Creative Technology (CT) provided technical delivery of Buckingham Palace projection and main stage LED screens for the BBC’s Platinum Party at the Palace celebration.
2022 marked the third Jubilee celebration the company has been involved in with previous experience in delivering various other high-profile BBC events of this calibre including Election Night Results at BBC Broadcasting House, The 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, and more recently the 75th anniversary of VJ Day.
To seamlessly deliver such a large-scale and high-profile event, Creative Technology assembled some of the industry’s most skilled engineers to display the stunning content which was designed and created by NorthHouse Creative across Buckingham Palace using 32 high brightness projectors. During the show which included performances from Hans Zimmer, Celeste, and The Royal Ballet as well as words from Her Majesty The Queen, HRH Prince William, and Sir David Attenborough – an array of beautiful pictures created a mesmerising backdrop that not only told a story but brought the building to life for both the in-person audience and the 12 million viewers watching at home.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to project onto Buckingham Palace and produce a visually stunning backdrop for the likes of Duran Duran, Alicia Keys and Diana Ross to name just a few. It was an event that should make the live events industry immensely proud to be a part of indeed!” said Will Harkin, Project Manager at Creative Technology.
Working to Stufish’s stage design, CT also supplied 209sqm LED screen to all three of the main stages displaying content by NorthHouse Creative with live camera feeds from NEP broadcast – giving the audience a great view of the performances throughout the night.
“It was truly rewarding to be chosen as the LED screen and projection supplier for the Platinum Jubilee, making it a hat-trick for both the company and I. Working to Ric Lipson’s complex design presented challenges but it all went together as envisaged, and it all looked absolutely stunning in the broadcast transmission” added Stuart Young, Senior Project Manager at Creative Technology.
In addition to BBC Studios’ Platinum Party at the Palace, the LED screens were also used in the lead up to the event for the Trooping the Colour, the service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s, and the Platinum Jubilee Pageant alongside live camera feeds from NEP broadcast used by the BBC for the television production.
As part of Creative Technology’s conneCT initiative to share knowledge and bring new talent into the industry, the company took this unique opportunity to involve several of their own trainee technicians in the project. Paul Seeger, Project Manager at Creative Technology commented: “It was great to be able to involve some of our newer technicians in this incredible project, giving them hands-on experience during the installation of this once-in-a-lifetime event. Not only did this give us the extra support we needed getting everything up and running but it also gave the team valuable training they need to be able to deliver such a high-profile job in the future.”
“It is always truly a privilege and an honour to work on Royal and national events of this kind and to provide our specialist technical services to help commemorate these significant occasions,” concluded Mark Elliott, Managing Director at Creative Technology UK.