UK-based Technical production specialist CPL supplied LED screens and all associated processing and vision control for two major stages – The Baillie Gifford Stage and Friends Stage – at the 2022 Hay Festival of Literature & Arts.
The annual literature was staged in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, returning for the first time as an in-person event since 2019.
Each of the two CPL supplied arenas featured a central 4.5-metre-wide x 2.5-metre-wide LED screen at the back of the stage, flanked by two 2.5 metre by 1.5 metre portrait delay screens flown either side, all made up from Roe BO3 Black Onyx product and powered by Brompton SX40 processors with Brompton’s XD Boxes. HP Z-Books and Apple MacBook Pro’s fed Barco S3 systems which were supplied for independent mixing and switching across the multiple screen surfaces.
CPL was asked onboard as an LED supplier by Stuart Dowdell, one of the event’s production managers and video technicians.
The requirement was for HD images, so The Roe 3.4mm screen was picked and the systems designed to ensure all in the rooms could clearly and comfortably see a range of PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, VT playbacks, live camera feeds, pre-show rolls plus sponsor loops and stings as well as information pertinent to the specific event or debate taking place onstage.
If presenters used PowerPoint or Keynote in their addresses, this content was displayed on the main screens, with live camera feeds going to the sides. If it was a talk or an interview with no video presentation, then all the screens showed live camera relays.
The Barco S3s supplied seamless matrix switching to all screens with options of full screen and PIP’d content whilst the Brompton processors and XD Boxes supplied a fully redundant system across Fibre Optic Network.
A CPL crew went to site to fly the screens and set up the systems, ensuring they were hooked up to the provided playback and camera packages.