The Rugby World Cup
September 2007
It was always going to be big, but with the eight week Rugby World Cup tournament spread across 12 stadiums - 10 in France and two in the UK - and each of those having hospitality areas that involve CT crew and kit, it has turned out to be huge. In fact, it is the biggest single job in the company’s history.
Since mid August, three 45 foot trailers of plasma screens and two 40 foot trailers of audio have gone out of the door, along with 50 crew who will have worked a total of 900 man days by the time everything arrives back in the warehouse at the end of October.
“At the beginning of the tournament, we were servicing all 12 venues and there were anything up to three hospitality areas per venue,” says Project Director
Outside this particular venue is an 11 x 4 panel Unitek LED screen, showing pre-recorded rugby footage for guests as they arrive – or live video feed for crew, once the guests have moved on to the stadium for the match…
Inside, Plasma Displays and a PA system is situated in each restaurant, with more plasmas positioned in the central atrium, which also features Play Station rugby games and an interactive ‘Kick the Ball’ game, where guests can try their hand – or foot – at kicking a rugby ball projected onto the floor through the goal on the wall. “This is highly amusing once a few drinks have been consumed,” laughs Scott.
The pièce de résistance, of course, is the 4.5 x 3m diameter rugby ball. Approximately 2000 OLite 612 tiles encompass the ball, which has been placed in a kicking cup to hold it off axis. “The ball was devised by Pin Point, who are in charge of AV for their client, Colour Coordinate, and Pin Point contracted us to realise it,” continues Scott. “It took around six weeks to engineer, one and a half weeks to populate it and make it work back at base and then about three days to reconstruct on site.”
As guests move past the rugby ball, they enter a tunnel that has 10m x 2m rear projection screens on either side. Four projectors per screen are soft edged together to make one composite picture displaying iconic rugby images such as the Hacka. From here, they make their way to the restaurants, where they are wined, dined and treated to more rugby action before they head off for the game itself.
