Funeral Planner of the Year

Brief:

To provide full production for the annual Funeral Planner of the Year 2018. The event required the combination of video, lighting & audio along with staging, dancefloor and red carpet to bring the event at the National Museum of Scotland to life. The given brief was an awards dinner celebrating the year within the funeral services industry and would incorporate 2 live bands, roaming camera and lighting elements across all 3 levels within the museum.

The main aspect of this brief we focused on mainly was the 2 hours install time with the venue closing to the public at 5pm and guests arriving at 7pm. This proved challenging to Premier as we had a full awards evening to install and co-ordinate in a short space of time however it meant we had to focus on the pre-production and ensure all teams were competent in their required areas.

 

Process:

After discussing the event requirements with the client and getting an idea of what they wanted from the event, we began to liaise with the venue, band and local crew companies to start building a plan of how it will all work and more importantly, how it can be installed in 2 hours. We knew from a site visit the venue had a huge glass roof and we wanted to bring that into the event, we enquired about the use of lighting on level 5 controlled by a technician and proposed this to the client.

In large event spaces we find the use of lighting to provide room break up gobos very useful and add atmosphere to empty spaces along with the dancefloor. We proposed 16 of these to cover the wide space with additional generic lighting to provide stage wash. As an awards dinner was the main theme of the event, we made use of lighting that could encompass stings and make every award unique.

Once we had gained an idea of how to light the venue, provide video coverage across the venue and reproduce audio for the presenters and live bands. We generated a quotation which reflected this and created a proposal which allowed the client to look at what they think may benefit the event. In doing this we can push our past experiences of events in those specific contexts and help them get the most out of their event.

Once a quotation is accepted we begin to draw technical plans, provide health and safety documents, book the technical team and crew as well as draft a working document which allows all technicians to get an idea of what it is they are doing to ensure we can be efficient and safe in our workings. We had to look at the best ways to get equipment installed in the venue but also the most efficient, safe and reliable.

 

Equipment Used:

For audio we made use of the Yamaha audio system which is compatible with the very popular network protocol, Dante. Using this allowed quick and easy installation over network of all audio and to save on time for the event, we pre-built a rack which could simply roll off the truck and be plugged in. A QL5 could be found at control with a Dante primary & secondary feed. We opted for the AKG CK43 Lectern microphones which offer a redundant L+R setup alongside wireless Sennheiser EW300 handheld microphones. To ensure all guests could hear the action and be involved in the event, we went for smaller speaker boxes which we could spread out across the venue. The X8 is a powerful yet compact L-Acoustics loudspeaker and having them run from LA8 amplifiers allowed our technicians to control them over network.

Video was a crucial part of the entire production component with 3 fastfold screens hung across the venue from the balconies so the audience could see PowerPoints, videos and a live camera feed all fed into a Pulse PLS350 switcher. We opted for a matrix mode configuration which allowed the addition of a comfort monitor to have a separate feed from the audience screens. For video recording we made use of 2 cameras, the PXW-100 and the PMW-350K. These cameras were used in a static position offering a sole feed of the presenter and then as a roaming camera, this allowed the camera to capture dynamic shots of the stage and band but also for table pickups when award winners are presented with their prize.

Lighting was controlled by an Avolites Quartz with lines to a Wireless Solution W-DMX BlackBox MK2 which allowed control over the 32 Event Spot 1800 uplighters situated beneath each pillar within the venue. Alongside a total of 24 ETC Source 4 25-50 fixtures, we had an Elation Artiste Davinci in every corner for effect lighting, stings and to project wide gobos on the roof for effect. This effect accompanied the 480W LED Uplighters which washed the roof in any desired colour and together brought the glass roof to life.

 

Stats:

TOTAL WEIGHT: 7 Tonne

TECHNICIANS: 7 Premier Techs

LOCAL CREW: 20 Install, 16 Derig

REPLACEMENT VALUE: £291, 777.85

TRUCKING: 1x 44t Artic