Bristol-based Fineline Lighting proves the wisdom of its investment in Martin by
HARMAN’s VDO Face 5 HB LED panels by deploying impressive media displays on the
two main stages at the recent Love Saves The Day Festival, held locally in the city’s
Eastville Park.
Specialists in production lighting and visual displays, Fineline has regularly serviced
the festival’s requirements for promoters Team Love – again rigging the two premier
stages at the sell-out festival and providing kit for the subsidiary stages.
Headliners such as Fat Freddy’s Drop and Little Dragon performed onstage before 20
000 people to a backdrop of 100 VDO Face 5 HB panels on the main stage, arranged
into a series of columns and a conventional landscape screen made up of 36 panels on
the second Cloud Nine stage.
The video content comprised of Fineline stock material, purpose-made event content
and also video content provided by some of the artists. The content was placed on
Fineline’s AI media server and processed by the Martin by HARMAN P3-300
controllers, which combines the award-winning P3 workflow with a new high-
performance video processing engine.
Fineline is the first company in the UK to own the new VDO Face 5 HB high-
brightness, outdoor-rated LED video panel, with 5.2mm pixel pitch.
“The system went in extremely easily and looked amazing,’ said Fineline managing
director Rob Sangwell, who confirms the display justified his initial investment in 50
sq.m of the product. “I undertook a lot of research and looked at most screens on the
market before deciding. But I opted for Martin, based partly on the relationship we
have, along with the excellent back-up and the fact it’s a respected brand. We also
looked at the high quality of the product, and the image it produces is great.’
Sangwell also highlighted a number of other key advantages. “We were impressed
with the fact it is IP65-rated all the way round the panel, which many other systems
are not, and it has a Beaufort Scale 8 wind rating, which is important to us during the
festival season,’ he said. ‘All of our structures have full structural reports and wind
rating, but many of the screen systems do not. With the Martin screen product, we
can provide a fully rated screen and structure package for our outdoor event clients.’
“The other key feature is that because it is not batch-dependent it is cross rentable —
and that is a major selling point,’ he said. “As for the P3-300 controllers, they have a
lot of features that standard scalers and video controllers simply don’t have which
allow greater creative use of the panels.’
Tom Paine, who heads the Team Love organisation, working with partner Dave Harvey,
agreed. ‘We have been working with Fineline for a number of years on this event and
know that their inventory is always right at the cutting edge. The video screens at this
year’s event were no exception; they looked great and were very well received by the
production crews and artists.’
