BRITISH SUMMER TIMEThe Video Design team, led by Richard Corns, once again deployed
the iconic cur ved screen on the festival’s main stage. “The 950 sq metres
of WinVision 8HD that we installed across the full panorama of the main
stage and wings was fed by a ver y carefully
chosen HD camera and disguise gx 2 package,”
he said. “From Barbra Streisand, to Celine Dion,
or Florence + the Machine, some artists have
ver y distinct styles. These are not the sort of
shows for an ever-hungr y camera. It might sound
counterintuitive, but through that huge panorama
of LED the music is given space to speak for itself.
To mangle a cliché, less is more, more or less.”
That BST screen might remain the largest
contiguous installation of LED video at any event
in Europe, but there was another 135 sq metres
spread throughout the BST site by Video Design
for relay screens and the smaller Barclaycard
Stage. “That’s an aspect of working Barclaycard’s
BST we really enjoy,” added Video Design’s Alex
Leinster. “When the big acts have played their
last note and ever yone has gone home, all that
hardware is put to good use for the people of
the city through the weekdays between BST
weekends – and frequently free of charge.”
Alongside Video Design, PRG provided lighting and rigging ser vices.
Amongst the company’s offerings were PRG Best Boy HPs, Icon Edges,
Vari-Lite VL3500 Washes, GLP impression X4 Bars,
SGM P-5s and Solaris Flares. Also on site were PRG
GroundControl Best Boy followspots and PRG
GroundControl Longthrow followspots.
“Our take on lighting is to give incoming
productions the best quality rig,” explained
Ward. “A lot of the acts we have performing at
BST are not necessar y touring and therefore are
not travelling with a great deal of productions.
Essentially, we want to give both artists and their
creative teams enough tools to put on the show
they want.”
On the audio front, Capital Sound deployed
its Martin Audio MLA multicellular loudspeaker
array technology, which proved under test
conditions its unique ability to meet required
propagation thresholds, both inside the bowl
and beyond the perimeter.
Monitored by acoustics consultants
Vanguardia, MLA, optimised using Martin Audio’s“We have an amazing crew
and I think it’s testament to the
people we brought in from day
one, that there hasn’t been a
change in supplier for the last
seven years.”
Mark Ward, Production Director