ELP En-lighten top UK Intelligencia at Queen's Anniversary Prize Giving

Every two years The Royal Anniversary Trust recognise and honour outstanding achievement and excellence in UK universities and colleges. They host a royal honours ceremony at Buckingham Palace and Banquet of National Celebration at Guildhall in the City of London which brings together the Prizewinners with leading figures in economic, social and cultural life.

An ELP crew lead by ‘Sinbad’ (Robert Dunne) worked alongside LD John Pomphery and producer Nick Brooks-Ward to dress the Guildhall for a splendid evening of dining, speeches and awards.

ELP supplied an assortment of Mac 2000s and 500s to augment out the architectural features of the Guildhall while Source 4 profiles, par cans, LED pixel pars and follow spots were used to create the right mood for dinner guests, speakers and award winners as they collected their prizes.

Sinbad explains “The main aim of the job is to complement the grand room in the Guildhall with lighting, particularly the roof and east window. Also performers appear in the balconies to sing grace and to entertain the guests between courses. There are several speeches throughout the evening that are given at the lectern, so this area also has to be highlighted. The evening was rounded off with a performance by the students of the 'Guildhall School of Music and Drama' who performed excerpts from operas on the stage. The grand finale featured pipers who formally close the evening when they are given whisky, in a ‘quaich’ by Sir Robin Gill, in the traditional paying of the piper ceremony.”

ELP’s Sinbad concludes “This really was an ultra plush event. The organisers demanded a top quality job. The LD and producer they commissioned are both former BBC employees and we worked with them to deliver set lighting that was easily good enough for broadcast. This seems to be a trend for many of the premium jobs we work on these days.”