London based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements for a high profile gala dinner and awards event right at the hub of the 2014 Australia Day celebrations … at the Australia House consulate in London.
Eclipse’s team was led by Project Manager John Gibbons and Technical Project Manager Jonathan Tingle, and the brief included the delivery of an attractive design plus lighting, video, audio, staging and rigging equipment as well as graphics, signage and branding.
One of the most notable challenges working at Australia House is the fact that it is the Australian Embassy in London. Another challenge is working within the constraints of the venue with all of the floors, walls and pillars made of beautiful marble.
The most notable highlight was seeing the project from the conceptual stage – visuals and floor plans - through to a successful build and delivery of the event. “It’s very rewarding to see and be a part of this process,” says Jonathan Tingle.
Two main areas inside the venue were utilized for the event which was attended by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, named 2014’s ‘Honorary Australian in the UK’ during the awards section of the evening! Red carpet interviews were broadcast on Channel 10 News and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation networks.
Eclipse has been involved in the Australia Day celebrations at Australia House for 11 years, and the theme of the event for 2014 was Antarctica.
The Eclipse team installed a 14-leg ground support system in the main Exhibition Hall room which was set for dinner, and this provided positions for all the lighting, sound and AV equipment as there were no flying facilities.
The in-house stage at one end of the room was modified and adapted to stage the presentations plus live sets from Australian band Human Nature – currently based in Las Vegas – who flew in for the night to provide the musical entertainment.
The main lighting requirement for the room was for attractive wash / break-up room setting in cool blues and white hues to evoke the Antarctica mood, which looked highly effective and set a nice ambience for the evening.
Stage lighting for the band needed to add some colour, razzamatazz and fun, while clean photo-friendly lighting was required for the Awards section.
The lighting specification was chosen by Jonathan Tingle and designed by David Gillett who also operated for the show. He used GLP Impression 120 RZ LED moving lights as the wash fixtures and Clay Paky Alpha Spot 700s for the profiles, together with ETC Source Four Juniors for the breakup effect, and a selection of generics, primarily 1K fresnels.
The lighting console was an Avolites Tiger Touch.
Eclipse provided a fully distributed d&b sound system, comprising 12 x d&b E8 speakers and two C7 subs all powered by D6 amplifiers. This gave fantastically smooth coverage all around the room. Speakers were positioned left and right of the stage for the band with the rest distributed around the room on the ground support structure.
The band brought their own FOH engineer who mixed using a Digi design console supplied by Eclipse, and a full mics-and-stands package including a Sennheiser G3 wireless system completed the audio supply.
Two 65 inch plasma screens flanked each side of the stage for IMAG relay and another three 50 inch plasmas ran down the room each side – six in total – all tastefully encased in custom scenic / set elements.
Two Sony cameras were supplied and for live IMAG relays of all the action, fed into an Atem vision mixer and output to screen, together with Awards graphics, logos and stings all replayed via a laptop through a Barco ScreenPRO II switcher.
Downstairs, the venue’s Cinema Hall was used for the pre-dinner reception and for the aftershow party / DJ area, with Eclipse supplying all the AV and lighting.
This comprised an 8K Panasonic projector with a long throw lens projecting an aurora borealis onto an in-house projection surface and four Clay Paky Alpha Spot 575 HPE moving lights and an Avolites Titan Mobile for control.
The Eclipse event crew of 9 included Second Project Manager Rob Mansfield and Keith Tenpin Ashman who was Technical Manage for the two load in days and brought his extensive experience of previous Australia Day events to the Eclipse equation.