BERLIN — For this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards, held at the O2 World in Berlin, XL Video’s U.K. and French offices worked together to provide an interactive video backdrop that would give the set a multi-layered sense of visual depth. XL Video France supplied a 22 projector system managed by Klaas Eecloo, using of Barco FLMs for front and rear projection on the main set, two I-Mag projection screens on both sides of the stage, a PixLED F-40 LED screen in the “Glamour Pit” and a Barco Encore screen management system to size and shape the content for the screens.
Chris Saunders from XL UK took on the role of screens director under direction from video consultant Richard Turner, and headed up XL’s on site team, following on from his work at the MTV African Music Awards in Nairobi, Kenya a couple of weeks previously.
The set designer for MTV Europe was Florian Wieder, whose concept consisted of a complex series of multi faceted boxes – multiple surfaces onto which Turner mapped a combination of general production video content and material supplied by individual artists, giving it a 3D appearance. The screens trucked open at strategic points in the show to reveal a wide cyclorama screen behind.
The 2009 MTV EMAs were presented by Katy Perry and included live performances by Beyonce, the Foo Fighters, Green Day, Leona Lewis, Shakira and Tokio Hotel.
Saunders designed the control setup with four Catalyst digital media servers at its core. U.K.-based Hello Charlie came up with the production video playback material, graphics and filler sequences. Falk Rosenthal created the footage for Tokio Hotel.
All of this content was stored in
The Catalysts, operated by Ben Miles, stored all of this content and ran two Video On The Air machines and a virtual VTR for the playback. This, together with the 22 camera I-Mag mix from Alfacam, cut in the OB truck, was sent to the Encore run by Jonathan Bond to be shaped and output to the screens.
Throughout the rehearsal period, Saunders and the Hello Charlie team worked closely with several artists’ visual directors including those from Tokio Hotel and Jay-Z, who supplied video footage exactly sized and proportioned to fit the multi-screens, optimizing the 3D effect.
XL also supplied a PixLED F40 screen located behind the ‘glamour pit’, which was fed with a combination of ambient ‘wallpaper’ images, plus two I-Mag projection screens rigged either side of the stage.
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