ITV Studios Drama Festival
Held at London’s iconic Roundhouse on 20th February 2019, the ITV Studios Drama Festival saw over 400 delegates experience a range of new titles from ITV Studios’ production labels and leading independent producers.
Featuring a spectacular 360-degree projection, the audience were immersed in a world of storytelling; showcasing some of the most exciting upcoming titles, such as World War Two drama World On Fire and screen adaption of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts + Crosses.
(Initial CAD Plans)
Making the most of the impressive birdcage architecture, a larger than life 360-degree projection solution was adopted. The main hero screen measuring 14.3m x 6.79m was created using two Barco UDX-4K32 projectors and delivered full 4K playback, with a total canvas size of 19k x 2k resulting in an image size of 39 megapixels.
(Entrance View - 360 External Projection)
(Internal View - 360 Internal Projection)
65 metres of custom-made voile draping were installed around the venue’s iconic pillars to allow the content to seamlessly run out from the central screen, completely enveloping the space.
A staggering 21 Panasonic RZ970 laser projectors were used to display content between the pillars, producing a combined brightness of 250,000 lumens of light output, this created 19 screens, working alongside the hero screen to create the 360-degree experience - That’s more projectors than the Brits!
The latest 24 core 200m MTP fibre cables were employed to transmit HD and 4k signals to the projectors. The MTP cable encased 24 individual cores of fibre within a single cable, if run individually this would result in over 2km of independent fibre lines.
The content was programmed and delivered using 3 disguise 4x4 video servers delivering 19 HD feeds to the voile projection with a fully redundant understudy and 2 disguise 2x4 media servers delivering a single 4k output to the main screen, also with a dedicated understudy and all with automatic failover protection.
The entire system was delivered via a linked e2 graphics switcher using the latest 4k HDMI 2.0 input and output cards. The e2 allowed further redundancy in the system and additional capacity for external sources and PIPs to be added if required. This area was coined as ‘NASA’ and managed a whopping 2.9tb of content!
It wasn’t just the video content that delivered an immersive audience experience. The in-house sound equipment was repurposed to create a 5.1 surround sound system. This, combined with the 360-degree projection, created a completely immersive viewing experience for the audience, putting them right in the heart of the action.
With the video content taking centre stage, a simplistic lighting design was used to enhance the event environment whilst ensuring the on-stage panel speakers were beautifully lit. Working alongside the in-house lighting rig, the team installed new front, side and back lighting using Clay Paky Scenius Profiles. Not only did the fixtures effectively light the stage, they also ensured minimal light spill onto the 4k hero screen.
Contracted four months before the event, the Grade II listed status of the Roundhouse brought both prestige and challenge to the project. Whilst the team were intent on protecting and complementing the iconic architecture and history of the building, the boundaries of creativity and technology needed to be pushed in order to deliver on the desired objectives and offer up an experience like no other for the audience.
The venue’s rigorous health and safety regulations were a challenge from conception to delivery; during the three month long production tender several creative solutions were discounted due to unique restrictions and infeasibility, adding pressure from the outset to ensure that the finalised solution would be achievable within the space and timescale. Once agreed, finding a seating solution that would cater for the guest capacity and comply with regulations was the next challenge to overcome.
More often than not, working with exclusive content adds complexity as footage tends to be available very last minute and sourcing can involve numerous levels of sign off. Much of these logistical challenges called for clear pre-planning, strong relationships and expert timing to produce the staggering 2.9tb of bespoke content to the quality level required.
Due to audience feedback, the decision was made to strip out the immersive elements from the 2018 event and direct all energy into the content delivery; a bold statement and one that required further meticulous attention to ensure the canvas could not only be used to showcase content but also double up as a reversed projection surface for animated advertising during the arrival and drinks receptions.
Once the raw footage was sourced, over an hour’s worth of bespoke 360-degree content was created by way of promos, reels, EPK, GFX and graphic animations. Throughout this process, the content was constantly evolving and the creatives needed to adapt to ever-changing goal posts. In the end the content was put together in 74 edit days between 18 editors, and 18 GFX days between 3 designers, across 10 weeks.
Once ingested, the finalised content took a total of 76 man days on site to be realised in the venue, with 12 hours spent lining up the projection mapping and 2 hours programming the order of content, complementary lighting states and rehearsing.
Each year, the fortnight preceding the Drama Festival sees buyers travel from all over the world to attend multiple competitor showcases; a hard audience to impress as they have seen it all before. This year’s tactic was to take even more creative and technological risks to ensure that the bespoke content was delivered in a bold and unforgettable way. Not only did this chosen format stand out from competition, it generated the desired talkability and buzz around the priority titles for the second year running.
As a result of the event, the ITV Studios brand was catapulted into a world class bracket, with clients on the day commenting that the event had raised the bar for competing events. The event not only helped kick start sales conversations, but buyers were still talking about its effectiveness at MIPTV the following month; asking for ‘save the date’ information so they could plan their buyers' schedules in advance.
Although not a primary aim, the experience also generated trade press attention from Deadline, Variety, TBI, C21 and Rapid News; all of which were positive reviews.
The venue also expressed their compliments:
“As one of the most architecturally astounding and unique spaces in London, the Roundhouse started its days as a railway shed to repair and turn locomotives, hence its unmistakable circular shape. When ITV came to our venue for their drama festival, they made the most of our round architecture, juxtaposing the Grade II listed building with modern technology. By cleverly mapping projections between the pillars, ITV turned the space into a 360 degree screen, revolutionising the classic screening format. The team were a pleasure to work with, and we were very proud to collaborate with them on this event. Many of our clients have only dreamed of delivering a setup like this, but none have mastered it the way ITV did - it was very impressive."
-- Hannah Pierce, Head of Events, The Roundhouse
According to verbatim feedback captured on the day and post-event, the experience was perceived as industry leading by attendees and survey results show the overall rating of the experience grew from 70% to 85% year-on-year. Due to an extremely successful communications campaign, it was a sell out against audience targets once again. With 406 total guests, the audience grew from 38% from the previous year, with 14% of this audience growth representing clients and with the total turnout performing 101% over the targeted audience figure, further cementing the event as a must have ticket within a saturated events calendar.
“What an amazing afternoon - I can’t wait for the 2020 event!”
-- 2019 attendee