Innovision called in the services of leading production industry companies, including large format projection specialist E/T/C UK and rigging specialist Summit Steel. Durham Marenghi came on board as lighting designer.Projection was beamed onto a special retractable 'sail' made from Sunbaba's Austronet 204FR fabric, and rigged onto the centre of three masts depicting a symbolic version of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory.
The PIGI 6kW projector (complete with 'hot' backup) was located in a specially built hide, with a 17m throw distance, and fitted with a Barco 1.2 lens, to beam up onto the 12m by 10m high sail. At a steep 45° angle, with extreme keystone correction, the images filled the whole surface, and were soft masked to bleed off the edges. Once in situ, by keystone recalculations, they were able to reduce the physical angle of the projectors to 30° by using only the upper half of the projector beam to make the picture.
The projection featured 45 slide images. These were researched and sourced by Innovision, and then treated, transformed into PIGI artwork, masked and keystone-corrected by E/T/C UK's Ross Ashton. Off site pre-programming was by Karen Monid. The projection was run on-site using PIGI's OnlyCue PC-based controller, programmed and operated by Steve Cameron. The projection screen was the central of three 'Victory' masts that formed the focal point of the show. At over 14m they were the highest such structures that Summit has ever built.
The projection screen was moved by a pair of Summit's Kinesys-controlled variable speed hoists, running at 21m a second, complete with smooth stops and starts. There was also a large PA line array on the same mast which had over 10 tonnes of ballast to ensure it could be safely used at winds of up to 50mph.
The two outer Victory masts were based on Summit's standard SmarTmast 2 design: these held the left and right PA clusters, and each was dressed with three sails - all made out of the same Austronet fabric from Sunbaba. Six regular Summit SmarTmast 1s were also deployed around the square for additional perimeter lighting and sound positions.
Audio, supplied by Delta Sound, included three main L-Acoustics V-Dosc arrays, configured as left, right and centre on the corresponding three Victory masts, each comprising 12 V-Dosc elements and three dV-Dosc. The left and right positions were both supplemented by eight L-Acoustics SB218 subs.
Sound design was by Delta's Paul Keating, who worked with a team of eight, including associate designer Jim Lambert and main FOH engineer Richard Sharratt. Their brief was to cover as much of the upper and lower levels of the Square as possible.
A DiGiCo D1 digital console was at front-of-house and a BSS Soundweb was used for system control. Analogue EQ was achieved using KT DN410s and the 24-track playback via two Tascam MX2424s. Live mic feeds were used for dialogue, and for the Band of the Royal Marines. They had to contend with the usual background hubbub of London, including sirens and inebriates, although Trafalgar Square's fountains were extinguishedfor show day!
Lighting was from Stage Electrics. Marenghi illuminated the National Gallery's façade with eight City Colors; there were eight Mac 600s on each sail tower and 10 on the central one, with eight more on four of Summit's perimeter SmarTmasts. Four HMIs were positioned on the roof of the National Gallery to capture the Royal Marines' 'rescue' scene.
Around Nelson's column were four 5kW Syncrolite B52 searchlights highlighting the structure, plus 16 Ireos Pro 7k Space Cannons for aerial effects and blasting up the co
