Geneva Motor Show 2019

Blowing the wraps of a Geneva show star

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One of the highlights of the 2019 Geneva Motor Show was the launch of the Pininfarina Battista electric hypercar. The “reveal” was produced by Torque Agency.

Torque created a full design, production and logistics plan for a pre-show VIP event in front of an invited audience of almost 250 and we were brought in by Technical Production Manager, Paul Evans of Conference Technical Facilities to provide sound. We were required to design and supply two systems, one for speech, using an 8-way radio mic system with two backup handhelds, and one for the car reveal VT and a DJ playing music. We were also asked to supply a 10-way wired RTS comms system interfaced with a four-way wireless system.

Although the room was relatively small, some of the cars were to be positioned off stage to allow the guests to walk round and view them from all angles, so we needed to make sure the speech was clearly relayed to all areas of the room, whilst keeping enough headroom on the mics to allow the presenters to move around.

To meet this challenge we paired Sennheiser SK5212 bodypacks with DPA4066 headsets. This allowed the presenters to move freely around the room without any danger of feedback.

The music system needed to be powerful to create impact, but again, due to the size of the room, we weren’t able to fly the rig, so ground stacks were positioned on platforms to raise them over the heads of the guests at the front of the room.

The speech system was made up of 16 distributed L-Acoustics X8 speakers flown from the truss. The music system comprised six L-Acoustic Kiva II speakers per side, stacked on an SB15 sub, with an additional two SB18 subs.

As the production team needed to be in constant contact with the technical team whilst moving between the presentation room, holding areas and guest reception, we carefully positioned the Clearcomm Freespeak antennas to allow uninterrupted signal between the wireless comms headsets and the wired RTS system.

Our default position is always to take spares and backups wherever the event may be but for events abroad, it’s essential that you have everything you need for any on-site changes or issues. Events like this throw up unpredictable challenges, so we like to make sure we’re covered for all eventualities.

It was quite a tight time period too, with a flight and unload on day 1, rig and test on day 2, rehearsals, show and de-rig on day 3, so our practice of running a full full set-up and test back at our warehouse prior to departure proved particularly worthwhile, enabling the three-man crew to make short work of the job once on location.

Not only did we get the event over the line, but it went incredibly well and was a huge success – and that is only down to having a top team that could roll with the changes and challenges given at every step.
Sarah Brautigam

Event Director

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