XL Video UK hosted a massive party to celebrate the grand opening of its new 42,000-sq-ft premises in Hemel Hempstead.
Over 350 friends, partners, competitors, freelancers, clients, and others flocked to Eastman Way to enjoy XL’s hospitality in a fun-filled night of social interaction, banter, drinking, eating, live music, and dancing. Revellers also included large contingents from XL’s operations in Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam, and Paris.
The parking lot was converted into a barbecue, burger bar, and hog roasting area. Greeting guests inside was a champagne reception, cocktail bar, and sushi bar, complete with posing tables.
One end of the warehouse featured a long Soft LED backdrop and the Cisco Globe—a unique 7-ft high MiPix construction commissioned by Cisco in the US— suspended in the ceiling. This is an excellent example of the bespoke in-house LED engineering for which XL is renowned.
Three warehouse aisles featured Nintendo Wii machines hooked up to Christie S+20 Roadsters and 14 x 8 rear-projected screens, so gamers could get right into their different worlds.
At the far end of the warehouse—normally used for LED screen hanging and testing—a full stage, dance floor, and raked sofa seating was built, creating a dual purpose area that started out as an early evening chill out zone and later became a grandstand viewing area for the band.
The stage backdrop was a striking mix of four columns of Chromatek 6mm LED, interspersed with three columns of MiTrix LED. Flanking the stage were two flying 20’ x 15’ projection screens fed by Christie S+20 Roadsters.
XL’s new modular High Definition PPU was used, along with its five High Definition Grass Valley LDK8000 cameras for IMAG, all relayed to the stage and flanking screens along with other material stored on two Hippotizer and four Catalyst digital media servers.
XL did a full ISO record of the band’s performance. The HD PPU’s location at the back of the seating allowed interested guests to take a closer look—with the addition of a 20’8” x 11’11” front-projected screen and a high definition image from a sole Digital Projection 35HD Lightning projector.
XL’s new HD PPU debuted on The 2007 Brit Awards; was then used by a blue-chip corporate client along with a 12-HD projector, Encore and media server rig to create a 76 by 7 m blended screen; it has also featured on Roger Waters’ most recent tour, and is shortly heading out on Muse’s summer stadium shows.