Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Itag Information Technology AG 60 years Jubileum

November in Basel. Temperature hovers around +5'C during the daytime and sun shines from crystal clear sky.

View to our inner yard in Ziegelstrasse

Nice indeed - in theory (explanation follows) - This week I'm building set for Swiss IT company Itag's jubileum banquet. The event takes place in an old market hall downtown Basel, just next to the main railwaystation. The location is interesting: big concrete dome, 60 meters wide, 30 high. It's quite spacious and empty - and not very warm at the moment (that's why the crisp weather doesn't please me much), I have to wear two wool-pullovers under winterjacket in order to stay warm enough. Makes you feel like a Michelin man.

About 1/3 of the space in Markthalle

The other downfall of the place is that due to the special architecture, it's not allowed to rig anything to the structures of the building itself. Therefore we use the floodlights that already are in there - since thirty years untouched judging by the amount of black dust inside them. This task is bit tricky because these floods are hanged at 14 meters height. I have the cutest Genie in use, but still it's somewhat shaky up there.

My Genie and the destination

All the other stuff that is needed for the event is rigged on a pavillion-shaped steel stage structure which we built in the dead-center of the area. It looks very small but is indeed 5 meters high an 8 meted in diameter. In addition to lights there will be video-projection on the surface of the dome. This is something I'm curious to see, since the beamer is hure and multiple mirrors will be used to reflect the image to the ceiling. Position of the beamer will be in the little tower on top of the stage, facing down to the mirrors placed on top of the pavillion ceiling.

I will post some pictures of the actual event after Thursday.

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