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PSL Supports Liverpool’s Debut as European City of Culture
For one of its biggest projects in recent years, PSL sent a 75-man team to the flamboyant opening ceremony which kicked off Liverpool’s year as European City of Culture. From the imposing 40’ screens that dominated St George’s Plateau to the 15-camera broadcast truck that relayed Liverpool’s celebrations around the world, PSL technicians were at the heart of the logistically complex event.
Led by Pod Bluman, the PSL team had to triumph against the twin enemies of time and the elements. PSL’s participation in the Liverpool show was confirmed only three weeks ahead of the event, just one week before the Christmas slow-down!
“The concept of the show was to tell the story of Liverpool’s history and culture,” explains Pod Bluman. “Its location was the open space between the city’s great civic buildings, using St George’s Hall as the backdrop to the stage, and in some respects, the stage itself.” Amongst the turns was former Beatle Ringo Starr, and 149 other guitarists, performing on the roof of the Hall, with aerialists descending and ascending the building itself.
For the 40,000-strong crowd attending the event, PSL supplied two massive projection screens, flown on either side of St George’s Hall, with a third mounted on the nearby Holiday Inn Hotel, all fed by new Christie 20K projectors, which were also generating architectural projections onto the columns of St George’s Hall. One of PSL’s Barco LED B10 trucks was positioned at the top of Lime Street, and another in the Williamson Square overspill area, enabling even more people to watch the ceremony on-screen.
Production manager Simon Barrington, working on behalf of the Liverpool Culture Company, invited PSL to take on additional responsibility, handling all broadcast and camera facilities for the ceremony. “PSL was a massive help, taking a huge load off my shoulders especially with regard to the broadcast issues, and they did so unflappably, patiently and with lots of enthusiasm for the project. Nothing seemed to be a problem.”
According to Bluman, it was the weather that could have been the big problem. Poor conditions led to the cancellation of two rehearsal nights. “Because the lighting couldn’t be rehearsed, our cameramen had to rehearse in the dark; they didn’t really know what the show would be like. But, although everyone was afraid of the winds getting up over 20mph, in which case the cranes couldn’t operate, we were incredibly lucky to get a clear day for the gig and a fantastic show night.”
The event began with the master of ceremonies announcing that “Liverpool was, is and always will be nothing less than the centre of the creative universe.” To underline his point, coverage of the show was broadcast around the world, a live transmission that started at PSL’s 15-camera truck, which also provided feeds for PSL video technicians to submix for the giant screens.
“The sheer logistics and scale of the event was very intense even though it was only a 35-minute show,” says Simon Barrington. “From a production point-of-view, we had to work against tremendous time constraints but everyone pulled together remarkably well, and I think we achieved the main objective, making Liverpudlians feel really good about themselves.”
22nd January 2008
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