Hawthorn supports BBC Worldwide showcase

UK - Over 700 international television buyers from across the globe recently headed to ACC Liverpool for BBC Worldwide Showcase, the world’s largest international television market hosted by a single distributor. Taking place on 18-21 February, the event brought together producers, talent and BBC executives as well as Britain’s most successful creatives. For the 12^th year running, creative technical event production expert Hawthorn supported BBC Worldwide to showcase its premium programmes, delivering two hotly-anticipated evening events.
Putting premium British content right at the centre of the global stage, the evening events showcased the best of BBC talent and creativity to an audience of TV executives and producers.
Led by the BBC Worldwide team, Hawthorn’s group creative director Peter Harding helped to produce and deliver the production design for the two evenings.
Giving a first look at the broadcaster’s latest natural history programmes Dynasty and Serengeti, an immersive drinks reception welcomed guests for the first evening. Featuring a life-size acacia tree, the Hawthorn team used a complementary lighting design and mesmeric soundscape to transport guests to the plains of Africa, whilst projection and LED screens showed content from the new shows.
In celebration of the upcoming 50^th anniversary of the moon landing, guests were then treated to an ‘out-of-this-world dining experience’. Hawthorn created a projection-mapped planet that formed the focal point of the extraordinary evening.
From the Moon to Mars, the team used five Christie 20K projectors to cast the stunning visuals onto a 7m Airstar sphere hung in the centre of the space. A 30m wide x 9m high projection screen – created using six, triple-stacked Christie Boxster 4K30 projectors – and an immersive NASA style soundscape completed the deep-space set up, later brought to life with the appearance of an astronaut who floated over the heads of the audience members.
Night two saw Doctor Who take over the arena for an intergalactic dining experience. With the Series 11 heralding the arrival of 13^th Doctor Jodie Whittaker, and the evening seeing the very first reveal of the show’s new logo – launched online moments after - the Hawthorn team were on hand to help create an evening to remember.
Peter Harding, group creative director at Hawthorn, said, “It’s always an honour to be asked to work with BBC Worldwide for their annual Showcase event year on year. Their in-house events team are true creatives and it’s great to work collaboratively with them to bring their exciting visions to life. With each night featuring a very different event, the key for us was to get really creative with our technology and re-purpose the equipment in unusual ways for each evening. Showcase always presents us with technical challenges but for me, that’s the bit that’s the most fun.”
(Jim Evans)

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