London-based production company Event Concept serviced the EuroWeek awards on 22 May '08 for the third successive year, enhancing the event this year with its new AV department. EuroWeek, the global capital markets newspaper, held its biannual awards ceremony at the imposing Royal Courts of Justice (RCOJ) where Event Concept is an accredited supplier.

Event Concept's working knowledge of the venue helped it to transform the RCOJ (below) into an event space befitting over 400 corporate guests in just two hours once the venue had closed to the public.  It combined new digital audio and video equipment with state-of-the-art lighting technologies to deliver the technical complexity of the show.

In the past Event Concept had only been able to deliver lighting and staging elements from its own in-house resource but its new AV department enabled the company to deliver both the audio and video elements too.

The event itself unfurled as a a pre-dinner drinks reception with background music, a three course meal, 12 award presentations, a charity presentation, a silent auction and entertainment from comedian Jimmy Carr followed by a live salsa band.

The production presented a number of challenges for Event Concept’s head of AV Jamie Corteen and his team. Corteen said: "The venue is long, quite narrow and very tall. Essentially it’s a huge cathedral-like space built from Portland stone. To effectively fill it with good quality sound the placement and angling of the speakers must be spot on."

The venue's normal operation meant that a court was in session 30 minutes before guests were due to arrive. Thanks to Event Concept’s new digital sound desk this precluded time shortage problems with the sound check for the salsa band. "Our new Yamaha M7 digital audio desk allows us to retrieve settings stored from previous events at the venue saving precious time on site," said Corteen. "Microphone inputs, levels and delays are all pre-programmed in our studio so we can roll our kit in and be ready to go with minimal technical checks."

Event Concept’s new digital multicore, by Roland, is much thinner and lighter than a traditional analogue multicore (it runs on CAT5 cable) making deployment much faster and allowing easier concealment of the  extensive cabling required for the venue.

The company’s new Q series D&B PA system also made its debut and Corteen used 12x Q7 speakers, 2x QSubs and a series of E3s as front fills which meant "the sound was clear, crisp, loud and had plenty of body - perfect!"

The video system comprised a rear projected 12’ x 9’ screen built into a set. There was a range of media displayed including DVD, DVCAM, Powerpoint a laptop feed showing the live auction results and live camera feed.

Event Concept also provided the staging and lighting for the event. The lighting team used a range of the latest LED fixtures, many of which had been pre-rigged in the early hours of the morning before the courts opened.

Euroweek’s Event & Logistics manager, Sara Posnasky commented: ‘We have returned to the Royal Courts of Justice for our event each time because the venue is stunning, it is a comfortable size for our guest numbers and the location is perfect. The installation time is often tight, however it is entirely possible to put on a very slick show with the right technology and an experienced team.’

RK  _________________________________________