Tag Archive: Illuminate

1. Illuminate at the Science Museum celebrates 1st birthday with ‘Venue of the Year’ win at the Event Production Awards

   9 March 2020 12:07 Leave a Comment

   

   On the day of its 1^st birthday, progressive new venue Illuminate at the Science Museum scooped the coveted ‘Venue of the Year’ accolade at the Event Production Awards. As the venue’s in-house production service partner, White Light (WL) has significantly invested in equipping Illuminate with a state-of-the-art technical infrastructure to meet the demands of its diverse client base.

   The inaugural year has seen Illuminate host over 90 events, including the first Soccer Aid for Unicef Gala, Under Armour’s RUSH campaign, the Design Week Awards and the Royal Osteoporosis Society launch. It has also now achieved a hat trick of award wins, with success at both the London Venue Awards and for in-house caterer Moving Venue at the London Catering Awards.

   

   The Event Production Awards judging panel described Illuminate as: “A brand new venue with a space that lends itself to innovation and providing clients with a different experience for the events they are hosting. The delivery of the space echoes the values of the organisation and I like that the experience in the space is built around a theme.   The space is a revenue generator which helps keep the Museum free of charge to the wider public, linking in to the wider business strategy.”

   

   The Science Museum’s Business Development & Marketing Manager, Jodie Guilford comments: “Illuminate was created as a dedicated events space to generate income to help keep the Museum free and inspire futures through activity such as the Science Museum Academy. We are thrilled that in our first year, we have achieved all that we set out to do and much more. WL’s commitment to investing in the very best technology and delivering impeccable service has been crucial to this.”

   WL’s Venues Director, Jonjo Glynn adds: “Illuminate is the first events space of its kind, dedicated solely to commercial hire, to be on offer within a unique visitor attraction. The technical solutions we have installed at the venue are industry-recognised and the standard of product you would expect to find in a space of this calibre. We wanted to draw on equipment that would be completely reliable and offer maximum impact. We’re delighted that the success of this has been recognised with this prestigious award.”

   Read our latest blog about our first full year as Illuminate’s in-house production service partner: HERE

2. Happy 1st birthday Illuminate!

   4 March 2020 16:36 Leave a Comment

   

   Back in December 2017, the Science Museum announced that after a 4 year planning project, they were gearing up to launch a brand-new, multi-purpose events venue to market. Following the Museum’s bold decision to re-purpose the old History of Medicine galleries, progressive new space Illuminate, so named after a public vote, finally opened in March 2019.

   Located on Levels 4 & 5 of the Museum, Illuminate is the first events space of its kind, dedicated solely to commercial hire, to be on offer within a unique visitor attraction. Following an extensive and rigorous tender process, we were over the moon to be chosen as the in-house technical production partner for Illuminate, alongside sole catering partner, Moving Venue.

   

   In its inaugural year, the venue has achieved multiple prestigious accolades, including the London Venue Awards ‘Best Venue with a View’ and a WL win at the AV Awards for ‘National Integrator of the Year’. Illuminate is also a ‘Venue of the Year’ finalist at the upcoming Event Production Awards.

   As we celebrate Illuminate’s 1^st birthday, we asked our Venue Sales Manager, Mark Sutcliffe, what it takes to equip a venue of this nature and what all clients require from the AV offering…

   • Flexibility in the system and its operational capabilities: events planning is always a fluid process, with many changes to agenda, content, guest list and even technical requirements still being made last minute, so the venue’s control system must be infinitely flexible. To achieve this, we installed a state-of-the-art Crestron NVX system across both Levels 4 and 5. Crestron’s digital matrix solution enables expert integration of all audio, video and lighting elements. This offers greater peace of mind for clients, as we can quickly and efficiently control the environment, or add additional equipment at very short notice, with the touch of a button.
   • White box versatility: the blank-canvas nature of Illuminate, further enhanced by its contrasting architectural theme of light and dark, means we can fulfil a very diverse range of event briefs. From a 400-capacity conference with LED video walls and fully branded stage backdrop, to creating a gym experience for Under Armor or a technological showcase in conjunction with the Design Week Awards, to name a recent few.
   • Enhanced branding: increasingly, clients are seeking eco-friendly branding opportunities to reflect their identity within the space. The LED wall positioned at Illuminate’s entrance and superior quality projectors and screens located permanently onsite, offer cost-effective digital alternatives to printed single-use vinyl’s and graphics.
   • Fully integrated system and in-house equipment inventory: this helps to keep costs down whenever clients need to add supplementary items on event day. With a significant inventory of equipment stocked permanently onsite, transport costs are reduced, achieving another big environmental tick. For smaller events, we can keep the footprint of the tech desk and control area to a bare minimum, maximising the floor space available for the event layout.  
   • Speedy set-ups and rapid room turnarounds: due to the extensive technical infrastructure in Illuminate, events can be installed much faster, minimising technician costs to the client for set-ups and turnarounds. We can also deliver back-to-back events cost-effectively and with ease, enabling Illuminate to host daytime into evening event transitions seamlessly.

   It has certainly been an exciting and hugely successful launch year for Illuminate, with a high-profile client base and diverse event case studies. We can’t wait to see what the next year holds in store for this multi-award winning venue!

3. White Light Sets a New Stage for the Science Museum Group Director’s Annual Dinner

   6 June 2019 14:58 Leave a Comment

    

   The Director’s Dinner is the most revered event in the Science Museum Group’s calendar, attended by 375 international VIP guests representing every facet of the science and industry world. Following the recent launch of the Science Museum’s progressive new multi-purpose events venue, Illuminate provided a fitting location for the eighth annual dinner. As the in-house production partner at Illuminate, White Light provided the full service production elements for the evening.

   During the reception in Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery, White Light provided uplighting to enhance the interactive exhibits and an audio system for music, while the Museum’s Explainers conducted live experiments.

   Guests then moved up to Illuminate’s Level 5 for dinner and keynote speeches from Prof Fabiola Gianotti – Director General of CERN and Director of the Science Museum Group, Sir Ian Blatchford. For this, White Light designed a full lighting solution to integrate with the venue’s installed system and provided full audio support.

   

   A surround video feature, bringing to life some of the most iconic objects from the Science Museum Group’s collection, further heightened the event’s themes. WL’s Venues Director Jonjo Glynn comments: “Our flexible, state-of-the-art production system in Illuminate enabled us to utilise disguise technology and create motion path content. Central projection screens and four 84” relay screens ensured that the display was an immersive experience for all guests.”

   Amy Calderwood, Development Events Manager at the Science Museum comments: “The annual dinner is always highly-anticipated and given the VIP nature of our guest list, it is crucial that our key messages are communicated in the most effective way. As a long-standing approved supplier to the Museum, as well as our in-house partner for Illuminate, WL was the perfect choice to deliver on our vision and contribute to the overall success of the evening.”

   Photos courtesy of Jody Kingzett

4. White Light Appointed Production Partner at Illuminate

   22 November 2018 11:30 Leave a Comment

   

   Situated on Levels 4 and 5 of the Science Museum, Illuminate is a progressive new venue designed to both anticipate and surpass the needs of the ever-evolving events industry. The venue will couple state-of-the-art technology with flexible spaces and stunning views of the City, offering both a unique and productive experience for all clients. Due to its long-standing relationship with the Science Museum, along with its reputation for managing similar venues across London, White Light was appointed Production Partner at Illuminate and has designed and installed the technical system within the space.

   The installation was overseen by WL’s Project Manager Jason Larcombe. He explains: “We were approached by the Science Museum who came to us with their vision for the space and what they wanted to achieve. They wanted both an intuitive and user-friendly system that can reach the demands of any client; covering everything from the biggest conferences to more intimate events. It was our task to draw on our experience of managing other venues, alongside our technical knowledge, to select a range of products that were bespoke to Illuminate and could fulfil the Science Museum’s vision”.

   This included d&b V-series speakers and D series amplifiers, whose portability means they can be moved around the space and offer a solution bespoke to each event. Yamaha QL1 Series desks were chosen for their reliability, portable control and the fact that they are the go-to desk for the majority of technicians and operators. These are run on the Dante network, allowing additional resources to be easily integrated to suit a client’s requirements.

   Shure receivers have been chosen due to the fact they are an industry leader in radio microphone transmission. Shure radio microphones were called upon for their extraordinary audio clarity alongside the fact they also sit on the DANTE network. JBL has been used for ceiling speakers, ensuring a basic audio coverage across the space that can be zoned to suit varying room formats.

   Four 13K Christie projectors were chosen due to the incredible projection they provide, along with the fact that they are incredibly quiet and compact. Panasonic screens offer superior picture quality along with robustness and reliability; something which is vital when they are used on multiple events. Crestron NVX controls all of the lighting and AV set-ups, allowing the space to be managed by one integrated system.

   Jason comments: “Everything we’ve chosen for Illuminate is industry-recognised and the type of product you would expect to find in a premium events venue. We also wanted to draw on equipment that would be completely reliable and offer maximum impact. Ultimately, if you draw on products from leading manufacturers, you are guaranteed a certain level of quality – something we want all clients using Illuminate to experience”.

   A lot of the equipment used within the space is also a continuation of WL’s relationships with the manufacturers and the company’s commitment to investing in the very latest technology. Jason explains: “A lot of the products match those we already have in our extensive hire inventory, meaning clients will be able to resource an entire production internally; a system which has proved extremely useful for our other managed venues. It also allows Illuminate to remain competitive as a venue as it is completely flexible and can change quite significantly; dependent on the client’s needs”.

   Illuminate will open on 1^st February 2019 and there has already been significant interest in this game-changing events space. There will also be show-rounds from 4^th December for clients to get a sneak peak of the venue. To book your Illuminate show-round, contact the team on [email protected] or telephone 020 7942 4340.

   Ben Lheureux, Head of Catering and Events at the Science Museum Group, comments: “Knowing first-hand of WL’s impressive record of delivering innovative and creative technical solutions in a range of venues, we knew they were the perfect production partner for Illuminate. We are delighted with the technical set-up they have designed and know it will offer our clients an events package that simply isn’t available anywhere else.”

   WL Director Richard Wilson adds: “We are very proud of our long-standing relationship with the Science Museum. As two technology-focused organisations, we felt we could very much add value to Illuminate for their incoming venue clients and cannot wait to showcase this brilliant space following the official launch in January 2019”.

   Jason concludes: “Illuminate is a prime example of how we are truly able to offer a partnership to venues. We don’t want to simply supply equipment but also our expertise and on-going support to work closely with the client to ensure we provide an exact solution which fulfils their vision. The result is a truly unique package and, as we continue to expand our managed venues portfolio, we look forward to working with a range of venues to offer the production support bespoke to their needs”.