RG Jones project manager, Tim Speight contacted 5 Star about the project, having been previously impressed by the quality of their products and the excellent service. Phil Lawrence oversaw the supply and delivery for 5 Star.
Speight works with a team co-ordinating all RG Jones' business with The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, for whom the company has been the key audio contractor since 1985. This includes the provision of system design services, installation and on-site engineering support during The Championships. This year, up to 10 RG Jones sound engineers will be on duty every day throughout the Wimbledon Fortnight.
Their brief includes liaising with officials so the umpires can be clearly heard on the courts; ensuring their communication systems are functioning correctly; liaising with broadcasters to provide the right sends for television/radio mixes; ensuring that the correct cueing happens for live broadcasts, and liaising with the Club itself to control site-wide paging announcements.
The cases needed to protect and transport the specialised tennis umpire equipment around the venue during The Championships, and also provide a practical and easy storage solution - for which it was proposed that they were all the same external dimensions.
They also had to "Look the part" explains Speight - be smart, cool and appropriate for a seriously high profile, premier global sporting event.
Sixteen of 5 Star's 'Heavy Industrial' large trunks were utilised to house the specialist items which include the trusty classic comms boxes that sit under the umpire's chair, plus a selection of 100v line array speakers mainly Bose 402 II and MA12s, together with cabling, junction/splitter boxes and telecommunications equipment.
A further four 'Heavy Industrial' and four of 5 Star's popular 'Super Tour Eurotrucker' road trunks were also provided, each with custom built texture-finished plywood trays to house the usual heterogeneous array of 'odds and ends' needed to be on-hand.
All the trunks were supplied to RG Jones in a slick green laminate finish, complete with a purple 'lid line' and the traditional Wimbledon 'crossed racquets' logo which was screen printed by 5 Star's in-house facility. This provided a striking visual appearance and a strong, distinctive corporate ident for the Club.
(Jim Evans)
