we are, after all, a technology focused specialist group of practitioners.
You have the option to download a PDF version of the journal giving the option to print, if you wish, or read on your PC/tablet at your leisure.
Live links are retained in the PDF version, with QR codes to scan from the printed version. Contributions welcome…
Are you engaged in an interesting project? Have you explored the use of new and emerging technologies? Are there any events in your area that you want to share with the AV community as a whole?
We will be interested in hearing about them.
Contact the editor (Ian Hosker) on aveditor@rps.org
If you are not a member of the RPS AV Group and would like to read this, you can take out a subscription to the AV News magazine by writing to the AV Group Treasurer at avtreasurer@rps.org An annual subscription for three issues costs £10.
in an
One of the most often asked questions which AV lecturers are asked is ʻHow can we use music in our AV without falling foul of the law?ʼ
There are basically four ways:
Write the Music Yourself
This is probably not an option for most people but perhaps you could get a friend to write it for you.
Use Royalty Free Music
There are many websites which offer royalty free music, which means that the copyright owner has waived their rights to royalties by licensing the use of the music with its purchase price.
Use Creative Commons Music
This is a rapidly expanding area of music licensing, where an artist freely publishes music for public use in the hope that their work will eventually become better known.
In the UK, there is a long-established method for obtaining permission to use copyrighted music in amateur productions, covering both AV and video.
Two music industry bodies, the Mechanical Copyright Performance Society (the MCPS), and the British Phonographic Industry (the BPI), issue licences allowing the use of music from legitimately purchased sources to be used in amateur (ie specifically not professional) productions. The MCPS licence protects the rights of the composer, and the BPI licence protects the rights of the publisher.
You may have noticed the variation or absence of music credits at the end of AV sequences ‒ it all depends on the source of the music used.
A peculiarity of the IAC licences (specifically the BPI licence) is that the name of the performing artist must not be credited in the AV sequence, though the name of the piece of music can be (though this is not mandatory).
If you choose to use ʻRoyalty-Freeʼ or Creative Commons music however, details of the source of the music are usually a requirement of the licence. Whatever you use, itʼs essential to read the licence agreement to ensure that you are complying with its requirements.
This is a synopsis of a longer and more detailed article by Ian Bateman which is on the RPS AV Group website, click on the image below.
The RPS Audio Visual Group caters for the interests of photographers who enjoy and make Audio Visual productions. The AV Group is a friendly, caring and sharing community.
Audio Visual, or AV as it is known is a fantastic way of showcasing stunning photographic images linked to a sound track ‒ music, song, poetry, words, sounds, or a combination of these. A particular feature of an AV production is the third image, that wonderful moment when one image dissolves into the next.
Exclusively digital these days, AV productions combine projected photographs and possibly video with a sound track giving you the
opportunity to combine projected photographs with sound and narration and it is an interesting way of presenting your work and ideas.
We can offer you advice, encourage and support members through education, competitions and distinctions, as well as showing you how to make an AV.
Why not browse around our web pages.
To find out more, click on the links opposite.
We also have a Facebook page called AV News and to access that please click here.
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Togdays was created by me, Phil Jones, a retired software developer, keen amateur photographer, and member of Bebington Photographic Society. I was always looking around to find events and places to go to in order to get new pictures. I would trawl through lists of sports events, looking for something local to me, and note down the dates in a spreadsheet. Every time I saw a Workshop or other event advertised I'd add it to my list. After a while I wondered why there wasn't a central database of all of these. I searched, and couldn't find one - so thought I'd create one myself.
So here it is - a central database of places, Events and Presenters that could be of interest to Photographers ('Togs').
The idea is that this database will contain details of Workshops, Photo Walks, Wildlife Hides, Organised Shoots, Sports Events, Historical Reenactments or Battles, and anything else that could be of interest. It has recently been updated to hold details of presenters and tutors who can provide talks or workshops to individuals or clubs. Competition Judges have also been added and have their own section. In time it may also contain Photographic Exhibitions and Competitions.
For Photographers, the site will provide a searchable system so that you can filter the events you are interested in, in the areas you want. Every Event will be categorised, and also have a location.
Click the graphic at the top for more information.
If you have enjoyed reading this publication, please pass it on to anyone who may be interested
If you are not on our mailing list for AV World, please email the editor at the address in page 2 of this publication