Gala Night

A black-tie gala night at Liberty Grand at Exhibition Place, a ballroom of columns and chandeliers under amber-lit ceiling coffers. Rounds with gold candelabras and ivory linens surrounded a large dance floor, and a striped fedora waited at every place.

The programme opened with speeches from a clear acrylic lectern against taupe drape, with a projection screen carrying the presentation slides. After dinner the room turned into a party: a band on a skirted stage behind the dance floor, a DJ on turntables, a ballroom dance couple, and samba dancers in feathered costumes working the floor.

We ran it on one system for all of it — speaker stacks beside the stage and the dance floor, the lectern microphone, projection and playback — with warm amber uplighting on the columns and walls to hold the room together between the speeches and the dancing.