The Tower has seen a succession of celebrity inmates throughout its chequered history, but this time the VIPs attending the breakfast press conference were free to leave. They included the Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, David Quarmby, Chairman of the British Tourist Authority, Dr Kim Howells MP, Minister for Tourism and Lord Marshall, Chairman of BA.
White Light’s Mike Crossman project-managed the event. His brief came from the BTA, who wanted to architecturally light the Tower in a show-lighting style, and also feature their logo large and clear. Crossman approached lighting designer Leigh Porter - one of several lighting designers based at their Wimbledon premises - to create the lighting scheme and E//T//C’s Paul Highfield to handle the projection elements.
Leigh’s brief was to light - in a combination of red, white and blue - the South face of the tower and the two towers either side of the East face. The central part of the East face would then be used for the logo projection. Leigh wanted a colour changing luminaire for the job and decided on using Martin MAC 600 moving heads. Once a site visit and lighting tests proved that the units were right for the job, the 17 fixtures were prepped and pre-programmed in White Light’s warehouse. On site, the 14 MACs lighting the South face were rigged on scaffolding frames, re-focused and protected with waterproof coverings. The three illuminating the East face towers were enclosed in weatherised domes. The weather-proofing was essential, and the UK weather performed as predictably as ever, liberally tipping it down on the morning of the press conference!
The MACs were hooked into a Strand 520 console operated by Jon Coventry, located at the Raven Gate, and the Tower electrical department provided a three-phase 63 amp supply, run via White Light distros to each of the scaff towers and dome positions.
E//T//C supplied a 6K xenon PIGI projector which easily covered the surface area of the Tower’s East face with the UKOK logo. The projector was located inside one of E//T//C’s vans, with power again supplied locally. E/T/C also carried out a full-scale on-site test using various versions of the new logo, which enabled the BTA to select the most suitable image for the launch.
UKOK is a multi-million pound international marketing campaign by the BTA aimed at stimulating overseas visitors to travel to Britain this year and to act as a catalyst to lead the British tourist trade into recovery.
