Since 2003 London has celebrated New Year's Eve with a major public event on the banks of the river Thames, consisting of a large firework display centred around the London Eye and the river itself. The Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority employed Jack Morton Worldwide to create and produce this display and in 2010 / 2011 the event was in its seventh year.
New Year's Eve 2011
Jack Morton Worldwide are a global brand experience agency who are the creative and production team behind some of the most highly visible and critically acclaimed stadium scale events including the Olympic Games in Athens, the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and of course the New Year's Eve marking the midnight moment in London. Their brief was to establish London as a must see New Year's Eve destination with a large scale firework display, projection, an audio sound scape and lighting show on the river Thames and the London Eye, the display has now become the largest display in the country and indeed is one of the largest annual firework displays in the World. As production company Jack Morton are responsible for liaising with all the London agencies integral to the delivery of the event from the Mayor’s Office and the GLA, Metropolitan Police and other emergency services, transport for London , Port of London Authority , Westminster
In August 2010 after a rigorous tender process Kimbolton Fireworks LTD were successful in providing the fireworks for the midnight moment, 2010 / 2011 and in so doing would become the second company in seven years to fire this very prestigious display, and the first UK company to be responsible for the countries largest annual firework display. Previously the display had been fired by Groupe F, a French company who worked closely with Jack Morton Worldwide to establish the event as one of the must see displays in the country. Groupe F had created a display which was creatively stunning and technically very challenging, they had raised the bar to a very high level which created our first significant challenge, that of improving and developing an already world class event.
As the display director of Kimbolton Fireworks I was responsible for the design, choreography, production and logistics of the display from the tender process through to the delivery, firing and clear up. I hope to provide an informative account of the processes involved in the production of such a complex and technically challenging firework display.
Jubilee Bridge at about 21:00
When I received the news that we had been successful in our tender for the event, I was euphoric and excited, however these feelings did not last long as very quickly the realisation of the magnitude of delivering this display began to unfold and my feelings quickly turned to that of anxiety and trepidation. Firing any display of this size for the first time is daunting, especially when the event had been running very successfully for six years previous with great critical acclaim. In addition we were the first UK company to fire this display on the London Eye, there was a considerable amount of pressure to ensure the display was a success and that we exceed expectations and confirmed the credibility of the UK fireworks industry.
With a high profile display of this size and prestige the pressure of getting it right and making sure it is a success is immense, not just from a personal point of view but a professional point of view, our reputation is on the line, get it wrong or under perform and the company would take huge steps back, however get it right and it would help to benefit the company on many different levels. One of the unique aspect of being involved in this type of event is that it is a very public performance, especially if there are 250,000 people watching the display live along the embankment as well as 11 million viewers watching on BBC1 not forgetting the countless millions seeing the display on 24 hour rolling news programs and video downloads on YouTube, a bad day at the office is seen instantly by millions of people.
Rigging a display of this size and complexity was always going to be a significant challenge, especially first time around, we had no idea of how long it would take to rig, how many crew were required, the biggest challenge of all is the London Eye itself. The brief called for the Eye to be the focus of the display as it has been in previous years, however due to the Eye being a major tourist attraction which is open to the public up to 3.30pm on the day itself, the time we had available to rig was going to be tight.
Although the last flight was at 3.30pm, it takes 30 minutes for the Eye to rotate and a further 25 minutes to clear the public from the Eye and Jubilee Gardens
In an attempt to take the display up to the next level, we were keen to discuss the opportunity with Jack Morton of firing the display synchronised to a soundtrack. London soundtrack that could only work for London
With the soundtrack in the hands of Jack Morton's creative team and Nihal we had to concentrate on what was to be the greatest challenge of all, rigging the fireworks and pyrotechnics on the Eye. The one thing that always jumps out at me when I visit the London Eye is just how big it is, no matter how many times I have been there it never gets any smaller. It stands 135 meters high (450ft) and has a circumference of 424 metres (1,392ft), it takes about 30 minutes to rotate and on a clear day you can see for 25 miles.
The London Eye has 32 capsules, each capsule representing a London Borough. With this in mind we decided to fire from 32 inner firing positions as well as outer firing positions consisting of single shot and multishot effects. We also fired from the Hub, or the central spindle of the Eye. The final show design from the London Eye consisted of 2,600 shots or effects fired from any one of 90 firing positions which were computer controlled using 40 Fireone two wire field modules. This involved the use of 1,200 cues or commands within 100th of a second to create fast chase effects around the London Eye or hits from every position.
With this quantity of fireworks and equipment, rigging on the London Eye was always going to be the greatest challenge, not just because it is a unique structure and required a purpose built solution, but because of the time constraints. No fireworks or pyrotechnics were allowed to be rigged until the day of the display and after the public have been cleared from the area and Stage Electrics had rigged their movable head lights in each of the 32 capsules. The Eye slowly rotates and the lighting crew race in to each capsule one at a time rigging the light, connecting up the power, calibrating the wireless control and checking the light is receiving a signal before exiting and repeating the process with the next capsule. We knew we had no more than five hours to rig all the fireworks and effects.
Rigging on the Eye
A bespoke solution was required to enable us to fix the fireworks to the structure which can only be accessed via a small crane at the base of the London Eye. We spent a considerable amount of time developing and manufacturing the solution which we had to test rigorously to ensure that the system we developed worked and was good for purpose. Full engineered drawings and specifications had to be drawn up in order for the design to be approved by Hollandia, the company that designed and built the Eye in the first place - nothing was going to be attached to the Eye without their say so, especially explosives.
Due to the time constraints imposed upon us and the challenge of fixing the fireworks to the structure, wiring in 1200 igniters and networking 40 modules, we quickly realised we would have to rig the Eye in two stages. The first would be to rig a cradle on to the structure which would house the FireOne module and data cable. The second would be a pyro holder which would easily fix to the cradle and which consisted of the pre-wired fireworks.
The cradle would consist of an attachment mechanism to the London Eye structure, a waterproof enclosure for the FireOne module and a quick connection and release mechanism to attach the firework holder or prop. The cradle could be rigged from Boxing Day allowing us five nights to rig all 32 cradles and run the data cable and network the modules and run our continuity tests. The prop which housed the fireworks and the FireOne connection rail required a unique solution to connect the 36 way centronics multi-core cable to the module without taking the module out of its enclosure and at the same time allowing for all the fireworks to be pre-wired at our factory in Cambridgeshire.
In order to network all the firing modules which were housed in each of the cradles, we ended up running four data cable runs on the structure, effectively circling the entire structure twice. Each output was networked to 8 modules and the data run leapfrogged every other module in order to build in a degree of redundancy so that in the event of one output failing we would not lose one entire quarter of the Eye just every other position. With four outputs to the outer structure of the Eye and two data runs to the Hub, we ended up using in excess of 2 kilometres of data cable to network the firing system on the London Eye alone.
Running and networking data cable
The data cable needed to be of a high specification, the correct gauge which was shielded with a drain wire. This was to ensure that we did not have any RF interference, of which there is plenty in this part of London, not withstanding the fact that we were inadvertently creating one of the best aerials to attract all kinds of interference by running two parallel cables in a perfect circle 135 metres high attached to one on the largest steel structures in the capital. Our other concern was electromagnetic interference from the high powered mains cables which run to each of the capsules to power the lights on and around the Eye which formed part of the lighting show.
Every tiny bit of detail was assessed and challenged by the experts of the London Eye technical team. We had to specify every part of the assembly from materials and dimensions right down to the size of shackles, breaking strain of wire cables and the size and specification of each and every nut and bolt. Once we received final approval we manufactured a full scale working prototype to be tested to ensure that it could be rigged to the structure and test the speed at which we could attach the pyrotechnics.
After the initial test we made a few alterations and changes to the design which again had to be approved, with the green light from Hollandia we could start manufacturing all of the cradles and pyro holders or props as they were known. Thanks must go to my chief production manager Ian Walker who was given the task of overseeing the manufacture of the cradles and props and would also lead the team to rig all our equipment and pyrotechnics to the London Eye.
Ian Walker
The reality was that we had less than 9 minutes for each prop to be lifted from the ground, up to the cranes at the base of the Eye and finally for the prop to be connected to the cradle and the centronics connection made. On top of this we had to connect two separate tethers for safety so there really was no room for error and a fine tuned method statement was drawn up in consultation with all our riggers.
Two riggers ready to start a nights work
Over the weeks leading up to 26th December we conducted a number of rehearsals and tests, rigging cradles, running data cable between the cradles and connecting the modules and finally attaching the props to the cradle. We repeated this many times with all our riggers who all had to undertake specialist working at height training. Once the process was agreed everyone had to sign up to it because on the night there was no room for any discussion or debate. Time was of the essence and we could not afford the usual head scratching and heated debates that would inevitably ensue when ten people all have a strong opinion on how to undertake a certain operation.
With the many problems and challenges of the London Eye concentrating our minds, it was easy to forget that we still had a very substantial aerial display to create from three large barges on the Thames . Loading and firing from barges presents unique challenges. By their very nature barges provide a physical constraint in terms of space to set up and rig the significant quantity of equipment required to fire a large scale display, as well as imposing a restriction creatively due to the lack of width. In order to overcome this and to introduce an extra dimension to the display we wanted to create a continuous frontage between the extremes of the two outside barges. We therefore added six pontoons, three either side of the middle barge, to link the three barges together so that we could create up to 12 equi-distant firing positions 25 meters apart which would provide continuity across the entire 300 meter frontage of the river that we had to work with.
Three barges partially loaded
Logistically the display started to come together with all the equipment having to be transported down to London and loaded on to the barges. In total we had 26 tonnes of firing equipment, racks, mortar tubes, tools, lighting rigs and ancillary equipment required to rig this display. Each barge required a small 12ft square steel container which would contain our computers and firing panels as well as the two operators needed to arm the system and our backups. A small generator was also loaded to provide power to run the laptops and the lighting rigs after the display so that we had working lights for the de-rig.
Two Barges moored adjacent to Eye
The next logistical dilemma was to create a detailed work schedule, how many crew, at which location, on which day. For each crew member and location we required accommodation and crew transport as well as food. We rigged the display with a crew of 36 from Boxing Day through to New Year, with the de-rig taking a further two days. The crew was split into two locations with a team of 8 riggers at the London Eye and the remaining crew at the docks rigging the barges.
Given the time of year and the likelihood of the weather throwing everything it could at us, crew welfare was important. Our production village consisted of portakabins for the crew to find warm refuge and eat, toilets and drying rooms as well as a marquee to work under in the event of heavy rain. In addition the PPE was a long list of gloves, hats, jackets and trousers, hi viz vests, hard hats and life jackets, and for the Eye crew fall arrest harnesses and chin strap helmets were required.
It was pointed out to us that each pane of glass of each capsule cost the best part of £4,000 to replace so the crews’ hard hats and every pair of pliers, scissors and grips had to be attached to the body harness and all bolts and washer had to have a nylon lock nut to ensure nothing could fall on to the glass, worse still a foreign body such as a bolt or a knife falling and landing in the mechanism of the London Eye and causing a major malfunction really put a new meaning to a “spanner in the works”.
The final part of the jigsaw and one which equally caused as many sleepless nights was how on earth were we going to actually fire all these fireworks from so many different locations, both on water and the Eye, to be in synchronisation with each other as well as in sync with the music and to all start together at precisely midnight. We use FireOne, which in my view is the best fully integrated digital computer firing system that exists on the market. For what we demand of it for a display of this size and complexity there is really only one other system that comes near, Pyrodigital. However Fireone is our system of choice and it certainly seems to have served us well for London
Firing command centre
With three barges, six pontoons and the London Eye the final module count was just short of 200. We required four separate firing controls, one for each barge and one for the Eye. The middle barge was moored up against the Pier in front of the Eye for the show so the data cable outputs were run up the walkway and across Jubilee Gardens
Each location had a primary firing system, a backup and a tertiary system so in all we had 12 control panels and 8 laptops to run the show, the tertiary system did not require a laptop as the firing commands were downloaded in to the firing panel. To ensure that each of the firing systems were in synchronisation with each other and indeed that the entire display was synchronised with the soundtrack and the lighting show, the primary and backup systems were triggered using the time code source from the global positioning satellite system, GPS. This is a recent function which FireOne have added to their hardware which really comes in to its own for a display of this nature where the start time is so defined. Each system would start at the same time being triggered by the same time code source. All we had to do was to enter the show time in to the fire management system of the firing panel and stand back and wait!
For piece of mind we start the firing systems running ten minutes before the show starts so at 23:50 we are in to a positive shot clock, this allows us to include a test fire module which fires a cue triggering an LED light in the control booth every twenty seconds up to the midnight moment. This ensures that all the primary and backup systems are working and that each location is armed and active and running the show programme correctly.
For fear of being accused a paranoid individual, and that is because I am, when it comes to events like this we also generated two additional back up time codes using the very robust FSK Timecode which FireOne utilizes and can be broadcast over short wave radios. The first backup was provided by Delta Sound, they were responsible for providing the music feed to the BBC and broadcasting the music over a substantial PA system for the live audience. They set up a radio network which transmitted the FSK time code to each barge and Jubilee Gardens Jubilee Gardens
Fan barrage of 100mm mines
We were incredibly lucky with the weather as before Christmas there was a real threat that the heavy snow fall and freezing temperatures would affect the display, the London Eye has to constantly rotate to avoid the heavy build up of snow. As it turned out the temperature rose to a very mild 8 degrees with only half a days worth of drizzle which assisted the crews greatly in completing the task beyond my expectation with both the Eye rigged and ready to receive the pyro and the barges all loaded and tested by 20:00 on the 30th December.
On New Year’s Eve the machine behind the organization of such an event was at full speed, from a production point of view. There were numerous briefings and meetings with Event Liaison Team (ELT) which would run and co-ordinate the event looking after crowd control and public safety. From our point of view the temporary moorings were laid and the waterborne platforms were moved in to position. As the crowds started to gather the milestone of 17:30 fast approached when the London Eye would be handed over to us and the rigging could commence. I have never felt so nervous and all the planning and preparation was about to be tested, there was nothing more I could do and I had to leave it to our competent crew to deliver.
After a number of nail biting minutes I stood on the Embankment opposite and watched as the Eye slowly rotated, each time with an extra pyro prop attached to it. The call I had been waiting for finally came at 21:50, Ian informed me the last prop was rigged and we were ready to move the Eye to lock down position and drop the data cable returns to the central control. After an agonising few minutes waiting for the data cable to be connected and loading the laptops to start the first test regime, I waited for the moment of truth. For the very first time we had all the modules and igniters connected and ready for a full continuity test with just 2 hours to go before midnight. We hit return and I held my breath waiting for all the module selectors to scroll through the test procedure with a return of no failures and for the green light to show up on all 40 modules, slowly the FireOne Ultrafire software scrolled through every module and igniter, one by one each box flashed green, after about thirty seconds the test was complete we had 100% pass, but it was the longest 30 seconds of my life.
We were ready to go, all the firing controls were ready to start the arming procedure and the remaining crew members were dispatched to their final show positions. We had 12 separate teams located around the entire site circling the Eye and the river ready to report any problems or crowd control issues and to act as spotters for the duration of the display. The PLA closed the river and we waited for final clearance from the ELT. The countdown commenced and the GPS triggered our firing controls, one by one I spoke to each of the chief firers at each location to confirm their shot clock reading and that the first LED light had flashed at 20 seconds in. With one minute to go a huge 100ft high digital clock appeared on the Shell Building with the countdown starting from 59 seconds, the crowd start to cheer and count with the clock, then with about 25 seconds to go Big Ben starts the quarter chime prior to the first chime marking the midnight moment. We wanted a burst of shells on the stoke of midnight so at just 2.5 seconds before midnight the reassuring thud of the first shell lifted, I stood with my fingers crossed as the display unfolded in front of me.
I knew that by 23:55 all the systems were armed and running, I afforded myself the luxury of crossing the river to the North bank and watched the display from Jubilee Bridge
With the last shell burst came a huge applause from the audience and a call over the radio from the client to say thank you, good show. I went through our post show protocol to ensure that all crew reported in and that the firing systems had been made safe. I slumped on the floor and took a huge breath in as a massive weight disappeared and I could at last start to really enjoy and savour the moment. My thanks go to our hard working crews who delivered a very challenging display in very tight timescales under very difficult conditions.
