Wella ITVA 2010, Paris
Tonight was the 2010 Wella International Trend Vision Awards show at Halle Freyssinet, Paris which saw competitors and guests from all over the world show off and discuss the big new hairstyles and colours for the next 12 months. The event was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide who brought together a huge number of suppliers to create a very successful show.
The event was built in three 'acts', the first being a demonstration of Wella's big new trends of 2011, 'Passionista', 'Lumina', 'Glamazon' and 'Polaris'. The afternoon act consisted of two competitions, 'Young Talent' and 'Colour', both of which are very prestigious awards to receive and can lead to great things for the winners.
In the evening, the guests and competitors were treated to dinner and entertainment from Diversity, The Noisettes and Soul Symphony.
The day show catwalk area consisted of 4x HD side screens and one 16m x 7m edge blended main screen. The main screen at the back of the catwalk had a revolving box at it's lower centre to allow four different apertures for the models to emerge from, each matching the style of the trend. In the afternoon, this box was opened up to allow a DJ to perform for the competitions.
XL Video were brought in to realise the video requirements on site, including fixed, jib and mobile cameras, LED screen, projection and control systems.
The trend content was designed and created by Knifedge with additional stings and animated name straps created by Jamie at JSCGI, all managed by Adam from JMW London and Justine Catterall.
James was tasked to turn the mass of video files, images and audio tracks into a programmed live show using Catalyst. Part of this process was done at XL Video's office in Hemel Hempstead to save time on site, however due to the delivery schedule of the video content lots more had to be done in Paris meaning some long days and late nights. Being involved from an early stage in meetings at Jack Morton's office in London and a wealth of emails and conference calls meant that James could ensure content was delivered in a way to work smoothly in Catalyst and make best use of the projection media.
Basic Monkey supplied a Jands Vista S3 system to control the 4x XL Catalyst systems and also our own new 12 core Catalyst system for surround audio playback and video processing. The system involved signal routing which allowed country and studio names to be keyed onto the live webcast at the same time as flags were displayed on the main screen. Live camera feeds were fed into Catalyst to be output to the side screens when not used as part of the trend video intros.
The show involved heavy use of alpha channel transparency to allow builds rather than fades, this involved some creative programming which was made readily achievable thanks to the the Jands Vista software.
Next years show is in New York and despite being pretty tired after the week, James is hoping to be involved again next year.
Many thanks to Nina Dunn from Knifedge who took the photos during the show (I was busy pressing the button in video city!).
SkyRide London
During the summer, Sky (with the cooperation of local councils of course) have been closing off parts of city centres on Sundays to allow residents to cycle the streets without fear of collision with other road users.
As part of this event, they have been touring their 'Rainforest Dome' which is a white structure, internally projected with a rainforest canopy effect and looping videos with information about the rainforest and its destruction.
The 5x Panasonic 10k HD projectors are driven by a Pandora's Box system by Coolux, the advantage of which is its advanced projection warping ability. After working with David from XL at the Manchester event, James rigged the projectors with team from Rouge Events and adjusted the Pandora's programming to take account of the slight variances between shows.
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.
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.
Report from the Desert
Well, it's warm and sandy.
The venue is an exhibition centre/festival site in the desert surrounding Riyadh, the route to the venue from the hotel varies every day and each has a huge number of new sights for a westerner like myself. Derelict amusement parks, go-kart tracks, vast camel trading areas and the Riyadh Aviation Club which consists of 4 tents by the side of the road.
We built the projection towers and had the projectors running on the first day with a very rough line up. The second evening I spent a few hours with Barco's Projector Toolset and some music to finish the job. Each night we have to cover the 4x Barco HD20s to shield them from the potential sandstorms at night.
Today I ventured with Jake Robertson, my assistant for the week, to the Kingdom Tower in the middle of Riyadh. After a short walk round the mall underneath, I headed up to the sky bridge to take a few photos. Quite a sight.
Some photos below, more to follow.
James
James is off to Saudi Arabia
Jonathan Bond of Vision Mill has invited James through XL Video to act as projectionist for an event at The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The event involves large format projection using Barco FLM HD-20s onto a building, driven by Barco Encore.
New territory again for Basic Monkey!