XL Video Creates A Smart Solution For ‘Pointless’ Scoring Tower

Continuing its work on ‘Pointless’, the popular game show created by Remarkable Television, part of the Endemol Shine Group, XL Video has created a new version of the show’s LED scoreboard.

For the latest ‘Pointless’ recordings, filmed at the BBC’s Elstree Television Studios, the production team asked XL Video to create a new rigging solution for the show’s central LED scoreboard.

To create greater efficiency in the set-building process, the new rigging system aimed to substantially reduce the build time for the scoreboard tower. XL Video’s TV and Film Manager, Jeff Bailey, worked with XL’s specialist LED team in Oostende, Belgium, to specify the new tower support design.

The three-section custom metal column, fabricated by Shapes in Belgium, enabled the Barco NX6 LED to be pre-loaded into the curved scoreboard at XL’s warehouse, along with the matching base section, and transported to the studio in a single custom-built flight case.

Once on set, the LED tower can be bolted together and ready for filming in around two and a half hours - one third of the time previously taken to construct the scoreboard.

This new solution is being used for the filming of 136 new episodes of ‘Pointless’ and ‘Pointless Celebrities’ which will begin to air this year.

XL Video also supplies the projection for the quiz’s questions screen, and a number of LCD screens used by the presenters and contestants as video relays.

Jeff Bailey comments: “With an ever greater requirement for efficiency in TV production, we were pleased to produce this custom LED solution. Our team in Belgium are experts in creating metalwork and rigging designs to fit a client’s specific requirements. The new LED framework has reduced the build time on set, is easier to transport … and the client is very happy!”

Show photo by Alison Barclay