Sound
The hugely experienced Derrick Zieba was brought in again by MJK to design and co-ordinate the sound system. Also returning to the fray, Britannia Row Productions provided the sound and co-designed the system with Zieba, this year fielding an EV X-line speaker system. Zieba has been an enthusiastic user of Yamaha mixing desks for many years and was one of the first designers to make the transition from analogue to digital. He was also involved with the recent MTV awards where, for the first time, Zieba used a Yamaha PM1D at each end of the multi-core without backup. "It's the only desk reliable enough to give me confidence to do this," he said.
Three Yamahas were used on the night: a DM2000 provided the main PA feed, driven by sound engineer Dave Bracey, while PM1Ds were used for front-of-house and monitors, manned by Brit Row's team of sound engineers Andy Robinson, Kirsten Smith and Anthony King, who either mixed or assisted the various performers' visiting engineers. The Yamaha digital desks have been used for the last two years, replacing up to 16 analogue mixing desks, eight either end of the multicore, plus 14 effects racks that Britannia Row used previously.
Audio Logistics, the location recording division of the Richmond Studios group, was on hand to record the event 'as live', for broadcast within half an hour of the show's spectacular climax. Based in three of Sanctuary's mobiles parked alongside Earls Court 2, the team, led by senior engineer Toby Alington, worked hand-in-hand with Zieba and the Brit Row PA crew.
Lighting
VLPS Lighting Services provided the illumination - for the 8th year running. Lighting designer Al Gurdon used over 400 moving lights, including 26 VL2C spot, 36 VL6C, 8 VL1000 AI and 12 VL1000 AS luminaires, plus 85 VL2416, 24 VL5, 92 VL5arc and 12 VL5b wash fixtures and 68 of the new VL3000 spots.
VLPS also supplied the conventional equipment, among which was 88 James Thomas PixelLine battens, plenty of ETC Source Fours of various flavours and a number of other lamps including fresnels from Strand and battens from Altman. On followspot duty were seven Strong Gladiators and seven long-throw Lycian Starklites with 12 SkyArts and 10 Syncrolites adding some extra impact.
Strobe effects were plentiful, with including High End Dataflash in abundance, along with a pair of 70k Hungaro Flash fixtures, five 40K and two 70K Lightning Strikes and 17 Giga Strobes - plus well over 1,000ft of truss and miles of cable.
Mike 'Oz' Owen operated the show on a VL Virtuoso console and second console operator Peter Canning on an Avo Diamond 4.
Video
XL Video supplied the video package for the production: this included 160sq.m of Unitek V9 LED screen onstage, an integral element of production designer Bill Laslett's spectacular concept. Either side of stage were two XL-supplied soft screens, fed by Barco SLM G10 projectors: these were used for titles, general awards package information and IMAG.
At the rear of the audience were 48 panels of low-res Westerhagen LED screen, configured as four columns. These received colourful graphics, and generally used for building atmosphere, and looked impressive on the sweeping, wide-angle camera shots.
Nick Fry directed the live-to-screen mix of the show from XL's OB truck, which was parked behind the venue. He took feeds from 10 of the 15 CTV broadcast cameras, plus two of XL's own cameras and various other pre-recorded and pl
