LED wall takes prideof place at events

Equipment that is to be used for the Winter Festival is inspected by Tom Lynch, of Tomtom Productions. Photo by Christina McDonald.

Technical equipment to be used during the Winter Festival is so advanced some of it is unique to the South Island, and was acquired after "a bus, a train and another bus" a stopover in Hong Kong, a business visa and a fleeting visit to China.

Tom Lynch, of Tomtom Productions, described the 6mm LED wall as his "pride and joy" and "a pretty cool piece of technology".

While on a holiday to Africa last year, Mr Lynch used a stopover in Hong Kong to travel to a factory in Shanghai to order the custom-built video screen which can be connected to inputs such as DVD, television, and other media outlets.

After securing a five-day business visa, he spent four hours at the Chinese factory.

He continued with his holiday and returned to Queenstown, awaiting the arrival of the wall, which arrived two days before it was needed for a conference event.

The 60-panel wall was made in 28 days from scratch over the new-year period, and was the cause of customs and transport struggles.

The wall will be used at the comedy gala, closing ceremony, fashion show, and the Thriller in the Chiller.

Setup, dismantling and transportation is not an issue, Mr Lynch said, since the wall can be broken up into smaller sections, which can also be used separately.

"It's like an easy jigsaw puzzle."

"In terms of what festival-goers could expect from a technical perspective, Mr Lynch said his team would be projecting videos on to the main stage and were planning a projection "surprise".

Tomtom productions has the technical contract for every event in the festival that requires sound or lighting, a contract they have held for the past two years.

"I've personally been involved since 2005, and this is Tomtom's third year of running the whole festival from a technical perspective."

Mr Lynch set up the company after doing similar work for other companies.

"I worked for a couple of different companies then decided to start Tomtom and in four years it's gone fairly well."

During the weeks they are not preparing for the Winter Festival, the company runs the technical aspects of corporate events such as conferences, which Mr Lynch said were "the main bulk of our work".

However, the festival is a significant event in the company's calender, considering that preparation begins more than six months out from the big event.

"This one we started towards the end of last year - we sat down with Simon [Green, festival director] and started thinking about the programme and how the events are going to be laid out."

"At the start of the year we sat down again and from then on there's stuff to do every week, and now it's May it's pretty full on."

For the festival Mr Lynch has a team of team, consisting mainly of local people.

"There's a couple from Christchurch, but everyone else is local - I generally just hire guys from Queenstown."

The team would be starting the Tuesday before the festival's explosive opening and work until the day after its steamy finale.

"So [it takes in] everything from all the day events and the night events to the main stage and the boxing."

Logistics, he said, proved to be the biggest challenge the team faced, since there were "so many events in such a small timeframe, and you can never have enough gear for winter fest".

"For example, one speaker might do 15-20 gigs a week."

Festival road closures

Friday, June 22

1pm-10pm: Beech St, from Rees St to Shotover St.

3pm-10pm:Rees St and Marine Pde, from Shotover St to Memorial Gates.

Beach St, from Camp St to Rees St

Saturday, June 23

8am-2pm: Camp St, from Shotover St to Earl St

Beach St, from Camp St to Shotover St

All of Athol St

All of Cow Lane

All of Rees St