Venue: Bay 17 Carriageworks

In true BlackBerry® style, the global launch of the new BlackBerry® Pearl 3G smartphone entailed a massive 'Block Party' for a 1,000 strong guest list. BlackBerry® enlisted Event Producer, Josh White, and his company The Lampoon Group to develop, organise and produce this one of a kind event.

The BlackBerry® Block Party saw Bay 17 at CarriageWorks converted into a chic urban-street themed space, featuring everything from burnt-out grafittied cars, specially designed brick wall sets and chain wire fencing, a half pipe skate ramp with skaters and BMX riders, break dance battles, and an all-star line-up of entertainment, including duelling Drummer and DJ act, OLSEN vs LC (positioned on separate satellite stages in the middle of the room), and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz.

The Innovative team were responsible for producing all Lighting, Audio, Vision and technical management aspects of the event. There was a huge line up of entertainment to support, as well as the massive lighting & visual component of the show involving set lighting, large visual displays & screens, interactive live messaging, and complex rigging. This show relied heavily on the technical creativity and precision execution from the innovative team.

Innovative recruited the talents of one of Australia's foremost lighting operators, Paul Collison, to operate the amazing lighting and visual system designed by Jeremy Koch. Paul supplied two Coolux Media Player systems to provide the visual content for the Martin LC Panels and Samsung video wall with control from a GrandMA2 Light and a GrandMA2 Ultra-Light as tracking backup.

Ben Shannon, Innovative's resident audio extraordinaire operated our digital iLive system with some complex challenges including a drummer and DJ in the middle of the room, several high profile performances, and minimal changeover times. The audio was loud, punchy and crystal clear from the 12 stack Turbosound Floodlight system with all the artists very impressed.

Designing all technical aspects of the event allowed the lighting, audio, vision, and staging to work together and produce an amazing result. The multilayered lighting and vision on stage provided a fantastic backdrop for the performances and also a subtle branding space with super crisp gobo projections (from Martin MACIII's) and custom vision playing on the Videowall and LED panels. This ensured that all photos and video of the event were recognisable back to the BlackBerry® Brand.

CarriageWorks is a fantastic venue to work in and the staff an absolute pleasure to deal with. The staff help make it possible to put on amazing shows in spaces like this.