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Summit rigs 33.45 x 14.95m display at O2 Arena for Mamma Mia screening

Summit Steel rigged a 33.45 x 14.95m flown projection screen at London’s O2 Arena for two special screenings of Mamma Mia the Movie, which was seen by up to 12,000 people per show. Summit was working for Andy Peat Associates, with which it had rigged a similar but slightly smaller screen at the venue two years ago for the premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Summit’s crew, led by project manager Jay Call, also flew the PA system and all the drapes used to dress the venue and transform it into a giant cinema for the day. The screen frame was constructed from 30.5cm JTE trussing and picked up on four 1-tonne points. The projection material, supplied by Harkness Hall, was attached and tensioned via the traditional method of lacing with string around its perimeter. During the build process, tensioning wires were dropped from the centre two points and wrapped around the bottom chord of the frame to prevent the structure bowing as it was flown out. The screen had to be raised in stages as it was built outwards width-ways, and because it was so large, it would have been impossible for it to be assembled flat and then lifted without substantially more bracing. The material was also tensioned as it was built (from the top down) by riggers working off cherry pickers. Once the full screen was assembled and the surface stretched smooth, it was flown out to its full 14m top trim height, then finished off with a border fitted by Blackfriars Scenery.

The PA was supplied by Britro and comprised three hangs of V-DOSC concealed behind the screen. The PA stacks were each picked up on a pair of 2-tonne motors to enable maximum focusability, allowing full and even coverage around the whole arena. Upstage of the PA behind the screen, three drapes trusses for masking were hung, each on four points. One was in the centre at the back, and the screen was flanked left and right by an angled set of drapes. Summit’s four ground riggers worked in conjunction with four venue riggers – also supplied by Summit as part of its ongoing rigging services to the O2 – which installed the top points. They completed everything in the day before the show.

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