91探花

Situated in a quiet street near London Bridge and shielded behind the Tate Modern and Borough Market, small team of 14 brilliantly fine-tuned professionals have another successful event to add to their impressive portfolio.

And it鈥檚 a big one.

The biggest event the world has celebrated in a long time, The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Platinum Party at the Palace took place on 4^th June and saw NorthHouse鈥檚 remarkable team morph Buckingham Palace into an awe-inspiring projector screen.

Now the party is over, everyone has been asking 鈥楯ust how did they do THAT?鈥�

NorthHouse, led by founder and CEO Tom Bairstow won the pitch in January and were commissioned by BBC Studios producers Mark Sidaway and Claire Popplewell. Tom feels they were chosen to create the projection mapping, video design and direction, screen visuals and broadcast graphics throughout the celebratory weekend, because of their highly conceptual approach to designing the show bringing inspiration from a variety of sources such as the Queen’s fashion over the decades – as well as their reputation for pulling off highly technical creative projects.

A Giant IMAX Screen

So, how did NorthHouse turn Buckingham Palace into what Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, described as 鈥渁 giant IMAX screen鈥�?

After months of designing and creating, the visuals were brought to life in bespoke 3D software to pre-visualise the projections on Buckingham Palace and working in collaboration with the household PR, BBC and the star-studded line up of performers, they mapped how each creative idea would unfold on 鈥榮creen鈥�.

Their unique system factored in every variable from multiple perspectives, analysing anything from weather fluctuations, colour distribution, camera positioning and LED and projection light balancing through to the building structure of Buckingham Palace itself, the ultimate precision projection mapping.

NorthHouse鈥檚 own software navigation and unique system of testing ensured the margin of error within their projection mapping was negligible and their astute and highly skilled technological creatives delivered a visual spectacular that was literally fit for a Queen.

Asking Buckingham Palace to 鈥淧lease Turn The Lights Out鈥�

Once the team had the full show pre-visualised, they arrived at Buckingham Palace for a week of rehearsals. They set up a makeshift ‘studio’ perched on Queen Victoria Monument, opposite Buckingham Palace, and under the cover of night rehearsed their mapping as discreetly as possible. All went smoothly except for one snag, NorthHouse had to ask Buckingham Palace to 鈥榩lease turn the lights out鈥欌��which was duly done.

The peak viewing figures for the Queen鈥檚 Platinum Jubilee Party reached 13.4million and the two and a half hour party ran to precision timing. This was an enormous project with constant collaborations.

The result of NorthHouse鈥檚 collaboration with Leeds based SKYMAGIC to deliver projection mapping to complement the drone light show, proved hugely popular, but keeping a huge corgi, pouring teapot, jumping stallion drone light show under wraps meant rehearsals proved harder still.

Preparing With a Yorkshire Pub Lunch

Without opportunity to test this marriage of projection and drone light against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace in advance, the teams met for a pub lunch in Yorkshire sampling a proper Yorkshire pint. The core creative teams made their way to a secluded farm, at midnight, to see the drones rehearse above a field.

Tom Bairstow said: 鈥淎ll the collaborations worked beautifully because we were all aligned in our goals. We were grateful the BBC entrusted us to design and deliver the projection mapping, video design and direction, screen visuals and broadcast graphics. We really wanted to create a series of moments throughout the show that kept the audience gripped, building layer upon layer of audio-visual experience.鈥�

Working with the BBC they divided the show into daylight (20:00-21:30) and night-time (21:30-22:30) sections. Starting with NorthHouse鈥檚 LED screen visuals complimenting an array of incredible performances before the night-time show began at 21:30, twenty minutes after sunset, allowing optimum projection conditions and raising the show to a whole other level. The final layer of entertainment saw a harmonised drone and projection show. The 鈥楶latinum Party鈥� ultimately combined talent, timing and technology to achieve such staggering results.

Green Messaging

Tom recalls some pouring liquid platinum over the Palace for Alicia Keys, the 鈥榝ashion section鈥� with Duran Duran highlighting Her Majesty鈥檚 amazing sense of style and swinging disco balls around the Palace for Diana Ross, 鈥淚t truly was a show where we could let our imaginations go wild!鈥� Tom admits, and yet his choice of the party鈥檚 pinnacle moment was 鈥極ur Green Future鈥� section with Sir David Attenborough.

鈥淔ilming Sir David Attenborough with Mark Sidaway and Cheryl Ko Pearson in Richmond Park to record his message was inspiring.聽 We tend to align ourselves with projects and organisations which have environmentally friendly messages – for example, the Green Carpet Fashion Awards and Livia Firth鈥檚 Eco-Age, so to have the ultimate environmental crusader as part of our artistic creation was perfect and transforming Buckingham Palace into a tropical glasshouse was all we hoped it would be. Feeling the audience鈥檚 response to this section on the night was incredibly moving.鈥�

Graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University with a BA in Graphic Art and Design, specialising in moving image, Tom relocated from Yorkshire to London and set up NorthHouse in 2011, initially working on artist tours for groups such as 鈥極ne Direction鈥� and 鈥楲ittle Mix鈥�.

Each year has attracted more highlights and by 2017 NorthHouse projects included Rugby World Cup, Take That Tour, the Superbowl half time show, Coldplay鈥檚 World Tour and Ferrari鈥檚 70^th birthday.

More recently projects include 鈥楨E British Academy Film Awards鈥� (2021), 鈥楾he BAFTAS鈥� (2021) and 鈥楪reen Carpet Fashion Awards鈥� (2020) but NorthHouse is also known for helping young people succeed in the industry as Tom is an Ambassador for Media at Big Creative Education College, London, working to create industry standard briefs and help students. Tom also heads back home to give talks at his former school, Bradford Grammar School.

NorthHouse is known for delivering huge events, but The Queen鈥檚 Platinum Jubilee Party was special, and Tom isn鈥檛 shy to admit that as Diana Ross hit her last note, champagne corks were being popped to celebrate the success of this once in a lifetime opportunity, an achievement worth the months of planning, organising and collaborating that contributed hugely into making the Queen鈥檚 Platinum Jubilee Party a truly triumphant occasion by Royal appointment.