Jamie Tyrer’s 21st Birthday @ Craxton Wood
Lightech Sound and Light, one of Basic Monkey's longest standing clients, have asked us to provide projectors, screens and control equipment for Jamie Tyrer's 21st Birthday Party at Craxton Wood Hotel.
The remit was simply that above, but we also provided our Catalyst system and Vista console to make best use of the lighting installed by James along with Mike, Lee and Jack from Lightech.
Our Catalyst server was used to drive the projection screens and also Lightech's Traxon Mood Tiles. They are usually driven by eCue, but James and Mike decided to use the infinitely more flexible Catalyst system on this occasion with fantastic results.
The evening had a great atmosphere, with entertainment provided by DJ Kerry Spicer.
Volvo Dealer Kick-off, Celtic Manor
This week James has been at Celtic Manor for HSL to implement and operate lighting and Robe DigiSpot 7000s for Volvo's Dealer Kick-off. The event was produced by Patrick from CWA, with lighting designed by Phil Wiffen.
Phil specified the 6x DigiSpots to project custom and stock content onto the cycs down the side of the room. Used in both 3 way merge and independent modes, James programmed the show on a Jands Vista T4 under the guidance of CWA.
ATC provided projection onto screens in the centre of each cyc, so when these were in use the DigiSpots would be used to project logos either side of the screen.
The day finished with an evening of X-factor styled karaoke, backed by appropriate stock video content and matching lighting colours.
Ruth Lorenzo was the special guest, performing 6 numbers. With access to the set list only briefly before the guests arrived, James programmed colour and gobo matched video and lighting states to re-enforce her performance.
Unilever Christmas Party 2009
Based on the success of the Catalyst and Barco iLite 12 combination at Paul Hogarth's birthday party, James was asked by CSP to reproduce the spaced screen effect for Unilever's Christmas party in a marquee at Chester Rugby Club. The event had a strong Hollywood/Oscars theme with lighting designed and implemented by James to enhance this.
Jeremy from Unilever asked that as the guests arrived, it would look as if he had spent no money on the event and as such all screens were off, intelligent lighting was off and the room left dark with only a hint of colour. After the guests had all arrived, an intro video was played on the iLite screens and projection surfaces mounted on the gable ends of the marquee (also fed by Catalyst). After this intro video, the full lighting effect was revealed and film trailers were played on the iLite pillars, a different one on each.
As the evening progressed and entertainment from the band began, stock content from Basic Monkey's large library was played on the iLite pillars along with lighting effects from the array of LED and moving fixtures to support the performance.
The night was real show piece, demonstrating the benefits of combined lighting and video design. Ideas brewing for next year already...
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!
St. Etienne at The Ritz, Manchester
Today James acted as rigger/technician for St. Etienne's show at Manchester's Ritz venue.
Having received sketch plans yesterday, James had 6x Robe ColorSpot 700 and 6x Robe ColorWash 700 moving lights, 2x Martin Atomic strobes, 8x James Thomas Pixellines, 6x 2lite molefays and 6x S4 19deg profiles to fit intro the notoriously tight venue. All equipment was provided along with James by HSL in Blackburn.
The moving lights were split between the floor, boxes, truss towers and a goalpost truss across the back on 2no Litech wind up stands. Matt Waterfield the LD arrived late morning and was happy with the deviations from plot made by James to fit into the venue. Room was made for the band's fastfold screens under the goalpost truss with a minimum of clearance.
Catalyst and LED screen for Paul Hogarth’s 50th
Basic Monkey Limited have been asked to provide LED screens in the style of Girls Aloud's current tour for successful developer Paul Hogarth's 50th birthday party.
Paul and Judith have enlisted Lightech Sound and Light to provide lighting and production management for the event, in a marquee at the family home near Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. They wanted something extra special to add to the event, which already has theming from RSVP, catering from With a Twist and photography by Martyn Hicks. Between the clients and Jonathan at Lightech, they decided on 5x columns of LED screen across the stage, spaced in the same fashion as Girls Aloud have used on their arena shows. Jonathan then asked Basic Monkey to provide a technical design and proposal.
James specified Barco iLite 12 from XL Video to produce the effect, supplied in touring frames and with ground stacking hardware. These are driven by Catalyst, supplied by Basic Monkey.
The screens on the main party night were left black and unused until the main DJ started with a grand entrance of dancing girls and pyrotechnics at 11pm to add a surprise to the event. After which a variety content from our huge library along with unique video chases and sound to video were used to make the DJ performance stand out. Since Lightech have asked us to control the lighting aswell, we were able to link the light show and video together to create a real nightclub experience. The videos and chases were matched to the music with constant programming and adjustment throughout the evening. We placed an additional 2x panels under the DJ table to show further videos and sound waveforms generated by Catalyst.
Response from the guests has been incredible, we believe that this is one of the first applications of touring screens on an event of this scale (150 guests).
The screens were used again on Sunday for a BBQ, with more sedate images to begin with, leading once again into flashy vibrant video to bring the party up. We also used live video fed from our Sony Z7 camera to entertain the children.
Catalyst and the lighting were operated using our Jands Vista S3 by James and David.
James to de-rig Sting’s Durham Cathedral DVD Record
HSL have asked James to assist with the de-rig at Durham cathedral of Sting's new show recorded for DVD.
Not sounding a very glamorous role, it did involved working in the bowels and heights of one of the most beautiful buildings in the UK. 100x Robe ColorWash moving lights in both 1200 and 2500 models were used on specially built rigs strapped to columns, on cases around the organ, or high up on the cathedral's walkways. Also, 9x A&O Falcon 7000 moving lights were used, in both beam and flower varieties with 2x hung from a truss suspended from the bell tower, a 200ft drop!
Harnessed up, James and Paddy spent most of the night lowering the wash moving lights from the high walkways on a builder's wire hoist. Then they made their way to the bell tower to drop the two huge falls of wire and motor chain.
Pendulum Summer Festivals 2009 – Photos
Check out a few of my photos from Pendulum's European summer festival tour this year:
Pendulum European Summer Festivals Tour
James has been invited to act as video and lighting technician for Pendulum on their European summer festivals tour.
Andy Hurst is the lighting designer, who has passed his operating duties to Neil Carson of Enhance Production. HSL will be providing the lighting equiment: 16x James Thomas Pixelline 1044, 8x Martin Atomic strobes with XL Video providing 8x Martin LC panels. Video will be sourced from a MacBook pro provided by Andy running Archaos, cued by a WholeHog 3 triggered using SMTPE streamed from the band. The lighting will be controlled by Neil using a Chamsys MagiQ Pro from front of house.
The kit will be mounted into 4x dollys, each 2m wide and 2m high to accommodate a 2m square LC screen, with 4x Pixellines mounted horizontally above each other behind the screen, spaced with 2x Atmoics. Dollys were chosen for ease of transport and erection, since Pendulum will not be appearing at the top act at all the events and wont be blessed with an overnight rig on most, a fast stage turnaround is a must.
James will be looking after the maintenance of both the video and lighting aspects of the rig, also supervising the 'roll-on' to stage at the beginning of the act. This involves arranging the lift of all 4x dollys onto Litedeck to increase height and visibility of the screen, and then connecting the dolly looms to the control equipment and testing before show start.
The band will be appearing at: