For the European election launch Stage Electrics provided a full set in Studio 12 at Granada TV Studios. Placed in front of 100m of white cyclorama, the opaque polycarbonate set was applied to a white steel frame grid of squares. Two large projection screens were incorporated into the set with projection also provided by the company. The huge stage consisted of four varying height linked circular platforms which ranged from two meters to six meters in diameter. The set was constructed in short order by the Stage Electrics scenic workshop and managed by scenic project manager, Mark Trutwein. Two custom built acrylic lecterns were also provided with internal lighting and these are now touring the country for the huge number of presentations occurring throughout the election campaign.
Tim Routledge in-house lighting designer and project manager, provided the lighting design for both the events and utilized Thomas Pixelline LED Batterns and MAC 600s to backlight the polycarbonate. He said: "The set material is ideal for backlighting and takes colour fantastically, I have been able to provide a two tone look which changes throughout the event. This was a live TV broadcast on three news channels in the UK simultaneously; being involved in this production was extremely exciting and gave the whole Stage Electrics team a great buzz."
3sixtymedia, the onsite facilities department at Granada Studios, provided a flexible range of resources for the event and were responsible for feeding the programme to the media. A week later, the Local Election launch was held at the Olympian Suite at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. A very different venue with a room height of only 2.7m required a chopped down version of the set and replacement of the projection screens with 60" plasma screens around the room. The room was also divided into a main presentation area and a reception/holding area. Temporary walls, doors and press platforms were all created by the scenic workshop, Miller and Routledge again coordinated the technical and creative design requirements. PA, live cameras, vision mixing, captions, autocue and direction were all also supplied from the company's growing audio-visual department. And again the event was broadcast across the networks both live and featured in the day's news bulletins.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
