With a single £100,000 investment in August, Aztec Event Services became Britain’s first company to take delivery of Shure’s very latest range of ULX-D digital wireless system receivers and microphones. This investment is part of Aztec’s undertaking to complete its Digital Switchover and entailed replacing its entire wireless microphone stock with digital microphones and receivers.

Aztec’s operations director Steve Colesell explained how this need to replace stock due to the digital switchover became an opportunity to make a significant investment in new technology. “We’ve always had Shure microphones but were leaning towards other brands. Then we were shown a pre-production sample of Shure’s ULX-D system, and it was immediately clear that this was the product for us”.

These formidable systems offer greatly improved features as Colesell continues, “Of course Shure audio quality didn’t need questioning, but with this new system we can offer our clients more than eighty digital, encrypted channels with greater range, clarity and reliability, whilst cutting down on setup times both in the warehouse and on-site”.

As one of the world’s most important design trade events, and the largest and most prestigious single-site design event in the UK, the 100% Design Show is regarded as the commercial cornerstone of the annual London Design Festival. This year’s show, to be held at Earls Court, London 19-22 September 2012, will be produced for the first time by Media 10, supported by Aztec Event Services.

Media 10, which also produces Clerkenwell Design Week, the Ideal Home Show and Grand Designs Live, has selected Aztec Event Services to provide audiovisual design, equipment support and content for the show. The 100% Design Show, attracting 35,000 architects, interior designers and associated professionals every year, is a great fit for Media 10’s stable of leading design events.

Working with the show designers, Aztec is helping to specify the main theatre audiovisual equipment, supplying a wide-screen high definition video projection system and audio and lighting, as well as organising a live, real-time video conference system connecting designers around the world. Aztec will also work on some of the design hubs around the event and supply exhibitors with audiovisual solutions.

Informa Print & Media Group is launching Cross Media 2012, a brand new print media show, in London September 3-4, and Aztec Event Services will provide high tech and innovative AV services. Cross Media 2012 will look at ways to integrate digital and traditional marketing channels to drive customer engagement and increase revenues, focusing on social media, digital communications, print, publishing and design. The event has grown out of Ipex, the largest English-speaking global technology event for print, publishing and media, but focuses on the end users of the technology, rather than the technology itself.

Nick Craig Waller, event director for Cross Media 2012 and marketing director for Ipex 2014 comments: “We noticed that customers attending Ipex were bringing their clients to show them examples of print, publishing and other media, and this demonstrated that there was a gap in the market for something that targeted the end users. After consulting with visitors and exhibitors, including some of the biggest names in the industry, we decided to create a new event. This will not replace Ipex, but complement it, and will attract a new audience, including marketers and creatives, and the Business Design Centre is the ideal venue.”

Cross Media 2012, held at the Business Design Centre, London 3-4 September 2012, is a free-to-attend event and will include six seminar theatres with more than 72 inspirational speakers, as well as around 80 exhibitors. Informa Print & Media Group has acquired mediaPro from CloserStill Media this year, and will integrate mediaPro within Cross Media 2012. Aztec will provide AV services across the event, including technology to support ‘Silent Seminars’ in the theatres. AV is a very important part of every show, and Waller sees it as particularly important to get it right at this event, which has senior attendees and exhibitors from high tech industries and high profile brands.

“We are using Aztec’s expertise and experience to create a spectacle for visitors. As an example, there is always a buzz of sound at events, and the ‘Silent Seminars’, where all the attendees wear headsets, allows us to have effective and exciting speakers and demonstrations without interference from the busy and sometimes noisy environment. This will be a test for the technology for other of our shows. Aztec comes with excellent word of mouth recommendations and years of experience in the industry,” says Craig Waller.

Aztec Event Services has signed a new two-year contract to supply AV services to the food, drink and hospitality specialist events organiser Fresh Montgomery, including IFE and Hotelympia.

This is the second two-year contract signed with Fresh Montgomery. In 2012, under the previous contract, Aztec provided full AV support across the entire event for Hotelympia at ExCeL London, including live projection of the chef’s competition in the Salon Culinaire, internet kiosks, presentations and workshops for the ‘Waste Works’ exhibition, and video recording and editing for interviews and footage to be broadcast throughout the venue. The next Hotelympia will be held in 2014, where Aztec will again provide support.

Fresh Montgomery operations director Janice Edmunds said: “We have worked with Aztec for a number of years, initially for IT services and then taking up their full range of AV services, and it has been a successful and fruitful relationship. We are confident that Aztec can and will continue to meet and exceed our expectations at our food, drink and hospitality events.”

Aztec account manager Chris Harris said: “This is our second two-year AV contract with Fresh Montgomery, and we have really enjoyed working with them. We are looking forward to the range of shows that we will be working on in the next two years.

Other Fresh Montgomery shows where Aztec will provide AV services over the next two years include:

* Speciality & Fine Food Fair, 2-4 September 2012, Olympia, London

* Speciality Chocolate Fair, 2-4 September 2012, Olympia, London

* Hospitality, 21-23 January 2013, NEC Birmingham

* ScotHot, 4-6 March 2013, SECC, Glasgow

* IFE, 17-20 March 2013, ExCeL London

* Pro2Pac 2013, 17-20 March 2013, ExCeL, London

Delegates and guests at the Service Desk Institute (SDI) awards event, part of the SDI Conference 2012 at Staverton Park, Daventry (19-20 June 2012), were treated to an Anglo-Grecian extravaganza by the creative bods at Aztec Event Services. The intimate venue, fresh event brand and Greek theme presented a tempting challenge for Gavin Haughey, senior account manager for Aztec. Gavin conceived a versatile stage set that combined the brand and theme with elegant simplicity, incorporating contemporary Greek columns to chime with the evening’s entertainment, the inimitable Stavros Flatley.

A cosy venue provided technical challenges – because space was at a premium, the design needed to minimize the technical footprint. The solution was to use rear projection, with a twin projector blended image providing a 20ft x 8ft screen within the set. In pre-production, the Aztec team developed animated SDI-branded graphics to provide a subtly-moving backdrop for the screen, while applying the semi-translucent speaker support material over the top with a chroma-key technique, creating a distinctive and stunning effect. For the awards dinner, Aztec brought a dramatic transformation to the room with a change of on-screen animated graphics and lighting. This created a really memorable event with a touch of glamour and distinction.

Ashley Attwood, Aztec’s technical manager, pre-programmed all of the video, graphics, audio and lighting in Aztec’s studio with the production manager Tom Walsh overseeing and managing the entire installation and running the two day event. Walsh said: “This type of event is a big team project and there are many people involved behind the scenes that often don’t get recognized for their contribution. Well done to Peter and Duncan (our onsite senior sound and lighting technicians) and our graphics and warehouse departments for their great work in the pre-production.”

Sue Hayward, head of standards, qualifications and curriculum at Service Desk Institute, said: “The support we got from the team from Aztec was great – they were all very helpful, and went above and beyond their brief. The room used for the awards wasn’t an easy one to work with, but the Aztec team was very proactive and came up with good ideas of how to get around the challenges. They were very professional at all times, but they were also easy to work with, and everything was done with a smile, making the whole process fun as well as productive and creative.”