West Midlands, UK-based video and production specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied sound, lighting, AV, cameras and co-ordinated full technical production including set and staging – plus crew – to the Audi National Forum event staged at London’s ExCel Centre.
CPL was working for production company, Twofour. The event covered eight different independent areas – Reception, Tunnel, The Hub, Leaders, People, Fans, Business and Car Showroom – in ExCel, and was one of CPL’s largest projects to date in terms of total equipment supply.
Over sixty moving lights, 150 generic fixtures, 80 LED PARcans and one and a half articulated lorry loads of trussing were deployed.
Smaller breakout rooms featured a quantity of 85” HD plasmas; Business and the Hub utilised HD Panasonic PT-DZ110X projection and over 60 d&b speakers; The Car Showroom had a NEC HD 4×4 46” flown plasma wall and all the rooms were built from set panels which alone filled another three trucks.
It was also the first time CPL has helped deliver the event, which accommodated up to 200 of Audi’s key European distribution partners a day for four days.
The central area and meeting point of the event was an open space called ‘The Hub’ where delegates gathered for briefings and listened to keynote speechesbefore moving off to all the other differently themed break-out areas, all accessed via The Hub.
Several box trusses of different sizes were flown in the roof of Excel to facilitate the technical production equipment needed for each different area.
For The Hub itself, CPL supplied two Sony HXC cameras for IMAG relay, and a 16 x 9 ft flown projection screen fed with a 10K Panasonic projector. The sound system was a d&b Q-1 line array, chosen for its neat profile and high clarity performance, and the mixing desks in this and all the other areas were Yamaha LS9s.
The five break out areas were all individually themed and designed. All the areas featured d&b sound systems of varying sizes which were installed, complete with a selection of lapel and hand held mics.
Plasma screens were deployed around all the spaces, the largest being an 85-inch Panasonic complete with stand. Projection systems and control were installed into two of the rooms – featuring Panasonic DZ10 machines and screens.
The video and presentation playback control systems site-wide consisted of MacBook Pros, all running Keynote and Playback Pro for the VT presentations. Content was supplied by Twofour on behalf of Audi, and formatted for the screens by CPL’s engineers.
For lighting, CPL supplied a mixture of ETC Source Four Profiles, JTE PixelPAR LED PARs and Selecon 650W and 1.2Kw fresnels, with over 60 Martin Professional MAC 700 Profile and Wash moving lights spread out across the various spaces. Each area’s lighting was controlled independently, with Avolites consoles used for programming the main moving light and LED lit areas.
CPL also co-ordinated the supply and build of all the necessary staging and scenic elements in the different areas, all produced to the client’s design.
Flat Earth from Bristol were commissioned to create the sets, and London-based Blackout were brought onboard to deal with all the draping and soft goods requirements, which included fitting casement roofs over each breakout area. CPL worked closely with both companies in advance on the overall design, look and feel of the event, as well as on site.
The main challenges were the tight get-in time and organising the different crew schedules, which involved two teams (day and night) working 24 hours for the build.
