Atlantis Resort Opening
20 November 2008 - The grand opening of the Atlantis resort took place with a spectacular $35million party, reportedly the world’s most expensive hotel in the world the grand opening didn’t disappoint. Around 2,000 VIPs including A-list actors such as Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan and Charlize Theron, models, musicians, sports stars and businesspeople from around the world met enjoyed the festivities. Guests were welcomed in style with a display of one million fireworks, provided with food cooked by Michelin-starred chefs and spoilt with a special hour-long live performance by Kylie Minogue.
Commissioned by agency Outthink, CT supplied a large quantity of equipment including the state-of the-art Kahuna 2ME system, this high end HD vision switcher easily processed the multiple inputs / outputs required to cope with the complex event. The sources provided and managed by CT included, 6 cameras (including 4 D55 cameras, 1 LDK6000 HD camera on jib and 1 SD RF camera), with Outthink supplying and managing 3 microwave camera, 2 helicopter wescams, 2 ENG PAL cameras, additional sources included EVS hard disk recorder/player and graphics. The outputs included the Screen feed, Unilateral World feed and 10 VTR’s for ISO and line cut.
The three microwave cameras positioned in and around the Atlantis hotel, were free running signals that came straight into the Kahuna without the need for synchronisers. Also taking ENG cameras via up converters to enhance the firework display record feed. A feed from the red carpet, came to CT which was then converted and passed to the media centre (built by fellow Avesco Group company Presteigne Charter) for distribution to Sky News and BBC.
CT switched one feed for the LED screens and one for the unilateral feed. Again this was distributed via fibre to Presteigne Charter for global distribution. 6 switchable feeds went to the media centre where Presteigne Charter had built numerous edit suites for broadcasters and signal monitoring and distribution. They also had the facility to dub virtually any tape format to any signal format for the worldwide press.
Mark Woodhouse, Project Manager, CT Dubai comments “It was great to be involved with such a high profile project, the Kahuna worked brilliantly, allowing the largest Dubai project of the year to run as smooth as possible. Being part of a large group, Avesco, allowed CT Dubai and CT London to work closely with Presteigne Charter to ensure everything was considered and managed correctly.”