The series, presented by comedy duo Ant & Dec, was shot over a week in Studios A and B of Fountain Studios, Wembley, London - the largest TV stage in the UK. The highly versatile LED-based set was designed by Dominic Tolfts and featured several different types of LED, all of which were sourced and supplied to the production by Simon Deary of LED Poison who specialises in digital lighting.
Deary has also procured all the LED for the last 2 BGT series and comments; "I know I can always get a fantastic service and a great package from HSL, and that's why I keep going back to them. In this case, we could also acquire the large quantities needed of both product from one source and one phone call - less administration and paperwork is always good." Simon Stuart and Sean McGlone were the project managers for HSL.
HSL supplied nearly 600 Pulsar Chromastrips, which were integrated into four large and one smaller metal fins running down each side of stage, and also used to highlight the two sets of staircases and the edges of the judges' rostra.
The 480 panels of ColorWeb 250 and 50 panels of ColorWeb 125mm pitch were used to wrap around the entire back wall of the set, which proved eye-catching camera candy and introduced further depth to the set, alleviating the black holes and creating background movement, colour and interest.
Driving all the various different LED surfaces were four Hippotizer media servers run by Russell Grubiak via a CompuLite Vector Blue lighting console and programmer Bill Peachment via his CompuLite Vector Green and Hippo Critter. Bespoke media for the Hippotizers for each of the finalists and the main show was created by Jane Aspinwall of Timeslice films.
(Jim Evans)
