Regional Outlook

SAUDI ARABIA FORMULA E HIGHLIGHTS

FORMULA ONE’S ENVIRONMENTALLY YOUNGER SIBLING MAKES ITS GCC DEBUT, CALLING ON THE REGION’S LARGEST AND BEST-KNOWN TECHNICAL SUPPLIERS TO PROVIDE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE ELECTRIC CAR RACE AND SUBSEQUENT AFTERPARTY AS TPMEA DISCOVERS...

Losberger De Boer’s Senior Sales Manager Middle East, Paul Machin.

LOSBERGER DE BOER

Global mega-sporting events specialist, Losberger De Boer, secured the temporary structure build contract for the electric Grand Prix in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The international temporary structures specialist built a 190m-long pit lane building together with second floor hospitality and viewing facilities. The build site located in Ad Diriyah, the historic centre of the Saudi Arabian capital, faced an existing public road that will be closed for qualifiers and race day between 12-15 December 2018.

Losberger De Boer was responsible for project managing turnkey delivery of the entire pit lane structure to support this event within a tight 40-day build timeframe together with rapid dismantling immediately following race day.

Senior Sales Manager, Paul Machin, of Losberger De Boer Middle East said: “Functionality and delivering an optimal viewing experience are key concerns for the organiser, so in light of this we were pleased to be able to deliver our Emperor and Premier products using ISO 14001 environmentallycertified processes. This ensures the needs of the planet are carefully balanced with delivering optimal race day performance, while providing an

unrivalled visitor experience for guests. “Critically, our team follows a carefully planned project management process to ensure tight build and dismantling times are met. Since the race track is located in the centre of a busy working city, our team works hard to keep disruption to local residents and businesses to a minimum - this is an area of expertise for Losberger De Boer,” concluded Machin.

With close to 700 projects every year, Losberger De Boer also delivers the world’s largest temporary event overlay for the bi-annual Farnborough Airshow in the UK and installs temporary structures annually at the largest global trade fair, Bauma, in Germany. Last year, Losberger De Boer also built the Middle East’s largest temporary exhibition hall, Bay X, at King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia and also built the Baku City Race Circuit event overlay for a major international Grand Prix motor sports racing event in Azerbaijan.

Photo: Losberger De Boer www.losbergerdeboer.com

ADI

Event LED specialist, ADI, delivered over 650sqm of stunning modular screens for the Season 5 opener in Ad Diriyah, which not only marked the first E-Prix in the Middle East, but also the first major international sporting and live music event to take place in Saudi Arabia.

A variety of 19 high-resolution screens were installed across the purpose-built Ad Diriyah circuit with a range of formats and displays up to 70m in size, which featured trackside, above grandstands and at the Allianz E-Village - along with 18km of circuit level fibre distribution to deliver HD feeds to every screen and the debut of a new custom-made LED podium that will travel to every E-Prix.

The international electric street racing championship made its debut in the Middle East with an ambitious staging and screen requirement for the historic occasion, which was held at a UNESCO world heritage site just outside Riyadh. Screens included 2, 70m x 6mm modular displays that were hung from 25m high structures, towering over the main grandstands, while freestanding 33m screen structures faced the crowds to deliver non-stop coverage. At the Allianz E-Village ADI seamlessly integrated LED to amplify brand partners and spectator experience, with 4mm product installed across the front of the Gaming Arena and also creating a super-wide digital backdrop to the Podium staging, in addition to 4, 3mm screens provided for the Emotion Club hospitality suites.

The podium itself was a newly manufactured build that features four

steps and full 4mm LED frontage, hosting the winner Antonio Felix de Costa of BMW Andretti Motorsports, alongside second and third place drivers and the Constructors trophy winner.

ADI’s Screen Rental Director, Nick Robinson, stated: “The Ad Diriyah E-Prix was by far the most technically and operationally challenging project we’ve delivered for Formula E to date – with just 72 hours to install 650m� of LED across a huge venue encompassing a UNESCO World Heritage site – and load-out was achieved in a short 10-hour timeframe. We shipped and airfreighted over 67 tons of kit to Saudi Arabia for the event, designing and delivering a complex range of modular solutions, and employing the assistance of Video Illusions and Showforce UAE to achieve the vision for this momentous live event.”

He added: “In 2018 we supplied 8 events and over 3,500m of LED to Formula E globally, and that will grow considerably in 2019 as we provide screens and video distribution to new and existing E-Prix’s around the world during Season five, with January 2019 featuring both the Marrakesh and Santiago de Chile E-Prix’s.”

The Ad Diriyah E-Prix took place on the 15 December 2018, with the Marrakesh E-Prix on the 12 January 2019 and the Santiago de Chile E-Prix on the 26 January 2019. Photo: ADI.tv www.adi.tv

AES

AES continued to provide the region’s biggest music events with the best staging and structure solutions, by supplying the after-race concert staging for the ABB FIA Formula E, Riyadh and the Abu Dhabi F1 Yaslam concerts.

Running in a similar format to the Abu Dhabi F1 program, the new E-Prix after-race concerts, organised by Live Nation, were held in the Allianz E-Village situated next to the race track. Lucky race fans were treated to some of the best musical acts in the world.

The AES team was brought in to provide a stage setup. Supplying the four Leg Classic Stage in KSA has now set the standard for future music festivals in the country. The stage, a favourite for international artists, provided a variety of benefits for the performers, the spectators and the organisers. The wide and flat frontage of the stage is a marketeer’s dream, opportunities to brand the structure are endless

As the leading stage and temporary structure supplier in the region, AES used its previous six years of experience providing the AD F1 after race concerts, to provide a spectacular stage setting for the gigs. The stage setup provided artists with a 25m x 15m performance area with steel wings extending the stage to 51m wide.

AES Project Manager, Jacques Steyn, discussed how the build went: “It was yet again, another great experience to come back to Riyadh and work on an event such as this. Although I have built many of the music stages over the past six years in the UAE, working on this one, for the first ever Formula E race in KSA, meant there was a little bit of pressure on site. The hype and expectations of the new event meant that; to get it right (which we always do anyway), was as higher priority as ever.”

AES work regularly in KSA and strive to ensure all of the labour and materials are available and we can built safely and quickly.

Steyn explained: “We were tasked with a seven-day build schedule to complete all structures, including; stage, FOH, VIP platform, towers, crowd control barriers and fencing. The team worked long days and it was a great effort by our excellent staff, as they had just come off another big job we had built three weeks earlier in Riyadh. Spending a month away from homes and families is tough on the crew but the AES family dug in and we got the job done.”

JJ Trichardt, Managing Director of AES, attended the shows in Riyadh and described the importance of such an event. “From the start, the whole Formula E event has been such an exciting project for us at AES, even before you look at our own scope of work, you just have to consider what is happening here in Saudi,” he stated .

Trichardt reflected: “Ad Diriyah, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the vision between the General Sports Authority, along with Formula E, to host such a major festival of racing and music here, has really set the bar high for future large-scale sporting events, live music and entertainment in the Kingdom.

“I believe the three-day event was the first-of-its-kind to run in KSA and really shows the social change happening here. Sixteen years in this business, means that I have attended and worked on thousands of shows and concerts across the world. However, the experience I had from the Riyadh race concerts was like no other. To be surrounded by crowds of thousands, people who are just simply loving their involvement of being there. They could have been David Guetta fans or not, it didn’t matter!” he exlaimed. “I realised that this experience, one that I have come accustom to, could be the first time artists, of this global scale, have been received here and it was so special to witness. The expansion of this industry in Saudi is really interesting to see. To be involved and taste the enthusiasm of the Saudi people for these shows is really refreshing and it really makes you feel good about the business we do and why we do it.”

JJ also talked about the products AES supplied for the event. “The staging is, of course, the show piece of the show and we are very pleased for how great it looks with the Formula E branding on. However, the shows we supply for, would not happen if other elements of the infrastructure were not in place. We have provided this event with the Mojo Barriers, police barriers and Heras fencing. Although these are smaller products, they are crucial to the running of a safe event, as crowd control is a priority to any event organiser. AES have recognised the demand for these types of items and we have just invested in over 15km of fencing which is available in Saudi and all across the region.” Photo: AES www.aes.ae

AGGREKO

throughout these downpours.” Nichol reflected on the flourishing Saudi events market. He concluded: “Saudi has had some great events in 2018 and we see that the event industry is growing very quickly. We expect this industry to grow further keeping in line with the Saudi development program released by Mohamed Bin Salman. Aggreko has been in KSA for over 20 years and we are here to support the region with any events and developments that will result from the development plan.” Photo: AES www.aggreko.ae

Aggreko provided generation, secondary power and temperature control solutions for the whole event, including the Formula E element and after race concerts. The team specified 17mW power supplied via 72 generators installed at various locations on site and 18 units of cooling equipment generated 485 TR of cooling. 14 Technical specialist and three Project Managers were flown into The Kingdom from Aggreko global network and 15 local man power staff were appointed specially for the duration of the undertaking.

Despite a litany of logistical challenges, the Agrekko team was more than up to the task Martin Nichol, Aggreko Events Manager Middle East, commented: “The challenges we all faced with this event was that it was revolving and growing in size on a daily and weekly basis, it was important from our side to be working very closely with the Blink Experience Production team that we were providing the most cost effective solution in providing power and temperature control and covering all of the requirements of the various vendors and suppliers on this large scale event.

Due to this event being the first event of its kind in Saudi Arabia, in regard to both scale and global viewing, there were many challenges that were faced by both the organisers and the suppliers. Changes in the design packs of power and cooling installation required at the different areas in the venue had to be submitted multiple times due to various changes in the demand by the customer, which in effect caused the crew to go back to the technical drawing board and changing the full specifications of the equipment.

Nichol added: “With the event being first of its kind, we all faced many challenges, not to mention the weather acting up and the down pour of the rains. Vendors came to the site with different types of connectors which was a challenge to get them up to Aggreko standards to be able to connect to our systems. This was a learning curve for all parties involved. Race day was the largest challenge of the whole project, with the weather not being on our side and with the region experiencing a huge downpour on the morning of the race, our equipment and design ensured that all electrical circuits supplying power to every vendor on site from the garages to the concert site were kept safe. Due to the high standards that AES work to and the requirements from the client, all elements of the site remained powered