Waymade Party

SFL help celebrate an important engagement - on a boat down the Thames.

Event: Waymade - Engagement Celebration Party
Venue: The Dixie Queen on the Thames
Date: Saturday 8th July

Prod - Craig Lawrence
Sound - Mark Payne, Andy Scott
Lights - Ben Teale, Tim Pitman
Video - Simon Graham, Jason Brown
Cams - Andy Feakins, Richard Carlton, Jason Brown

This was a corporate party with a difference! When your son gets engaged it's usual to want to celebrate and have a party, but when you're the owner of Waymade Health Group Plc one of the UK's top ten pharmaceutical companies you throw a party with a difference.

SFL were brought in with a brief to WOW the client and his guests with a truly special event and it was one with many interesting and unusual challenges. The event took place on the Dixie Queen party boat and was spread over two decks including an outdoor area. On each of the decks SFL provided Sound, Video and Lighting solutions along with an additional outdoor system to compliment the surprise fireworks display launched from a separate barge. SFL sent one Artic lorry full of audio, video and lighting equipment all of which was expertly crammed on to the boat. With so much equipment to go into such a small space, SFL's legendary tidiness came into its own.

The sound system was split into three sections:

The main venue had 2 stacks of d&b Q1, Q sub speakers, controlled from a Yamaha M7CL digital console. This provided superb control with great features in a small space enabling SFL to manage an 8 piece band, audio playback and a variety of radio miked speeches.

The Outside area was designed around the fireworks with the system providing synchronised sound to compliment the pyrotechniques, this was obtained using d&b's Q7 and Q sub. We also utilised Shure's UHFR radio mic system with extension aerials for speeches on deck. To maximise deck space SFL installed the Q subs and Q7 tops on the deck above where the people congregated, and utilised the Q7's 70º dispersion characteristics by mounting them sideways to cover the people directly beneath the boxes The final venue on the boat was below deck where a casino had been set up for the high rollers. SFL installed d&b E3's to relay the live music.

A real party atmosphere was created using an Avolites Pearl 2000 to control over 20 moving lights along with profile spots to highlight the band and speeches. The lighting design made good use of the white walls and ceilings of the boat and by choosing a white stage backdrop for the band, the whole venue's look and feel could be easily controlled and changed to great effect.

In addition to this large array of Lighting and Audio equipment the venue called for SFL to install an impressive video solution spread over two decks. A main screen was constructed in front of the stage area - showing a wide array of pre produced video clips throughout the evening; the screen was removed as the band started their set. A live 4 camera mix created an impressive relay of the band and speeches which were broadcast to 8 plasma screens spread all over the boat. Even the Casino area was not left out from the video with a camera capturing the highs and lows for the revellers on the upper decks. All cameras were mixed on an MX70 with the multiple plasmas and projectors fed from an Analogue Way DiVentix.