Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) delivered full production, including lighting, sound –
featuring brand new d&b Y8s and V-SUBS – video and rigging to an impressive end
of year party for technology designer / manufacturer Dyson – which was staged in
the grounds of Bowood House in Wiltshire, where a large elegant Trispan marquee
was giving a 45 metre deep and wide party space.

CPL has been the event’s technical supplier for the last five years, and there’s
always an exciting and ambitious brief to be fulfilled from production company
Bright. This year their production designer and technical manager was Nick Diacre
who liaised closely with CPL’s PM Mike Radford.

CPL flew a 10 metre diameter circular truss in the middle of the main room on six
ProLyft 650Kg motors –- picked for their lighter weight – rigged on six structural
arms making up the inner tent frame.

Also rigged on this circle was a Panasonic 21K projector beaming on to a custom 17
metre wide by 10 metre high curved screen from J&C Joel, installed at one end of
the space, video mapped using a combination of Mad Mapper and Resolume running
on a pair of MacBook Pros.

A central stage was built beneath the circular truss and used for a series of Awards
presented earlier in the evening followed by a hi-energy performance by LED
percussion troupe Spark!, after which it became the dancefloor hub as the party
really got started.

Another stage towards the back of the space hosted a DJ and band for the whole
evening.

The lighting design, created by Liam Griffiths, included 8 x ADJ UV LED COB Canons
(chosen for their weight and ability to strobe), flown from the main circle and a
further 6 flown from 1.5 metre trusses dead-hung below each of the 6 outer tent
arms. These arms were also rigged with a Clay Paky Mythos moving light, a Sharpy
beam light and, 2 x Martin PAR Zooms per length.

Floor mounted at the base of each of these truss sections was a Vari*Lite VL3000
Spot, firing light up onto the white tent roof creating more textures and effects,
which had great impact.

Four Martin Jem compact hazers assisted with the atmospherics.

Positioned on the stage itself were six Clay Paky a.LEDA K10 LED wash fixtures
fitted with B-Eye lenses and another four Mythos as well as some of the new GLP
Impression X4 Bar 10 and Bar 20 tilting LED battens, mounted vertically, made
available via A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd.

ARRI 650 Watt fresnels flown on the circle and the two tent arms nearest the stage
provided general wash lighting for both stages.

All lights were programmed and operated by James Washer using a Chamsys
MQ100 console.

The brand new d&b audio kit, used for the main PA, came to site directly after it
had been delivered to CPL’s warehouse in the West Midlands. Five Y8 speakers and
one Y-SUB were ground-stacked each side of the stage creating the main Left and
Right Array, whilst four V-SUBS under the stage itself provided a substantial sub-
array.

The system was driven by d&b D12 amps, with one cab per channel, and mixed
through a Yamaha QL1 console. CPL’s audio crew used the R70 CAN interface to
utilise the d&b Array Calculator and Array Processing software controlling each
individual amp channel and providing improved control over the system.

Light Initiative also created two major sculptural LED lighting installations using LED
strip tape, – one in the middle of the room spanning across the central trussing, and
two behind the bars – plus their own control processors and fed with video content
from Resolume.