Hawthorn has delivered the British Arrows Awards since 2011 at Battersea Evolution. The event has grown naturally over the years and is now one of the advertising industry’s largest and most recognised awards ceremonies. Over the years the production value and designs have increased in specification and complexity to support the demands of the show.

This year, Hawthorn was chosen again to support and help deliver the 2015 awards ceremony held at Battersea Evolution on the 25th March. Working alongside the British Arrows awards producers, Hawthorn provided a stylish and unique way of using the large 4,000sqm event space at Battersea.
The event was split into three separate areas providing an evolving guest journey throughout the night. These areas included a pre-dinner reception drinks space, a main awards auditorium for the 1,100 guests seated for dinner, and an intimate after party area.

The technical specification was heavily focused on AV, lighting and sound. As the annual event is for the advertising industry, content will always be king. With this in mind, Hawthorn provided a double-sided 10m wide edge blended screen that was utilised for both the reception pre-dinner drinks and the after party. An Ai media server and Christie HD10k projectors were used to deliver this effective custom content display surface.

In the main awards space, Hawthorn created an angled corner stage set. Content was played back via Barco ScreenPro 2 using six Christie HD20k projectors displayed on 3x6m wide front projected screens. Live footage was captured and relayed live to screens via an HD 3x cam shoot with a live ingest rack, vision director and engineer.

The main auditorium lighting design incorporated over 36 Clay Paky QWO800s and Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, and was further supported by 32 LED par can fixtures and 15 sunstrips. The broad, enveloping layout ensured that every guest had a similar intimate experience and felt that they were part of the show. A particular brief for the after party was for Hawthorn to recreate the infamous late 80s/early 90s “Hacienda” club lighting. Intelligent lighting was pushed to one side and over 100 parcans and pinspots were deployed to deliver an unforgettable guest experience in true keeping with the infamous club’s styling.

Sound on the night was delivered through d&b V series line array with V subs and further Q7 fills and Q subs to ensure all of the playback VT, speeches and music on the night were perfectly clear and evenly distributed with ample volume! FOH control was via Hawthorn's DigiCo SD9 and Q-Lab playback rack. The after party club area had its own d&b Q rig to create a punchy sound onto the dance floor area.

Janey de Nordwall, British Arrows Awards producer said: "The night was a resounding success and everyone is saying how slick the whole show was. That's down to you too. I love working with you and your team and you always deliver over and above my vision. It's also so much fun which makes the whole experience an absolute joy.”

James Hunter, senior project manager at Hawthorn said: “Yet again it was a real pleasure to work with the creative and talented team at British Arrows. The layout and design of this event really shows off how the Evolution can be used and our technical expertise within the space delivers on all aspects of production. I cannot wait for the 40th anniversary next year!”