Fireworks & Fashion Week

November has started off at a pace with Startech supplying the stage, lighting, sound and video wall for the Jack FM Music Stage at the Oxford Fireworks in South Parks followed by supporting 3 shows at Oxford Fashion Week.

This is the second year Startech have teamed up with Jack FM to provide entertainment in South Park before and after the Round Table's fireworks display and bonfire. Startech's famous red canopy became home for the evening to Jack FM's Selfy and Caroline as well as Glide FM's Jason. Using our LED curtain we provided the countdown to the fireworks and helped advertise the sponsors of the event.

Startech were also technical partners for Oxford Fashion Week 2012, helping to produce shows at Oxford Town Hall and at the Ashmolean Museum. The Town Hall events were attended by over 300 people and required Startech to create a stunning lighting design whilst not detracting from the fashion on display. Shanks used Startech's own Mac 700's, MTPro 324W's & 90P's alongside generic lighting to create some superb effects on the set and around the architecture of the Town Hall using our Chamsys Maxi Wing as control. The sound system chosen for this was our Turbosound kit setup and operated by Grebe.

After producing two shows at the Town Hall, Startech moved to the far end of Cornmarket to setup for the Haute Couture Show at the Ashmolean. Time was tight as the Ashmolean closes it's doors to the public at 6pm and guests were invited to attend the pre-show drinks at 8.30. All Startech's staff were fully aware of the short schedule and worked efficiently to produce a fantastic show within the time allowed. Once again Grebe was in charge of sound, this time using our Bose system. With the short period of time allowed to set up this show, we opted to use more generic lighting pre mounted on stands. This worked well in the Ashmolean where space is precious and so are the displays. As well as using generic lighting for the catwalk, Shanks also used Anolis LED Battens to light the displays in the museum, which created a great effect.

As well as the main event, we were asked to provide some atmospheric lighting in the atrium area where pre and post show drinks were to be held. This had to be quick to set up and take down as we had to fit in to the security schedule at the Ashmolean. Chris installed 20 colour changing LED Parcans throughout the Atrium whilst Simon installed MTPro 324W on the balcony to light up the statues. The whole event went smoothly and Startech had managed to pack down the entire show even before some of the models had taken off their make up.

Oxonmoot returns

Last weekend saw the annual gathering in Oxford to celebrate the life and works of JRR Tolkien, and Startech were there to help.

One of the events during the weekend is a cabaret evening in the Dining Room at Lady Magaret Hall which Startech provided LED lighting for. In previous years the cabaret has been lit by more traditional fixtures, but that has meant laying 50 metres of 63 amp cable to get enough power in to the room. This year Startech worked closely with Mike Percival from Oxonmoot to provide almost a completely LED rig which could be powered from the existing supply in the room.

After the event Mike sent us the following:

Everything went very smoothly indeed. I think the bottom line is that we proved that in fact in a space that size it is perfectly possible to light an event of the nature of ours with 100% LED lights. I did use the source 4s
for two items - but one was laziness (the performer revealed at the last minute they wanted to use more of the acting area than they had told me when I plotted their lights, so it was easier to add in the source 4s than to
re-plot the LED profiles, but they would in fact have been better), and the other I only really included them because they were there!

Finally for now, please say a huge thank you to Chris and especially to Nigel for their help, without which our event wouldn't have gone as well as it did.