It was the eighth year that CPL has worked on this impressive event for utility supplier Telecom Plus which has grown year-on-year and now accommodates over 8000 guests across two days. CPL also supplied HD cameras / PPU and crew to the main auditorium / plenary sessions, with Lee Gruszeckyj leading the team.
As in previous years, they worked closely with Inteva and their production manager Jeff Whiteley who imagined the overall design concept and stage layout.
The event has expanded along with the business and commercial success of Telecom Plus, and with that, the associated production values have also steadily increased. This year's set up once again featured an epic widescreen look which ensured all delegates received a great view of the stage and the numerous presentations.
The 20m wide by 4m high upstage screen was flown from a house truss and fed by three of CPL's Panasonic PT-DZ21K 20K HD projectors rigged on an advanced truss. These were edge-blended via a Barco E2 presentation / screen management system to form one overall image. The E2 also fed video outputs to several comfort monitors dotted around.
Picture-in-Picture windows showing the different IMAG camera relays were inserted onscreen at various points during the presentations. The screen was also filled with a selection of ambient video backgrounds throughout the proceedings - from content stored on and running from Playback Pro on a Mac - as well as with specific data related to individual speeches.
A selection of presentation video sources included laptops running PowerPoint and KeyNote.
CPL supplied four Sony HXC-100 HD cameras, one of which was a roving hand-held that moved around the stage and auditorium and utilized a Teradek wireless system, with the other three in fixed positions. Two were at the back of the auditorium, one fitted with an X J95 long throw lens for close-ups, while the other locked off and capturing wide shots of the stage and auditorium. The fourth was located on a balcony half way down the room.
These were all fed into one of CPL's Panasonic AV-HF410 mixers - directed and cut by Lee and engineered by Simon Haydon - both of whom have worked on the event for the past three years.
Lee comments, "Having the history with the same production team, client and project means we are all familiar with each other and the primary requirements, so the process flows very smoothly. The standards are high, and it's great to see an event like this grow and a client continue its commitment to excellent event production values."
(Jim Evans)
