petermccrea

Production AV formally joins the SFL Group, and goes forward into the d&b family today.

04/05/2021 by petermccrea

Production AV is pleased to be able to share that we are now fully part of the SFL Group!

“Over the last 10 years of working together we have built a great relationship with the SFL team. The time was right to fully merge Production AV to become wholly owned by SFL Group.” Says Pete McCrea, Managing Director Production AV. “We have worked together on projects and our rental inventory over the last 10 years to be stronger together. Today marks a point in that journey, especially with the exciting news for the wider family.”

In tandem with the announcement of the merger of Production AV and SFL Group, Audio technology and solutions company d&b announced today the creation of a new company venture ‘d&b solutions’. SFL Group has joined the d&b family as the first part of this new venture to become SFL Group – a d&b Solutions Company.

This new company will provide end to end expertise to customers in the areas of development, manufacturing, system planning, installation and maintenance, providing full integration of AVL solutions.

Over the past 30 years SFL has built its business and reputation on putting service first and offering customers full production and system integration solutions. Our strategy of providing multidisciplinary integration to clients aligns perfectly with d&b’s vision of the future.

“d&b solutions is born out of our customers’ demand for the integration of full AVL solutions. We see a rise in requests for manufacturer support in consulting, planning and integration services as well as new buying behaviours regarding system ownership and managed services. The creation of d&b solutions and SFL Joining us will address these developments and accelerate our solution offering,” explained Amnon Harman, d&b Group CEO.

This new chapter will open up more opportunities and possibilities to fulfil SFL’s aim of creating environments to help people communicate. Enabling us to better address the major changes and important trends that the market is searching for.

“It is exciting to be part of something new and innovative. We share not only this same strategic focus of complete solutions but also a similar set of values and company culture. We are thrilled to be joining the d&b family,” says Tom Jeffery, Managing Director SFL Group

“SFL’s strong brand, proven relationships and expertise align perfectly with d&b and we are proud and honoured to welcome them to the d&b family,” said Amnon Harman, d&b Group CEO

The leadership team of Production AV and SFL Group remains unchanged and are relishing the challenge of this next exciting chapter, working alongside an internationally recognised leader and innovator in audio technology and solutions.

“As a team here at Production AV, we’re really excited to be involved in the new venture as part of the SFL Group. We can’t wait to move forward and see what opportunities lie ahead of us.” Says Pete McCrea, Managing Director Production AV.

Lucy the Human Chimp

20/04/2021 by petermccrea

Channel 4’s remarkable Lucy, the Human Chimp documentary aired in April with a mix of archive footage and newly filmed ‘jungle’ reconstructions, with the latter made possible by Bristol-based virtual production studio VERO. The film, which tells the real-life story of chimp Lucy’s return to the wild after being raised in human surroundings, required cutting edge technology to re-enact scenes of Lucy’s carer, Janis Carter, living on an uninhabited island off the coast of The Gambia.

BTS image showing filming in progress on the Virtual Production work for Lucy The Human Chimp

Virtual Production: a solution for COVID problems

Production was scheduled to take place in the real-world jungle surroundings but, due to the COVID pandemic, had stalled. With no international travel permitted, and flights grounded, the team were searching for a new solution. Multi-award winning production company KEO Films approached VERO on behalf of Channel 4, with a view to using VERO’s pioneering studio space. This was fitted out with more than 47 sq. m of 2.6mm pitch Desay X2i LED screen, with Desay M6 6mm LED screen for the Ceiling Spine LED. Serving as a hi-res backdrop, configured as a 10m x 3.5m curve with a 3.5m x 3.5m flat section joining the curve, the team recreated a jungle film set within which the actor playing Cater performed. Behind her, island jungle footage was displayed, providing realistic lighting via the screen’s considerable brightness and an immersive, enveloping background.

Unreal and LED Screen revolutionise production.

“This was a fantastic production for us to work on,” says 3D animation and motion graphics expert Robert Tyler, from VERO. “The collaboration involved three-months of conversation, technical planning and logistics, resulting in two weeks of shooting at VERO’s Bristol base. “We created VERO so that it would enable directors to see the visual backdrop in real-time during filming on set, with our powerful graphics engine tracking technology meaning the action is always realistic and moves with the subject. Therefore, this was a dream project for us.” The VERO team says its set-up was created to revolutionise traditional VFX workflows, which rely on combining physical footage captured in front of a green screen with digitally generated backgrounds in post-production, and that this production has shown what is possible. In addition, it aims to reduce costly set builds and location shooting, and facilitate a re-imagining of visual FX. “Of course, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the film industry in many ways, but using VERO, we turned this into a sustainability win, as no flights were taken, no fuel was spent, and everything was shot on a soundstage powered entirely by renewable energy,” adds Tyler. “Watching the documentary on Channel 4 was a joy. The background video content was realistic and the lighting true, with the actor looking like she was immersed in a jungle environment – all from our studio space in Bristol.”

Production AV deliver the LED for Virtual Production

The Desay screens were supplied, rigged and operated by Production AV, with MD Pete McCrea serving as project manager, alongside his team of technicians which included Sam McCrea, Nathan Dunbar, Mike Kane, Olie Goulding and Matt Wadley. “We’re so proud to be a part of VERO and to have delivered a clear and consistent, wraparound backdrop for filming,” says Pete McCrea. “Once our modular screen tiles are fitted together to envelop the space, displaying HDR content, the possibilities are endless.” The video content was processed by NovaStar equipment, and the ground support truss structure was supplied by Peak Hire. Lucy, The Human Chimp is now available to watch on demand via All 4.

#HereForCulture

02/04/2021 by petermccrea

Production AV is pleased to say that we are #HereForCulture! After a roller coaster of a year, we have received support from the Government through the Arts Council England #CultureRecoveryFund round 2. The grant will allow us to get the team back to speed and help us further prepare for the slow return of events work over the next three months.

Virtual Events Streaming for the NHS.

04/02/2021 by petermccrea

With the ongoing Covid-19 situation, the local NHS trust turned to Production AV to deliver a series of “Fit for the Future” consultation sessions. The sessions were streamed to various platforms to help ensure that the public had the ability to access the consultation on the proposed changes.

Streaming solution from virtual events provider.

The project came about through an existing client relationship with one of the key members of the client team. Production AV had undertaken the delivery of a public consultation for Cheltenham Borough Council, and so they returned when they required support with the streaming of the event. Matt Wadley from Production AV handled the project and liaised with the team from the NHS to understand their requirements and key deliverables.

Multiple sources to multiple platforms.

With the requirements understood, we then worked to provide a solution based around a vMix system managed from our Streaming Studio. Calls originated in Zoom were brought in to vMix, where content from video files and PowerPoint presentations were mixed in at the required points, as well as using Sli.do to allow those viewing to send in questions to be answered by the team. Test calls and rehearsals were undertaken to ensure that the participants were confident in delivering their respective sections of the event, as well as how the overall flow of each session would go.

Through using bespoke templates for the content, the overall stream was presented in a competent and professional manner, not looking like a standard Zoom call. The stream was then streamed to Youtube for easy access by viewers.

Targeted to viewers demographics.

After looking at the levels of interaction and reviewing the statistics, the decision was then taken to stream to Facebook for following sessions, as well as uploading the stream to Youtube. Again Production AV were easily able to adjust the target location for the streams as well as allowing for recording of the live stream to be used later as required.

vMix Solution

Our in-house vMix solution was deployed for this project due to the flexibility and power of the software. With our high spec machines allowing multiple sources at FullHD level, taking in individual members of a Zoom call over NDI is not an issue. Along with the ability to bring in multiple media types and create the required presets, vMix makes the creation of great looking professional content straight forward.

The vMix call facility also allows for seamless integration of remote callers a doddle when it is suitable, integrating them into the stream easily.

For a downloadable overview of the project, see the link below. If you want to talk to us about your project, then don’t hesitate to call us on 01242 650604 or drop us an email.

NHS-Youtube-stream Case Study Download

Cheltenham Literature Festival 2020: delighted to deliver on site

20/10/2020 by petermccrea

2020 has been a roller coaster for everybody. As a business watching our forward order book dissolve in mid March was hard – we were unsure what the short term would look like for the events industry. We had hoped since lockdown started that we would be involved in helping to deliver a Literature Festival of some description for Cheltenham Festivals in the autumn. And so it was a real pleasure to be involved in delivering one of the few events to happen in 2020, and have an audience in venues, doing what we do at Production AV.

COVID Secure Production

Previous years have seen the team at Production AV delivering hundreds of sessions across multiple venues over the course of the annual Literature Festival. For 2020, the team at Cheltenham Festivals put together a dynamic program that mixed virtual online sessions with live content, and allowed both an online and real live audience to enjoy sessions from a host of authors and guests across 11 days.

Production AV was engaged to provide on the usual in-venue solutions required to stage the live events, albeit scaled down from the more typical 11 venues we have helped deliver over the last 10 years. With COVID scaling back the program, Cheltenham Festivals used Cheltenham Townhall and Pillar Rooms alongside the Everyman Theatre to deliver the live events program. Careful planning was undertaken to ensure that the complete schedule of build, live and de-rig could be delivered in a COVID secure manner to minimise the risk to everyone involved.

Production AV liaised closely with the Festivals chosen online production partner to ensure that technical delivery was seamless across the venues.

Technical Delivery

Whilst the situation around the event felt very different, delivery on site felt reassuringly similar to previous years, despite the additional measures to guard against COVID. Each venue required a crewed solution to take the range of feeds, and send them to the relevant displays. Typically this was several PowerPoint feeds, VT playback, presenter stage feeds and a mixed camera feed from the Streaming providers.

We carefully built systems for each venue based around our high quality inventory. Switching was handled by Barco hardware in all three venues, with high brightness Barco projection in the Everyman and Townhall, and connection to the venue installation in the Pillar Rooms. Playback was handled competently by our range of high spec PC and Apple hardware using software such as QLab as required by the content. All systems ran natively at FullHD ensuring all content was pixel perfect from end to end.

This was handled by our talented team of dedicated event professionals – working as a central point to manage the presentation aspects of each session, and liaising with the stage management team and presenters to ensure that content was played at the right times, and hand off between streaming and the venue was managed correctly. Our thanks go to Sam McCrea for the Everyman Theatre, Jimmy Flanders in the Town Hall, with Olie Goulding in the Pillar Rooms.

Once again our thanks go to Cheltenham Festivals for involving us in the project. We look forward to working with them in the future on the other festivals.

#WeMakeEvents

11/08/2020 by petermccrea

The events sector urgently needs further government support to survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Without major immediate support from government, the entire live events sector supply chain is at risk of collapse. We have seen our friends and colleagues facing redundancy, and business having to permanently close their doors.

Red Alert is a campaign to raise public and media awareness in support of the live events sector which employs over circa 1,000,000 highly skilled people in the UK, all of whom have had no work for the past four months with little likelihood of restarting until Spring 2021.

The campaign is being run by a large and growing industry collective of trade bodies, businesses and freelancers affected by the shutdown all working together. It spans online and social messaging, video, case studies and legal outdoor events to gain media attention, with specific activities occurring on August 11th.

Our aim is to have financial support extended for the people and companies in this sector until they can return to work. So join now the collective efforts to get the industry’s voice heard, calling for sustained immediate financial support by visiting #WeMakeEvents. Watch. Share. Record. Write.

www.plasa.org/we-make-events/

#WeMakeEvents #LetTheMusicPlay #LightItInRed #RishiSunak #OliverDowden #CarolineDinenage #SkyNews #BBCNews #festival #festivalseason #livemusic #livemusicrocks #liveevent #supportneeded #glastonbury #festivallove #gigs #livegig #liveeventssector #covid19 #redalert

@Rishi Sunak @Caroline Dinenage @Oliver Dowden @Jo Stevens @BBC News @ITV News @BBC Breakfast @BBC Radio 1 @BBC Radio 4 @BBC Radio 6 Music @Headliner Magazine @LSi Online @Tpi Magazine @Pro AVL Asia Magazine @Time Out London

COVID-19

11/05/2020 by petermccrea

COVID-19 has become a central part of our lives in the recent months, disrupting our normal life. Members of our team have lost loved ones, our extended families and friends have been kept apart, and patterns of work have shifted.

Production AV, like every other business has felt the effects.

We have worked to secure the business as best we can. Our staff are mostly furloughed, or are following government guidance and working from home, and social distancing where we have to undertake projects.

We are still operating to support essential work, and helping our customers prepare for the return of the new normal. However with reduced staff, it might take us longer to respond.

If you do have equipment that you need, or projects that you want to plan, then please do get in touch with us, either on our usual phone number of via email on [email protected].

We’re also working on our streaming and virtual studio solutions for when the guidelines allow us to deliver them appropriately.

Imperial Gardens – Cheltenham Science Festival 2019

03/07/2019 by petermccrea

Cheltenham’s annual Science Festival arrived in June to explore the weird, wacky and wonderful. In its sixth consecutive year of involvement, Production AV was commissioned to design, supply and operate the high-end screen, projection and sound solutions that formed the foundation of the multiple zones that were created in the specially built Festival Village.

Complete Video and Audio Solution Delivered to Festival Village

Festival organisers asked Production AV to deliver all audiovisual requirements for the growing event. The team oversaw set up and technical checks for all of the zones, including the flagship Cheltenham Town Hall space and adjoining Pillar Room, the Helix, the Crucible and the Cinema Zone.

“We were thrilled to design, set up and run an audio solution for the Town Hall this year, in addition to the visual elements, and we opted for a PA system based around d&b audiotechnik Y-Series speakers, Yamaha QL desks and Sennheiser radio mics,” explains Production AV MD, Pete McCrea. “The Town Hall is notoriously tricky to set up for good sound, and it took the expertise of Production AV’s Project Manager, Olie Goulding, who oversaw the event load-in and operated the Town Hall audio, to scope and plot the venue to design the d&b solution, which perfectly fitted the bill.”

Production AV also supplied the Town Hall’s main room with a 16ft x 9ft screen, 10k lumen Barco HDX Flex Projector, Barco switching solution and a camera package based around Agile ARC 360 Lite PTZ remote cameras and Sony EX3 Camcorders.

In the Pillar Room, the team installed a simple control package to interface with the in-house projection system, along with a d&b Y-Series and E-Series speakers and Yamaha TF series mixing desk. Matt Wadley, Production AV’s Technician, oversaw all audio aspects for the duration of the Festival in the Pillar room, with the Festival’s volunteer staff operating the majority of the video systems.

“One of the highlights of our AV package was the outdoor Cinema Zone, for which we specified a Desay M6 6.25mm pitch LED screen,” McCrea continues. “This displayed 13 hours of continuous footage from the moon landings over the festival, as well as lots of other content. The screen looked fantastic in the exterior garden, giving great high-resolution images over the large areas, with excellent colour reproduction and brightness.”

Hundreds of events took place over the six-day Festival, with more than 280 leading experts imparting knowledge, prompting discussion and provoking thought to thousands of visitors, including more than 9,000 schoolkids.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByhR9AChVd9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Wembley SSE Arena – Jack Savoretti Singing To Strangers Tour 2019

19/06/2019 by petermccrea

Production AV hotfooted it to Wembley in May to ensure man-of-the-moment Jack Savoretti’s flagship show was backed by the best camera, projection and IMAG screen solution to delight his ever-growing fanbase.

Production AV Kit is ‘IMAGic’ for Jack Savoretti at Wembley

Photo – Projoe Photography and Axletree Design

“We had just a seven-day turnaround to design and deliver the camera and screens package to Savoretti’s tour team, managed by Production Manager Neil Anderson,” explains Pete McCrea, Production AV MD. “As this was the big one – Wembley! – they wanted to ramp up the production and include video to enhance the audience experience. David McIntyre had created a real visual spectacular with the lighting, and they wanted to enhance this by relaying live on-stage footage as well as pre-recorded content to two large IMAG screens.”

Production AV supplied a pair of 11 ft. x 20 ft. (3.35m x 6m) portrait screens for IMAG, with 20,000 lumen Barco HDX W20 Flex Projectors. Switching was achieved using the company’s Blackmagic ATEM 4k PPU. A pair of Sony HDC 1500R Studio Channels on 95x lens at FOH and second camera on stage combined with Agile Arc360 PTZ remote heads and Marshall minicams offered a range of creative directing opportunities. There was a requirement for black and white effects for the first song, as well as the playback of a show opener VT.

Pete McCrea served as Project Manager and Racks Engineer for the show, alongside his colleagues Anna Sadler as Vision Director, and Ste Webster and John Bowdler-Thompson as Camera Operators.

“It’s testament to our talented team at Production AV that we managed to put together such a strong kit package and creative solution in such a short amount of time – I’m very proud of them all and the results were fantastic. Anna, Ste and John made it look really awesome,” says McCrea. “It was brilliant to be working alongside our friends at Liteup, which provided the lighting and rigging, and the great team at audio supplier FE Live. On-site, it really came together as a collaborative production. Thankfully, Wembley is a venue we’re used to working in, so the load-in and delivery of the production was efficient!”

The project followed hot on the heels of another major London job, where Production AV supplied and operated a similar package for the annual Teenage Cancer Trust series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring performances from Take That, Rudimental and The Script.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByLqdlEn6Gl/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Open House Event

16/04/2019 by petermccrea

Open House Event 7th and 8th May

The start of the year has seen us relocate to our new home in Cheltenham.

Now we’re more settled, we’d love to show you round our new home. So on the 7th and 8th of May we will be throwing the doors open and inviting you to come and see who, and where we are.

There will be an opportunity to meet the team and learn a bit more about where we have come from and our plans for the future.

We will be open between 10:30am and 5pm on both days.

There will be a range of solutions on display including our 6mm, 3.9mm and 2.6mm LED screens, 4K screen management system, Media Servers and Camera solutions amongst others.

We’ll also be showcasing some of our recent projects, such as our large scale mapping for Remembrance Sunday, and recent work with the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Help us celebrate 14 years!

May sees Production AV turn 14, so we’d love you to celebrate with us!

The evening of the 7th May will be more of an informal party between 5pm and 9pm, with a light buffet and locally sourced refreshments.

To make sure we can give you time on the days, please RSVP to [email protected] with your preferred day and time.

We look forward to seeing you on the 7th and 8th May!