BIRMINGHAM, U.K. — Summit Steel supplied a Kinesys automation system with K2 control and all associated trussing and rigging to fly and track five projection screens in the main presentation area of the 2009 Sainsbury’s Our conference, staged at the NEC. Summit was working for drpevents, which supplied all other aspects of the event production, including sound, lighting and video. It took place across five halls of the NEC.
When it came to the automation elements of the show designed by drpgroup’s Dale Parmenter, production manager Steve Pamplin wanted specialists onboard, and chose Summit Steel, for whom the job was project managed by Chris Walker.
It was the first time that Summit had worked with drpgroup. “Chris impressed us and made us feel very comfortable,” said Pamplin, adding that the time was tight to get the elaborate production installed and up-and-running, but they were convinced that Summit was the right company for the job.
The main presentation area saw Hall 20 of the NEC transformed into a large auditorium that seated the 4,000 delegates. The moving screens were just downstage of a 26 meter wide rear white cyc, and in front was a shallow stage and a small thrust area.
This session of the conference was preceded by a 10 minute choreographed dance sequence featuring eight street dancers and four freerunners, complete with a full theatrical light show, pyro, the five flown moving screens plus two more ground-based screens that were pushed into and out of the performance area on trucks.
The screen video content — all created by drpvideo — was stored on a Hippotizer digital media server, which was hooked into the K2 system and synchronized with its positional data. This enabled the video to be tracked along with the screens in real time as they moved.
Four of the screens tracked and moved up and down, while the center one flew in and out.
For the presentation sessions that followed, the screens were also moved into different “scenes” between sections, allowing an alternative AV format for each of the presenters.
The screens — all different sizes and a mix of 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios — were rigged by Summit onto two 40m wide I-Beam tracks and were moved by 4 motorised, Kinesys enabled beam trolleys attached to the I-Beams and raised and lowered with ten Kinesys wired half-tonne Lodestar JJ hoists. The beam trolleys and hoists were all controlled by Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units.
Summit also supplied the trussing and hoists for the upstage cyc truss that moved up and down. The cyc was attached top and bottom to two runs of James Thomas 30cm Supertruss, the bottom of which was raised and lowered on a further four Kinesys wired hoists.
Gareth Williams operated the K2 system. Summit also supplied Kinesys technician Steve Belfield for the pre-production and show days, and two additional Summit riggers joined them for the load-in and load-out.
Chris Walker noted, “It was the first time we have used the K2 linked into the Hippotizer like this and it proved to be a reliable way of providing some stunning moving projection effects. It was also good to work with drpgroup who put a lot of effort, imagination and detail into producing a slick, good looking show.”
For more information, please visit www.summit-steel.co.uk.
