XL Video supplied video production including the massive 52.5’x23’ Unitek V9 central LED screen and two 98 foot square 16:9 ratio Barco S10 LED side screens for The 25th Brit Awards, a British version of the Grammy’s, staged at London’s Earls Court.
The screen was integrated into Mark Fisher’s scenic design. It split apart vertically in half with each half tracking off-stage utilizing a Kinesys movement system for millimeter-perfect accuracy.
Chris Saunders managed the show’s camera and VT nomination system, directed live by Nick Fry. XL supplied their OB truck, plus a full video playback system that was designed and operated by Richard Turner. XL also supplied one camera for the live IMAG mix, sent to the two Barco S10 side screens, with Fry also having access to feeds from the six broadcast cameras brought in by CTV to record the show.
Turner ran Dataton control for all playbacks. He worked with Lee Lodge from Hello Charlie, who created special visuals and content to supplement artists’ own visual sources. The visuals appeared on the center LED screen. Storage devices included three hard drives and a Final Cut Pro suite, two Magic DaVE effects devices, and an Aston caption generator–all supplied by XL.
Kinesys attached two variable speed winches to staging company StageCo’s huge 151’-wide, ground supported truss. Two Kinesys Velocity drive units–one for each side of the screen–moved the winches and traveled between several positions. The heavy-duty truss was also used for between-act scene changes. Kinesys’ proprietary Vector PC-based software provided automation control.
The award show was produced by MJK Productions with production manager Mick Kluczynski. Outback served as show production riggers. The project was managed for XL by Paul Wood and for Kinesys by Dave Weatherhead.