The successful showcase event relaunched Battersea Evolution to the event industry; demonstrating its flexibility and unveiling its new brand. As technical partner to the venue, Hawthorn delivered the full technical production for the event, which included creating and delivering a virtual reality experience for 280 guests.
Hawthorn teamed up with the Smart Group to create a high impact set-up within the venue - designed to demonstrate the size and flexibility of the space whilst retaining an intimate atmosphere.
The production included an elegant lighting design that packed a punch for the 40m kabuki reveal with pyrotechnics and supported the slick on-screen footage which was shown across 8 x 16ft HD projected screens. With over 160 tungsten and 50 intelligent lights layered over 5x 50m trusses, Hawthorn demonstrated the scope and flexibility of the venue and their own in house lighting design to support the amazing event.
Hawthorn further enhanced the 'Battersea Experience' by creating a virtual version of the venue. Using cutting edge virtual reality headsets (HTC VIVE) guests immersed themselves in 360° visuals of three example technical production setups at Battersea, created to give viewers an insight into how the hugely flexible and unique space might be transformed for their event.
Attendees were able to explore the venue setups to experience the production from a range of positions within the space, through the eyes of their potential guests Two 'headset stations' were created - each with a 60in screens behind them, to intrigue onlookers and enable them to see what the headset user was seeing.
Hawthorn also distributed Google Cardboard virtual reality headsets as a takeaway, to enable guests to access 360° visuals of Battersea Evolution and 'step into' other Hawthorn events at a later date, via the link www.hawthorn.biz/vr .
James Hunter, senior project manager at Hawthorn, said, "The accessibility of virtual reality technology has revolutionised the way we're able to bring production designs to life for clients.
"Battersea Evolution is a hugely flexible venue and the most fantastic blank space for creating amazing events as the Showcase evening demonstrated; virtual reality is a really fun, interactive and immersive way of showing what can be achieved in the space. The possibilities really are endless and offering guests the opportunity to step into 'virtual Battersea' was a real hit on the night."
(Jim Evans)
