XL delivered nearly 800sq.m of various LED surfaces, video projections and creative / scenic LED elements plus control and 12 crew under the project management of Guido Ruysschaert to help realise an ambitious production design by Wieder Design from Germany. This was based on an intergalactic theme and featured a giant UFO style structure above a spherical stage.
The 2013 EMAs, directed for live broadcast by Russell Thomas and lit by Tom Kenny, was attended by a live audience of around 12,000 and aired across MTV's global network drawing record viewing figures - claimed to be over a billion! Fans worldwide cast a staggering 292m votes across all MTV digital platforms to help decide the 2013 MTV EMA winners, and the event is ranked as the 'best ever' in network history for votes, visitors, video views and social media activity.
Guido Ruysschaert from XL's Belgian office has worked on the event since it started in Berlin in 1994, when he was asked to supply two 3x3 41 inch video cube walls and the teleprompter for presenter Tom Jones.
On his 19th EMAs, he specified all the video surface elements in close consultation with the Wieder Designs team of Florian Wieder and Matthias Kublik from Munich ... and all the other technical disciplines including lighting, rigging, audio and drapes / soft goods to ensure that the massive high profile production ran smoothly and efficiently once on site.
UK based Ogle Hog's Chris Saunders was the screens director, and his crew of five engineered, specified and co-ordinated all the necessary control systems needed to deal with media playback, including, scaling, conversion, formatting, etc. of all pre-recorded video sources, managing their output to screen together with that of selected camera feeds.
At the back of the spherical main stage was an impressive 405sq.m wall of XL's Pixled F-30 LED. In front of this in the mid-stage position was 110sq.m of F-15 which was flown in and out to block off the rear stage areas from view during band changeovers.
A ramp below the back screen served as access for artists and equipment.
The 1,545 Pixled FX-200 spheres were used to highlight the hub of the UFO, which consisted of several circles of trussing above the stage in decreasing diameters towards the centre and fitted inside one other. These dynamic truss circles moved into different architectural configurations continuously throughout the show.
Fitted to one of the circular trusses were eight 50 inch plasma screens.
Twenty-five square metres of Pixled F-18 LED were used to clad a central cylinder in the middle of the UFO, which lowered to the stage in the space rocket 'lift off' sequence at the top of the show ... and Miley Cyrus emerged to get the party off to a high impact start.
Two hundred and ten square metres of Pixled F-25 were used to clad the outsides of two of the larger circular trusses, which also dropped right down to stage level at times, including for the start of the Kings of Leon's rendition of Beautiful War.
(Jim Evans)
