IPS supplied supporting structures for the World Premiere of Spectre, along with lighting equipment
IPS are proud to have supplied a variety of Layher and Prolyte Truss based structures for the 24th James Bond film, Spectre which had its World Premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall last week. Working for Limited Edition Event Design, IPS supplied and built structures and rigging for the main interview stage, the LED screen support towers that lined the carpet, lighting towers, and the large truss structure that lined the roadway section, supporting lighting and branding along the length of the carpet. IPS also supplied all the lighting equipment and associated cabling, rigging, dimming & control. Along with the stars of the film, the premiere was attended by a host of celebrities including some Royals meaning that every part of the 130m long red carpet was lit evenly for the all-important press coverage.
There is a timelapse of the event build made by the Royal Albert Hall here and there are more photos on our facebook page of the day of the event. The total kit list for the event makes for some serious reading, with several tonnes of equipment, supplied by IPS on three 45' artics, and 18t and several vans. Over the two day load in, over 300 lighting fixtures were installed, controlled via 4 art-net lines running more than 200 ways of Avolites dimming. Just over a mile of 2.5mm Socapex was used (1660m to be precise) and IPS supplied just under 500m of Prolyte truss. Everything was then derigged after the event to have the site clear prior to the following evening.
There were a total of 16 separate LED screens along the carpet, 14 of which were supported on tower structures. The other two screens were a large 9m x 5m screen behind the main stage, and an ifly screen which was incorporated into the roadway truss structure. The 14 towers were constructed using 1m x 1m Layher Allround scaffolding system, and built at various different heights along the length of the top section of the red carpet. Some of the structures straddled the grade 2 listed steps, so special care had to be taken at all times during the build. 
The LED screens were all supplied by Anna Valley (apart from the ifly which came from ADI), and the custom mapping was provided by Bluman Associates, who also assisted with aligning the structures onsite. Ian Brown headed up the structures team, and was the main IPS contact onsite throughout the event. The main stage structure was a combination of Layher and Prolyte H40V truss, with the Layher forming the stage platform and large support structure to hold the 9m wide by 5m high LED screen, and support the 5m high skeleton structure on top too. The rear of the structure was constructed from Prolyte H40V to conceal the base of the monument, and provide more areas for branding. The stage platform was then dressed and custom curved balustrade sections supplied and installed by Starlight Design. Four Prolyte MPT based lighting towers were also supplied by IPS, providing a 7.5m high lighting position from a 2m x 2m Layher footprint.
On the roadway, Limited Edition had specified a large truss structure which required a lot of careful planning. The 70m truss structure was constructed Prolyte H30V truss, designed in collaboration with IPS, with custom structural calculations. The structure supported a range of lighting equipment and event branding along its length, and also incorporated a three tiered LiteDeck press platform, a camera platform, as well as audience and disabled viewing areas. Also concealed within the structure were generators, the truck supporting the ifly LED screen, and most of a very inconveniently placed zebra crossing! The structure was built in three sections to enable the build to work around the hectic RAH schedule, as Bob Dylan's trucks had to manoeuvre through the soon to be red carpet area during the load in.
Lighting was designed by Richard Godin and James Barnfather, and featured a wide variety of fixtures, all controlled via Richard's desk of choice, an ETC EOS. Installed by a ten strong LX team from Limited Edition, there was a lot to do with over 100 generic fixtures provided the main red carpet illumination, including Selecon Fresnels, Soure 4 Pars and Profiles, plus parcans. The lighting design had to include the carpet areas, some architectural lighting to emphasize the iconic location, plus stage and set lighting – and the low cloud base on the night of the event also meant that most could be made of the various beam effects – including some impressive new Martin Viper Air FX units supplied by Martin Professional. The intelligent fixture list is also extensive, including Clay Paky Mythos, Clay Paky Sharpy, Martin MAC Aura, Martin MAC 101, SGM P-5, GDS and SmartBat LED uplighters, Varilite VL3500s and various others.
Overall, it was a very successful event, and one that IPS are very proud to have been a part of, working alongside some great suppliers to really create a spectacular premiere. All the team at IPS have been involved in some way with this event, and it is great to see that hard work paying off. Further proof, if any was needed, is the spectacular opening week that Spectre has enjoyed – with reports now coming in of the film breaking all UK records to take £41million at the box office in the first week.
