Screenco has met a production requirement from leading communications agency, Skybridge, for a large, bright mobile screen, to service a series of Channel 4 parties around the UK to celebrate their association with test cricket. Called C4 Summer Tour, the curtain raiser to the England v Australia series took place on July 6 with a beach party in Brighton featuring Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada, and project-managed by Skybridge technical director Lee Eld. In Brighton, the Fatboy Slim set was filmed for a Channel 4 special, transmitted the following week. Screenco provided a trailer-mounted 40sq.m Jumbotron JTS35 CRT daylight video display - the largest of their mobile systems. Lee Eld explained that this year’s tour was the result of a similar series of successful events they carried out for Channel 4 last year. "Working with artistic director and producer, Alex Poots, we have come up with the infrastructure and staging. There are two V-dosc PA towers and a little 8m x 4m stage for the DJ - but the whole event is really based around the big screen."Production for each event builds up on the day before the five-day tests, which start on a Thursday. The programming incorporates a free-to-air screening of the cricket during the hours of play on each day, followed by a dance party on the Friday evening and a Film 4 film show on the Saturday. The Jumbotron takes VT feeds from live camera relay, satellite transmission of the cricket action and Beta playback of the films and the graphics.Commented Lee Eld: "I have a strong relationship with Screenco; they are very supportive with everything I try and do. We have a very forward-thinking design team and they are always willing to get involved in the process of making screens do what they are not supposed to, with Q-Motion and so on. I never need to go anywhere else."
Attendance is estimated to be between 20,000-25,000 at each of the four venues, which also include Durnham Downs, Bristol (with Eric Morillo and Seb Fontaine), Centenary Square, Bradford (with Talvin Singh) and Clapham Common, London (with Paul Oakenfold).
