This Morning Live

This year marked the third edition of the hugely successful This Morning Live event, organised by Media 10, and to celebrate Congo Blue was again invited to deliver their most ambitious Main Stage yet, rebranded as the Studio Stage. Not only this, but a whole extra performance arena dedicated to the very best of This Morning’s and ITV’s talent, the Centre Stage, was designed and delivered at the same time!

STUDIO, FASHION….AND A KITCHEN?!

For 2019 Media 10 wanted to bring all the content from the various show areas into one central hub: Fashion and Style, Home and Gifts, Beauty and Wellbeing, and Food and Drink. To achieve this mammoth task Congo Blue designed a similarly mammoth thirty-five-metre-wide set with a central stage area for all the action. The solution to hosting all varieties of stage content was as impressive as it was beautifully simple: the recreation of the This Morning Studio, complete with ‘live’ video-wall studio window, revolved to reveal a fully-functional kitchen with hobs, oven, and even the kitchen sink! With a revolve was large enough to accommodate the entire This Morning family this was quite a sight to behold.

This was all possible due to Congo Blue’s in-house expertise in seamlessly blending complex technical, staging, and scenic elements into a full-solution event.
The Studio Stage boasted a ‘live’ video screen window on both sides of the revolve, twin-stacked projection to either side of the stage displaying live video and video content playback, full lighting rig with eye candy moving heads and illuminated studio columns, and a twin d&b Y-series line array providing perfect coverage over the entire audience.

AN INTIMATE STUDIO EXPERIENCE…FOR 2,000 PEOPLE

Brand new for this year was the Centre Stage, a stand-alone auditorium where Phil, Holly, and top ITV presenters hosted special entertainment sessions for packed-out audiences.

To set the scene Congo Blue provided a 12m wide 1.2m high stage, with a further raised podium finished in gold on which sat the famous studio sofa. A 5.2m scenic wall at the rear of the stage was brought to life with backlit golden rectangles inspired by the real studio set.

Live camera feeds and video content were displayed on a 6.4 x 4.5m Desay M6 video wall. Four live cameras, a combination of Sony HXC 100s and PMW 200s, and a number of video playback machines provided the images for this screen, with camera direction and video switching being performed in a backstage control hub by expert Congo Blue video engineers. Four hangs of l’accoustics KARA line array were employed to provide perfect audio coverage of all seating areas, and a lighting rig of conventional and moving head fixtures provided a smooth wash and exciting effects to compliment the on stage hype.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE

At Congo Blue we take pride in our attention to detail, high technical capability, and professionalism at all times. That being said we also love to have fun and will always strive to improve the experience for our clients and guests, whether that means fine-tuning content for perfect playback, taking fun selfies with visitors, or even driving This Morning’s Alison in a scissor lift for a live-TV hit!