South London based technical solutions provider Presentation Rentals (PR) supplied lighting, audio, projection and crew to the British Film Museum for the 2013 Evening Standard British Film Awards. Staged in the Debating Chamber of London County Hall (LCH), the event is the only ceremony dedicated exclusively to British and Irish cinematic talent.
It is the first time that PR has been involved in the event. They are the preferred technical supplier for the London Film Museum and service the organisation’s requirements both at County Hall and for their Covent Garden venue.
PR’s Luke Edwards created a lighting and visuals design for the evening, which was co-ordinated for the company by Project Manager Jeff McLaughlin.
The main Awards took place in the debating Chamber, already a hugely atmospheric octagonal room with heavy wood panelling, stone pillars and many stunning original features.
PR installed six of their new Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 prolife moving lights and six CP A.LEDA Wash K.10 LED wash lights, which were rigged into the large window sill recesses each side of the room.
The Alpha Spots were used to throw spectacular gobos and break-up patterns around the room, while the washes bathed it in colour.
Twelve Source Four profiles were used for key lighting and picking out the winners and presenters, while wireless LED uplighters were placed around the room to up-light the walls providing additional mood. All lighting was run from a Chamsys MQ100 console.
For sound, the PR team hooked into the in-house Martin speaker arrays and provided their own FOH control equipment in the form of a DiGiCo SD9 console. This was operated by Ed Higgins. From his years of experience working in similar venues he drew from this knowledge and experience to ensure the best possible sound resulted!
For projection behind the main Awards presentation area – which used the Debating Chamber’s existing raised platform at the front of the room – one of PR’s 10K Panasonic projectors (with another running as hot backup) was used. The content was beamed onto the existing house screen.
Four additional in-house projection screens were located around the room to ensure that all in the packed Debating Chamber had a clear view of the proceedings. These repeater screens were fed by four of PR’s Panasonic 7K projectors rigged around the balcony.
All media content was stored and played back from a MacBook Pro running PlayBack Pro, also a single Sony PMW-EX3 HD camera was used to relay the awards to the gallery room.
The after-party was held In the Rotunda room which is part of the LCH complex. This was enhanced with LED up-lighters around the walls and an audio PA for background music.
McLaughlin says, “It was a great pleasure to be involved in a high profile event like this in an interesting space that required a careful balance between the right technologies … and preserving an already fabulous natural ambience. Everyone was delighted with the results”.