Creative Technology were thrilled to take home the award for Best LED Screen Supplier for the impressive LED screens installed at Reading and Leeds Festival 2019 at the Festival Supplier Awards 2020.

Creative Technology (CT) took on the mammoth challenge of almost doubling the size of the main stage IMAGs at world-renowned Reading and Leeds Festival last summer, after 25 dedicated years working on the event. Working closely with client Festival Republic, the Main Stage IMAG Screens were transformed from 145sqm each in 2018 to 270sqm each in 2019.

CT’s been proudly supplying the festival and outdoor music scene for over 30 years, working at Reading for the first time in 1994 and Leeds a few years later in 1999. CT has been a part of some of the world’s most iconic outdoor live music events, supplying screens to the famously remembered benefit concert Live 8 in 2005 and numerous historic festivals such as T in the Park, V Festival, and The Big Chill to name just a few!

Graham Miller, Head of Music/Entertainment at Creative Technology commented, “Really proud to win Best LED Screen Supplier at the 2020 Festival Supplier Awards. The scaling up of these festivals have been a great achievement – especially when you consider we delivered the equivalent of two Coachella festivals in one weekend – twice over the Summer! Special thanks go out to our Project Management team as well as the amazing teams of CT crew and freelancers who dealt with it all in their stride.”

The judges commented, “This award recipient demonstrated an impressive scale of operations and an ability to deliver at a high level which was backed up by strong client testimonials.”

Congratulations to all the winners and those who were shortlisted.

Creative Technology (CT) are well accustomed to working on world-renowned golfing tournaments and are proud to have been a part of the biggest event in women’s golf, the Solheim Cup.

The tournament took place from 9^th – 15^th September 2019 in Gleneagles, Scotland, a remote area of outstanding beauty, which only added to the unforgettable moment Europe beat the USA 14½-13½ to win!

2019 marked the first year CT has been involved in the Solheim Cup and by further cementing our long-established relationship with ROE Visual, working closely together to significantly contribute to making an even greater success of the event, hugely enhancing the spectator experience.

The LED screens onsite were made up of ROE MC5, a product which provided high-resolution display perfect for displaying detailed scoring information. The 7 on-course electronic leader boards installed were used to display bespoke content to each hole including player statistics, scoring and key game information. As play proceeded, the custom content drilled down even further, visually communicating the state of play in the format of displaying player names, photographs, country of origin flags, and current scores – each unique to the current players on the green.

There were also 5 larger LED golf screens installed throughout the venue displaying a mixture of leader board information and live video feeds. In addition to the on-course screens, CT supplied an LED screen for the Media Centre which was made up of ROE CB3 and displayed a bespoke 18-hole leader board with a live video window in the centre. A final screen was installed within the hospitality area of the event, the ‘Ping Pavilion’, ensuring the spectators who gathered here didn’t miss any of the action!

“Having worked alongside IMG for a number of years on other golfing events it was a great opportunity to work on the pinnacle event of the Women’s Tour, the Solheim Cup. Utilising IMG’s detailed knowledge of the event we were able to create customised graphics for the golf LED screens and leader boards that kept the crowds fully up to date with all the live scoring around the course.” – Richard Smith, Account Manager at Creative Technology

CT are proud to have been appointed Approved AV Technology Supplier to the Tour in recognition of their long-term engagement.

Creative Technology (CT) first became involved in professional golf over 30 years ago, since then the company has steadily built its relationship with the European Tour providing AV technology at numerous tournaments throughout Europe, the Middle East and into Asia and Australia.

The world-renowned European Tour, headquartered at Wentworth in Surrey, manages all the premier golf
tournaments across Europe and the Middle East. Alongside the numerous iconic events including the BMW PGA Championship and DP World Tour Championship, Dubai the European Tour also manage the Ryder Cup on its 4-yearly visit to Europe.

Dave Crump, CEO of CT in Europe & the Middle East commented, “Creative Technology have a long, proud and successful relationship with golf in Europe providing LED screens to around 40 events per year and having been involved in every European Ryder Cup since 1985.”

LED screens have historically been the focus of CT’s supply and whilst this continues there has been a significant shift in priority in recent years. Golf is one of the most challenging sports to support with large screen displays, typically played in full daylight and ideally bright sunlight means screen brightness and contrast is crucial, coupling this with a requirement to display high density graphical data and TV images which typically include a tiny white ball on a uniform green background means the selection of display technology is crucial.

Recent developments have allowed smaller pitch outdoor screens to achieve satisfactory brightness, contrast and uniformity meaning higher density data can be displayed on smaller and consequently more localized LED boards.

This in turn creates more opportunities and consequently demand for bespoke graphical information in addition to the broadcast images and TV graphics.

CT’s AV technology package at every European Tournament now includes a sophisticated TV production and content solution integrating data from scoring and other sources with a combination of locally produced imagery interjected into the European Tour Productions World Feed.

Alongside a range of LED options customized on a tournament by tournament basis from a standard menu of services, CT also provides multiple LCD displays installed throughout the venues VIP and sponsor village environments all connected via a rugged IPTV network allowing customizable content on individual displays across the golf course.

Two identical technology packages leapfrog around Europe typically from April to October supported by a universal production package which travels to every tournament. During the European winter the focus moves to the Middle East and Asia where the same production package is linked to a more locally customized display solution often supplied and supported by CT’s local operations throughout the Middle East and Asia.

Richard Smith, Account Manager at Creative Technology commented, “As with any live sporting event, there is a massive drive to enhance the experience for spectators, bringing them closer to the action. In particular, the last couple of years have seen an emphasis on integrating more data and statistics into our service. We are now developing animated graphics to display easily digestible facts and figures in an engaging way to fans. Working alongside the Tour over the past 11 years I have seen an incredible change in how we utilize technology in our service.”

“CT’s technology is critical to the visualization experience for our spectators at tournaments to create a more immersive environment, and I’m delighted they are on the journey with us to deliver our vision for a world-class connected and intelligent course” – Michael Cole, European Tour Chief Technology Officer