Throughout the week, leading up to Friday, they are also filmed auditioning, working, performing and practising, etc. In the studios, the screen panels are configured in two very different-sized formats. One is a seven panel wide by four panel high widescreen, and the other is a three wide by nine high horizontal screen. The latter is split into three equal sections, allowing images of three different performers to be shown simultaneously. This effect is specifically used as they approach their ‘jeopardy moments’, after which the voting eliminates one out of three.
Tony Gregory wanted the screens integrated into the stage design to evoke the feeling of a large event taking place for the series. "Screens are now a recognized symbol of the large event environment," he explains. He also wanted it to look modern, and to have screens available for general IMAG.
The 3-way screen is also utilized for revealing Fame Academy’s different plot lines, as the three upcoming contestants‘ activities, ideas, opinions and thoughts are followed in the run up the Friday broadcasts. Again, the need was to find a visual device that offered all three participants an equal billing to the viewers and live studio audience. The very high resolution and brightness of the Barco I-Lite screen makes it ideal for indoor broadcast applications like this. Many LED screens are also unsuitable for on-camera effects because of the potential moiré-ing (interference between different sets of fine pattern grids) produced as the LEDs refresh. However Barco has minimised this undesirable effect in all their high end screens.
Fame Academy’s 3 x 9 screen is dealt with by one processor, using a new design that accepts up to 4 inputs without needing additional processing. This makes the whole system very neat. The screens are fine-tuned using Barco’s X-Lite laptop software, which allows the images to be manipulated, providing total control over the size and scale of how they are displayed and the position at which they appear. Further control features such as Alpha Blending, Chroma Keying and Z-Order Control are also included. The screens are being tech’d by Icharus Wilson-Wright.
(Lee Baldock)
