Marathon Weekend for ADI in London

You could definitely say it was a marathon weekend for ADI, as they provided LED screens for the world’s most famous road race for the second year running.

The iCONIC 100 at the Blue Start keeps everyone informed of important race information...

In a similar contract to last year’s event, ADI supplied the Flora London Marathon with three LED screens for the start area at Blackheath and Greenwich Park, with an iCONIC 100, 60 and 15 at the Blue, Red and Green start respectively. ADI also provided 3 camera outside broadcast (OB) facilities to broadcast live content onto the screens.

ADI arrived on-site on the Saturday morning to move the screens into place, setup the outside broadcast and test equipment, ready for the race the next day. The startlines are spread over a 2km area, which is too far to run cables, so ADI also setup microwave links to send audio and video from OB facilities to the screens....and also updates them on this year's celebrity runners

Come Sunday, ADI were onsite from 6am, ready to begin playing out content at 7am. The screens were there for two reasons: to entertain runners in the build up to the start and also to educate them of important safety procedures and pre-race information. Each screen ran a mixture of content including live coverage from ADI’s OB and also from BBC cameras, pre-prepared highlights packages, good luck messages and sponsors’ messages. As well as this, the screens each had their own mixing facilities, enabling them to mix in informational content specific to their start area, such as assembly times and locations of baggage trucks etc, which was backed up by local commentators at each site.

Over at the Green Start the crowds had gathered to see the likes of Ronan Keating, Chris Boardman, Katie Price & Peter Andre and Gordon Ramsey tackle the 26mile 385 yard course. ADI’s iCONIC 15 was entertaining both the VIPs and the vast crowds, thanks to its unique double-sided design allowing for near 360° viewing angles.The iCONIC 15 at the Green Start with one of ADI's camermen beneath

A beautiful day welcomed the 35,000 runners who would be running the world’s largest marathon and raising millions for charities. The unseasonably warm temperatures didn’t seem to effect the runners, with a new course record set in the men’s event as Sammy Wanjiru knocked 5 seconds off to post a time of 2:05:10. The women’s race was won by Germany’s Irina Mikitenko, whilst the first celebrity home was Nel McAndrew in a time of 3:10:20. Special note should also go to Paul Simons, a 45 year-old postman from Edgeware, who posted the fastest ever time by a man dressed as Santa Claus...

ADI’s screens broadcast until the last of the runners had crossed the startlines at 10.20am, whereupon they began the derig of screens and OB facilities, enabling the team to be offsite by 12.30pm.

ADI Project Manager David Montrone commented: “It was a pleasure to work on such a huge sporting event for the second year running. With the similar service we provide to the BUPA Great North Run, it means ADI are exclusive LED screen supplier to the world’s two largest running events.”