Thomson Reuters Digital Forest, London
Today is the start of the new teaser campaign for Thomson Reuters' new Eikon financial product. This 'digital forest' which has been in planning for over a year now is the precursor to more in depth promotion to come.
In a prominent position, at the entrance to Canary Wharf underground station and at the foot of the iconic building itself, the promotion had to be impressive and give the thousands of financial workers in the area something new to grab their attention.
The trees are made from metal frames, fabricated and put together by Stage One; onto these are attached blocks of Barco O-lite LED screen, provided by XL Video. The content is designed and created in-house at Jack Morton in London running on XL's new baby Catalyst media server, nicknamed 'Kitten'.
The display will be live for a week, starting at 5:30am and finishing at 11pm.
Papal Visit to Cofton Park, Longbridge
For the past two days, James has been down at Cofton Park in Longbridge to rig LED screens for the Papal visit this weekend.
With some serious stage work, a huge crowd area and lots of LED screen from XL Video, this looks to be a major event. The crowd space had 20x PA towers and 6x screens to cater for it!
The screens consist of 3x Mitsubishi DV8 and 3x Lighthouse R7. 6 kilometres of coax and Triax cable are in use for the 10 cameras (not including BBC ones!) and screens.
A crew of 20+ from XL Video and XL Events were on site for the past two days, including LED screen techs, cable techs, camera techs and operators, vision mixers and engineers.
As you can probably see from the photos, it got a bit wet at times and the only shelter available was under the choir seating racks! Let's hope it's sunny for the 50,000 guests and 1,000+ crew/staff on Sunday.
Creamfields 2010
The last of the festivals this summer for Basic Monkey and it turned out to be a tough one for all involved.
XL Video had a lot of LED at Creamfields. Even by Steve G's (Project Manager) own admission, he'd never seen or heard of so many LED techs on site!
James was principally based with Chris Isaacson in the Chibuku/Swedish House Mafia arena building, altering and repairing the Stealth screen there, although everyone pitched in site wide.
For the first night, the Stealth was rigged in a semicircle for Plastikman's performance, behind which he played making use of the transparent properties of the screen. After the show we had to wait until the other DJs finished at 4am, then for the ground support with all the lighting on to come down and go back up again. Come 8am we were finished, time to move on to main stage.
The overnight efforts were to re-rig the Stealth screen at the back of the stage for the Swedish House Mafia's set.
After an hour to rest in the tour bus or in hotel (for the lucky ones) staring at the walls, it was back to work for all to switch on and look after the screens for day 2.
On return to the Chibuku tent, the incoming production required a screen to cover the DJ decks table. So with heavy eyes, Duncan from BPM SFX rigged a makeshift truss rig and James, Chris and Ian built the remaining Stealth panels across the front using some cable ties, looked the part though!
The load-out went quicker than expected which was a saving grace, seeing the last XL presence leave site at 6:30am.
Thomson Reuters Eikon Launch Preparations pt2
So, we still can't give too much away at this stage, but for the past 2 days James has been in York again to build part 2 of the Eikon launch.
This will be a feat of engineering on Stage One's part and a tidy bit of video work from XL Video!
Basic Monkey are providing the Catalyst system and control gear for this pre build.
Promise to give you more when we can...
Goodwood Vintage Festival 2010
James has just spent the night re-building a F-30 LED screen at the Goodwood Festival of Vintage following a power issue.
The phone rang yesterday afternoon in the hunt for an LED/power technician to get to Goodwood to rebuild the screen while they day crew got some rest. James arrived on site to find the cause of the problem, one of XL's touring distros, designed for use in the USA and in Europe had it's voltage selector in the wrong position when it should be locked! This meant that 400 volts went across just over half the screen (luckily the rest wasn't plugged in). A series of pops and bangs were heard and promptly a new screen was despatched from Belgium.
Come 7am, James and Gareth from XL had replaced 36 panels, some hung on motored trusses, the rest on vertical truss towers which had to be accessed using cherry picker (a very frustrating task).
A couple of hours rest were had at the Bognor Regis Best Western and then the 300 mile return journey.
Lesson learned about use of a multi-meter for those on site!
Thomson Reuters Eikon Launch Preparations pt1
For the past two days James has been in York at Stage One to build one part of the exciting launch for Thompson Reuters' new 'Eikon' product.
We'd love to show you some cool photos and tell you all about it, but you're just going to have to wait...
Global Gathering 2010
For the past few days, James has been at Global Gathering in Stratford-upon-Avon working for XL Video who are providing video kit and support across the site.
XL provided a variety of screens and projection across the site; F-30 for main stage, Bedrock and Random arenas, Martin LC for Global Arena and 4x Barco R22+ projectors for the Godskitchen tent.
James was tasked to rig and maintain the Martin LC 2140 panels in the Global Arena, which anyone who has worked with this screen before would know is no simple task. Being the older version meant that the whole rig had to be driven with DVI which meant short cables and lots of distribution. Thanks to the keen support of the local crew, the task was made much easier. The panels were positioned on a 'virtual screen' to give an abstract spaced image across the stage, lighting poles were placed between the panels to provide an effective mix of video and lighting.
Also within James' remit was the Godskitchen Arena which was to use the 'Boombox' design that the promoters are currently touring. This involved using 4x Barco R22+ projectors onto a scaffold box with white gauze across each divide, leaving a gap for the DJ in the middle. The graphics were provided by Exyzt, who first showed this principle as Etienne De Crecy's touring rig of 2 years ago. Their software was custom written for the task by the François Wunschel who used custom visuals and live video fed over microwave link by Pier Schneider.
Their show was something to behold, with live video sampling using a PlayStation controller to create incredibly well timed video loops to match the music, all matched with their infamous geometric patterns which create a real optical illusion.
Faithless European Summer Tour
James has been invited by Andy Hurst to act as video technician for Faithless' summer arenas and festivals tour. The tour will involve several UK and European venue shows, along with the usual suspects of summer festivals.
Equipment will be provided by PRG, including Martin's LC series semi-transparent LED screens which will be James' responsibility. He will also be helping with the lighting rig and roll on should he have any spare time!
Keep checking back for more news. Follow James' updates here: Faithless Posts
Catalyst and Barco iLite Demo
Check out our latest demo video for Catalyst and iLite 12. Shots taken from Paul Hogarth's 50th Birthday.
Music: "Nero - Do You Wanna"
Catalyst and Screens at Unilever’s Christmas Party
Basic Monkey has been asked to provide Barco iLite12 screens and a Catalyst media server for Unilever's Christmas party.
Steven Williams from CSP saw the photos from Paul Hogarth's birthday party and suggested to Unilever that they use the same system. A few design ideas were put forward but they've decided to go for the same layout of 5 columns of video wall, this time in a V shape plan on stage.
The Catalyst system will also be driving projection in the marquee, all geared towards the Hollywood theme. All video and lighting will be controlled using our Jands Vista S3.
James will be installing and operating the system, also creating some custom Hollywood graphics to work on the LED screen and projections. James will also be designing and operating the lighting.
Should be a great event!