A white gauze created a 72ft x 20ft backdrop, behind the stage, to create a blank canvas for the intelligent lighting to wash ever-moving colours behind the guest MC, Jack Dee. An avi file was transferred to a Doremi hard disk, which looped a continuous flame rising above the CMP logo. CT drew exclusively from their pool of Christie DLP projectors, providing Christie S6 SXGA DLP projection with running back ups. The AV solution providers also supplied 16 plasma screens. 10 of these were mounted on the stage and comprised four Pioneer PDP-503 MXE 50" displays and six Sony B1 42" plasmas.
The four Pioneer screens were mounted on upright columns and hung in portrait shape (two left, two right) above the stage; the B1s were split left and right - rigged in landscape formation on 'goalposts' provided by Roadrunner. A further six B1s were sited in the foyer. Delivering the content to the stage were seven streams generated from the Dataton Watchout system - two were sent to the projection screens and the remaining five streams were routed to the 16 plasmas.
CT also fielded graphics playback (for the Powerpoint awards nominations themselves) and three (Sony DX30) camera channels. One of the company's GVG component PPU systems carried out an upstream submix and record, with the main display mix provided by two Extron SGS-408 data video mixers bolted onto an Extron ECP-1000, which slaved the two together.
Creative Technology provided camera, Watchout, tape and systems operators as part of a 10-man crew headed by project manager Matt Hunter, and Reality's Paul Corrick authored the Watchout presentation. The result was a dynamic multimedia presentation which ensured a resounding success for CMP's premier event.
(Lee Baldock)