The Message Trust is a Christian charity based in Manchester that work with schools and put on live music shows for young people around the country. Due to the current lockdown restrictions, they were unable to put on their usual events and therefore decided to transform their event space into a multi-purpose venue that could also be used as a Live Stream studio.
The Message Trust had previously called on MTS Live to work with them in converting their warehouse into a fully purposed music venue (read about the original installation here), we were delighted to once again get the call to assist with this project.
MTS Live installed an upgrade to the in-house video infrastructure to provide ultimate flexibility that would allow the space to operate as both a venue and a live stream studio. This included the installation of a new rack to house the video equipment, consisting of custom patching options for cameras. This provided a neat, flexible solution that allowed multiple cameras to be routed to the vision mixing and live streaming hardware.
The original lighting installation was a basic stage wash but as the space would now be used for live streaming, a more even and controlled lighting solution was required. The design incorporated a new hard light, front-key combination to enhance lighting angles required for camera.
The new Chauvet Ovation P56FC were the preferred fixtures for the design as they offer accurate colour rendering index of 90, providing impactful saturated colours, precise pastels and uniformed field. By using these cost-effective, LED fixtures, a fantastic controlled bright and even coverage was achievable with colour temperature control from 2800k up to 6500k.
Using the brighter hard light source for camera made positioning and focus even more important to washout unwanted shadows while using the existing moving head wash light fixtures to profile the camera shot for depth and clarity for a professional studio feel.
At The Message Trust we have worked with MTS over many years producing high-quality live events. Recently we called on them to help us with the refit of our main venue which is also doubling up as a TV studio. Their team have really helped us plan, configure and install equipment for a multipurpose space where we can produce TV programmes as well as live events. I highly recommend them. - Ian Rowbottom, Executive Director, Operations.
Careful thought was given to the system infrastructure and the lighting programming with future-proofing and most importantly, ease of use in mind. Using the Chamsys MQ40 console, our lighting designer was able to create simple one-touch buttons to allow quick and easy changes to the lighting states. This still left the option for more experienced members of the in-house team to create more complex lighting scenes when required.
The upgrades to the video infrastructure and lighting were highly praised by the Message Trust team. It has allowed them to continue to produce high-quality content for their audience whilst the COVID-19 restrictions are in place.