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.
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.
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!
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.
