This involved three of the four major sites - Cofton Park in Birmingham for the beatification of the now Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman; Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, celebrating an open air Mass; and for a meeting of religious leaders and school students at St Mary's University College in Twickenham, Surrey.
XL Events was working for production companies WRG in Birmingham and Twickenham and DF Concerts in Glasgow and had been involved in the planning for this project for over seven months. XL's Guy Vellacott was lead project manager for the Papel visit and also co-ordinated the site at Cofton Park, with XL's Steve Greetham and Dave Lawrence taking care of Glasgow and Twickenham respectively.
Says Vellacott, "The production requests were both specific and fluid as they unfolded. We put a lot of energy and detail into getting everything organised in advance so it would flow smoothly on each of the sites."
International Event Agency WRG was the event organiser and contracting body for The Cofton Park Site. The event was managed by executive producer Alie Tilley, technical director Cliff Zenker and produced by Justine Catterall. The 135m wide main stage held approximately 2970 people during mass and the beatification ceremony, including 2340 choir, 580 Bishops, 50 Cardinals, plus his Holiness The Pope and his entourage.
This was the biggest and most complex site for the XL team, which also required full integration with the BBC who televised the Beatification Mass live in HD.
A total of eight screens were installed in the Park - two columns of Pixled F11 as the backdrop behind the Altar, two 9m wide Lighthouse R7 IMAG screens behind the choir, with another Lighthouse R7 and a Mitsubishi DV8 screen for disabled Pilgrims offstage left and right, along with two field delay screens of Mitsubishi DV8. The delay screens all required video delay lines so the audio could be time aligned.
The Birmingham show was technically managed by XL's broadcast director Malcolm Whittall and engineered by Dicky Burford and Simon Lyon. XL's in-house editor Jack Dickinson took some pressure at the end of the live show, when he had to create an instant replay highlights package for relay on the screens within 30 minutes of the close of proceedings.
The Great Assembly at Twickenham was again event managed by WRG, co-ordinated by Howard Craig, Simon Warne & Ron Gallagher.
This celebrated Roman Catholic education and took place on the college's athletics track, attended by around 2000 school students and key players in the Catholic education establishment.
The Event stage featured a central area for the Pope, with 2 x 7 m wide by 4.5m high Mitsubishi DV8 screens left and right, plus a 3.5m wide Pixled F11 screen onstage behind the Pope.
Scottish promoter DF Concerts was the event organiser for the Papal Open Air Mass in Bellahouston Park, managed for them by Graham Filmer and Keeley Wills.
XL supplied two Lighthouse R7 LED IMAG screens, each measuring 8m wide, together with a 50sq.m truck-based screen which acted as the field delay screen. The three surfaces were connected to the broadcast system via two fibre links and a microwave back up for double redundancy.
Commenting on the whole event, XL's Guy Vellacott states, "It was a privilege for XL and myself to be involved in such an influential project broadcast on a global scale. The event management at Cofton Park and the professionalism of all the crews involved made it exceptionally memorable."
(Jim Evans)
