Brompton powers NME Awards display
- Details
After a year off, the NME Awards returned to London’s O2 Brixton Academy to celebrate the best of 2019’s musical talent. It was attended by Taylor Swift, who picked up the award for Best Solo Act In The World, and featured live performances from AJ Tracey, FKA Twigs, rising stars Yungblud and Beadadoobee, a collaboration between rapper Slowthai and Mura Masa, and a five-song closing set by The 1975.
UK LED screen and video production company, IMAG Displays, was tasked with delivering the screen requirements, which included coordination of content for 35 awards and the multiple live performances.
“We were given a brief to provide a an innovative deconstructed LED screen, and deliver the entire AV package from rigging right through to content delivery,” explains Charli Harding, co-founder and director of IMAG Displays. “The large-scale design involved LED panels, staggered stage left and right in step fashion, which was a big challenge requiring carefully balanced weight load and rigging from the roof due to the size.”
The design was created by Mark Connolly and Stuart Nunn of Black Book Production, a freelance production director contracted to the award-winning Broadwick Studio, which was the production company for the awards.
“We’ve worked with Mark a lot over the years, including projects with Samsung and Nike,” explains Alex Strachan, founder & technical director of IMAG. “We specified our 2mm ROE Black Onyx matched with the Tessera SX40 processors, plus backups, and eight Tessera XD data distribution units because both brands are industry leaders in LED technology and delivery.”
“We knew the Awards production team would be under immense pressure on the night, managing the logistics and number of artists performing,” comments Brompton’s senior business development manager, Rob Fowler. “We had great confidence that the Tessera range would help them navigate the evening, from the screen resolution and the colouring quality, processing power and reliability, through to the easy drag ‘n drop and live editing workflows.”
“Brompton processing was key to the success of the show. It made the content creators’ journey straightforward and the job easier for the technicians on site,” concludes Harding. “Brixton is a challenging venue, and we had to work with specialised rigging companies to achieve the design. A lot of people said what we were attempting wasn’t possible but, with the help of Brompton processing, we did it.”
(Jim Evans)
