The 2009 Entrepreneurs Bootcamp at London's O2 Arena featured a 410m2 screen, one of the largest of its kind ever used in the UK. Smyle Creative, producer of the event, chose av company QED to supply a 34.5x11.9m Harkness Hall projection canvas.

Smyle and QED install jumbo screen for O2 bootcamp

Paul Milligan, 12 November 2009

The 2009 Entrepreneurs Bootcamp at London's O2 Arena featured a 410m2 screen, one of the largest of its kind ever used in the UK. Smyle Creative, producer of the event, chose av company QED to supply a 34.5x11.9m Harkness Hall projection canvas.

The screen was filled with images from six Christie projectors, flown off a 25m-high truss, soaring above the audience, via its own 'fast-fit' custom-designed rigging system. The event, held annually by millionaire Andrew Reynolds, featured a host of speakers. It has outgrown previous venues such as Wembley Conference Centre and The Brighton Centre.

Smyle's production manager, Tom Cordory, said: 'The size of the screen was so large that it could not be assembled at ground level and flown into position, so it had to be built vertically in situ in individual sections. The screen occupied so much space that it severely restricted the size of the cherry pickers that were able to enter and exit the arena.'

Projecting in 2.8:1 aspect ratio, QED used six HD18K projectors, arranged in two triple-stacked blended pairs. QED created a 15-way matrix, set around two Vista Spyder 344s, which fed the projectors, and included everything from computers showing PowerPoint and Keynote content, HD cameras and even a visualiser OHP.