Unite Rules Conference
Following on from the success of Unilever's conference at the ExCeL centre in London earlier this year, Steven Williams at CSP asked Basic Monkey to design and supply video for Unite, the Union's rule conference at the ACC in Liverpool.
Irene Reed from Frameworks Events produced the event and asked long standing partner CSP to realise the technical requirements.
The video system included 3x Barco FLM R22+ projectors, the best in class, which shone onto an 18m x 4.85m super-widescreen surface. These were driven by our 'Gorilla' Catalyst system, which took in feeds from cameras and IML voting.
Three cameras in total were used; two Grass Valley HD channels from Basic Monkey, one with a Canon Super 70 long lens and also a locked off Sony Z7 above stage. These were ably cut by Kevin Watts on a Panasonic HS50.
The remit from Frameworks was very specific for the layout on screen and James was tasked with using Catalyst to make it work. A scrolling news ticker at the top of screen could be slid in and out, displaying dynamically updated text which was remotely input. The current topic information was displayed in a box to the left of screen which again was dynamically updated remotely over a network.
IML handled all the delegate registration and card voting, the results of which could be displayed in place of the camera PiP. When delegates approached the stage to talk, they scanned their smart card at the graphics desk which in turn sent their name, region and sector details to be displayed as a lower third graphic over their camera image.
A second Catalyst machine was used to arrange the above information into a feed that was distributed around the building on relay plasmas, ensuring that delegates knew the current order of business and could see what was going on outside of the auditorium.
This complex signal routing and flow of information again showed the flexibility of the Catalyst system, combined with the ease of programming on the Jands Vista console.
Range Rover Evoque Launch
After three weeks, three cities and 64 shows, the new Range Rover Evoque has been well and truly launched to the public.
Starting in Earl's Court, London, then to the NEC in Birmingham and finishing at the GMEX in Manchester, the show was designed to cause hysteria amongst the invited guests with fast paced music, energetic dancers and attractive models.
The show was produced by Doll Events and managed by Paul Devine who called upon Delta to provide the surround sound system, ELP to supply lighting, ERP to install the laser system, Stage One to implement the automation and XL Video to realise the complex video requirements.
From a technical standpoint alone, this has to be one of the most impressive car launches to date:
The guests enter what appears to be an enclosed cinema area with raked seating and a large projection screen with the words "Evoque LIVE" on, all surrounded by blue set panels.
Once seated and the big green button is pushed, the lights dim and mechanical and atmospheric noises are heard all around. The message on the large projection screen disappears and the raked seating starts to rotate to the left. As the guests are rotated, video images of flocking birds follow round on what are now realised as 18 more projection screens.
When the audience is facing 180 degrees from where they started, a stunning cityscape appears with wireframe images of the Evoque driving through. The city scape is then covered with rain and as it is, some of the screens begin to move away from the crowd revealing men in black striking poses in silhouette.
Following this dramatic introduction there are three sections to interpret each of the three specifications available:
"Pure" is shown with the screens all fully retreated in white forming a background for the first wave of models, all dressed in white.
"Dynamic" starts with the crowd rotating left to reveal three men in red, backed by a sunset. After a change in music they break pose and perform a variety of impressive free running moves around the stage area with the audience rotating to follow. The performance is then handed over to the dancers who perform an energetic routine to a fast paced and catchy track with the screens showing 18 different video clips of the car driving around a city. This culminates in the dancers grouping together centre stage and lowering down to the floor.
"Prestige" is represented by a ballet dancer who is revealed as the dynamic dancers reach the floor who then glide away across the stage. She performs a solo piece and then interacts with the two male dancers either side of stage. The ballet is backed by images of the dancer herself surrounded by smoke with only 6 of the screens retreated. This is followed by another show from the models, now in evening attire.
The show finishes with the dancers returning to the stage to more energetic music backed by a medley of images from the previous sections. They are then joined by the models and free runners who all run round either side of the audience to where the larges projection screen was. As the audience is rotated back to their start position it becomes apparent that the screen has gone and behind it are two Range Rover Evoques, back lit with intense white and surrounded by the performers.
Basic Monkey provided two of the four Catalyst media servers required to drive the 19x projectors, the content for which was created by Colin Rozee in collaboration with Nigel Catmur who designed the slick and impressive lighting.
James was on site to manage the video team of Jim Fisher (Projectionist) and Alex Roberts (Assistant Projectionist) for Tim Riley at XL Video. James was also tasked with taking the content from Colin and 'pixel bashing' it to work across the 4x Catalyst machines.
The show was run using timecode, meaning that the sound, lighting, video, lasers and automation would always remain in sync and be the same for each show.
Hopefully we'll get the chance to work on the next big Land Rover launch.
First Leg of Range Rover Evoque Tour @ Earls Court
This week sees James in Earls Court for the first leg of a three week tour to release the new Range Rover 'Evoque'.
The launch will be one of the most adventurous ever seen with a huge amount of video, lighting and automation.
James is looking after the video aspects of the event for Tim Riley at XL Video, utilising 4x Catalyst media servers including two of Basic Monkey's own and a huge rack of processing gear to drive the 20x Barco projectors.
We can't give away too much at this time but if you get the opportunity to see the show and the car, please do, you will be far from disappointed.
Please stay tuned for more updates and photos after the run comes to an end.
Standard Life “LifeLens” Launch, Second Event
Today was the second part of Standard Life's new "LifeLens" product launch produced by Jack Morton Worldwide.
Replicating last month's event, James installed and operated XL Video's equipment along with Alex Roberts.
For this event, Basic Monkey supplied one of the two Catalyst systems required along with 2x Matrox TripleHead2Go boxes to feed the multiple LCD and plasma displays.
Standard Life “LifeLens” Launch, London
Standard Life are in the process of launching their new employee financial planning service and today was the media preview event.
The event was held in London's Hospital Club and was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide.
XL Video were asked to supply LCD and plasma displays, each showing different content, to be integrated into a white fabric covered set panel. This wall matched the other walls in the gallery and looked like a permanent feature.
Catalyst was chosen as the source for these displays for its ability to send multiple files to multiple destinations, while easily scaling the content to match the wall apertures.
Behind the stage, a 103" Panasonic plasma display was integrated into another white covered set panel.
'Buzz' words were projected onto the other walls from pillars made to look part of the building structure.
James programmed the 2x Catalyst systems to accept wireless commands from his iPhone, meaning that the display wall could be pushed back against the wall. Adjustments were made to the scaling for each window using wireless remote desktop.
Samsung Galaxy S2 Launch, Barcelona
Samsung today launched two new products, the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at the Olympic park in Barcelona.
The event marks the start of the Mobile World Congress in the city and as such the media guests expect to be impressed. Jack Morton Worldwide certainly delivered on these expectations again.
Following on from last year's success with 360 degree projection, it was decided to use projection again but on to varied surfaces in both texture and depth.
The main screen was 17.5m wide and 6.25m high, rear projected using 4x Barco HD20s in a 2x way edge blend. Flanking this were two front projected 'media façades' which had blocks at differing depths. 2x Barco R22 machines on their sides were mounted on a tower at front of house to project onto these.
For the opening sequence a voile curtain was brought across the entire stage, backed by a black Kabuki drop. This was also projected from the front, using Barco HD20s.
As the guests walked in, the Samsung Unpacked logo looped on the voile, followed by two teaser videos. After a countdown intro the Kabuki drops and the cloudy sky parts slowly as the voile curtain opens with carefully matched speed. Tied in with this, the main screen reveals an image with the product name.
The main show was divided into 4x stories, each with an opening video and product presentation graphics matched to the presenter's words. These were cued from script and designed to flow seamlessly.
Driving all the projectors were 3x XL Video Catalyst machines and Basic Monkey's 'Gorilla' Catalyst system output the 8 channels of audio used for the orchestral opening sequence along with the stereo audio for the rest of the show.
All the media servers were fed into a DVI matrix and were all inter-changeable in the event of one failing.
The show was triggered by our Jands Vista S3 console, making use of the carefully adjustable timing and transitions.
James programmed the show using content provided by Sangwha and Remedia, working closely with them to ensure a faithful representation of their concepts.
A show for invited guests is tomorrow following the same format as today but with a few alterations.
We're all wondering what next year's show will entail...
Unilever Conference @ ExCeL
Unilever wanted to make a big impact with this event so CSP designed an 18m x 4.8m widescreen set and asked Basic Monkey to design and supply the video system to make best use of it.
Tim from XL Video managed the event on our behalf and implemented the system of 3x cameras, 4x channel HD-PPU, 3x Digital Projection machines and distribution.
We provided our 'Gorilla' Catalyst system which played video content, processed the camera feed and outputted the 3x way edge blended projection, all in one system.
Unilever Christmas Party 2010
For this year's Unilever Christmas party, the theme was '20s Prohibition' so it wouldn't be appropriate to use LED screen as the main feature as last year. Instead CSP designed an ornate set, perfectly suited to the theme.
James was asked to design and operate the lighting with equipment provided by CSP, including Clay Paky Alpha Spot 300s, Alpha Beam 700s, Alpha Wash 575s, Martin Mac 550s, Mac 250s and SGM Palcos.
On top of all the intelligent lighting was 200m of tungsten festoon lighting to add a rich glowing canopy over the dining space.
The excellent catering was provided by Barretts and the marquee by Millennium Marquees.
Basic Monkey supplied a Jands Vista S3 console to control the lighting, running the new 'Byron' software. This was the ideal event to use the beta software for the first time as the evening is 'busked' as opposed to having lots of programmed cues, meaning we can get away with things more easily if there are any software glitches.
The new version performed very well and a detailed report was sent to Jands afterwards to aid in their further development of the software.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and many comments were made about the standard of decoration and entertainment.
Thomson Reuters Eikon, Tokyo
Tonight was the last in the 'LED arches' series of launch events for Thomson Reuters' Eikon product at the Tokyo International Forum.
After the success of the London and New York launch events, James was asked to attend the Tokyo launch to ensure that it shared the same result.
Using the same show programmed for New York on Jands' Vista lighting software, it was a case of simply adding video files in Japanese to the locally supplied Catalyst machines and repeating the flow of the previous shows. James brought a Vista M1 playback wing with him on the plane to make running the show easier.
This trip ends a hectic year working with XL Video and Jack Morton Worldwide for James in anticipation for more next year.
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!).
