PSI Supports Titanic Weekend

	PSI at the Titanic Sounds Belfast event

Irish Lighting rental company Production Services Ireland's (PSI) Belfast and Dublin operations supplied lighting, rigging, and crew to three major events commemorating the centenary of the sinking of the world's most famous cruise ship, the Titanic.

The ship - the largest afloat at the time -- was built at the Harland & Wolf shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, from 1909 - 1911. She sank four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland with the loss of 1,514 lives.

The first event was a series of gala concerts for the Titanic 100 civic commemoration and tribute program presented by The Port of Cork at Cobh, County Cork -- the last port of call for the ill-fated ship. The second was Titanic Sounds for MTV, staged on the slipway at Harland & Wolf where the vessel was launched. The third event was for a live broadcast by BBC2 from Belfast's Waterfront Hall.

In addition to this, PSI also supplied lighting to three major boxing and wrestling fixtures traversing the same weekend, including WWE in Belfast and Dublin, providing a challenge for logistics and pre-planning.

UK rental company HSL collaborated with PSI to supply the gear for Titanic Sounds.

Says PSI director Sean Pagel, "When all six events were confirmed to overlap that weekend, it made real sense to join forces and work with another like-minded company. It's further cemented our already excellent working relationship with HSL, and once again Mike Oates and the team were brilliant in every way."

For the Titanic 100 at Cobh, PSI supplied lighting, trussing, and rigging to the outdoor stage, a 16m dome roof structure located in the middle of the harbor front, into which they installed four upstage / downstage 'finger' trusses, chosen to maximize the headroom. PSI was working directly for Cobh 100 and with production manager Mark Anderson of Creating Shows.

Joe Byrne and Darragh McAuliffe co-ordinated everyone's lighting requirements for the four show days running the lights on a Jands Vista T2 console.

With the atmospheric backdrop of Harland & Wolf and it's iconic Samson & Goliath cranes juxtaposed against the new modern Titanic Belfast building, designed by architects Eric Kuhne & Associates, the Titanic Sounds event was staged by MTV as part of their World Stage music series in association with Belfast City Council. The line up included Pixie Lott, Sean Paul, Olly Murs, Katy B, and Rizzle Kicks, and attracted around 16,000 enthusiastic music fans.

Lighting was designed by Eugene O'Connor working for MTV.

An 18m wide stage was installed by the Star Events Group, under which PSI sub-hung a trussing system, comprising five V-shaped trusses at different levels with their apexes downstage center; three side trusses left and right, a back truss split into three sections and a front truss also split into three elements. All the intelligent fixtures were controlled by Johnny Mac using a Road Hog Full Boar console and expansion wing, and all the generics were run by O'Connor on an Avolites Diamond 4. Nick Malbon controlled all the LED screens' playback material via a Catalyst media server.

Titanic Concert, Belfast Waterfront Hall Bryan Ferry and Grammy Award winning Joss Stone were among the line up for the Titanic concert live telecast from Belfast's Waterfront Hall venue and hosted by broadcaster John Humphries. A capacity audience of 1,000 attended in the Waterfront Hall, while another 4,000 saw the action relayed on a big screen in the grounds of the City Hall.

The lighting design was created by Oli Richards.

These three events and the three sporting ones - WWE in Belfast and Dublin, Clan Wars at the Ulster Hall, and the Tyson Fury versus Martin Rogan Irish Heavyweight Boxing title fight at the Odyssey Arena on the Saturday night, left PSI's new Belfast warehouse completely bare for the weekend.