The team of Mark Kenyon (lighting director), Patrick Doherty (production designer) and Alex Rudzinski combined virtual and real world technologies: 3D mid-air effects were projected from the HES Catalyst onto CT's 16sq.m hi-res Barco i6 LED display, which was creatively framed against the panelled fabric of the building - St Olaves School, near London's Tower Bridge. Creative Technology's Adrian Offord commented: "Because of the close proximity of the screen from the camera we had to field the highest resolution screen we own in order to guarantee the quality of close viewing - particularly as it is used as a video backdrop rather than for imag."
CT also supplied 15sq.m of the lower-resolution 25mm perspex-covered, flush-mount circular dancefloor which, according to Patrick Doherty, was fully optimized to create a sense of warmth and drama - particularly from the overhead crane shots from balcony level.
A pair of 7000 ANSI lumen Panasonic projectors - also from CT - were stationed up on the balcony, firing images onto the narrow gauze-clad windows either side of the centre stage.Doherty reasoned that the move to St. Olaves had been a natural progression from the house in Highgate, where the event was held the previous two years. "Being able to fit the live show into the Academy created a much more positive and intimate feel, and with bigger audiences allowed us to be more adventurous."
But he emphasised that working in listed buildings requires a huge amount of care. "There was a lot of recreation of the existing detail - for instance we had to provide a floor-standing truss and overclad the truss legs to give the impression it was suspended. But the venue gave us more flexibility because the live set area was panelled - and Mark Kenyon's use of the screens in conjunction with Catalyst provided a more varied look.
"The use of a much lower grade LED underfloor screen worked brilliantly," he continued. "It was tricky to achieve because we were working in a circle, in 16 x 9 aspect ratio, which required a lot of masking out."
Patrick has worked with CT on The Games in Sheffield, so was well aware of their capabilities. "Here they delivered fantastically, to quite a tricky brief and with a minimum of build time. But you need a lot of co-operation between the departments - and blurring of the demarcation lines to make this work, and with Creative Technology and Elstree Light & Power (ELP) we were able to talk everything through."
Rudzinski added: "The way LED screens are progressing I knew I could move this forward in a more integrated fashion. Being able to map everything together in 3D space, much of the design - such as the stunning flames and different clock faces - were designed on site."It's easy to throw everything onto a screen but what takes up the prep time is creating imagery that's complementary to the environment. We had this wood panelling effect and tried to match the colour imagery with the lighting round it, enabling the screen to 'disappear' beautifully into the ambient surroundings. Using a combination of real world panelling and computer graphics was definitely the way forward."
He was delighted with the overall result - as were the BBC. "They were ecstatic," said Rudzinski, "and we received a number of calls afterwards from TV execs asking how we had done it."
(Lee Baldock)
