The annual jamboree - produced by TPi Magazine, part of Mondiale Publishing Ltd - honours the technical and creative achievements of the live production / event industry over the preceding 12 months - seriously upped the ante this year, moving to a new venue, Battersea Evolution in London, which offered more space for both guests and the production.
Over 1,100 leading industry professionals and personalities enjoyed an evening of entertainment, networking and fun, hosted by comedian and actor Russell Kane who presented the 27 Awards.
The 46 Pointes were spread out across six of the V trusses dissecting the room, allowing those high-impact Pointe beam and spot effects with prisms and gobos to swoosh dramatically across the entire room. The BMFL Spots were used for lighting and the stage area.
Of the 10 fixtures on the back truss, six were positioned centrally, with the other four as two pairs further out to the sides. The six in the middle were mirrored by six BMFLs in corresponding floor positions. All these provided incredibly strong and stylised back lighting, ideal for the fast-paced and edgy delivery of the Awards.
Three more BMFL Spots per side were positioned down the room, perched on flightcases. These skimmed over the tables and shot massive zoomed-out gobos around the room and across the ceiling.
Another 12 x BMFL Spots were used in the reception area - together with 60x PARfect 100s - rigged on three trusses and used for cool effects and colours and filling out the room really well. Another four BMFLs were rigged in the atrium / entranceway and used to shoot beams out across the car park to impress arriving guests.
The 21 x CycFX 8s - run in full individual pixel control mode - were all rigged in a line on the back truss and used for down-washing and producing sweeps of light and colour as well as crazy pixel effects. Jack loves the colours, the speed and the zoom. "Like all these Robe fixtures" Jack enthuses, "They are super-versatile - there are simply so many things you can do with every type of fixture".
Some of the LEDBeam 100s were deployed on the floor at the back of the stage - their miniscule size means they can be tucked almost anywhere, and they did a great job of back lighting Russell Kane and producing eye-and-camera candy (for the IMAG mix).
Another 16 were lined up on the front truss over the stage and used to produce vibrant fans across the whole audience.
Jack ran the lighting on an Avolites Tiger Touch II with a Pearl Expert Pro as 'hot' backup, and the vast majority of the programming was completed in pre-visualisation as there was almost zero time on the day ... with ninety per cent of the rig going in first thing in the morning for the event that night.
The lighting crew chief was Steve Mulholland, who was joined by lighting techs Chris Green, Paul Bird, Amy Liddlington, Martin Frewer, Steve Cherry, Jack Jewell and Dom McClory.
Chris Wells took on lighting operation and on site programming for the reception area under Jack's instruction, freeing him up to concentrate on the main space.
Hawthorn supplied all the trussing for the event plus the rigging kit and power infrastructure via their role as the 'house' technical provider. The TPi Awards rigging crew comprised Malcolm Wells, Chris Lamb, Oz Marsh, Mario Da Silva and Janos Hejj - and looking after power were Kevin Wright and John Hunter.
"It was a massive team effort to make it all happen on time," concludes Jack, "I am very proud to have been involved and very privileged to have had such an amazing crew supporting me."<
