LONDON – XL Events stayed busy in 2009 with a variety of events, many of which presented unique AV challenges that had to be overcome. Highlights including the Wella ITV Awards (pictured here), Clothes Show Live, Speakeasy, REGIS, Samsung Corby Global Launch, Carphone Warehouse GP Event and the Mini United event at Silverstone Race Track.
WELLA ITV Awards
In November 2009, XL Events secured the contract to supply video for this year's Wella International Trend Vision Awards event, held at the now closed Berlin Tempelhoff Airport.
The event was organized and produced by Jack Morton Worldwide (London) and encompassed all elements for a runway show, a stage show and a large zoned breakout room, all set within two of the old airport hangers (once part of the Skybridge Airport into West Berlin).
The video supplied by XL Events included a 100 square-meter LED screen (made up from Pixled F11 panels) used as a central backdrop to the stage. This was flanked by two front projection screens of 60 square meters, fed by Barco FLM 20K projectors.
Further to the main projection and LED, there was a requirement for 3 relay screens around a central truss that flew in and out, and these were fed by XL's new 10K Panasonic PT-DW1000E projectors – all double stacked with "hot" back-up units.
All video was controlled and routed via a Barco Encore screen management system and was fed content from Catalyst, DVS Pronto and Keynote, all run on Mac Book Pro laptops. The Encore was programmed and operated by Jonathan Bond, and all media content overseen by Justine Catterall.
The four breakout zones were positioned in each corner of the second hanger and controlled from a central point by four operators, each running a remote head camera, Mac Book for Keynote and Folsom Image Pros for switching. Media was played out via Barco SLM projectors.
Clothes Show Live
Clothes Show Live was hosted at the Birmingham NEC in December for Haymarket Exhibitions. Production manager Paul Divine worked with XL Events on a set where all three screens were built onto revolves.
The rear of the screens were dressed seasonal style to resemble giant bow-wrapped Christmas gifts. These were constructed from three large Lighthouse R7 screens with varying panel counts and a right angle in each.
A full day went into constructing the screens to the clients desired configuration, plus a further day for cabling and programming to ensure that the content fitted perfectly across all six screen facets.
The content was stored and played back via an XL Video twin Catalyst media server programmed by Ross Williams. Catalyst content also appeared on two I-Mag projection screens between performances, routed via a Sony DFS PPU. The cameras were Sony HXC-100s.
Tim Riley, project manager for XL Events, said, "This was a challenging yet rewarding project. We had great support from Stage One who created the structure supporting the screens and the dressing at the back, and coupled with cool graphics, all elements combined to make an excellent show."
Speakeasy
During December, XL Events was involved with Speakeasy, which was producing a five-venue road show featuring 22 presentations to a total of 13,000 personnel from a financial services organization.
The presentation delivery concept involved creating the look and feel of a book on a flat projection surface with the appearance of the pages turning.
This was achieved using a Pandora's Box media server's Z axis to create the depth of field, and then surface mapping the output giving the illusion of a curved screen.
The client wanted to walk around the stage, but there was not sufficient room for rear projection. The solution was to rig two projectors out front at up to a 35° off axis angle, and the image was warped in Pandora's Box to the correct perspective while still maintaining the HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This allowed the client to walk up to within one inch from the screen.
XL Events project manager, Guy Vellacott and his crew, supported the Speakeasy team.
REGIS
Staged at the Rome Hilton Cavalieri in late September, XL Events provided full video services for the Presidents Awards/Conference for the 3rd year running. Supporting US agency Equinox Creative, XL Events supplied Barco CLM 10K projectors, Sony D55 cameras, Shure Radio mics, D&B Q7 speakers and a Yamaha M7CL 48 channel mixer.
Samsung Corby Global Launch
In November XL Events, working for Jack Morton Worldwide, provided the 3D screen that was integral to the launch of the new Samsung Corby mobile phone, at Milan Fashion Week. Using Musion holography and Barco FLM 18 HD projectors, the resulting effect was a fully immersive presentation that really pushed the boundaries of interactive content.
XL also provided a Barco Encore screen management system, Catalyst media server, 4 camera PPU, and Element Labs Stealth LED screen.
Carphone Warehouse GP Event
November saw the quarterly GPE Events Euro Marketing Conference at the Sofitel Hotel at Heathrow's Terminal 5.
Supplying Barco CLM10 projectors, a Yamaha LS9 sound mixer, d&b E9 speakers, Color Kinetics ColorBlast and ChromaQ ColorBlock LED fixtures and an Avolites Pearl Expert lighting desk to client Undercurrent, XL ensured this event went without a hitch.
Mini United at Silverstone Race Track
Another highlight of the year was the Mini United event at Silverstone Race Track, Northamptonshire, UK.
XL Events supplied site-wide audio and video services for the three-day Mini United event, which celebrating the 50th birthday of the iconic vehicle.
XL Events was awarded the role of technical partner for audio and video by BMW's lead agency, George P Johnson and also won the contract to supply audio and video at the parallel running International Mini Dealer Conference, staged at the Excel Centre in London.
Mini United took over the entire central area of Silverstone's racing circuit, providing a fusion environment melding the worlds of corporate presentation, public event and live music show.
Friday night culminated with a live performance by Calvin Harris and his band, followed on Saturday with a gig by the "Modfather" Paul Weller. In addition to the bands, the main stage featured numerous other presentations throughout the three days.
Site wide audio was designed and project managed by Rich Rowley, while Steve Greetham looked after all the video requirements for the whole event.
For more information, please visit www.xl-events.co.uk
