Production:av Together again at Butlins

For the second year running Production:av have provided high quality AV services to the Newfrontiers group of churches. The London and Home Counties church groups met again at the Butlins Holiday Park in Bognor Regis over the weekend of 22nd to 24th of January.

Production:av provided experienced crew and technicians to deliver a switching system for the main venue bringing the Camera images, songwords and powerpoint together and feeding them to the house installed screens, and also to other venues across the site.

There were also several youth venues which required additional equipment over the installed house systems that Butlins provided. Production:av provided Video Systems comprising of Seamless Switchers for Kramer, Extron and Barco, sending signals to projection equipment from Christie and Plasma screens from Panasonic and NEC, as well as sound equipment from D&B Audiotechnik and Allen and Heath.

Production:av also provided a site wide radio system to enable the Executive Management Team and youth teams to communicate effectively.

The event was a success, with the technical systems performing as required delivering clean signals across the site. Our thanks go to the Organising team for involving Production:av for the second year of the event, and look forward to being involved next year.

Production:av provide widescreen for Amsterdam 400 Event

2009 sees the 400th anniversary of the Baptist Church, having start from a group of people who fled England and settled in Amsterdam. With this in mind the European Baptist Federation held a celebration in Amsterdam to mark the 400th Anniversary.

Held at the Theatre in heart of the Rai Complex on the edge of Amsterdam, Production;av supplied a camera, switching and projection package to the event, working through the production management company Affinity Events.

The solution was based around a 10′x25′ truss framed rear projection screen flown at the rear of the stage, and filed with a pair of full HD Barco CLM HD8 projectors giving a 16,000 lumen image on the screen. The signal was fed to the projectors as a DVI signal over a Fibre Optic system to ensure that the signal being projected suffered no loss on the journey from the control position at FOH to the projection position at the rear of stage.

Switching was undertaken at Full HD level (1920×1080 pixels) by the Barco Screen Pro II switcher and Screen Pro II controller. The SPII was feed by a range of sources such as Laptops for on-site video edits, Powerpoint, and camera images. Cameras provided a full HD image to the Panasonic AV-HS400 vision mixer, enabling  full HD work flow through out, from lens to lens with no scaling in between.

The event ran for three days with no hitches, and was a success. The client was very happy with the solution provided commenting that it was the best video system and screen look that they have had to date. This was due to both the high quality of equipment we supplied, and the experienced and competent team operating it. Our thanks also go to Tim Perrett for providing fantastic lighting for the event and Mark Heaps and Ben Warlow from Affinity Events for getting us involved in the job.

Keswick Convention 2009

2009 saw the Keswick Convention, running since 1875, held at the heart of the lake district within the convention centre in Keswick Cumbria. Working directly for the convention, Production:av was tasked with lifting the standards of the main screens and switching systems that are utilised for the three duration of the event.

Previous the convention has employed a system that has grown with the convention as AV technology has emerged. This had served it’s purpose well, but it was felt that to keep with the expectations of a modern conference go-ers, improvements could be made.

The key aim was to ensure that the main screens flanking the side of the stage could be seen in all light conditions. The convention utilise their own large marquee that is erected on site every year. Being manufactured from a white material, it lets high levels of ambient light into the venue during the day time sessions.

To combat this Production:av approached the problem from two angles – the projection, secondly the signal aspects.

Firstly high brightness 10,000 lumen projectors were supplied in the form of Barco CLM R10+ projectors, flown from the lighting truss firing onto 8′x6′ front projection screens.

Secondliy a digital signal path was employed from many of the sources through the supplied Barco Screen Pro II switcher and fed via fibre onto the projectors as a DVI signal. This meant that there were no losses within the signal path, and a minimum of processing. A mix of the cameras was provided by Cutting Edge Uk as an SD SDI feed, which was then keyed over with song words from a PC, at the native DVI Resolution. Production:av also supplied a technician to provide support and operation during the event as well as crew to rig and de-rig.

The event was a success, with the only complaints being that the screens were too bright!

Production:av = Change

I=Change is an ongoing project to see people lives changed. Production:av were part of that on Saturday the 7th of February, providing video support for the i=Change Live event, featuring live music from Jake Isaac and band supported by other artists such as Muyiwa, Guvna B, Michaela ‘BIRTHOFAPOET’, Ryan Carty and Roger Samuel.

The event was a Live Recording, with the evenings proceedings being recorded for a live a album and DVD. Production:av were asked to provide the video recording and live screen IMag (Image Magnification) to the event held in the Salvation Army’s Regents Hall off Oxford street in central London.

Production:av provided 4 High Def camera (two fixed, one moving to cover the stage as well as High Def ‘pole cam’ for aerial shots) production to cover the event for the DVD recording and IMag, with the images beeing mixed, before being fed into the Barco ScreenPROII HD/SDI to enable clean and seamless switching between Keynote Slides from an Apple iMac, cameras and when required the song words Luma Keyed over the camera images. The images were then fed to the Barco CLM HD8 via a DVI over fibre optic system, projecting from the rear of the room enabled by our extensive lens range. Production:av provided a crew of camera men, assistants, vision mixer, and graphics operator, all highly experienced meant that the images fed to the screens looked gorgeous from start to finish.

The event ran smoothly despite the challenges of working in a central London (yeap- the traffic wardens struck despite the parking having been covered by the production manager). We look forward to seeing the results of the evenings work. Keep an eye out for the I=Change tour coming later this year, and we’ll try and get a link to the edited footage when we can.

Production:av help NFI Acceler8.

August 2008 saw Production:av working for the NFI Wessex region churches on one of those gigs that is a pleasure to be involved with. Acceler8 was held at the New Forrest show ground using a Big Top for the main venue. Production:av were supplying our usual high quality video system to enable the delegates to see the stage party, and relay song words and notices.

Using the Barco CLM R10+ for the main projection, along with the Barco Screen PROII switcher and DVI over Fibre meant that the signal quality and resultant image was as high as possible. Using upto four cameras images to ensure a dynamic mix, with the song words keyed over the top help give a seamless presentation.

We had a great time on site, due to the crew and the organisation. For the first event they had the site and schedule sorted, meaning the crew and delegates had a great time. We’re looking forward to being back for Acceler8 2009.

Lambeth Conference 2008

The Church of England bring all the Bishops together once every 10 years for it’s conference. Production:av were proud to be the suppliers for the Visual systems in the two venues- The Big Top and the The Spouses Venue.

The Big Top

The big top was the main venue for the 3 week long conference. Production:av supplied three projection screens backed by Barco CLM projectors, controlled via the Projector Toolset software to enable remote management. The two side screens with 10,000 lumen CLM R10+ projectors were driven by a Barco Screen Pro II switcher using a DVI over fibre system, taking in a mixed broadcast camera feed provided by Production:av, along with graphics from Apple Hardware running Keynote and visiting speakers laptops. 

The central screen was fed from a second Screen Pro II via the Enhanced Output with an HD-SDI signal to the Barco CLM HD8 projector, giving stunning true HD imagery from the various feeds.

A team of 5 oversaw the events through out, ensuring that we wre able to respond to the clients wishes with a minimum of trouble.

The Spouses Venue.

The Spouses venue hosted a varied program of events aimed more at allowing the wives of the bishops to build community. Again Production:av supplied a full system based around the Barco Presentation ProII Digital and the CLM R10+. Powerpoint and songwords were mixed with the camera images from the operated camera system installed for the duration.

The event was a success for the Church of England, and Production:av, and Production:av are grateful to Affinity events and Reelife for choosing to use us. Thanks also to the guys that were on site and made it run so smoothly.

Ignition 2007

Production:av spent 4 days in Stratford Park, Stroud for the finale of the Ignition Mission. Providing the Video system along with cameras and Powerpoint and technical support to the event. The event was the last in a series of three,Production:av having supplied the previous two events in September and December 2006. J.John was the main speaker with the Ignition band returning to provide the worship and musical entertainment.

Dual Screen Video System.
Production:av supplied a similar system for the last event as to the previous two. Based around two 5000 Lumen Christie Digital LX50 projectors paired with 10′x7′6″ Fastfold Screens, with an Extron Scaler providing the switching and scaling. The switcher was fed by two cameras, DVD Playback and a Powerpoint PC with back up unit. The two cameras were operated by Production:av camera operators, whilst the show and song words were mixed and called by Pete McCrea. The show was a success with audiences appreciating J.John’s whit and direct approach, as well as the music and interesting testimonies.