It was the first year that CSE has been involved in the event, where they were working for producers, The Red Lodge Agency.
Three main areas needed technical production - the conference sessions in the hotel's Monarch Suite; a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Palace Suite and then the after-show in the Kings Suite.
Colour Sound's project manager Fletch created a production lighting and visuals design for all three rooms and led a team of 11 technicians and engineers who worked closely on site with Rhys Sion from Red Lodge.
"The main challenges were the scale of the event and a short timescale - as is often the case," explains Fletch. "Having a really strong crew on the case and doing as much detailed pre-planning as possible all helped things run smoothly on site."
It was also the first event for CSE's new BT6 high definition LED screen, 100sq.m of which had just been delivered to their west London HQ.
For the Monarch Suite Colour Sound supplied an upstage centre screen measuring 10.5 x 3.5m and two side screens each 4 x 2.5m wide, which ensured that everyone attending had a clear view of the stage action.
The stage was an ovular shape with tiered seating. There was no flying, so Colour Sound installed a substantial trussing ground support system which was utilised to rig all the technical elements.
Video content was a mix of material supplied by the client together with custom created footage produced by Toby Vogle for Colour Sound, all stored on Mac's running PlaybackPro. A Barco Encore system was used for screen management, operated by Rob Scott. The generic element of the lighting rig comprised 38 x ETC Source Four Parnels and ten ETC Source Four profiles.
The moving lights were 24 new Robe LEDWash 300s and 12 Robe MMX Spots - all part of a recent investment in Robe moving lights by the company. There were also six Martin MAC 250 Entours on the floor for stings. All lighting in the Monarch Suite was controlled via a Chamsys MG300 console, operated by Chris Steel and Sam Campbell.
Colour Sound also supplied all the PA rigging. Over 50 points were involved in total, needed to distribute the relatively weighty rig across the ceiling area. The two front trusses were also ovular shaped to match the stage and set which was built by Joint Style.
(Jim Evans)
