Stage One Annual 2020/2021

ANNUAL

2020/2021

ANNUAL

2020/2021

contents INTRODUCTION

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GALWAY CITY OF CULTURE

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BRIT AWARDS 2020

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MULTIPLY

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NATIONAL DAY 49

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2020 REVIEW

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BRIT AWARDS 2021

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SERPENTINE PAVILION

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BRIDGED FOLLY

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JOHNNIE WALKER PRINCES STREET

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REFLECTION

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EXPO

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ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

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SKY RETAIL PODS

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NATIONAL DAY 50

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THANK YOU

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome back. It‘s been two years since we felt compelled to make an annual of our work. In truth, as the world shuddered to a halt, we didn’t know quite how much work there might be to put in an annual. So we hit pause.

But now the annual is back. The good news is that as a result of the pause, you now have a bumper issue in your hands. We’ll be covering 2020 and 2021.

Tales of adventure and endeavour. Stories of beauties and beasts. Chronicles of innovation and determination.

This is the stuff that makes us proud.

What the last two years have taught us is that we are adaptable, resilient, and tenacious. The work we’re delivering now is more complex, better engineered, and more technically developed than ever before. Hard times have shaped us.

When I look back at our last annual it recalls projects that seem like a lifetime ago. The world has changed for everyone and Stage One is now a different business. This transition hasn’t been easy. But for the most part, easy doesn’t suit us.

For all of their efforts in difficult circumstances, I’d like to thank everyone at Stage One. I have been witness to some heroic contributions and sacrifices. And I extend that thanks to our suppliers, clients, and collaborators, without whom we wouldn’t be here.

For now though, I’d like you to cast your mind back to early 2020. You were just beginning to hear about a novel virus in a faraway place. We however, found ourselves standing just off the freezing north-west coast of Ireland…

Tim Leigh

Managing Director

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February 2020 Galway, Ireland.

GALWAY CITY OF CULTURE Ceremony

Galway European Capital of Culture 2020, or ‘Galeway’ as it came to be known, was one of our more legendary expeditions.

The premise was classic Stage One material: We needed to build a 250KG steel phoenix. Suspend it 34 metres up in the air. Then set it alight and send it flaming 260 metres across the sky.

Projects where we laser cut steel and set things on fire, are our bread and butter. So for us, creating the phoenix was relatively straightforward. From there we had to find two crane towers we could re-purpose as start and end points and between them we’d install catenary wires to guide our phoenix on a safe flight.

However, as the phoenix left our workshops, difficulties began.

Starting with the location, Galway is just off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. And the event was in February. Combining a time and place, that is not traditionally known for its balmy weather. But we’re no strangers to adversity, we were confident of success.

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The event was scheduled for the 9th of February, and as the date came closer, the weather forecast suggested the job would become increasingly difficult.

But still, there was a job to do, so we packed our big coats and got ourselves to Galway.

As you’ll see from our site reports, things started well…

JAN 26TH “Sunny and cold. Better than forecast.”

At this stage, it seemed like all was on course. Installation was going well and the weather had held up. Until very suddenly, it turned:

FEB 2ND “Gales, average wind 17m/s up to 24m/s. Heavy rain. Miserable.”

On to:

FEB 8th “Force 10 storm, wind gusting to 32.5m/s, heavy rain.

Conditions challenging.”

And finally:

FEB 9th “Weather warning. Event cancelled.

Gale force winds, blowing from the North much colder than before; sleet, hail, snow, mud.

Quite unpleasant really.”

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And that was it. Show’s over.

Storm Ciara would go onto cause £1.6 billion in damages, although our installation withstood the entire thing just fine.

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Frustratingly, we’d flown the phoenix in rehearsal. So we knew everything worked and could be performed at a moment’s notice. The moment just never came. But that’s life in our industry, every now and again, fate intervenes.

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February 2020 The O2, London.

BRIT AWARDS 2020 Another one of our jobs that took place before we knew what 2020 had in store for us. The 2020 Brit Awards ceremony had one of the more striking stage designs in recent times. The 13.5m wide set for Stormzy was comprised of four tiers and split levels. To accommodate the ‘rainfall’ that would drench the set, we lined each element with pond liner, topped with an anti-slip GRP grating.

Which we dare say, did its job spectacularly, as a hundred performers jumped on stage under the heavy rain of the impressive finale.

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March 2020 Madrid, Spain.

MULTIPLY Making the most of the finite resources we have. It’s one of the most important topics of our time. Multiply was a project with sustainability at its heart. This project involved the production of a series of large cross laminated timber boxes. The modular design meant it could be configured in different ways and be installed in a variety of spaces. It was truly re-usable.

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Multiply lived many lives, starting out at the V&A in London, then moving to Milan for Design Week, and then onto Madrid.

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Finally, it took up a place at the London Design Museum, with any left-over parts being sent back to origin for recycling.

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December 2020 Al Jubail Mangrove Park, UAE.

National day 49 ceremony

Have you heard of Parkinson’s law? It’s the idea that a task will take as long as the time available. And in winter 2020 we came close to breaking that principle. Because early on an autumn day, we got a phone call.

The UAE National Day 49 ceremony was going ahead on December 2nd.

We were being enlisted to make Es Devlin’s 15 metre cube, create the revolving base upon which it spun, and install these things in the sea off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

So, for the avoidance of doubt. That left us seven and a half weeks, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, to make and install a world class ceremony, for a national celebration that was going to be watched by millions.

Once the job was confirmed, one more thing became clear.

Manufacturing would have just three weeks before we needed to start shipping out to the UAE.

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THREE WEEKS.

21 DAYS.

504 HOURS. This is not a lot of time.

Our CAD and project teams began by figuring out how to make such a large structure, in such a small amount of time. It had to be robust but light enough that the revolve would operate smoothly and reliably.

The main structure was created from steel truss and pallets. This provided the skeleton and flat faces of the cube.

The elaborate sculpted faces were crafted from CNC milled polystyrene, then hardcoated prior to the application of a sprayed scenic finish.

It’s at this stage you need to remember, the world’s raw material plants had been shut down for much of 2020. And suddenly, we needed tons of steel, timber, and polystyrene.

That meant going a little further to get the resources we needed. Eventually, a combination of re-using existing materials at our facility and calling in a few favours, got us what we needed.

While it was challenging work with tight deadlines, there was a frisson about the place. The teams were back and working hard to deliver a massive project.

The cube elements were packed into containers and sent overland to the Gulf.

Before we knew it, we’d passed our PCR tests and were standing in the UAE, surrounded by stock boxes and shipping containers. Ready to install.

As you can see from the images, National Day was celebrated in style. It required a very special set of circumstances to make this happen. This was an incredible project delivered in a remarkable timeframe and showcases some of the very best of what Stage One is capable of delivering.

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2020 REVIEW

2020 was a challenging year for everyone. It was no different for Stage One. We have traditionally been in the business of crowds. Of bringing people together. And the pandemic presented the very opposite of that.

But then things started to move again. Actually, the phone started to ring much sooner than I had anticipated. It is testament to the enduring reputation Stage One has built, that our number was still at the top of the list for many.

Things gradually began to change for the better...

Tim Leigh

Managing Director

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May 2021 The O2, London.

BRIT AWARDS 2021

Did you watch Dua Lipa at the 2021 BRITs? If you did, you will have seen our work. Built in just three weeks, the set was based on an underground train carriage, that would be hoisted into the sky during the performance.

We constructed the train as a framework using rectangular hollow section steel. This method allowed us to hide the complex and numerous wiring looms needed for the lighting. We did that by laser cutting the hollow steel with access ports, letting us feed the wiring looms through the steel and into the upholstered hollow seats (which still had to be strong enough for performers to dance on).

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By doing that, we could accommodate the underside lighting, the train lighting, and send wires into the upright poles. The poles were a challenge, as dancers would be swinging from them, but they still needed to allow light to pass through them and be easy to adjust.

Therefore, we went to stress analysis. Because it would be unforgivable should one break during the performance. That analysis helped us figure out everything we needed from material wall thickness to fixing methodology.

Then, there was one more challenge, creating a 360-degree glow from the illuminated poles. Which sounds simple, but it takes a bit of work to get light to cast evenly in all directions and look bold on TV cameras. Testing helped us decide on three lighting elements per pole to get the glow we needed.

All that, done in three weeks.

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June 2021 Serpentine Gallery, London.

SERPENTINE PAVILION In early 2020, Sumayya Vally and Counterspace brought us the designs for their Serpentine Pavilion. The pavilion is always a challenging build, and this edition was no different. Although something we didn’t know at the time, was that it would be another 18 months before their vision would finally be realised.

The pavilion design was inspired by the buildings and neighbourhoods of London. That meant that many elements of the build were unique. In turn, that made it a monumental challenge for our CAD teams to process all of the drawings needed to complete the structure.

The scheme used reclaimed steel to reduce the environmental impact of the pavilion. Which was the responsible thing to do, as this was one of the largest pavilions we’ve made.

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Because of the scale and pace of the project, micro-cement became the go-to material for the build.

That way, we could make the component pieces larger. Which allowed a shorter build time, essential to completing the pavilion in the seven weeks available to us on site.

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The end result was a cohesive realisation of Sumayya’s designs and, accidentally, the longest gestation period of all of the Serpentine Pavilions.

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July 2021 Fountains Abbey, Ripon, UK.

BRIDGED Folly INSTALLATION Simplicity is a form of beauty. But you’d be surprised how difficult it is to make something look simple. Constructing Steve Messam’s ‘Bridged’ required close integration between our machine shop, metal shop, wood shop, and scenic department.

From the steel skeleton we laser cut and fabricated to the non-slip timber treads, each part was made to integrate neatly to the next.

Which meant, when it came time to install, everything came together seamlessly. Creating the illusion of a beautifully simple installation at Fountains Abbey that enhanced the landscape.

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September 2021 Edinburgh, Scotland.

JOHNNIE WALKER PRINCES STREET One of Scotland’s most famous sons. At home on the capital’s most prestigious street. The Johnnie Walker Princes Street experience is a permanent eight-floor ‘brand home’ in Edinburgh. A close collaboration between Stage One and the world-renowned BRC Imagination Arts.

From the six-storey sculpture that dominates the atrium, to the rooms and corridors that make up the tour itself. Stage One was central to the delivery of this experience.

But this shrine to distillation was no simple build and fit-out. It was our duty to remain faithful to the creative vision and deliver an experience that stood head and shoulders above competitors.

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Hours of consultation on design, engineering, and finishing were needed to bring this to life. But every second spent was worth it. From the moment visitors enter they are faced with a towering atrium sculpture running up through the stairwell.

And whilst the scale of the sculpture is impressive, the major focus was actually the integration of the LED panels. Allowing for choreographed animations that run from the sixth floor to the ground. Offering a unique creative opportunity, analogous to an animated six-storey spectacular.

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Because of ongoing construction work, installation using lifts and scaffolding was not an option.

So, we installed rope access from the roof, down through the atrium, allowing riggers to abseil down and install the screens. Once past the atrium, visitors can start to move through the rooms that make up the tour.

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Building these rooms was just like building a set. Details mattered. From the living portraits on the walls, to the movable fireplace allowing service access to the famous Binns clock. Every inch of the rooms was meticulously fitted, painted, and finished.

None more so than the show-action elements. The ‘Come Walk’ room contains two show-action pieces. A travelator to move actors across the stage in time with the video elements broadcast from the control room.

The second element is an automated drinks globe. It circles around the actors and can even be spun round and opened.

Experiences like this are carefully orchestrated. And we take that extremely seriously. A large part of that battle is won in our workshops in Yorkshire. We sampled every material - would it last, could we age it authentically, did it take colour well? And our extensive CNC and 3D printing facilities allowed us to take a fastidious eye to the quality of everything we made.

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For example, the centrepiece tables in the ‘Landscape of Flavour’ room are where visitors gather. These tables must exude the quality you’d expect from a marquee brand like Johnnie Walker. That demands premium materials and flush fittings. So when the guide puts a glass cloche over the whisky to smoke it, our sub-millimeter accurate finish means none of the smoke escapes.

Is it a small detail? Yes. But that’s the level of dedication that goes into making such a complete experience. Every material, join, and infill underwent sustained testing, along with intense scrutiny upon installation.

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Our finishing set such a high-BAR, our techniques were adopted by Diageo as standards for their other brand homes.

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REFLECTION

We currently find ourselves in a strong position. But it’s only by looking back that I can see the journey we have been on. And it’s this next phase of work we’re about to show you, where that strength started to shine. So much had changed in the world and the type of work we were winning was starting to change too.

Tim Leigh

Managing Director

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September 2021 Dubai Exhibition Centre, UAE.

Expo 2020 A year later than originally planned, on the 30th of September 2021, Expo Dubai 2020 got its start. Opening to a ceremony with a cast of hundreds and an audience of millions, it was also the start to a full six months of daily shows. Over one hundred shows imagined by creatives from all over the world.

Our work there has allowed different countries, companies, and creatives to create an international showcase. But there’s one very important detail in all of this.

And that detail is, during the time we were building and installing our stage engineering, we didn’t know exactly how it was going to be used. Actually, we knew one thing – at the opening ceremony, a planet would rise from under stage. But the details were scant.

In addition, the 100+ shows we were helping host, simply didn’t exist yet. Which made it difficult to make decisions on the work we were designing. We still had a lot of questions; what are the expected payloads? What’s the duty cycle? How much re-programming will be needed?

No one really had the answers.

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Which leads to the question, how did we get it right?

Well, when you approach something like this, you have to understand the role you play in the event.

We understood our role very clearly at Expo. We would help enable and deliver the creative vision of the show producers. It’s that simple.

Simple however, does not mean easy.

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From that point we turned to the engineering challenge. A different show every day with some very high-profile, calendar driven events thrown in for good measure (think Golden Jubilee, Christmas etc). So, to an extent, we were actually building a theatre not a specific show. And when you look at the problem from that perspective, suddenly your choices become a lot clearer.

In the end, we created the central stage (plus its surrounding revolve), stage traps, an automated handrail, a nine winch flying system, a flown truss, and lighting masts for Expo’s central hub, the Al Wasl Plaza.

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Designing and building for intense wear and tear every day is an interesting problem. We are used to solving problems, we do it every day. But finding and solving problems that might, or might not, exist in six months’ time is a different thing completely.

It becomes a balancing act of material performance and creative flexibility. Is it going to serve ten performers a day or a hundred performers a day? What can be afforded?

What does the time allow us to build? Do our decisions impact upon the creative options?

Fortunately, our teams come with heaps of experience, hands-on experience at that. And our experience tells us, that every now and again a little over-engineering can help. Like the stage traps we installed, which were specified to be used just once during the opening show. But they quickly became something that show producers wanted to use repeatedly.

They weren’t necessarily designed for that, but we built them to such a level of quality, that they could be reliably used in that everyday capacity.

The same applies to our Qmotion flying system. Which has been used all over the world, including in ceremonies for the Olympic Games. And that extensive experience is reflected in the flexibility and reliability of the Qmotion software.

And it’s this proprietary software, that means when someone wants to have an astronaut pirouette in the sky or falcon to fly around the stage, we can do it without question.

Which from a creative point of view, is fantastic. The flip side of that, is that our installation may need to work and look differently from one show to the next.

Which leads us to something that Stage One can do, that few others can. We gave Expo access to round the clock expertise and operation. If it was midnight and changes were needed. We were there to make it happen. And that, is how you deliver performances, when you don’t actually know what the content might be. The blend of engineering and determination at Expo truly characterises Stage One.

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October 2021 Birmingham NEC, UK.

Arnold

Schwarzenegger Statue The centrepiece of the UK Arnold Sports Festival. Towering above visitors at the Birmingham NEC, this meticulously detailed statue was made and painted here at Stage One. The journey first started in July 2021 in our machine shop, where we created the main sculpture from polyurethane foam using our 5-Axis CNC Machine. Once completed, we hardcoated the foam with fibreglass, giving it stability and a base to take the scenic finish.

After being sanded down, we then passed the 3m sculpture to the paint shop who spent time layering up Arnie with primer, base coats, and the final bronze finish.

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Because it would be installed in a busy convention centre, the statue had to be correctly balanced and secured. So, our wood and metal workshops worked together to create a base to stabilise and support the piece. This was then finished by the paint team who matched the base colour to the sculpture.

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By September, we had completed the project with time to spare. So we added a few final touches, like a large shroud covering, that safely protected the statue for its journey to the NEC and beyond.

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October 2021 Touring the UK.

SKY RETAIL PODS Here’s a problem. A television’s main features are its image and audio capabilities. So you can read all the reviews you want, but you really need to see and hear it. Without that, you simply can’t evaluate what you’re buying.

So, when Sky launched Sky Glass, they needed to get people experiencing it for real. Which is where Stage One came in.

The brief was for permanent installations. Well sort of. One had to be permanent and another had to be capable of being moved and installed all over the UK. Both had to match the sky-high build quality needed to launch the product.

So, all the substance and comfort of a permanent structure with the flexibility that comes with temporary installations.

Eventually, the project was increased to three installations. Each one a different size, drafted up in 10m x 6m, 6m x 5m, and 5m x 5m dimensions. They were built using Glulam timber. A material at the forefront of sustainable construction, that we’ve come to use frequently and dare say, we’re becoming an expert at using.

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To achieve the required ‘pack up and move’ capabilities, a modular build quickly became our favoured option. Allowing us to build something solid and coherent, while letting us streamline the installation and de-rig process.

Another important element was the finish quality. Sky Glass is a high-end product, so the environment customers experienced the product in, had to complement that. Which meant going to the lengths of manufacturing our own fixtures and fittings so that we could achieve a level of fit and finish rarely found… well anywhere really.

And despite being movable structures, they needed the warmth and sound isolation you’d expect from the living room in your house. We had to achieve that, while also minimising our impact on the environment.

That meant making clever decisions, such as using double-glazing filled with argon, which reduced the total energy consumption of the installations. Or using FSC certified timber, so that we could assure the materials were sourced from responsibly managed forests.

All this meant that when we installed them in places like Covent Garden, they looked at home among high-end retail real estate.

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December 2021 Hatta Dam, Dubai, UAE.

NATIONAL DAY 50 ceremony

And just like that, the UAE National Day celebrations had come back around. Now, when we first read the idea for the 50th celebrations, we raised a collective eyebrow. Because creative concepts rarely come more audacious than this.

First, there was the location. If you’ve never been, the Hatta Dam is situated about 100 kilometres from the nearest airport (across achingly beautiful desert). As you make your way through the desert you reach the natural eastern border of the UAE, which is the home of the expansive Hajar mountain range.

And within those mountains, you’ll find the Hatta Dam. When you’ve made your way up there, you’re faced with the waters of the Hatta Dam reservoir. And it was there that we were going to install the National Day 50 centrepiece. Onto the water.

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The centrepiece in question was a 19-metre tall, cantilevered disc. The vision of artistic director and designer Es Devlin. It provided a canvas for projections and a stage for the performers, and facilitating all that meant that we had to build big.

We also had to revolve the entire thing during the live broadcast. And while that is itself a challenge, don’t forget we have to package all the winches, motors, technology, and crew into the disc itself. Which only added to the complexity of the challenge.

And that cantilevered design? It distributes the mass awkwardly. All these challenges meant the structural performance of the disc was constantly under scrutiny.

When fully loaded with cast, and with the reflection pool filled, the disc weighed in at close to 300 tonnes.

Moving that amount of mass is tricky. It requires vast amounts of experience but also a keenness for detail.

For example, you have to use more than a hundred steel wheels to revolve something of this size. And moving 300 tonnes can cause a lot of noise. Not only that, it will warp, grind, and turn your rails to dust if you don’t distribute and drive the weight correctly.

We opted for three concentric circles of track to distribute the overall load of the disc. And we then machined the wheels into a precise conical shape, which allowed pressure to spread evenly across the wheels and the track. Resulting in less noise and a smoother, more reliable revolve.

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Finally, there was one more challenge that needs adding to the tally. The fact that this feat of engineering was floating on water.

It’s an interesting dynamic. Putting a near 300 tonne stage onto water will make it behave in a way that is difficult to model.

What followed was one of the world’s largest, most creative balancing acts.

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Calculating the ballast arrangement to balance the disc was an almost Sisyphean task.

Almost.

As you can see, the 50th UAE National Day celebration was delivered in emphatic style.

Our contemporaries all managed their parts very well and it goes without saying, we are exceptionally proud of our contribution.

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THANK YOU

And so, these projects provide a snapshot of how Stage One arrived at one of its strongest points in its history, during one of the most challenging passages of time the world has seen. The work we’ve undertaken is a step-change from what has gone before.

I doubt I’ll ever find the words to do justice to the deep sense of gratitude I have toward everyone at Stage One that has got us to this point.

The commitment, sacrifice, and bravery has been plain to see at every level of this organisation. All while enduring the turbulence present in all our lives over the past two years.

Great work, done by great people. That’s the very essence of Stage One. And with that, I’ll bring our bumper annual review to an end.

The work currently making its way through the company, that you will see in due course, is continuing our extraordinary ascendancy.

I can’t wait for next year’s issue to be in your hands. In the meantime, if you have an idea that needs bringing to life, you know who to contact.

Bring us your ideas.

Tim Leigh

Managing Director

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ANNUAL

2020/2021

Stage One Creative Services Ltd Hangar 88 Marston Business Park Tockwith North Yorkshire United Kingdom YO26 7QF enquiries@stageone.co.uk +44 (0)1423 358001 www.stageone.co.uk