Orgasmic experience for Sound Division!
"Well, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it," remarked Sound Division's Chris Baxter with a grin, commenting on the recent launch for Orgasmic Chocolates, a new range of luxury Swiss chocolates made using organic and Fair trade-certified cocoa beans that include a subtle blend of Chinese herbs for "an exquisite sensory experience". Sound Division was asked to provide sound, lighting and video services for the launch, which took place in the prestigious surroundings of the Hospital arts and multimedia centre in Covent Garden.
The event was based around a sensual dance performance choreographed and directed by Nicolas Musin, celebrated co-founder and principal choreographer of abcdancecompany who now works out of the Flux Laboratory, an experimental meeting, performance and exhibition space in Geneva. "Every piece of equipment we supplied for this job had to be white and in immaculate condition – even the cabling – in order to blend seamlessly into the performance space which featured white walls and white vinyl flooring," commented Chris Baxter. The equipment list from Sound Division included no less than six lumen data projectors, a Panasonic WJMX50 vision mixer, four EV Sx300 loudspeakers in white, a Denon CD player, a Mackie mixing console, a pair of Shure ULX radio mics, four 650W Zoom Profiles, a Zero 88 dimmer rack and two DMX Martin Magnum smoke machines.
Daniel Bobroff, event manager at the Hospital, was responsible for production. "The brief he gave us was to create maximum visual impact using shadow and contrast," explained Chris. "We filled the performance area with smoke and used the projectors, which were all concealed in custom-built white hides, to project strong beams of white light to cut through the smoke. The dancers were then able to move among the beams to create striking shadows and silhouettes. We used the vision mixer to ensure that the projector beams remained as white light. The Zoom Profiles were used to highlight the speeches and the performance area after the dance show. In all, it was highly effective; very dramatic, very visual – and the chocolate was pretty good, too!"
Tehmina Zaman, director of Orgasmic Chocolates was equally delighted with the results. "We were absolutely thrilled by the service we received from Sound Division and the Hospital in putting on this launch. Judging by the many compliments we received from press and guests alike, it certainly created a 'WOW' factor. In fact, we were so impressed that we're going to feature the performance on our website www.orgasmichocolates.co.uk, so come and check it out!"
November 2005