LIGHTING PLANS Marhn Kuhn, lighting designer for macomNIYU, expla111s: "Each week, we would rece,ve a 230-page book containing renderings and explanations, which was updated as discussions and dec1s1ons progressed. There were something like 4,000 lighting fixtures alone, so I needed to look through, find out what had changed, and dec1de how to react to it."

The system cons1dered ceil111g structures, sprinklers and climate control . and changes were still taking place the day before the show opened. Luckily, Hall 11 's ventilation system was powerful enough to remove car exhaust as quickly as it built up.

"When we started to plan the show, 1

spoke to the dient about what their topics are. what the booth layout is. and about the layout of the stage," continues Kuhn. ''This was the only booth al the show with driving taking place on a daily basis. and · since we've been doing it for the last two Frankfurt fairs • it's become an important part of the BMW experience. Together. we have to consider how to do a transition from drivfng around to standing on stage, mak1ng it look natural."

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The matchbox-sized radio transponders by Zactrack of Austria use a complicated mathematical calculation to establish fnformahon about each car's direction

and speed of travel.

Kuhn explains the reasoning: "When we

first used this system a few years ago, BMW were keen to find something which would light the cars without lighting the whole track simultaneously. We looked at vanous solutions, including infra-red sensors or cameras, but they were all

lmpractical. Even using the lights to follow cars didn't work. because the cars were going too fast · and the l ights wouldn't know which one to follow when cars passed one another."

"So, we split the track into 2m sections. Zactrack teils the system as the car moves from one sectIon to another,

activating light and sounds for each section in turn. lading as ft goes. lt's lightning fast · much taster than a moving light could follow. And. of course. it's fully automated, since an operator couldn't possibly keep up. On the stage itself, the lighting was properly tracking

the cars like automated followspots."

Seme 800 1ntelhgenl fixtures rrom Martin, Robe, GLP and Claypaky provided a wide range of lighting possibilities for the press conference, daily show and evenlng events, including an orchestra and live bands. Late at night, the hall was used by BMW to shoot commercials and promotional videos.

RIGGING Despite the significant load allowed in the rig · "about 100 tons across the 650 rigging points" · the venue's team still needed to specially modify many of the rigglng polnts to accommodate the seven LED screens wh1ch were ra1sed and lowered from a horizontal position in the stage ceiling many times throughout the show. The winching was handled by 28 125kg and 250kg capacity w111ches from Movecat - one for each corner ot each screen.

The main screen was hung from a large steef beam scattold, wh1ch also held rooms for techn1cal areas and a steel platform for the winches. As Kuhn · who was also the main consultant for the kinetic installation · po1nts out. they couldn't have pul the winches in the cefllng due to their weight. In fact, he reckons they used every available winch of the required type in Germany.

Since each screen would need three different mulhcore cables · power. signal and a spare lead · macomNIYU commissioned Clarke Cable to produce a single. neater cable enclosing all three. Dumbbells were hung from the thick black cable as il looped backstage. keeping it taut.

The moving LED screens · including a 60sq.m carbon-framed Roe CB5 · caused pre-show problems because they were designed for outdoor use. so the shaders would be visible to the v1s1tors. "Each

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one of those llttle shaders was attached with 64 screws · which meant CT [Creatlve Technology Germany] had to lake oul 85,000 screws before the screen could be used," says Kuhn. "And then, at load out. they had to pul them all back again. 01 course, it did make them all quite a bit lighterl''

Across the rest ot the booth. some 1.200 architectural lamps from Erco, iGuzzini, RZB and others were supplemented by over 700 entertainment f1xtures from Am and ETC, along with almost 500 specially commissioned 'mini LED pendant lamps' from LED Lichtlogistik which hung from the ceiling in the mezzanine area around the stage, giving lt a more cosy, intimate feel1ng · macomNIYU's Niko Hocke described it as "like the sky at night". Although the concrete root of the hall wasn't hidden, the lighting in the rig · which hung from 3,800m of trussing · made it almest invisible to visitors.

As usual on a !arge car show. HID fixtures were used to enhance the cars· bright. clean lines. "Even though the lamps are theoretically identical, we held a shoot-out with all the fixtures we were supplled, keeping the slightly warmer ones for the red, yellow and orange cars. and the brighter and bluest ones for the black and dark blue cars," he says. "lt was important to achleve the crispness and uniform appearance across every car in the hall:·

Across the showfloor, over 120sq.m of high resolution 2.8mm pitch Roe LED screens allowed BMW to present films and logos as though they were backlit still photography. "The 5mm pitch Barco screen used on the main stage may not have been the latest technology, but it still fitted their quality criteria, and we needed to ensure we had a reliable source of the screens," says Hocke, adding that a newer product would have been more difficult tobe supplied. .. • • ' • ' •

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ARCHITECTURAL Mark Möllenbruck of Meire und Meire explains the arch1tects used modular elements that could be 'dropped' inlo place. He says: "In line with other BMW exhibitions. we made use of BMW's modular conslruction system · like giant Lego bricks where different materials and surtaces could be dropped in."

He adds: "lt was important to us that as you walked lhrough lhe hall, you passed by all major highlights. Thal way, even those who spent only a short time in the hall would come across mosl ot the products. By creating the Vision Loop, even those who weren't sitting in the audience got to experience the vehicles as they drove round."

AV AND STAGING Crealive Technology Germany was responsible for providing AV and technical staging services to the show. Project manager Jürgen Kopany explains !hat. even with allowances made. it was still a challenge to get the required kit. With 657sq.m ot high and low resolullon LED screens across the booth, and 30m pixels to serve content for 24 hours a day over 10 days. the media servers were backed up for redundancy, with video content stored as uncompressed files. Thal way. if any system became unavailable, the content could be played direclly to the screens.

Matt Finke of media server and content playback contractor Loop Light explains video playout was achieved via the newly­released Pandoras Box PK5. which has 15.5TB of storage on SSD drives. with a 10GB network Speed. "There was a huge amount of data being transferred all the time," he says. "New content was constantly being uploaded by the content team, and we needed tobe able to react to that." A rack·mounted NAS

EUROPE ~ CREATIVE -E::t ~NO~OGY

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• • . • • +44 (0)1293 582000

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0 Above, from left to right: Andr~ Twardawa (video design and planning), Fabio Stein (assistant production managerl, Martin Kuhn Oight1ng, rig and k1net1c des1gn and planning), Nlko Hocke (production manager), TII Schwartz (video design and planning) and Moritz Hartmann (IT 1mplementat1on and planrnng)

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storage system could hold up to 44TB of data · although just 13TB was in use on the opening day.

"Our maln challenge was lhe complexity of the network and volume of data," says Flnke. "We're talking about 25TB of content belng distributed quickly, Data could be changed frequently, based on what had happened on previous days, and we needed tobe able to reliably insert that new content w1thout affecting anything eise. And, of course, we needed

to make sure the data stays in-sync. We were pushing all these frames out synchronously so that there wouldn't be any stripes."

All network and IT services were planned by Moritz Hartmann, head of IT at macomNIYU - includlng all the cables, fi rewalls, routers and Computers, as well as the public and private WiFi networks. Local company Heidler GmbH supplied and installed il, and provided serv,ce on site.

AUDIO Til Schwartz was responsible for the audio part of the inslallation, including mixing consoles, speakers and mappings. Almost 70 Meyer Sound speakers served the stage area, including four Meyer Sound 1100-LFCs and two Meyer Sound 700-HP subwoofers under the stage. "We can·t use them on full , because people would go crazy · but they pack an impressive punch," says Schwartz.

He adds: "Every speaker across the whole booth was on its own channel, so that we could connect every part of the system to every other. and could easily react to any situation that m1ght anse."

The biggest challenge for Schwartz was to cover the space whi le ensuring no part of the booth ,ntruded on any other. Statt in each area had a OSC touchscreen interface so that they could swItch between the show, background music and a local microphone for presentallons and events.

They also needed to ensure thal the buildmg's arch1tecture - the columns in particular · and lhe moving LED screens didn't block the sound for the audience watching the stage from the seating area or around it. As a result. they positioned the maln PA and zero llne of speakers dtrectly alongs1de the LED screen, followed by a delayed line for effects when the LED panels came down.

Finally. several discreet areas · such as the VIP lounge, and the security veh1cle area -needed theIr own sound zones. The system used some 500 audio channels, plus around 70 wireless channels. Schwartz says: "Everyone on the booth used some sort of wireless communication, from Information ass1stants and booth statt. to the technicians and car drivers. We created

a list of who had access to what to help us coord1nate."

Some 270 speaker systems were connected wilh 3.5km of Cat 6 network cable and 2.7km of fibre optic cable.

Yamaha CL5 control consoles were specified. and as Michael von Lüpke, project manager for ngging, light1ng, sound and kinetic at contractor Lleyendecker, says: "They·re very useful for this kind of corporate event. They·re safe and easy to use . everyone trusts them."

The entire show ran automatically. w1th the Medialon system triggering cues for sound effects, such as enhancing the motorsport eng1ne sound. or a ·streng breeze' as the silent electric vehicles pass.

SHOW CONCEPT The dai ly show, which ran up to 14 times per day, accumulated some 56,000 moves

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of the klnetic LED panels, accordlng to creative show director Eva Wolf of Wolf Production. "The concept of the show has evolved lhroughout the year," she explains. "The whole idea was to present the different car ranges through emotional storytelllng, including the autonomous vehicle wh1ch drives 1tself."

For this, Wolf created a changeable stage set-up, allowing them the potential to show the different living environments of the BMW products. "We had a choreographed 1nterplay of panel movements," she continues. "With storytelling and vehicle choreography, along with a light and sound show. we achieved the goal ot balancing the stage space and minlmizing the dlstance from the audience. The requirement was for us to move away from product cinema and towards emotional, live communicat1on."

While the cars ·ctanced' on stage, a whole different type of choreography took place

in the secure backstage area, where the cars were carefully driven in and out by professional drivers. double-crewed for safety. Listening to the communications channel (an analogue radio system could be played directly to cars) was an almest constant 20-minute stream of calls rrom the director of "drei, zwei, eins, gol" as the director addressed each vehicle 1n turn; each show had 114 cue calls for the cars alone.

Woll explains: "One ol the lirst challenges we faced was timings. We could computer-model the vehicle movements, but they never drove at the speed we expected. Some of the curves were pretty light. even for the well­trained drivers, so we had to ad just the show a little.

She adds: "We only had 10 days of rehearsal time · we could visualise in 3D, but putting the cars on the stage and driv1ng them was a completely different matter. Drivers needed to be trained and learn where lhey were going and when; and we needed to learn what they were capable of without taking risks."

Hocke from macomNIYU sums up the challenges in the delivery over the past year: "We've done a year of planning and working with hundreds of different people to come to the point where we·re able to present the booth and shows first to the client, and then to the public. lt's the biggest project !hat we and many of our contractors have ever done · and they've all done an amazing job. BMW gave us their trust. and we·re so proud of the project." 0