The launch event - a dinner with presentations - took place in the Energy Hall and the Making of the Modern World Gallery at the Science Museum in London, one of the London venues for which White Light is an approved supplier. The Science Museum was open to the public on the day of the event, and no equipment could be visible until the public had departed for the day - just an hour before the guests started arriving for the event itself, which did complicate proceedings.
White Light's project manager Steve Richardson, worked with the Science Museum to squeeze as much extra time into the schedule as possible, and then ensured enough staff were on hand to allow everything to happen in the time available. "With this event, we called a team of fourteen for 6am to allow us to unpack two trucks and to pre-rig as much as we could before the museum opened. The Science Museum was very helpful in allowing us to use an unused gallery for storage; we built the set and projection screens then moved them intact into the storage area."
For the evening session, Richardson called a crew of thirty-two to re-instate the set and complete the installation of the lighting, sound and video rigs. Installing a lighting rig designed by event lighting designer Jason Larcombe, it included Martin MAC2000 Spots, PAR 64s, and Source Four profiles for gobo projection work; White Light worked with Delta Sound to supply the audio system and Hamilton Rentals to supply the video system that included front and rear projectors, laptops for PowerPoint presentations, cameras for live relays and an AutoCue system.
"At 18:15 the galleries were cleared and we got the go; within the first half hour most of the work was completed leaving us twenty minutes for tidying up ready for the guests. With approximately 120 lighting fixtures and eighteen on the lighting crew that equates to each crew member rigging about six lights and running two hundred metres of cable in an hour. It is amazing how quickly things can happen when they're planned and staffed properly - even if there is always a hint of nervous energy around when the schedule is that tight."
The event itself was for UKERNA - the United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association - to launch JANET5, a dramatic upgrade to the JANET Joint Academic Network that has long linked the computer users across the UK's higher-education organisations; JANET currently serves 18 million users, and SuperJANET5 will bring the UK's primary and secondary schools under the JANET umbrella.
White Light helped to ensure that all attending were able to hear details of the new network - while at the same time enjoying dinner in the atmospheric surroundings of the museum. Once the dinner was completed, the White Light team had their equipment cleared and out of the building in less than an hour and a half.
(Chris Henry)
