BBC Showcase Gala Dinners - BBC Worldwide
Anagram has been the sole technical supplier to the BBC Showcase Gala dinner series of events from 2005 up to the current day.The events are held in the Empress suite of the Brighton Grand Hotel and consist of four themed evenings to promote key new programs to 450 invited trade buyers from around the world. The backdrop to the evening dinners is the Showcase exhibition and screenings held in the Brighton exhibition centre during the day.
The production is challenging as each evening is based around a completely different Television Program and hence theme and look. The video side is based around a common technical installation involving multiple widescreen projection screens for replaying promo video footage and a multi-camera shoot. The sound system has to handle speech from the various presenters, the promo video replay and various different kinds of entertainment from performers such as Lesley Garrett through to Big-Bands. The lighting is a flexible installation based around a white cyc completely covering one wall. This can be lit in lots of different ways that can complement the room design for each night. In addition, multiple trusses are suspended to provide support for TV style lighting for cameras and also mount entertainment lighting for the various artists and performers.
Anagram’s responsibility also extends to design and provision of set and staging. This can be particularly difficult as there is a limited time window each afternoon after the room has been used for delegate lunches and building and dressing a complicated set in this short time is always challenging.
From 2006 the video projection has been in High Definition to reflect the number of new programs being shot in that format.
Dr Who!
Every year is different and has its own particular challenges, but 2005 stands out as the year that the brand-new Dr Who series was showcased as one of the themed evenings. This featured a special scripted show written by Russel T Davis, which had the presenters stepping out of a real TARDIS and climaxed with a battle between a Dalek kitted out with a laser and a human SWAT team.