Central Hall Westminster and our AV Production partners, White Light celebrate a five-year anniversary this month. Find out from White Light, about many of the improvements, installations and successful events have taken place inside Central Hall Westminster during the partnership.
Exactly five years ago, our portfolio of managed venues was first established when we proudly became Central Hall’s in-house production service partner. Since then, our relationship has gone from strength to strength and it has been an eventful and hugely exciting journey. While the world pandemic that we are all currently facing makes it feel like a surreal time to celebrate an anniversary, we still wanted to mark this special occasion. What better way to do this than with a fond look back over the five years and some of our favourite events in this iconic, Grade II* listed venue?
Taking up residence in July 2015, we built a dedicated team, which has grown significantly in recent years, and began undertaking our commitment to installing cutting-edge technology throughout Central Hall. As London’s largest conference venue, we could see the limitless potential to enhance a very diverse nature of different events through lighting, audio and video solutions. Particularly in the Great Hall, the stunning architecture, which includes Europe’s largest domed roof, offers many striking canvases for elements of creative production. After installing a brand-new motorised rigging system in this space, we were able to significantly reduce set-up times and elevate the technical capabilities using the very latest equipment. Since then, we have continued to invest in the infrastructure, with the integration of a revolutionary Crestron digital matrix system enabling increased connectivity within the larger saleable spaces. In terms of audio, the Great Hall, which is an internationally renowned concert venue, features the largest in-house installation of Yamaha equipment to date in Western Europe.
Fond ruminations for five wonderful years
Our team has recently enjoyed reminiscing to decide on some of their favourite events, which proved quite a challenge, as there has been countless amazing ones to choose from! We hope that you enjoy our pick, which we feel is a fitting showcase of Central Hall’s versatility as an events venue:
- Meet the Future: our very first event was one of the UK’s largest technology conferences no less and our first foray into projection-mapping the Great Hall’s Dome, which revealed a stunning visual of the London skyline to open the event!
- PiXL Celebrating Success: PiXL provides over 1,500 schools access to resources, training schemes and development programmes, supporting all young people, regardless of their background and ability, in order for them to achieve their potential. Their annual event, saw 800 prizes presented, ranging from Outstanding Achievement, to the Future Film Makers Competition and The Stephen Bell Special Award, honouring PiXL’s late associate. Whittled down from 80 auditioning acts, eight were chosen to perform on the night and we were delighted to provide the full production support.
- Charity Film Awards 2018: more than 300 guests, including charity representatives, business leaders, events professionals and celebrities enjoyed a glittering reception, before the awards presentation commenced in the Lecture Hall. Body confidence campaigner, Chessie King, hosted proceedings, introducing a selection of winning and shortlisted films, including entries from the National Autistic Society, The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Save the Children. The moving film clips were interspersed with live entertainment from Leeds based band Mercutio, singer Corrina Jane and magician and public speaker, Peter Wardell.
- March 4 Women: coinciding with International Women’s Day on Sunday 3rd March 2019, Care International chose Central Hall for their flagship March4Women event, for the first time in its history to be held indoors. Over 1600 supporters attended this rally-style event. We were very proud to provide our AV services, helping to bring the programme of inspirational speeches, debates and live performances from advocates including Annie Lennox, David Tennant and Beverly Knight, to life.
- ‘Craig David Rocks Big Ben Live’: multi-award winning singer Craig David, along with his legendary band, entertained the nation as we counted down to 2020, before closing the party with one of his world-renowned TS5 DJ sets. We provided all lighting and rigging for this very special live show, produced by BBC Studios for BBC One.
