Posted on: 24th March 2005, United Kingdom E-mail this page to a friend

Taking the theme of collaboration and the sharing of resources to win business literally, Futurist's Michael Lister, teamed up with Radical Lighting's Emma Long and Simon Carter to present a completely different conceptual approach to lighting the Yorkshire Forward Business Conference.

They took the bold move of deciding to light and create a visual environment for the whole event using entirely video and LED light-sources.

The event – lit by Futurist for several years - was staged at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate.

Lister explains, "The event was to encourage Yorkshire SMEs to work together and pitch for multimillion pound business contracts for companies like Rolls Royce, Microsoft and the NHS. I thought it an ideal opportunity to put the theory into practice".

He proposed that Wakefield-based Futurist and Bradford-based Radical Lighting combined energies and their sense of technical adventure to produce some innovative lighting.

The lighting rig included 44 James Thomas PixelLine battens, 24 RGB PixelPAR fixtures and 6 of JTE's new daylight white PixelPARs.

The projection elements included three Barco G5 projectors, run conventionally for video projection on stage. Two Sanyo XF40 projectors were used for displaying 2 wide static displays on the walls along with 2 Barco G8's, plus two G5s fitted with Catalyst mirror heads.

The LED fixtures were run through one of Radical's PixelDrive control systems, and the six projectors through two of their new RADLite NG1 digital media servers, all triggered from a WholeHog II console.

The G8s and the G5s with the Catalyst heads were rigged onto a box truss above the middle of the hall. Sources were supplied from the two RADlites using library footage plus custom-created Yorkshire Forward content produced by Mezzo Studios.

These were combined with 32 PixelLines and 12 RGB PixelPARs, and used to illuminate the conference floor and delegate's tables below.

The walk-in state was created with the Catalyst heads and static projectors on the centre box truss running video content mimicked by the PixelLines and PARs using PixelDrive, giving the room a co-ordinated look and feel.

During the Q & A section of the morning's proceedings, Catalyst heads were used to highlight the specific areas around the floor as people were speaking. These were run with images from the RADlite, and effectively replaced the moving lights used for last year's event. The Pixellines – run through PixelDrive - were used to create a series of dynamic wash and down-light effects. "The combination of the light-sources and media servers enabled much quicker programming and plotting of positions than the moving lights did last year" says Simon Carter.

The new RADlite NG1 media server is designed specifically for dealing with high res video content and the mapping of 3D surfaces, resolving the complex key-stoning issues involved with a moving head mirror. As with other RADlite products, the NG1 video fixture can be multi-layered. "The number of available layers depends on the hardware platform on which the program is being run" says Emma Long.

On stage, the three conventionally run G8 projectors were beamed onto three video screens, and used to display PowerPoint presentations and any one of three live camera feeds.

Overstage were two trusses, containing more PixelLines and PixelPARs plus the new white PixelPARs. The latter were used to key-light host Krishnan Guru-Murthy, keynote speaker Barbara Cassani, guest speaker Sir Matthew Pinsent and others taking the stage.

The lighting scheme highlighted many advantages. Creating a different look and aesthetic topped the agenda, introducing different and exciting visual dynamics into the environment.

Another was neatness, especially with the tidy profile of the PixelLines in a venue with relatively low ceiling height.

Reduced heat output from the light-sources made it easier to ensure comfortable climate and temperature control for delegates, and another advantage was energy saving, and needing no additional power supply to be provided to stage the event.

The quick and easy programmability of the lights via the software and media servers was also an asset.

Theresa Lindsay, Head of Communications at Yorkshire Forward comments "The level of creativity and innovation that Futurist provides to us and other organisations in the region is pure brilliance. We love working with them, the ideas are fun, effective and push all the right buttons for us."