LONDON – The 30th annual Brit Awards took place recently at Earls Court, hosted by comedian Peter Kay and broadcast live on ITV 1. For the ninth consecutive year, XL Video provided LED screens, projection, PPU, camera system and playback content management. XL project manager Chris Saunders' history with the show goes back even further; it was his 16th Brit Awards. He worked alongside XL's Paul Wood, who managed the screens, projection and specials.
Saunders and Wood collaborated with Al Gurdon, LD and Nicoline Refsing from Stufish, set designer, to create a distinctive look and feel for the show.
As with last year's show, the central onstage "artists" screen was made up of 80 square meters of Pixled F11 developed by XL. The "presenters" screen, was larger this year, positioned stage right behind the presenters' area to improve the viewing field for the audience. It was made from Lighthouse R7 modules in a 10-wide by 8-high configuration.
All screens were fed by XL's custom DVI fiber system. XL also provided special performance video pieces for Cheryl Cole and Robbie Williams. Cole had 120 Barco Mi-Strips inbuilt into the front of her 10 onstage steps, while Williams' set consisted of 1800 X-Spheres, positioned in decreasing sized rectangles as they traveled upstage.
Along with the standard I-Mag projection, XL had a late request to add some scenic projection for Lady Gaga's set, to enhance the dynamics and three dimensional visual aspects of her performance.
One of XL's HD PPUs was at the core of the live screen I-Mag mix cut by Ollie Bartlett. Based around a Grass Valley HD Kayak mixer and fed by two of XL's HD cameras, plus another seven feeds supplied from the CTV OB, this was directed by Phil Heyes.
Four Catalyst media servers were programmed and run by Richard Turner with playback supplied via 2 Virtual VTR machines, operated by Jonathan Bond.
Lady Gaga won three awards and dedicated her performance to late fashion designer Alexander McQueen. The show also featured performances from Kasabian, Lily Allen, a collaboration between Dizzee Rascal and Florence & The Machine. Robbie Williams was named this year's Outstanding Contribution to Music award.
