Kish Rigging, the main rigging contractor to the MTV Video Music Awards, used a CyberHoist/InMotion 3D motion control system to animate a spectacular set for the event in New York’s Radio City Music Hall on August 31.
MTV’s flagship show has been treated to many groundbreaking visual designs in the past, and this year’s set was no exception. Director Hamish Hamilton and designers Mark Fisher and Anne Brahic, along with lighting designer Allen Branton, based the design on a flown array of 16 LED video screens of various sizes, each mounted in a classical ornate gilt picture frame and flown from CyberHoist CH1000 one-ton motors and CH500 half-ton motors. The screens, nine of which were constantly in motion throughout the show, were used to show a combination of Imag footage, specially created graphics, captions and visual effects.
Kish Rigging’s project manager, JR Cassidy, notes that the CyberHoist system was chosen for its ability to provide complex, multi-cue movements with straightforward, user-friendly programming, near-silent operation, and precision accuracy. “The first time we saw it, we were blown away by it,” he says. “It provided the MTV VMA design team with flexibility and precision of movement that no other system could come close to.”
The system was supplied to Kish Rigging by Flashlight along with senior programmer Jim Allison and technician Pieter Jaap Visser.
JR Cassidy comments, “The system was great to program, very fast and intuitive, and no more complicated to rig than conventional hoist motors. With a fast moving television show the ability to re-program moves to accommodate the director’s requirements is a great asset and we used it to the max here.”
CyberHoist/InMotion 3D was awarded Rigging Product of the Year at the ETS-LDI Show in 2005 and the PLASA Award for Innovation at its European launch in London in 2004.