The event - celebrating the Fudge Professional Core Collective - was staged in Studio 12 of the Old Granada Studios in the city which offered up a totally bare space, so everything - staging, set, lighting, sound and video - had to be built and installed from scratch to realise the Fudge team's original concept.
CPL's crew was led by Mike Radford, who commented, "The vibe of the event was energetic and lively, Fudge is a leading brand known for its alternative and 'out-of-the-box' approach to hair styling, so everything we were doing on the technical front had to help create this impression."
He added that the projection worked brilliantly as a high-impact visual medium and fulfilled the brief from Bright production manager Andy Oswin that lighting was an absolute key to the event.
CPL started with the installation of a 21ft. wide by 11ft. projection surface - in conjunction with SSL - with a doorway below for entry / exit onto and off the stage and runway. The stage in front of the projection wall was 7m wide, 3m deep and 600mm high and in front of that, the 2m wide runway ran 7m down the room.
The format of the event included live cutting and styling onstage utilizing both professional and semi-pro hairdressing models.
Three runs of house trussing were already available in the room, loaded with 12 x Chauvet Legend 330SR spot moving heads so these were incorporated into the show and augmented with CPL's ARRI and ETC fixtures.
Twelve ARRI L5-C LED fresnels and ETC ColorSource LED Spots were rigged on wind-up stands positioned either side of the catwalk which also gave a pop-up studio like feel to the space.
Twelve ADJ UV LED COB canons were also on the rig for a special theatrical effect tied in to one of the Fudge UV sensitive hair products
Lighting control was an Avolites Quartz console run by Jordan Pitcairn.
One of CPL's new Sony FS7 hand-held cameras fitted with a Teradek wireless HDSDI unit was operated by Nigel French, and images from this fed via a Barco PDS 902 switcher to the projector, a Panasonic RZ12K laser. Ian Mahoney operated the video using Resolume VJ software to help manage logos and other graphics and content required to be played in during the show, together with additional material via CPL's MacBook Pro running PlaybackPro.
For audio, CPL specified a d&b, a point-source Y7P system, chosen for its small size and high quality, with speakers flown from the house rigging and spread around the space, together with two B4-SUBS behind the set. Sources were a variety of backgrounds and some live mics, all mixed via an Allen+Heath QU16 desk and powered by D12 amps.
Sound on site was co-ordinated by Simon Taylor, who ran constant audio beds so music was always audible and helped maintain the energy of the event.
(Jim Evans)
