As a ‘creative and technical event solutions specialist’, we love technology at FIX8Group – it’s an essential part of our toolbox. But, as we all know, the tools aren’t going to build you the event of your dreams – a skilled creative and operational team is.
At FIX8 I have the privilege of working on a wide range of events around the world, from the garages of a Formula 1 pit lane to venues for high-end corporate conferencing and to arenas and stadia for live music shows. Collaboration, design and creativity form the foundation of how we work, and we apply it in a variety of ways across all the events we are involved with.
We’re working with pixel densities and video control systems that several years back would have felt like a pipedream, and it allows us to design technically advanced shows to meet that ever increasing production expectation by our clients. But we can’t lose sight of what really matters when it comes to creating an event: as incredible as this all is, technology should be an enabler rather than the mould that we have to design around. So often we’re asked, “what is the latest technology we can incorporate into the show?” For me, this is a completely misguided approach…
Here at FIX8, the only thing that comes “off-the-shelf” are coffee cups. Everything we do is designed to be correct for the intended application, and centred around bringing the event together as one, cohesive integrated system. Whether that’s sound, lighting, video, rigging, or whatever else, how the control system is designed is fundamental to giving the event the control it requires.
But of course, none of this is known without in intimate knowledge of what the event is actually trying to achieve. When somebody invites us to design their show, it’s not a case of 20 of these, 30 of those and 10 of these – we need to understand the event and what the message is that’s being conveyed. From this point, we can design and propose a technical solution that engages the audience and offers real value in terms of the audience understanding and absorbing the messaging.
“We look at events not just as a supplier, but as a stakeholder.” Ben Hyman, Senior Project Manager
As a company, we represent the quality of some of the largest worldwide brands, and the depiction of that brand to its audience rests in our hands. Getting this right is fundamental.
Understand the client, the brand, the message – then design the event around this! It may sound obvious, but it’s certainly not the way it’s always done in our industry. Attempting to shoehorn an event in an existing technical solution limits flexibility and more than often than not constrains design. Coming right back to the start, technology should be the enabler, not the dictator.
This is one of the reasons why FIX8 prides itself on its own sophisticated technology, based around control infrastructure, media servers and data distribution systems. However, we don’t own stocks of LED screen, projectors or moving lights, because we don’t want to be constrained by what’s available in the warehouse. We like to specify the most appropriate technology and equipment that will achieve exactly what our client requires, in collaboration with our network of equipment suppliers that we know and trust. For me, it’s about creating an individual and unique event experience every time, not a re-hashed design of the same equipment from the same warehouse.
For me, that’s the difference – that’s the FIX8 way.
