LONDON – London -based Blackout rigged and draped a curvacious set for the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards held Nov. 6 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
More details from Blackout (http://www.blackout-ltd.com):
Blackout Rig the 2011 MTV EMA Awards
LONDON – Blackout provided rigging and draping for the spectacular 2011 MTV EMA held in Belfast, 6th Nov, 2011.
MTV EMA’s set (designed by Es Devlin), transformed Belfast’s Odyssey Arena with a complex combination of curved scenery at both ends and technical production equipment. Every inch of the venue was used to achieve the combined requirements of the live show and television producers for the broadcast to more than 600 million MTV-receiving homes around the world
Blackout director Kevin Monks has worked with the MTV EMA producers all over Europe since 1998.
Monks says, “The MTV EMA is always a spectacular show and a technically complicated one to achieve. This year we were working to a tight build schedule, which the brilliant MTV EMA event manager Maggie Mouzakitis delivered with calm assurance – and there were a lot of creative ideas for us to accommodate within the Odyssey Arena.”
Monks managed a team of nine Blackout riggers, including the experienced Oz Marsh and Pete Rayel, who installed more than 200 rigging points on their first day in the venue. In all there were 250 rigging points, with Blackout providing the Kinesis automation system controlling more than 50 motors in the venues roof alongside PRG. Blackout also supplied all of the truss, 150m of pipe and drape for the main show and additional equipment for the other show and after-party venues.
Monks continues, “We are here to make things happen for people. We leave our premises with materials well in excess of the core plans and we’re here to service peoples’ needs. We have an ethos of being helpful and getting things achieved.
“There’s a great co-operation with other suppliers, in particular PRG and Set Square, with whom we liaised extensively in the month prior to the show and the in-house rigging team once we were on site. The curved set was constructed brilliantly and went together easily on site prior to being rigged to fit within centimeters of both sides of the Odyssey.”
Other key elements Blackout supplied were the extensive mother grid over the main performance stage, with additional truss for the B stage, for flying Jessie J and aerial camera rigs. At the opposite end of the hall was the award presenters’ stage, behind which Blackout delivered a method of rigging the rear curved screen.
Monks explains: “We were given the challenge to rig a screen without any rigging from the ceiling, so that sightlines into the artist seats were kept clear. I adapted our Prolyte soundmast towers and created a curved seven-tower ground support to enable XL Video’s screen to be lifted. The 6m towers had a meter beneath the stage with the motors located there out of sight, and the chain was fed through a guide at the top of the tower to rig the 4m high screen: a simple but effective solution which worked well.”
MTV EMA Event Manager Maggie Mouzakitis states, “Blackout is an essential part of the production team for the MTV EMA. Curves are hard work – and there is not a straight line on stage; Nick Brown from Blackout played a blinder getting the set installed with such high precision. Given such a short build time, the level of communication and co-operation with Kevin and his team was so important, particularly when it came to Blackout rigging all of the live bands’ set requirements.”
