Last year Delhi, this year Watford......
Investment Bank ~ SMC Conference for Outer Sanctum.
For the second year running, we have provided the technical production for a leading Investment Bank's Senior Management Conference (SMC). In 2006 the event was held in Delhi which presented a massive challenge of implementing a conference to the highest European standards in an emerging market country. As a tiny taster of the difficulty of producing an event of India it should be noted that the staple ingredient of the western event production industry is not available there........no gaffa tape!!!
Fortunately, 2007's SMC was held at The Grove in Watford, so the challenge of producing an event for the 200 most senior managers from a leading Investment Bank was a little easier.
The production featured a twin-screen set with a substantial amount of LED lighting embedded in the floor and back wall. Martin's new StageBar 54s were used to up light the rear wall as they can produce a better white than previous generations of LED wash lights.
A very flexible video configuration was used where any source (graphics, VT or the 3-camera shoot) can be shown on either of the two video screens, or on the relay plasma screens down the length of the venue. This is controlled by Analog Way GSW2811 graphic switchers in a matrix configuration.
A comprehensive distributed audio system controlled by a Yamaha M7CL-48 was used. The conference requires a large number of wireless lavalier mics in use (up to 12 simultaneously) plus hand-held wireless mics, lectern mics and a number of AV replay sources, so a digital recall desk is invaluable. Soundweb was used for system EQ, processing and delays.
The stage lighting presented particular challenges due to the design of the venue. It has a low ceiling, no flying points and pillars in the sight lines preventing normal truss solutions being used. The room was also full to capacity. We worked with the limitations by using vertical trusses behind the pillars to mount the lighting. This was inconspicuous, but gave a good result despite the venue issues. A Chamsys MQ100 was used to control the lighting.