SAS Quarterly Staff Meeting

SAS chose SFL to provide the complete Audio Visual solution for their quarterly staff meeting

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Event date - 20th October 2006
Client - SAS
Venue - Holiday Inn, Maidenhead

SFL were chosen by IT company SAS to provide the technical solution for their quarterly staff meetings. SAS is the leader in business intelligence software and services. Over its 30 years, SAS has grown from seven employees to nearly 10,000 worldwide. SAS is an industry leader and they wanted a technical solution that gave them a staff meeting with a difference.

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Instead of the usual flat set, SFL decided to make a set out of video. The whole back drop was rear project screens based around a truss set with graphics that spanned across all 3 screens. This was a bespoke solution as it had to fill the space exactly, floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Production manager Craig Lawrence breathed a sigh of relief when the set fitted in perfectly with 5cm to spare either side. The images were created using 3x 5000 Lumen Christie Projectors; the images were fed from computers via Analog Way Diventix's. The Diventix was also used to put pips of video clips from DVD and camera images on either side. SFL also put in some plasmas half way down the venue as delay screens for the PowerPoint presentation, this ensured that every person in the venue could see what was being displayed.

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Lighting was used to create the atmosphere in the venue by use of SAS gobos on the walls and ceiling, and providing washes of blue light completely transforming the venue. SFL used Robe colour spots and colour washes to produce this effect. Profiles were used to highlight the speakers around the lectern area. Lighting Designer Tim Pitman had a hard job as he had to make sure he wasn't washing out the screen. All of the lighting was controlled via a Pearl 2000.

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The sound reinforcement was done using d&b Q7 at the front and d&b E3's down the venue to provide an even coverage of sound. The radio mics and playback audio were controlled via an Allen & Heath Mix Wizard.