Lord Mayor's Show '07 -  ...Added November 23, 2007

We have been involved with floats for the Lord Mayor's Show for the last 7 years, and this year was no different!

Our Client came up with the design and concept, to which we gave advice and consultation of how to integrate the PA system.

This was complicated by a number of factors, not least the vehicle which was being used, which was relatively tiny! The Mitsubishi L200 Double Cab, on paper looked big enough to handle a substantial PA rig, and have space for a decent sized diesel generator.

However, we had overlooked the fact that the Merlin inflatables were also sharing the space in the back of the L200, with a huge, blow up, Canary Wharf! This meant there was little space for speakers, let alone a 6KVA diesel generator.

However, being a problem solving company, we worked around the problem by using a second car battery, paralleled to the L200's, and an inverter to convert 12V DC to 240V AC.

Matt Stolton, our Technical Director, and amateur car mechanic and restorer, rigged the electricals on site.

"This was tricky, as the L200 was coming down from Merlin's works, where it was decorated, on the friday, and we only had a small window of oppurtunity to fit a sizeable PA system. Equally, the solution had to be robust enough, so the vehicle would not break down, by running out of battery, and halting the Lord mayor's Show. Failure was not an option."

"A further complication, was that the L200 was rented, so we couldn't modify it in any way. Even though the build had to take place at Smithfield Market, in failing light, we manged to shoe horn a very loud system onto the back, and safely run the power loom through the vehicle's chassis."

Merlin's drivers reported that they had no issues with the vehicle on the day of the procession, and the client was very pleased, and considered this years efforts a great success.