ELP do the honours in Cambridge for Royal Television Society Convention

The RTS Cambridge Convention is the UK's pre-eminent high-level gathering of broadcasting executives. You know it's an important gig when the participants include the MDs, CEOs and heads of BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB , Warner Bros, Google, Virgin Media to name but a few.

Held in the concert hall of Kings College Cambridge, this three day conference saw leading UK and international media figures converge for three days of lively and thought-provoking debate on the future of the television industry.

Television Director Stephen Neal was in charge of the overall look of the event. His expertise was required because the first day of the conference was captured for broadcast and included a keynote speech by The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport.

Lighting Director Dave Evans is currently working with Stephen on the BBC's One Show and the two collaborated on the look and design of this event.

"The brief I received was to try and make the existing set that had a corporate theme into a bright almost light entertainment feel at very little cost. The producer also wished the set to have a more enclosed feel .This was achieved by using Clay Paky Sharpy lights to create vertical parallel beams which could animate to reveal the VT when played into the stage screens" explains LD Dave Evans.

Two trusses filled with 16 x Clay Paky Sharpys were used to dramatically 'cage' the speaker within narrow defined laser like beams.

"Sharpys are ideal in a compact conference environment like this because they are a small unit with a narrow footprint and weigh very little. But for a sub 200w lamp they really pack a punch." Remarks the LD.

Dave's design also incorporated three stacked rows of LED fixtures which provided an innovative lighting effect against a back projection screen. ELP's Chromabanks and Chromaflood 200TCs (some covered with F2 diffuser) provided a graduated colour-blend centrepiece to the set. Two large projection screens (supplied by Creative Technology) were placed at stage left and stage right.

The second and third conference days were also captured on film for archive and dissemination purposes but the lighting focus on these days moved towards the delegates seated in the audience.

ELP's crew chief Mark Gardiner tinkered with the design each day to match the discussion topics and to freshen things up for the audience. "For me the lamp of the gig was the VL1000" remarks Mark.

"We rigged 16 of ELP's VL1000s which is a lot for a relatively small conference audience. But this meant that we have total control over the look of the conference hall and could make changes instantly. These days conference speakers seem to wonder around during their presentations much more than they used to and the flexibility provided by the VL1000s, controlled by one of ELP's Road Hog desks, meant we could just go with the flow."

All the LED backlights were Martin MAC 301s. "Using LED backlighting makes the set more configurable. They're cool running, efficient and provide multiple colour options" concludes Mark.

Panel discussions and audience Q&A sessions were additionally lit using ELP's Arri Junior Fresnels and Par Cans.

An ELP 110 Kw twinset generator supplied power to the outside broadcast scanner and for all the AV including projection and sound in the conference hall.

A two man ELP running crew of Mark Gardiner and Greg Fitzgerald looked after the lighting during the event. Mark doubled up as crew chief and board operator while Greg kept things ticking over at front of house. Colin Jones and Shaun Bernett provided support for the rig and de-rig days.

The great and the good of the TV world would expect nothing less than broadcast quality lighting for their prestigious conference and it looks like Dave Evans and the ELP team passed the test with first class honours.