The combination of an adventurous set designer and the opportunism of Screenco’s project manager, Giles Conte and Solo’s Mark Ward, resulted in the 10 spare 15mm LED daylight screens not required for the main i-mag display, being batched randomly on Martin’s stage risers and used as a light graphics source. "Ricky Martin’s designers generally use plasma screens, but at 12.30 in the afternoon they wouldn’t have been bright enough," explained Conte. "So we hurriedly shipped in another Saco processor and engineering rack, and took the camera feed from Black Pig’s Chris Saunders." The screens - configured in blocks of two and rows of three - formed part of the circular stage revolve. "As the stage came round into view it meant we had to strike the graphic images quickly," said Conte. "It was very manic but very arty."
Again echoing Three Mills Island, Screenco’s main centre display was manoeuvred up and down on a Stage One motor system while two 30sq.m 25mm portrait screens, positioned stage left and right, also moved vertically on conventional motors, with the images cut by video director, Matt Askem. Due to the vast size of the site, Screenco had to use RF transmission to carry the video signals to the end of the park, via delay points. The first of these saw three 40sq.m Screenco LED screens (stage left, stage right and behind the mixer), with two sub-hired OptiScreens, in a V-shaped scenario to cover the audience at the back of the field. The OptiScreens were in 4:3 aspect ratio and Screenco used an Aspect Ratio Converter and Sony 1024 to rescale the 16:9 content down to 4:3. "We were really happy to be able to assist Ricky Martin’s stage design to create images designed to make it look more three-dimensional," said Conte. "In fact all the graphics looked great."
Other acts appearing included Destiny’s Child, Craig David, Usher, Atomic Kitten, Catatonia, Ronan Keating, Lil' Bow Wow, Anastacia, Shaggy, Hear'say, Wheatus, Dancemasters, Jamiroquai, Tom Jones, A1, Wyclef Jean, Emma Bunton, Sugababes, David Gray, Sisqo, Eddy Grant, Nelly Furtado and Geri Halliwell. In addition to Conte, the video crew included Steve Crooks (crew chief), Andy Tonks, Mick Taylor, Alan Boland and Mike Brown.
