CPL's team was headed by dynamic project manager Jimmy Smith who was working to a brief that required a clean, contemporary conference environment for the daytime sessions, which would be quickly and seamlessly transformed into a glamorous evening location for a gala dinner and Awards event!
With that adaptability in mind, he designed a practical and highly effective solution to meet the client's needs.
Behind the stage a 42m wide starcloth backdrop was installed and in front of that the set was built, giving a 14 metre wide by 4 metre working presentation area complete with steps, with the 30 ft wide by 10 ft high projection screen behind.
Utilising the in-house flying points, trusses were flown to provide positions of lighting, audio speakers and projectors.
Two Panasonic PT-DZ21K projectors were rigged on the front truss (together with two hot back-up machines) configured to produce a bright, crisp blended image using a Christie Spyder X20 processor, which also created the IMAG PiPs.
The projectors were fitted with 1.3 - 1.17 zoom lenses and fed content - VT's award loops and stings - stored and replayed via a Coolux Pandora's Box media server.
Three Sony HXC-100 cameras were supplied, positioned at FOH, side stage and one on a dolly at the front of stage, all feeding into a Panasonic HS410 mixer / switcher. The camera direction was undertaken by another company who also produced the Awards VT content.
Twelve Source Four Studio LEDs and six 1200W fresnels on the front truss covered all the required stage washes and key lighting for the lectern position.
Two trusses left and right of the stage were used to fly the six d&b Q1 PA arrays a side, with eight Clay Paky Sharpy beam lights a side also rigged on these. Another five Sharpies on the deck completed the moving light elements, and Miltec Battons plus Core Point30 LED uplighters augmented the stage wash.
All the data feeds for the lighting fixtures were run via wireless DMX links into one of CPL's new Avolites Tiger Touch consoles. Also patched into this were the 39 x in-house Robe Club Scan 250 CT wash lights which are traditionally used in the venue for illuminating the tables.
The Q1 sound system was specified by Jimmy Smith to deliver the high clarity audio required for the event and also because its unobtrusive size made perfect fit for the room. There were d&b E12 front fills across the stage lip Q7s strategically positioned around the outer edges of the room for infill from the sides, all driven by D12 amps and run through a Yamaha CL5 desk mixed by Phil Manson.
Smith used ArrayCalc to optimise the system design in the room, and once on site he utilised d&b's R70 wireless controller to help fine-tune the rig.
The microphone package included Shure UHR-2 hand-helds, all controlled and monitored via Shure's wireless Workbench software at FOH.
CPL's crew of 13 started rigging at 5am on the event day, and had everything in place and ready by midday for brief rehearsals followed by the conference opening at 1.30pm.
(Jim Evans)
