LED screens played a vital role in the concept of West Design & Production, the agency responsible for conceiving the design and overseeing the production of the exterior areas of the BAFTA Awards ceremony. Director Lucy Smail explains that she wanted to: "Include moving imagery rather than a static backdrop on the theatre, so we've mixed elements of the nominated films which, as you pull back, give way to more and more images. Eventually, the thousands of tiny images reveal the BAFTA mask."
This is the first time that large LED screens have been hung from the front of the Leicester Square Odeon. "I knew what we could achieve structurally, but we have been working on the edge of what we could handle, weight-wise," says Smail, who is a regular customer of PSL. "I've had very good service from them, and with their ability to fix problems and put things right, Pod Bluman and the PSL guys are the ones to have in your corner."
In all, five screens were used, installed by Vertigo Rigging. The largest of the screens was the Lighthouse LVP1650D, 5m wide x 7.5m high in portrait-format, which, together with three 3m wide x 2.25m high screens, was fixed to the front of the building, a fifth (3m wide x 4.5m high) situated high on the Odeon tower.
Sized specifically for the screens, all content was generated by Jason Bridge at Look No Hands. All sources were stored on Doremi hard drives, controlled by Instant Q and run in dual-synched configuration.
(Chris Henry)
