KEY PLATFORMS:
- ADI, along with business partners, JA Productions and Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS), provided complete Live Site transformation and management from concept to reality.
- Event presentation, creative content, audio, lighting, SFX, interactive gaming and full project management delivered.
- Over 650m² of LED technology deployed across 11 locations.
- Over 35 members of ADI staff on site during the Games.
Monday’s closing ceremony brought the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to an end, with ADI reflecting on the 11 vibrant Festival Sites delivered to the local community.
Cultural, sporting and digital elements were at the centre of each site, where multiple locations were transformed from large capacity venues and civic and community green spaces, into accessible hubs for cultural placemaking and collective celebration during the Games.
ADI, JA Productions and OPUS worked closely with the Birmingham Commonwealth Games OC to help deliver an unforgettable 11 days of sport and culture, from the initial conceptualisation and design of each live site location through to the installation, production and site management aspects.
The Festival Sites gained plenty of praise in the aftermath of the ceremony, with national media outlets such as the BBC and The Guardian hailing the transformation of Victoria Square.
Victoria, CHAMBERLAIN AND CENTENARY SQUAREs
Over the course of the Games, Birmingham’s popular civic space, Victoria Square, quickly became the beating heart of the city centre. Huge crowds gathered to watch the sporting action on the giant LED screen, while the sounds of over 150 local musicians poured into the surrounding streets from the performance stage.
In transforming the iconic square into a space that aptly celebrated Birmingham’s diverse culture and breadth of artistic talent, ADI designed and managed content for 106m² of LED and performance on the bespoke stage design that perfectly framed the city’s famous ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’ sculpture. The site included a totem and multifunctional gantry, the latter of which was used to welcome and inform spectators through creative content, as well as stage the finishing line of the Marathon events.
SMITHFIELD
The Smithfield Festival Site sat at the core of a vibrant, open space, with the Commonwealth Games’ beach volleyball and basketball 3×3 competitions taking place around it.
Tasked with uniting culture and sport, ADI created a community hub with a bespoke three-sided 210m² LED screen and stage structure that played host to an array of digital commissions from across the region. ADI worked closely with the 2022 Birmingham Games committee to conceptualise, design and install the showpiece ‘Beacon Stage’, which provided a focal point for entertainment and celebration throughout the Games, including a variety of interactive multiplayer games powered by Piing.
ADI’s experienced production team managed the live video, audio, lighting and SFX for not only the key live Sporting moments, but all of the West Midlands based performers.
NEIGHBOURHOOD SITES
Created with local communities in mind, ADI’s technical and production teams worked collaboratively to bring colour and vibrancy to seven different Neighbourhood Festival Sites.
A mobile LED screen provided a free live broadcast of the sporting action for visitors to enjoy, including the opening and closing ceremonies; Midland-based food vendors offered a diverse range of cultural cuisine, while artists and performers took to the stage to bring those that live in the locality together.
The programme at each site reflected a different element of the Games, from the ‘warm-up’ in Castle Vale, to the notions of speed and boundaries in Sparkhill. The theme for Edgbaston was water, whilst Yardley focused on our ability to play.
Although each site was custom designed for its surrounding community, there was a running theme of art and cultural events which complimented the digital assets and sports activities.
Queen's Baton relay
Birmingham staged the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay – an epic journey across the Commonwealth, with The Queen’s Baton visiting all 72 nations and territories. The tour got underway back in October 2021 when Her Majesty The Queen placed her Message to the Commonwealth into the Baton.
Travelling from Buckingham Palace to Birmingham’s Victoria Square, ADI moved from site to site with an iCONIC 15 mobile LED screen. At each location, audio, playout and content was created and managed by the talented production team.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - London
To celebrate 10 years since London hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to encourage people to get behind the 2022 Commonwealth Games, East London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was transformed into a fun-filled festival site.
ADI supplied the park with an iCONIC 40c LED screen – with audio and content playout included – to broadcast a live feed of the sporting action for the entirety of the Games. This proved to be a popular feature, where art, live music, food vendors and sports activities created a family-friendly atmosphere.
“We are delighted to have been able to showcase Birmingham’s wide array of local talent and create engagement by transforming numerous city centre locations into unique spaces. To see our concepts and ideas evolve into reality has been a rewarding experience for all at ADI. This bespoke level of live site event delivery has been the first of its kind and has never been done before by the Commonwealth or Olympics. The success of the Festival Sites prove that spectators do not just come together for the sporting action, but for the cultural and community elements which we provided through engaging LED and AV solutions. It has been an absolute pleasure to work collaboratively with both John Adkins of JA Productions and Caroline Davis of OPUS, and I can't wait to do it again.”
Photos courtesy of Harry Elliott Photography
