Save the Children recently staged its centenary fundraising gala at London’s Roundhouse. Hosted by David Walliams and featuring a series of unique theatrical and musical collaborations, the fundraiser showcased the very best of the international entertainment industry.

The star-studded audience of more than 500 guests included leading figures from the business, sport, entertainment and arts communities. A speech from the charity’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, opened the event, which raised in excess of £1.6 million through sponsorship, table sales, donations and a silent auction.

Pete Barford Productions were responsible for coordinating the show with Anthony Biggs as the artistic director, Richard Olivieri the designer and the screen content was produced by Lisa Wrake.

Video screen provision for the evening was an essential part of the show’s presentation and was required to transition between VT’s slides and stills, live fundraising updates and screen content of stage performances. 

Hertfordshire-based video specialists, pixl evolution, were contracted to provide the solution. Its team works closely with a wide range of partners on a variety of demanding, high profile projects around the world.

In a change to the customary format of a single up-stage screen, the centenary show’s design called for 11 individual 4m wide by 2m high column screens to be hung around the perimeter of The Roundhouse’s show space. pixl supplied Absen 3.9mm resolution LED screens. Controlling and positioning of content onto the screens was via a Barco E2 video switcher. 

Main show content was provided by 2 Milumin media servers and two keynote laptops for VT’s slides and stills, a Givergy charity fundraising laptop displaying live updates of money raised on the night and a VJ media server producing content for the The All Stars Band at the climax of the evening.

Paul Wood, project manager for pixl evolution and who led the team, reflected on another successful outcome: “The move to an 11-screen format at the Roundhouse worked exceptionally well and had the desired effect of immersing every guest into the atmosphere of the space. 

“The demand for the evening to flow seamlessly on an occasion like this is the absolute priority. Our main challenges centred on ensuring that the build schedule worked well and ensuring all provided content was created to the correct pixel counts and aspect ratios for the multiple screen layouts. Everything ran smoothly and to plan, we achieved our aims and I’m very happy and proud to have worked on such a special event.”A spokesperson for Save the Children added: “Save the Children was thrilled with the delivery or our Centenary Gala. Our guests have been hugely positive about the use of the screens around the Roundhouse and we are very grateful to pixl evolution for their expertise and support.”

Molly Hookings
Author: Molly Hookings

Molly joined the editorial team in March 2019. She has several years’ experience working in broadcast and journalism, as well as marketing and PR. Past experience includes working for the BBC and independent publishing houses. If you have a story you think Molly might be interested in, please email: molly@eventindustrynews.com