A COMPANY which started in the living room of one of its founders has become an award-winning part of some of Europe’s biggest live events.

iMAG Displays, based on Poole’s Nuffield Industrial Estate, specialises in providing LED screens for concerts, festivals and brand events – but also handles entire productions.

It has worked with names such as Intel and Red Bull and delivered the entire Big Gig festival on Jersey, which showcased acts such as Sir Tom Jones and Spandau Ballet.

Within three years of its formation, it has beaten off bigger competitors to be named Best Screen Supplier in the industry’s Festival Supplier Awards.

The business was started by Alex Strachan, who was joined in its early days by Charli Harding.

“Charli and I met five or six years ago in a previous production company. I exited from there and started iMAG in my living room,” said Alex.

Through their knowledge of the industry and their willingness to cold-call event organisers, they made rapid headway in securing key clients.

“For the first 12 months it was Charli’s phone calls and my relationships,” said Alex.

The business originally owned no screens of its own, instead hiring what it needed and sending it straight out to the client.

“We quite quickly decided we were going to have to look at buying,” said Alex.

Around a year into its existence, iMAG landed a contract with the Summer of Sport in London. It involved providing high-resolution, outdoor LED screens in five key locations for the World Cup and other sporting events.

Other contracts have included the Red Bull Monaco Grand Prix in 2014, for which iMAG provided an LED screen for the Epecuen Premiere and the Red Bull Opening Party. The Hillsong Christian conference at London’s O2 was another large-scale undertaking.

The company was selected to provide the screens for the keynote address by the CEO of Intel at the Mobile World Congress.

iMAG employs five staff directly but takes on many more for individual projects.

“We can be a small team when we want to be but as soon as we get a big job and a big gig we’ve 55 crew working for us,” said Alex.

“We do try and ensure that every job we do gets the best service. That little job might become your biggest job because they might treble in size,” said Alex.

Recent assignments have included Swish of the Curtain’s half-term production of Bugsy Malone at the Pavilion in Bournemouth.

Charli said: “We’ve got to love it because we work horrific hours, all day every day. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it.”