Technology Showcase

The pitch: An immersive experience for potential customers

The problem: To create 5 discrete zones within a West End theatre to provide a seamless flow of visitors.

The solution: A multi-level controlled series of rooms combining automation, projection and localised audio to drive the maximum numbers through without the impression of congestion

Once we had won the pitch the client appointed a small team to oversee the content, leaving us a relatively free hand to devise the delivery systems.  I worked closely with the creative directors and content creation teams as well as the staging and AV suppliers to create a series of surprising spaces within an extremely confined area.

We moved the audience from room to room in small groups, monitored by a central controller.  They experienced moving walls, floors and screens, immersive projection on all surfaces and a fully animated finale with 96 individually controlled floor segments, moving projection screens, tracking LED panels and dynamic lasers.

All this had to fit within a footprint of about 250 square metres four floors underground, accessible by lift only.  Into these I crammed 13 trailers of truss, scaffolding, projection, LED, lights, sound, control, automation and scenery.

In some places the fit was so precise that the floor had to be ramped by a few degrees to make space for the projectors hidden underneath.

The show ran continually every day for four weeks with no significant technical issues and was acclaimed as a huge success by the client.

WWM21

The problem: A lack of experience for freelance staff in virtual events

The proposal: Create our own event

The solution: WWM21, an online experience with a production staff of 150 volunteers, three XR studios and a budget of £0

As lockdown moved past novelty, through denial and into the realms of acceptance, many freelancers found that they were not being accepted for jobs on virtual events due to lack of experience.  The LEFS Facebook group decided to try to do something about this - with all our combined skills across the 3,000 members surely we could conceive, create and deliver an event that would allow us to qualify as experienced in this new field.

Nas put out a call for format suggestions, and my concept of a celebration of who we are as freelancers was selected.

With a small steering committee providing oversight, we appointed eight executive producers to select their teams, fine tune their subject matter and deliver the final live or recorded content.

The original ambition was to involve as many people as possible and reach an audience of maybe 200 online viewers. The final tally was 150 people involved in the production, over 1000 attendees registered, 700 logged in live and over 1100 subsequent views.

The event can be viewed here