Projection

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.

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.

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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.

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University of South Wales – Video Technology Demonstration Day

18/04/2018 by petermccrea

Production AV is always on the lookout to support up and coming individuals in the event production industry. So we were excited to be collaborating with the University of South Wales Live Event and Lighting Course, Stage Sound Services, Ashley Raines from Barco and Peter Kirkup from disguise to provide their students with a hands on experience using some of our industry leading video production equipment as well as offer advice and insight into the exciting but enigmatic industry we find ourselves in!

USW Video Technology Demonstration Day

Our aim was to provide two workshops for the students to experience and test the capabilities of our equipment. Our first workshop revolved around our DigiLED 3.9mm Indoor LED Screen as well as a Barco UDX-4K32 4K Laser Projector generously provided by Barco. 4K video was fed from our disguise 2x4pro Media Server into our Barco S3-4K Screen Management System and Barco EC-50 Event Controller so students could experience how these tools could be used with projection and LED technologies in event production scenarios. Features like PIP’s (Pictures in Pictures), luma keys and widescreen blend capabilities were demonstrated to show how easy it was to create slick and impressive video solutions whilst having the processing power to manage up to twelve different video inputs.

Having recently invested in disguise 2x4pro Media Servers, we wanted our second workshop to demonstrate the capabilities of these media servers. As our 2x4pro’s were driving a large scale project at the Geneva Motor Show Convention, disguise stepped in and provided a GX1 Media Server. With the assistance of Peter from disguise, four sessions were run throughout the day where students setup a projection mapping solution onto a model car displaying the power and vast creative opportunities that the disguise systems offer.

It was a pleasure putting on this demonstration day for USW students and we’d like to thank the University for hosting us as well as Stage Sound Services, Barco and disguise for attending and helping us create this informative and engaging demonstration of our video technologies. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the students out on site in the near future!

Today we are with @usw__lighting_design @usw_event_production showing off #barcos34k #barcoudx4k32 @disguise_one servers together with friends from #stagesoundservices

A post shared by Production AV Ltd (@productionav) on Mar 12, 2018 at 9:05am PDT

Superdry Amsterdam – Store Managers Conference

29/10/2017 by petermccrea

Production AV were pleased to be involved with Superdry’s Store Managers Conference hosted in Amsterdam on behalf of Tarren. We were tasked with providing a full AV solution to the conference space, catwalk and dinner presentation as well as four break out rooms. Our five strong team led by Olie Goulding were onsite providing the coordination and technical knowhow to assist Superdry in maximising the conference and drive home a strong, positive message for 2018.

Superdry Complete AV Conference Solution

The main conference area provided a space for the Superdry business briefing and a Barco HDX W14 DLP Projector was rested on our projection racking to rear project onto a Stumpfl 16′ x 9′ which allowed the entire audience to fully engage with the presentation through figures and animations. The presentations were loaded onto our PlayBack Pro software and then switched using our Barco PDS-901 9 in 1 Out Seamless Switcher. As this was a complete AV solution, audio was also provided with Sennheiser radio microphones for presenters , l’Acoustic X12 loudspeakers plus l’acoustics SB18 Subs and a Midas M32R Mixing Desk for control.

A similar setup was used in the catwalk/dinner presentation space where another Barco HDX W14 DLP Projector projected onto an identical Stumpfl screen. Instead of a PDS, our new Roland V1-HD 4 Input HDMI Vision Mixer capability mixed the show and we were impressed by it’s versatility despite it’s small and simple design. Sixteen D&B T10 loudspeakers were flown in arrays of four supported with D&B B22 subwoofers under the stage. and the show was driven using a Yamaha QL1 Mixer. This delivered superb sound for both the presentations and the catwalk where the the newest range of products were being premiered for their Autumn/Winter Collection.

In the breakout rooms we worked with Superdry’s own stock of 3.9mm LED screen modules and created two LED screens. They were being used for more intimate workshops and presentations for 20 – 30 people. Data was scaled using Barco ImagePRO II Dual’s and then fed to the screens using our Nova MCTRL660 Processors. Audio equipment was also provided to these rooms in the form of Sennheiser microphones and loudspeakers. The final area that audio was provided was the mock shops where presenters had Sennheiser radio mics and four D&B M4 loudspeakers were used to relay their voices around the shops.

The conference was a massive success with Superdry store managers feeling positive and prepared for the exciting new developments the company has planned for 2018 and beyond. We’d like to thank Tarren and Superdry for their continued support and we look forward to providing the AV solution for the next Superdry briefing.

Wembley SSE Arena – Rock Assembly 2017

09/08/2017 by petermccrea

Production AV were feeling excited to be working alongside GLS Lighting to provide the technical solution for the annual Rock Assembly organised by The Transformation Trust’s as an end of term concert at the SSE Wembley Arena. Production AV felt privileged to be involved in providing a day of inspiration and celebration for underprivileged secondary school children and were looking forward to experiencing all the amazing artists such as The Vamps, The Dixon Bros, Sarah Close and Pink Angels here to celebrate their successes and opportunities for the future.

Complete Video Solution Rock Assembly 2017

Our task for the concert was to provide the complete video solution which consisted of projection, LED screen, camera system and video control system. The 6.4m x 3.6m LED screen created using our Desay 6.25mm Indoor/Outdoor LED Panels was flown above the centre of the stage and was used for to display playback throughout the course of the show. On both sides of the stage, a Barco HDX W20 DLP Projector and its projection racking were erected to rear project onto a pair of flown Stumpfl 20ft x 11ft screens. The projection showed the live camera feed from four Sony HXC-100 HD Camera Channels positioned around the venue with the furthest camera from stage having a Canon XJ86X9.3 Box Lens attached to it to maximise the range of focal lengths throughout the show. One camera channel was shoulder mounted and was free to roam around the stage to diversify the visuals and the other two of the camera channels were elevated on the pit floor to provide close up shots of the performers but also rotate to capture the excitement of the groups of school children when they saw themselves on the big screen.

Our Video PPU housed the drivers of the show with the Barco S3-4K Screen Management System comfortably pushing the playback that was gathered and managed using a pair of our Hippotizer AMBA V4 Media Servers to the LED screen as well as the live camera feed to both HDX projectors. Vision mixing was performed using the Panasonic AV-HS400 Vision Mixer and control units for the camera channels were also installed so that engineer settings such as colouration levels so that the camera operators could focus fully on getting the best shots. Production AV were also requested to record the entirety of the show using our Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio Pro which was matched to a synced audio feed and then provided on SSD cards following the completion of the event.

With The Vamps closing the afternoon off with a performance to match the frenzied energy of the crowd, Rock Assembly 2017 was over for this year. With 10,000 pupils from across England having the opportunity to explore career options and talk to universities at the Futures Fair before watching the concert in the afternoon, Production AV felt privileged to be a part of this meaningful and benign event. Thank you to GLS Lighting for selecting us as the video supplier for this event, we really appreciate working alongside you and look forward to the next one.

Montpellier Gardens – Cheltenham Literature Festival 2016

19/12/2016 by petermccrea

Having worked with Cheltenham Festivals on the annual Literature Festival for the last five years, Production AV were looking forward to being back for a sixth year providing the video solution to all the venues at the festival. From the 7th – 16th of October, Cheltenham Literature Festival promised to continue delivering an inspiring mix of debate and discussion by welcoming over 600 of the world’s greatest writers, poets, politicians, thinkers and stars to Cheltenham.

In Forum, the main venue of the festival, Production AV provided a full video solution using a our Barco S3-4K Screen Management System coupled with its Barco EC-50 Controller which enabled us to manage numerous signals and outputting them to our Christie LHD700 Full HD Projector via a fibre system. Situated in front of house, three Sony PMW-EX3 HD Video Cameras provided numerous angles for the technical director to select during each event and one camera operator worked back stage controlling the two close up cameras using a pan tilt remote head system which enabled less intrusive production and greater communication between the technical team. The Barco S3-4K, also accommodated two laptops and was able to seamlessly switch between keynote and powerpoint presentations as well as raising the production quality by providing PIP’s of the camera feed when desired over presentations. The last output required from the Barco S3 was to the LG BD370 Blu-ray Player that recorded certain events for later use. Also provided for the guests was the Interspace MasterCue V6 Cueing System and comfort monitors leaving guests with the peace of mind that they can easily manage their presentation.

In The Pillar Rooms, the venue was more intimate and required a smaller technical setup. The main operating hardware was a Barco PDS-901 3G 9 in 1 Out Seamless Switcher that took feeds from two ASUS X555LA 15 Inch Laptops and outputted to an in-house projector as well as another LG BD370 Blu-ray Player for recording purposes. Comfort monitors and another MasterCue System was also set up in this venue to improve the presenting experience.

Working with Adrian Hensley and the team at Cheltenham Festivals is always a pleasure and getting to play our part in providing this yearly gathering of people with fantastic intellect as well as fascinating stories is always near the top of yearly event experiences! We would like to thank Adrian and the team for continuing this relationship between our companies into it’s sixth year and we hope it continues as it is such a rewarding and enjoyable event to be apart of each year.

Science Festival 2016 – Space World

23/06/2016 by petermccrea

Production AV were appreciative to be welcomed back to the Science Festival for the fourth year running to supply an immersive, audiovisual solution for the event space named Space World. Being asked to provide a complete solution, from collecting and editing content to programming the show, was a challenging yet enjoyable experience and we are proud to be involved in the education of the next generation in the topic of space travel.

Complete Mission Control Video Solution

Using four Samsung ME65B 65″ LED Flat Panels as the centre piece for the mission control experience, Production AV were instructed to find realistic and suitable content to put into a 10 minute video sequence that would show a rocket preparing for launch as well as taking off. To greater enhance the experience, QLab was used to program lighting and smoke effects at numerous points throughout the video sequence as well as syncing the timing screen to match the rockets take off. Once this was set up, control could be handed over to the mission control presenters who only needed to click the play button and the entire sequence would run unaided.

Numerous other screens such at 50″ and 42″ plasmas were also installed around the venue and a Christie LHD700 Projector was positioned in the space dome tent as used along with other AV equipment to communicate with Tim Peake on his last ever interview on the ISS before he returned to earth. A massive thank you from Production AV to Adrian Hensley and the whole of Cheltenham Festivals for having us provide such a unique and creative solution. Below is a short clip from Tim Peake’s direct interview with the Science Festival.

Tim Peake doing a direct QnA with Cheltenham Science Festival in his last ever interview before he returns back to earth from the ISS. #timpeake #astronaut ????

A video posted by Sam (@sam_mcconnochie) on Jun 8, 2016 at 11:12am PDT

Superdry Autumn/Winter16 for Tarren Production Ltd

20/01/2016 by petermccrea

Complete Conference AV Solution

Production AV had the pleasure of working for our long term client Tarren Production Ltd on several parts on the Autumn/Winter 2016 launch held by Superdry in Cheltenham in early January 2016. SuperGroup used a disused warehouse near their HQ in Cheltenham, which was used for a catwalk show and after show party, as well as running a series of presentations in their new staff canteen adjacent to the new site.

In the Cafe space, Tarren Production contracted Production AV to supply a simple but complete production package of sound lighting, video and staging. Utilising d&B Audio Q7 and QSUB speakers, D12 amplifiers and Allen and Heath QU32 mixing desk to provide a full range sound system for the spoken word and presentations, video was taken based around a 12,000 Lumen projector and 16’x9′ screen for the brightly lit space, with a Barco PDS901 switcher for allowing a clean fade between laptops and video playback handled by PlayBackPro+ running on Apple Mac Mini computers. Simple lighting highlighted the presenters on the 3m x 2m stage that was set up in the venue. Olie Goulding was onsite to oversee the running of the event and ensure that the presenters could focus on their presentations.

Fashion Show Catwalk Monitoring

Over in the launch area, Production AV provided several small but key bits of infrastructure. For the catwalk, a pair of Sony PMW-EX3 cameras were rigged in fixed positions, then fed their Full HD signals back to 3 pairs of Panasonic flatscreen displays positioned to allow the show caller and dressing teams to clearly monitor the action on the catwalk, and ensure they timed the model entrances correctly. Whilst not an overly glamorous part of the show, quality of the image and reliability were critical to ensure models were able to time the show correctly.

Presentation Flatscreen Hire

In a temporary structure located beside the catwalk space, members of the Superdry team briefed different groups on the new Sports and Snow product lines. Within this space Production AV provided a large 65″ Samsung LCD flatscreen display to enable the presentation to be seen clearly by the delegates. Another small d&b sound system with a wireless microphone allowed the presenter to be heard over the background noise of the busy site.

Our thanks go to Tarren Production Ltd for asking us work for them on this event.

BAMMA 18 – Wolverhampton Civic Hall

25/02/2015 by petermccrea

Full HD Projection Solution for BAMMA 18

Working again for our regular clients BAMMA, Production AV supplied a playback, screen and projector solution with engineers for the load in and show to the BAMMA 18 event held in the Wolverhampton Civic Hall in mid February. Another night of top level mixed martial arts was had, with the title fight going the full 3 rounds between Krzyzstof Klaczek and the winner by TKO, Tom ‘The Fire Kid’ DuQuesnoy.

This continues our long association working for BAMMA, starting from the BAMMA 4 Event back in 2010 at the NIA.

Compact Solution

Based on the ‘BAMMA Small Package’ based around a pair of the flexible Barco HDX-W20 Flex projectors running at 10,000 lumens and paired with 16′ x 9′ Stumpfl Screens flown on either side of the fighters entrance.

Taking feeds from our PlaybackPro+ software as well as the OB trucks camera and VT play-in mix through as Barco ScreenPRO-II switcher system, we managed the feed to the screens ensuring the fighters introduction VT’s were run at the correct times. By the nature of a live event, there is also a large list of assets that can be called on when fights don’t run the full length of the 3, 5 minute rounds.

As always it was a pleasure to be working alongside the established team to deliver another successful event, and we look forward to further BAMMA’s in the coming year.