The ceremony - celebrating its 30th anniversary - was staged at the Westminster Park Plaza Hotel, London, UK.
It was the first time that XL has been involved in the event - brought onboard by production company Reality Ltd. with whom they have worked on numerous other occasions. XL Events' Paul Wood project managed, working closely with Reality's Paul Corrick on the design and presentation, and specification of the video equipment.
The event took place during the afternoon, and for the first time ever, a livestream of the ceremony was hosted on YouTube.
The look and styling of the video elements were crucial given the context of the Awards and the industries they represent. As it was the 30th anniversary, Reality also upped the ante in terms of production values, in the process of creating a highly entertaining show.
XL Events installed a 10m wide by 4m high 6mm Chromatek LED screen upstage, chosen for its outstanding picture quality. Two 16 x 9 ft side screens were added for camera IMAG, fed by Barco SLM R12 projectors.
Content including awards stings, graphics, logos and playback were fed to the main screen from a series of laptops.
XL's cameras were directed by Ruary MacPhie, well known for his work for cutting-edge bands and festivals, with a separate sub-mix used to feed the web stream plus a series of plasma screens dotted around the foyer.
Detailed pre-planning ensured that everything went extremely smoothly in the very tight time-frame on site.
Wood comments, "We were delighted to be involved in a prestigious event like this. It was a tight fit to get the full production into the room, but all departments took it in their stride and worked closely and collaboratively ensuring all went well."
The hmv GamesMaster Golden Joysticks are the latest in a whole string of Awards shows to which XL Events has recently supplied specialist video. Others include the Classic Brits at the Royal Albert Hall and the upcoming British Fashion Awards at the Savoy Theatre.
(Jim Evans)
