The Briefing Room

This year’s spectacular MTV Europe Music Awards were held at the O2 World in Berlin, where XL Video’s UK and French offices combined forces to provide a dynamic interactive video backdrop for this high profile event.

XL Video France supplied a massive 22 projector system managed by Klaas Eecloo, comprising of Barco FLMs for front and rear projection on the main set, 2 IMAG projection screens either side of the stage, a PixLED F-40 LED screen in the “Glamour Pit” and a Barco Encore screen management system to size and shape the content for the screens.

Chris Saunders from XL UK took on the role of screens director under direction from video consultant Richard Turner, and headed up XL’s on site team, following on from his work at the MTV African Music Awards in Nairobi, Kenya a couple of weeks previously.

The set designer for MTV Europe was Florian Wieder, whose exciting concept consisted of a complex series of multi faceted boxes - multiple surfaces onto which Turner mapped a combination of general production video content and material supplied by individual artists, giving it a 3D appearance. The screens trucked open at strategic points in the show to reveal an ultra wide cyclorama screen behind.

The 2009 MTV EMAs were presented by Katy Perry, with a star-studded line up, and included stunning live performances by Beyonce, the Foo Fighters, Green Day, Leona Lewis, Shakira, and Tokio Hotel.

The control set up was designed by Saunders with 4 Catalyst digital media servers at its core. The production video playback material, graphics and filler sequences were all made by UK-based Hello Charlie, with the footage for Tokio Hotel being created by Falk Rosenthal. All of this content was stored in the Catalysts, which were operated by Ben Miles. They also ran 2 x Video On The Air machines and a virtual VTR for the playback, all of which, together with a 22 camera IMAG mix from Alfacam cut in the OB truck, were sent to the Encore run by Jonathan Bond to be shaped and output to the screens.

Throughout the intense rehearsal period, Saunders and the Hello Charlie team worked closely with several artists’ visual directors including those from Tokio Hotel and Jay-Z, who supplied video footage exactly sized and proportioned to fit the multi-screens, really optimising the 3D effect.

XL also supplied a PixLED F40 screen located behind the ‘glamour pit’, which was fed with a combination of ambient ‘wallpaper’ images, plus 2 x IMAG projection screens rigged either side of the stage.