Staged by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the British Academy Video Game Awards ceremony was nominated by PSL's Pod Bluman as the most technically adventurous of the three events. Working to a brief from producer Lucy Smail of West Design & Production, PSL was able to create projection in the round for the first time, exploiting the Roundhouse's unique architecture to build a 300 degree screen, using a central cluster of projectors suspended from a specially-built ceiling truss.
In fact, the screen is divided into four zones, but content was programmed to move through the full circumference; guests sitting down for dinner were circled by some of the famous games characters such as Pacman and the Lemmings. The remaining 60 degree stretch of the Roundhouse was occupied by the main Awards stage, where West Design & Production had designed in a large main screen, again supplied by PSL, to carry the main show titles and logos.
West Design and PSL also worked together on the inaugural Vodafone Live Music Awards, the heavily-publicised made-for-TV show to reward live performances by popular bands. Lucy Smail's production design made heavy use of video; on a semi-circular stage, back projection onto 8x 8 metre high screen panels displayed most of the show logos, nomination titles and video effects. Additionally, three tracking LED screens were in motion across the stage, on occasion working in conjunction with front projection.
With Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles presenting the awards from a secondary stage, PSL also dressed this area with a dozen TV monitors, and provided as many plasma screens to carry show feeds to the press room and VIP areas. All video content was generated by the Hello Charlie graphics company.
(Chris Henry)
