Resolution X and Mediatec Event Production Showcase – Teamwork’s A Beautiful Thing

PRODUCTION

Lighting and rigging powerhouse Resolution X and display and OB giant Mediatec often find themselves on the same gigs. They’ve worked so well together that they thought they’d team up to show the world what they can do, and filled an entire sound stage at Melbourne’s Dockland Studios in the process. Jason Allen was on the scene…

Jason Allen.

Docklands Studio 4 is a capacious 929 square metres, with an I-beam grid that can hold 480 kilograms per square metre, and power for days. On August 22 and 23, Resolution X and Mediatec filled it with more lighting, rigging, display and OB gear than any reasonable person could consider sane, invited existing and potential customers, and turned it all on. It was glorious.

“It was five semis worth of gear,” said Mediatec’s Head of Projects Rob Nelson. “Plus our OB trucks and screen trailers. We had 100 crew setting it up over two 16 hour days. There’s 100 rigging points in the roof, and we’re pulling around 600 amps. From pre-planning to delivery was around a two and a half month process.” 

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“We’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time,”offered Rob Nelson. “We work very closely with Res X; we’re complementary companies, not competing companies and we’re always out in the field together. An event like this means we can cross-pollinate our clients, and show them things they haven’t seen. For example, some of our clients know we have LED displays, but not OB trucks, or vice versa. We’re trying to educate people on what we have that they don’t know about.”

“Part of putting this on was so people can see the full range of what we can do,” agreed Resolution X’s Business Development Manager Marcus Pugh. “Res X are a lot of things to a lot of different clients, and when I bring people to the factory, they’re often surprised by the stock we have. Neither company could fill this room by itself. We needed to team up to make it happen. It’s a big space, and the team have filled it quite considerably.”

Dominating the room was an enormous chandelier, featuring circular rigging and hundreds of lighting fixtures. It was put through it’s paces in two separate programmed demos. “The Chandelier is running on 125 universes of Art-Net,” explained Marcus Pugh. “The main fixtures are DreamPIX Strips, which are four pixels wide, DreamPIX Bars, which are a single pixel wide, and DreamPIX Tubes. There’s also some Martin Mac 101s, Martin MH4 beams, and Clay Paky Stormys, all rigged off our T2 box truss circles.”

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Mediatec bought a huge selection of LED display options, including a stunning ROE Visual LED screen with 2mm pitch, producing an image that almost looked projected. ROE’s 5mm pitch screen is IP rated, and Mediatec used it for the perimeter court signage at the Australian Open. Content management and show control is also part of Mediatec’s gig, and they were showing off their new With OB trucks parked both outside and inside, a camera crew, and a studio set-up, it was clear Mediatec have gotten into OB services in a big way. “Mediatec has traditionally been a LED display company, with outside broadcast services mainly concentrated in Europe,” elaborated Rob Nelson. “In the last six years, we’ve built some OB trucks and landed some contracts, so we’re building more. Now we’re part of the NEP Group, we have access to huge broadcast facilities and a global network of LED display products. Projection, media servers, and timeline players all complement that production gear.”

Resolution X were keen to point out their unique offerings, like an entire wall of mirrorballs. “Mirrorball walls, curved trusses, faceted circles; that’s our market difference,” pointed out Marcus Pugh. “The LED Hi-Bays mounted above the mirrorballs we actually make ourselves. The big circles of truss are actually straight truss using faceted truss designs. There are angle joins that space it out, and by adjusting truss and angle we can make almost any size circle.”

With a mix of around 50% existing clients and 50% potential customers entertained with demos, food and drink in seven two hour sessions over two days, Res X and Mediatec hit the sweet spot for an industry event. Not too long, not too short, visually impressive, and not a boring speech or PowerPoint presentation to be had.

“We both hear a lot from our clients that Mediatec and Res X always make it work,” related Rob Nelson. “We’re always working together,” concurred Marcus Pugh. “There’s a lot of scheduling and collaboration. We’ve found that even more important than how you deliver the event is how you respond when something goes wrong, and how quickly you deal with it. That’s why customers come back.”

This article first appeared in CX Magazine October 2017, pp.22-27. View all pictures or read all issues with free subscription www.cxnetwork.com.au