The Tribeca Film Festival celebrates a year of films, education and community. International film stars including Robert De Niro, Kevin Spacey and Salma Hayek, who all graced the red carpet for the event.
The complex event site was split into several key production areas, each of which needed to be treated as a separate entity with its own needs and considerations. The central point to it all was red carpet area and other areas such as the Festival Esplanade, Family Area, the Lacombe Gallery and a huge outdoor theatre where 2,500 people could be seated in an 82m wide dome, constructed by Al Laith. The buildings and streets of Katara cultural village and amphitheatre were illuminated with architectural lighting designed by Adam Basset and supplied by PRG.
Pearce Hire managing director Shaun Pearce was appointed head production electrician, working alongside production manager Michael Petrovich to plan and install all of the required power services.
Shaun Pearce reports, "We have extensive experience in the Middle East, providing temporary power solutions for large events. Working alongside locally based generator supplier Prime Power, we sourced 30 generators, from 30kva to 1250kva in size. EFM freighted over three tons of our specialist distribution equipment and there were no compromises in ensuring all electrical circuitry was tested and installed working to recognized UK standards.
"To put the scale of event into perspective, along the esplanade alone the air conditioning pulled a constant 1000amps per phase! This was the equivalent of having a large stage lighting rig turned up full for 5 days; and this was before they turned on the catering lighting, AV and sound equipment requiring another 600Amps!
"Extensive architectural lighting across Katara and feeding the Red Carpet area provided us a particular distribution challenge, as all cables had to be routed safely and remain unseen. I spent several days surveying the village and designed a complex distribution solution requiring 2,000 amps of power for lighting and screens. With voltage drop being the greatest challenge, some heavy power cable runs in excess of 500m."
(Jim Evans)
