Leicester Mercury Business Awards

Introduction

The Leicester Mercury Business Awards bring together some of the counties best businesses. The 2018 awards took place at The Maher Centre, a purpose built event space in the heart of the city.

Premier were asked to provide AV production for the event by the event organisers, Champions. Our brief was to create a drinks reception area in the venue as well as a larger space for the awards ceremony.

 

Set & Stage

The set and stage used at the event was to be the focal point for the evening. Video content played a huge part in the event and so we designed the set to incorporate 2x 14ft wide projection screens as well as a central 10ft tall projection screen. The set itself was covered in a white leathergrain material which allowed us to change the look and feel of it throughout the night using a number of lighting effects.

As well as to house the projection screens, we also used set panels to mask the truss podiums positioned behind them, to which we had secured a number of lighting effects. In total 41 individual set panels were installed.

To add some depth to the set, we also installed a line of black wool serge drape behind to hide the venues walls.

The main stage was 8m x 3m in size and was used by both hosts on the night as well as the entertainment and award winners. A 26m x 1m stage at 1m height was positioned behind the main stage and was used as a base for the set panels.

 

Audio

Having created a model of the room and ran this through the L-Acoustics sound vision software it was decided that the L-Acoustics KARA speakers were the most suitable for the application.

We installed 2 ground supported stacks, each consisting of 3x SB18’s and 4x KARA elements. L-Acoustics X8’s were used as stage and side fill to ensure a clarity of sound throughout the venue. L-Acoustics 12XT’s were used as monitors on stage for the entertainment. Speaker elements were powered by a mixture of LA8 and LA4X amplifiers.

A Yamaha QL1 digital desk was used to process all of the audio inputs including 7 channels of Sennheiser EW300 G3 radio mics, lectern mics, DPA headsets as well as VT inputs and the feed from the keyboard player. We positioned Yamaha Rio racks back stage and used our digital multicore to run from front of house to back stage keeping cabling to a minimum.

 

Video

Video content for the twin projection screens and 6x plasma screens located around the perimeter of the room comprised of PowerPoint, VT’s and a live camera feed. The central projection screen was used for branding and was fed from a dedicated windows laptop.

To ensure a bright and clear image on the 14ft projection screens, we provided Panasonic 10k laser projectors. As space was at a premium in the venue, we utilised the ultra-short throw lenses for these projectors. The central projection screen was projected onto with a Panasonic 6k laser projector flown vertically.

An Analogue Way Pulse2 PLS350-3G seamless switcher / scaler was used to switch between video content on the night. Its built in preview screens allowed our video engineer to ensure that the live camera feed was ready before making it live on screen. All video content was in 1080p HD and distributed using SDI cable and Decimator convertors.

To ensure a crystal clear feed of the presenters and entertainment on screen we provided a Sony PMW-350k camera. Our camera operator was on hand throughout the event to ensure that our video engineer always had good shots to make live if required.

 

Lighting

We truly believe that the lighting used at an event makes a big difference to the overall look and feel of the venue. This event was no exception and we used a number of lighting effects to ensure that the venue looked worthy of the event that it was hosting.

The lighting programming started before the event with our lighting engineer Dave spending a couple of days pre event setting his ‘base states’. With this work carried out before the event it allows him to be more creative on site to ensure that the lighting has the WOW factor.

To uplight the set we utilised 18x Elation Sixbars 1000, these 0.9m LED battens have magnets either side of them to ensure a seamless, end to end finish. As well as uplighting the set we also used the Chauvet Rogue R3 to add additional wash and the Elation Platinum spot 5R pro to provide breakup gobos.

Behind the set we installed 8x 4m tall truss podiums. An Elation Artiste DaVinci was positioned on top of each podium and used to project light into the room. On the 4 central podiums we side rigged 3x Chauvet Rogue R2’s which acted as ‘eye candy’, with some great built in macros these fixtures provided both beams of light, as well as a visually appealing light show.

Room uplighting was provided with 30x chrome plated & battery operated Event Spots. These wireless uplighters are fantastic for room uplighting due to their ease of install and versatile colour pallets.

A mixture of both Fresnel’s and profile lights were used to illuminate the presenters on stage, these were fully dimmable, allowing us to dim the stage lighting during the VT’s.

On stage we installed 8x Elation Platinum Beam 5R extreme fixtures, these incredibly bright fixtures were used for the award stings as well directing towards the audience for the walk in state.

Our popular Sparkular effects were used for the award winners. These units fire a spark effect into the air for up to 30 seconds at a time and are a fantastic effect for award ceremonies.

All lighting was controlled by an Avolites Quartz lighting desk by our engineer on the night.

 

Feedback

Feedback from the client was very positive and we look forward to working with them on a number of upcoming events that are in the pipeline.

 

Video

The below video shows both highlights from the event as well as a time-lapse of the install and de-rig.

 

Stats

Total Equipment Value – £341,555

Total Weight – 12 Tonnes

Transport – 1x 44T Artic

Premier Team:

• 15x Crew & Techs for the install
• 5x Technicians for the Show
• 9x Crew for the De-Rig