Although many of the catwalk shows take place within the purpose built structure that is erected in the central courtyard, other events take place at various locations across the capital. So if you want to stay abreast of everything on offer during the week there is only once place to catch it: on the screen system set up by Chaos that relays a live video feed from the internal catwalk interspersed with edited highlights from previous presentations and other designers' show from around London.
Chaos' screen technician and playback operator, Gilbert Roper who has been looking after the Fashion Week shows for the last three years explains further, "Our screen of choice is the Barco Olite 510 LED Screen that we set into the marquee structure. Having done the event previously at Somerset House, we knew that the space for the screen is really tight but the deep, robust frame which enables the Olite to be self-standing, makes that all the easier squeezing it into position. Secondly, and what makes this the right choice for the job, is the screen's excellent colour bit depth making it work very well for both camera and displaying video footage. London Fashion Week content is all about the colour and this system brings it out really well even in direct sunlight. Each job is different and choosing the most appropriate piece of kit is always key to getting it right for the client."
Roper's statement is echoed by Charlotte Lurot, director of Bacchus, the producers behind London Fashion Week, "It's always a joy to work with Alex Leinster and the team from Chaos. They make sure we're abreast of new technology and work really closely with us to develop the right video solutions for London Fashion Week - from the right large LED screen on which we live stream to shows, to projectors, screens and other video products that we use around the site."
Getting it right for the client includes sympathetic operation of the content on screen and that doesn't always mean going for the most hi-tech option as Roper confirms, "We use a basic video playback system to control the screen content; it allows basic adjustments but mostly it just does what it does very reliably which is perfect for this job. I get a set of Fashion Week idents which are slotted in between the edited highlight clips from the various events across town.
"Keeping around eight to 10 clips in the playlist at once I operate a 'one in one out' system as the new clips come in. For a final touch I add PowerPoint overlays in the form of a banner with the designers' names to these via a Luma Key function. The whole thing runs really smoothly."
(Jim Evans)
