XL again followed their successful model of splitting the project management duties between Chris Saunders, who oversaw the camera and playback elements (celebrating his 17th Brit Awards) working alongside Paul Wood, who managed the screens, projection and specials packages for the various live artists.
Chris Saunders says, "It was great to be working on The All New Brits, specially in a new venue and with a new format, celebrating some of the best musical achievements of the last year in a show that continues to advance, evolve and push boundaries in technical and presentational goals, this was a stunning show with the emphasis on the musical performance, and it worked."
Saunders and Wood both worked closely with The Brits production team, including set designer Peter Bingemann, TV director Phil Heyes, event production including Kate Wright, Maggie Mouzakitis Tony Wheeler, TV Production manager Annie Crofts and lighting designer Al Gurdon to create a distinctive look and feel for the 2011 show.
Peter Bingemann's set design comprised an 'exploded' Union Jack flag, with custom built video flourishes, XL supplying all the main elements including an eye-catching 20m wide by 22 high St George's Cross made up from Pixled F11 screen surface. The set and screen support structures were constructed by Steel Monkey, and XL dispatched the panels for the St George's Cross element of the structure to be pre-built at the Steel Monkey workshop in Bristol.
XL supplied more F11 to make up the two main on-stage screens. The first was a landscape format 11m wide by 6 high central screen, which flew in and out (downstage of the Union Jack) on a Kinesys automation system between performances, This was utilised to display all the Awards nomination packages and VT inserts.
The second F11 screen was a 5.5m wide by 10 metre high portrait format surface, flown stage right.
Two 20 x 11ft stage right and left IMAG projection screens were supplied, together with three 16 x 9 ft projection screens located left, centre and right to facilitate viewing from the level 4 (top) seating areas in the house.
XL's package also included a GV Kayak HD PPU and two Sony HXC 100 cameras, which together with 12 feeds supplied by host broadcaster CTV were mixed by live video director Nick Fry and output to the IMAG screens via XL's Barco Encore screen management system. The playback systems were managed and engineered for XL by Richard Turner and Richard Burford.
Paul Wood comments, "As one of the highest profile events on the British music calendar, we are always proud to be involved in The Brits - the production values are high, the design and presentation is always ambitious and the results very rewarding."
(Jim Evans)
