Over 6,000 IT professionals from across the globe attended the event, with prestigious speaker sessions being staged back-to-back across the venue.
Blackout was called in by event agency George P. Johnson for the fifth year running, using drapes across the venue to create bespoke areas for the conference's popular Breakout Sessions, including the creation of three rooms in Capital Hall and a further eight in the South Hall.
The South Hall alone consisted of over eight tonnes of white voile drapes backed with black wool serge, used to create eight equal sized rooms all with a height of over 10 meters.
Chris Brain, Blackout installation director, said: "The key aim for us at Cisco Live was to create comfortable and practical spaces for the speaker sessions, which attract a huge number of delegates. Taking a large venue and breaking it down into smaller rooms using draping is the perfect way to maximise space and create the bespoke areas you need.
"Layering the materials was particularly important; black wool serge was the best option for keeping the different rooms as sound proof as possible, but creates a very dark atmosphere. Layering the white voile on top meant we could lighten up the whole area whilst still keeping the sound levels to a minimum. We were really pleased with the result which looked striking with the Cisco Live colour scheme."
The North Hall also benefited from black wool serge draping, used to create the backdrop for the key note speeches. Blackout had a team of five on hand Wednesday afternoon to completely change the area in time for Thursday's Olympic-themed after party, including the installation of seven 9m by 5m canvas projection screens and five catering booths each themed to suit a different country competing in the Games.
Chris Doggart, head of technical production, George P. Johnson, said, "Once again Blackout delivered a fantastic on-site service for us at Cisco Live. This year we worked hard to redesign the environment to improve the delegate experience, and by creating a series of break-out rooms within the South Halls we were able to completely change the feel of the event. The space looked outstanding and received a great deal of positive comments from both delegates and speakers."
Blackout also installed various food and activity booths outside the North Hall using its popular pipe and drape system.
(Jim Evans)
