Winchester Business Excellence Awards recognises and celebrates the achievements of local businesses and seeks to reward them for their commitment to excellence. Now in it’s 19th year, the event is organised by partners of the Winchester Business Improvement District (BID), Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and The Hampshire Chronicle newspaper.
This competition attracts high profile industry support, giving Winchester businesses a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of their major achievements and celebrate their successes with other likeminded, local organisations.
Soundbite Productions were proud to previously support Winchester Business Excellence Awards at their evening event. Our involvement included sponsoring an award category (Business Excellence through Technology) as well as providing the technical production for the awards evening that took place at the Winchester Guildhall.
The Brief:
This event had varied Technical Production requirements which we will look at below.
Audio
As with many venues, the Winchester Guildhall was already equipped with an audio system which we were able to use. However, the control is tucked away in an enclosed room which could potentially make things quite tricky. The audio required was very straight forward and included two lectern microphones, plus hand-held radio microphones for the Compare and Quiz Master. Accompanying music was needed for the presenters and winners to walk to up to the stage.
Lighting
As with the audio, the venue was well equipped with its own lighting system, which again we were able to use. The main venue was lit using the in-house LED coloured lights. Using these we could create any colour theme in the venue. It was important to the client to complement the sponsors in terms of colour theming.
Stage Set Up
The client wanted to showcase the nominees and winners in the best way possible using the set up on stage. Requirements were for lighting and projection to reflect the sponsors brand in a clear, crisp way.
Audience Response System
The year we supported this event, the organisers wanted something a little different. Rather than having a keynote speaker, they wanted to run an interactive quiz with the guests.
Soundbite’s Solution:
Audio
Due to the controls being in an enclosed room, we decided to use our own mixing desk which we were able to patch into the venues system. This meant that it was easier to ensure that everything went smoothly and in a timely manner, for example, playing music when the winner was announced and walking up to the stage.
Lighting
We added some moving lighting to add that extra glitz while people walked up to receive their awards. This included 8 Martin Mac 250s which were all placed on the balcony and really enhanced the winning atmosphere. The principle sponsors colours at this event were purple so we were able to produce that colour using the in-house coloured LED lights. The stage set backdrop was up-lit using the same kind of lighting. As each category award was presented the set lighting changed colour according to the colour of the sponsors of that award.
Stage Set Up
We managed to create a stunning stage set backdrop in white which meant by using our LED up lighters we could create whatever colour we wanted during the show. The set incorporated a 16:9 ratio projection screen which was rear projected by a 5500 lumen projector. This showed all the nominees as well as the winners. We also used some side LED screens which were positioned into a portrait orientation, showcasing the sponsor logos for each category.
Audience Response System
We hosted the events interactive quiz with our audience response systems. Each table (total of 30 tables) had their own keypad. We were able to program the name of each table into the system, corresponding to the keypad they had. The way it worked was simply a set of 10 questions came up on the main screen and each table could vote what the answer was. As each question came up everybody voted from a choice of 4 answers. After 30 seconds a graph appeared, to show the number of people who voted for each option, then an indicator was displayed to show what the correct answer was.
After the first set of 5 questions a table leader board was shown, giving an indication of who was in the lead. Then after the 10th question, the final leader board was displayed. As there was a 3-way tie, an 11th question was asked for those 3 top tables. The winner was decided by not only the correct answer, but whoever answered quickest – Determined by the system.
What were the results?
The event was a huge success and a real celebration of some of the amazing business in Winchester. The evening went without a hitch, with audio, lighting and stage setting meeting and exceeding all of the client’s requirements.
The interactive quiz was a particular highlight of the evening. Using our Audience Response System for the quiz went down incredibly well amongst the delegates and created a real buzz of excitement at the event. It really enhanced the atmosphere and created some friendly rivalry between tables.