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Microsoft After Hours with Blinding Light
The event was staged in the grounds of the beguiling Stratfield Saye house – a rambling 17th century pile, home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817 - in a huge De Boers ‘Star Show’ circus tent measuring 68 x 44 metres internally. This was just for the entertainment!
Catering was housed in an additional 45 x 20 metre ‘A’ frame marquee next door. “The client wanted a special location with a great ambience to accommodate up to 2000 people,” explains production manager Matt Phillips. Stratfield Saye only allows two events to take place in its grounds each year, and it proved a perfect backdrop for a memorable party.
Sledge’s brief was to produce a top quality event in all aspects. After Hours featured live performances by dance gurus Basement Jaxx and party mavericks Madness who got the action going in grand style. The show closed to a rousing set by DJ Norman Jay, and top buffet catering was supplied throughout the night by Chevalier.
There were a number of different entertainments and chill out zones, so guests could choose to mix and match in the different areas as they wished.
Matt Phillips came on board to oversee the complete production management needed to support the event along with Grant Mitchell looking after the finer technical detail in the main tent. They asked Blinding light to supply the lighting for stage, dancefloor, food hall and all other areas of the site including architectural illumination of the house and all back stage areas.
Blinding Light supplied an 8-leg self-climbing ground support system that went over the 40 x 30 metre main stage and continued the full length of the tent, and this was used to rig all elements of production equipment including lighting, sound and video.
The overall lighting design was by Blinding Light’s Paddy Stacey. The equipment supplied took up two full artics, and covered four areas: the performance stage and dancefloor, the food hall and exterior lighting and the general site lighting including walkways and other public areas.
“I decided to go back to basics,” for the main tent lighting says Paddy, who used a heavy base of PAR cans to ensure the vast area was well covered with wash lighting. This included two rows of 6-lamp bars running down each side of the tent, that were precisely and symmetrically focussed to create an interesting perspective ‘look’ when viewed from either end of the tent.
He used PARs around the stage for a generic colour wash. The next layer of lighting on top of this was the moving lights – a mix of Martin MAC 500s and 300s, High End Studio Spot 250s and Clay Paky Mini Scan HPEs – more than 70 units in total to cover the stage and dancefloor areas - plus assorted specials including 8-lites.
On the night, stage and dancefloor lighting was operated by Russell Grubiak using a WholeHog II and Wing, and Basement Jaxx’ LD Leggy came in to operate their show as well as Madness.
For the exterior lighting, Blinding Light supplied four City Colors and 18 Mini-city 150s to illuminate the main façade of the house. The trees, walkways and other areas were lit with twenty 400 Watt MBI floods, 10 exterior PAR cans and 20 500 Watt floods, and there was also a miscellany of other feature lighting fixtures dotted around, including flaming torches, gas Flambeaux's and Par 30’s.
Blinding Light’s crew chief was Hugo Beaver, who worked with two riggers and five LX crew. The in started on Wednesday for a Saturday show, and the out started immediately after the party ended, leaving the site clear of lighting and truss by 5pm on Sunday.
The biggest lighting challenge was in covering the massive area, keeping it in budget and dealing with the limited hanging facilities inside the structure plus the weight loadings on the wooden floor – which was on top of a grass bank.
Sound and video was supplied by Blitz – one of Microsoft’s approved suppliers. The main tent sound was a d&b Q1 line array system, overseen by Blitz’s Pete Russell.
Video featured two flown Barco G8s doubled up to produce a single image beamed onto a 20 x 11 ft screen behind the band. They supplied a 3-camera PPU including a small jib, a camera in the pit and a hand-held onstage for IMAG to screen, and a five-minute record was taken of each band. Live video director was Patrick Redman.
Power was supplied by Powerline, including two 400 KVA sync-locked sets for the main stage, plus numerous smaller sets for the outdoor lighting and catering areas. Crew catering was supplied by Eat To The Beat, and the water, wastage and plumbing by Hunts Water.
Pam Fenn, project manager for Sledge comments: “It looked fantastic and our client was extremely happy. Imaginative lighting of external areas like the trees and the house really made the whole place look extra special.”
26th July 2005
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