DeltaLive continues London fireworks tradition
- Details
Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency, helped to develop the original concept for this annual event and worked in partnership with the Mayor of London's office and a dedicated team of experts to create the experience. The 10-minute show, designed for home viewing and created in collaboration with the BBC, was broadcast live on BBC1 and watched by a global viewing audience of millions.
Due to COVID-19, audiences were not able to attend the event this year, which would normally see some 100,000 spectators. But with no audience, this gave the Jack Morton led production team the opportunity to expand on previous years and utilise multiple locations across London, each with its own different display. With new elements added and additional areas, it was imperative that communication between all areas was robust and reliable.
Microwave links were installed between each location which included The Shard, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Docklands and Wembley Stadium. At all locations Matrix Comms IP panels were installed so each location and various departments could have one to one and group calls, ensuring constant communication. Also a wide area Motorola system was installed spanning and linking all areas and departments.
Delta distributed playback at each location as the entire show was triggered live on the night, with no pre-recorded elements. All various sites were synced to each other using GPS clocks and then onwards to all the individual OB units. With so many departments involved including sound, lights, pyro, showcaller and OB, Delta were able to ensure that every department were synced for the stroke of midnight.
Says Delta, “We also supplied ambient microphones on the roof of Wembley Stadium to capture the firework sound, relaying audio to the BBC OB compound several miles away. And of course, for the 17th year we mic'd up Big Ben for the famous midnight 'bongs' which were transmitted directly from the bell tower using Microwave and RF links.”
