The Day After the Night Before

What a relief, with both displays behind us it is a huge achievement to to be able to say that we fired the two largest displays in the country on the same night, congratulations to both our teams in Edinburgh and London. Both displays have been hailed a success and London certainly seems to have lived up to expectation, heralding the start of an important year for London and the Country with the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympic Games.


Firing from Big Ben seemed to have created the desired reaction, it was a complete surprise which we are very proud of. To be the first to bring gun powder into the Palace of Westminster since Guy Fawkes in 1605 will go down as a momentous achievement which can never be repeated, we are grateful to the staff of the Clock Tower who assisted us in making history.

The media have been generous with their praise and assessment of the display, below is how the BBC decided to describe the event.

London's new year fireworks dazzled their way into 2012 in an "awesome" display that has been widely hailed by both the media and public as a stunning success.

Newspapers described the capital as "the best in the world at putting on a show to celebrate the new year", while noting the "distinctly Olympian theme... with fireworks launched in the shape and colours of the Olympic rings" and there was also praise on social networking site Twitter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16391068


We have received a few images from our photographers which we would like to share, we hope that everyone who watched the display enjoyed it, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year, 2012 will be a significant year for events generally and for the Country as a whole.


With a display of any kind comes the clear up, our very hard working crew managed to get a few hours sleep, finishing at 4am, before starting again at 10am to clear up the tackle and equipment before returning home to their families for a well earned rest. We would like to offer all our staff both in Edinburgh and London all the best and a very big thank you for all their hard work, commitment and professionalism.

London New Year's Eve Day 5

This is it, show day, with months of preparation, many production meetings, pages of paper work, risk assessments, method statements and site visits and after 4 days of intense set up with a crew of 36, the day of truth has finally arrived. The big surprise we have up our sleeve this year which we wanted to keep a secret was the new roof top location as we referred to it, the Great Clock Tower, which houses Big Ben. With 24 firing positions and associated firing equipment a crew of eight had to haul nearly 500 kg of equipment up 334 steps of the Tower.


I can not tell you how much was work required to get permission to achieve this very unique and stunning addition to the display, from a heritage and conservation point of view we new that getting consent would be the greatest hurdle to overcome, while we would be the first people to get gunpowder in to the Palace of Westminster, I did not want to be the first to be hung, drawn and quartered for damaging the structure. I did utilise this once in a lifetime opportunity to ask if I could visit the location where Guy Fawkes hid his terrible quantity of gun powder. To my surprise there is actually a plaque which reads as follows, "near this spot, beneath the old house of Lords Chambers, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators hid thirty six barrels of gunpowder with the intention of blowing up King James I and the members of the House of Lords and House of Commons. The Plot was foiled on 5th November 1605 a few hours before the State Opening of Parliament". I could not resist the opportunity to get a photograph of this historic achievement we were about to embark on, 406 years later we would finally bring gun powder in to the Palace of Westminster with far less deadly intentions, but to entertain and celebrate.


The remainder of the crew were working hard to bring the final preparations together. As the day progressed all of the single shot fans on the barges and pontoons were rigged and wired in. The Pontoons were dropped in to the water and tied to their temporary moorings laid for us by the Port of London Authority, while the left and right hand barge were moved in to their show position. The middle barge could not be moved in to position until the last pleasure cruiser had left the London Eye Pier.


The weather looked as if it was going to be OK, not quite as as good as last year but well within the range where we were confident we could fire all the display. The winds were gusting to 15mph, although the wind was in the prevailing direction we were going to be close to the limit of the clock tower mines which would be pulled if the winds picked up any more, the comets would be fine but the mines which are lighter could in stronger winds cause us potential problems. There was also rain forecast for the early part of the evening, this did not worry us too much as everything was waterproofed and protected, including the pyro for the Eye, although this would not be rigged until later in the day.


The day was a hive of activity with multiple crews spread over many locations, we had the Clock Tower Crew rigging the 24 firing positions around the balcony, the waterborne crew in our rib boat together with General Marine craning the pontoons in to the water and moving them in to show position, we had the barge crews testing and checking all the wiring and covering the data cable with sand. Finally we had the Eye crew who were getting ready to start the crucial phase of loading pyro and fireworks on to the Eye.

We can not load any live material on to the Eye until it is closed to the public, at about 3.30pm the last flight or ride on the Eye commences, we wait for the thirty minute ride and watch the last of the tourists to vacate the area. As soon as the last member of the public has been escorted away the Eye and the immediate area around it is shut down and cleared of all people except for the show team. Stage Electrics start to load the moving head lights in each of the capsules while our crew move the middle barge in to its final position moored on to the London Eye Pier.

A very well drilled and rehearsed team spring in to action, all of the props for the Eye inner rim are laid out in a particular order and hoisted up to the Hiab level of the Eye where they will be stowed in the correct order for rigging, the first prop to be lifted up has to be the last one hoisted up. The Eye Hub crew start their journey with the pyrotechnics up the rear support leg of the Eye to the central spindle with over 400 single shot tubes which are rigged on to the crows nest on the Hub.

The lighting crew this year were very swift and completed their rig by 5pm. As soon as the last of the lights are loaded, the Eye is handed over to us, with all the props at the base of the Eye our riggers jump to action with the biggest challenge we face, loading 32 props on to the inner rim of the Eye containing over 1,000 fireworks which have to be rigged by 10pm so that the Eye can be locked down. This gives the lighting crew enough time to do their final checks before they run a full lighting show on the Eye, Shell building and County Hall as a type of warm show, a crowd pleaser, which helps the many hundreds of thousands of people who travel to central London to watch the midnight display, the chance to enjoy a bigger spectacle.

It is 5.20pm on the 31st December 2011 when the London Eye is officially handed over to us, this is the moment when all our crew have to get on and deliver, we are under such a time constraint and such pressure to deliver that I can safely say it is the most agonising few hours of my life as I watch the Eye slowly rotate one position at a time as another prop gets fixed and connected to the firing network, we have just over 4 hours to rig the London Eye.


Last year we were finished rigging the Eye by 21:45, this year Ian, Lee and Paul complete the task in record time, 20:30, just over three hours. The time has arrived, the London Eye is rotated to its lock down show position, our crew drop down the tails for the data runs and connect them to the home runs to the command and control where the firing panels and laptops are sitting waiting to run a our comms test, this involves a number of testing regimes which include a diagnostic check on all data networks, the control panels, each module and each individual igniter. Running this test is a very nerve racking moment, this is the first time we get to run a complete test and find out whether we have 100% or a major problem on our hands, with a little over two hours to midnight there is no time to rectify major problems. With a click of the mouse, the computer runs through the first diagnostic checks, one by one the 40 modules on the Eye show up green with a pass, we run the final continuity check of all 1,280 igniters, with a hold of the breath the results flash up, only one igniter out, which fortunately is on the Hub which is still accessible by our crew, we radio up to Tony who checks the cue and we wait for him to confirm when he is clear, we run the test again and we have 100%, a great task undertaken by our dedicated crew. Now we are ready for the midnight moment as many hundreds of thousands of people gather in the streets around central London to witness the New Year and the start of 2012.

New Year's Eve Set Up Day 4

Time is ticking fast and the moment of truth is fast approaching, today is spent rigging the roman candles on the 13 front positions on each barge. From each position we fire a wide variety of roman candles up to 47mm, single shot effects up to 60mm and mines up to 100mm. All the igniters are run into our waterproof compact rails which are built on to a mounting plate fixed in to a Peli flight case. Once the lid is closed the flight case can sit in a torrential downpour ensuring the module and the 32 dual push button connectors remain dry.

The roman candle combinations are also bagged up to make sure they are waterproof, an igniter fitted and then labelled to ensure the cake is wired in to the correct cue. It takes four people the entire morning just to bag and fuse all the cakes, they are then loaded on to their respective barges and positioned in the correct orientation and wired in. With this quantity of cakes our licensed store is essential, and in the event that it is raining we have a marquee situated in the dock area so that we can work on the fireworks under cover.


The final aspect to the show set up is the six pontoons which are equidistantly positioned between the barges which when added to the barge positions creates 12 firing platforms approximately 20 meters apart giving us an entire frontage of 200 meters width along the Thames in front of the Eye. From the pontoons we fire a large quantity of one shot effects, single shot fan barrages and small cakes. All the effects are carefully positioned and wired in to compact rails.

By mid afternoon the barges are ready to be towed up river, one by one all three barges make the two hour trip to the permanent mooring just down river of the London Eye, where they will remain overnight until they are moved in to final show position mid morning of the 31st. The middle barge will not be moved until 4pm on the day, the middle barge is moored on the London Eye Pier which receives a large number of pleasure boats throughout the day, so we have to wait for the last tourist boat to leave before the pier is handed over to us.


Tonight on the Eye we have a full technical rehearsal, at midnight we will run through the entire show, both sound and lights but obviously without any pyro. 32 moving head lights are loaded in to the Eye, one for each capsule, a team of 8 lighting technicians remove the light from its flight case, race in to the capsule, strap the light on to a support in the capsule, plug it in, connect the wireless receivers and then check to make sure the light is operating correctly before moving on the next capsule, the Eye constantly rotates as the lighting crew rig each light in about 35 minutes. Below are just a few flight cases waiting to be loaded.


Once the last light is loaded, the Eye is moved to its lock down position and handed over to us. At this point we drop down the data run tails from the first cradle then connect our loom which runs from the base of the Eye to our command and control located on Queens Walk behind the Eye. This is the first time we get the chance to run a full comms test with the modules only on the Eye and Hub, a very nerve racking moment, it is here that we find out whether we have any major comms issues or not.

Working on the London Eye is fraught with problems from many different aspects. The greatest problem form a technical point of view is RF and Electromagnetic interference. We are in one of the harshest environments in the country to experience both and in significant doses. The electromagnetic interference comes from the 63 amp 3 phase power cables which run around the perimeter of the Eye feeding power to each of the capsules to run the lighting, heating and air conditioning as well as the motors that operate each capsule as the Eye rotates. The RF interference comes from the very busy radio traffic which is prevalent in this part of London, both from normal transmitters in the locality as well as huge RF security nets which protect the government buildings on the opposite side of the river.

If we were in any doubt of experiencing any interference, we were ensuring the best possible scenario to create interference by building a huge antenna by running two cable runs entirely round the London Eye which is the largest steel circular structure in the capital. One would not be in the least bit surprised to connect up all the data networks and find the Archers theme tune being received through our aerial. The comms test is a success with a 100% pass, while the rehearsal takes place we run the laptop to constantly test sequentially each module in turn, in the three hours the Eye is locked down we send over 4,000 packets of information and not one drop out from any module.

New Year's Eve Set Up Day 3

Events and commitments leading up to the display some what over took my ability to continue the blog, so I will finish it with a retrospective look back at the set up and the hours leading up to the midnight moment.

The last of the three barges has received its quota of shells and has been wired in, all the racks are now loaded and connected to the FireOne Rails, each barge contains 48 modules each capable of firing 32 cues, this allows us to fire each shell, roman candle and single shot tube individually allowing for maximum synchronisation and control over what is fired and when. In order to protect the shells and their fuses from getting wet, we cover over the tubes with thin sheets of plastic.


The team at the docks consisted of three barge crews, eight on each, in addition we had a production manager who was responsible for getting any additional equipment that was required like nails, screws and tools, they were also responsible for ensuring everyone had the correct PPE and liaising with the marine company who owned and moved the barges. In addition we had two banks men on the dock side who were responsible for loading the equipment and fireworks on to the barges. Each lunch time a team of caterers arrived to feed the crew a hot meal and provide drinks for the hard working pyrotechnicians, this ensured that everyone was well fed but also meant time was not lost in people disappearing for long lengths of time to get their own food.

The London Eye team had the unenviable task of running four outputs around the inner rim of the Eye connecting up to each of the 32 inner firing positions. The wiring plan was carefully thought through to ensure that in the event of an output being lost we would not loose an entire section of the Eye, by wiring in every other position on each output we were building in a degree of redundancy and still maintaining a complete rotation of effects around the Eye.

The London Eye team consisted of a team of ten crew, four worked on the Hub or central spindle while five worked on the inner rim of the Eye, the tenth person was acting as our central Production Manager, making sure the crew were ready and properly harnessed to work at height, they were also responsible for completing the paper work with the London Eye technical team and getting the permits to work each night, their final role was to sit in the operating booth at the base of Eye and ask the operator to move the Eye to required orientation so that our crew could work on the relevant part of the inner rim.