National Movie Awards 2011 @ Wembley Arena
ITV's National Movie Awards this year came from Wembley Arena where thousands of invited celebrities and guests were treated to performances from Take That, JLS and Eliza Doolittle.
XL Video supplied projected side screens and a large rear projection screen integrated into the set and driven by 3x Barco FLM HD20s.
James was on site to look after the media server and control hardware for Jonathan Bond who operated the show.
The projectors were rigged by Kevin Parry and Bjorn Parry, along with James who lined up the rear projection system.
Basic Monkey provided a Catalyst media server to run the lectern video loop, the safest solution!
Jason Manford DVD Recording @ MEN, Manchester
Tonight was the recording of Jason Manford's new DVD, due out in November, at the MEN Arena in Manchester.
XL Video supplied Pixled F-30 for Jason's backdrop, driven by Catalyst. Using Catalyst's frame blending and colour adjustment capabilities, a slow and subtle moving look was generated for the show with a more lively look for his walk-on.
As a break from James' usual travels, this show is on home turf, not for long though!
Gadget Show Live @ The NEC
Today was the last in a 5 day run for the Gadget Show Live 'Super Theatre', concluding what has been a busy and interesting show.
Following on from last years success, Tim Riley at XL Video was asked to provide Barco NX-6 screens in the auditorium for camera relay and a large Pixled F-30 screen as a set centrepiece.
This was all driven by Basic Monkey's own 'Gorilla' Catalyst system, triggered using our Jands Vista S3.
As usual, it was important for the show to be using the latest in technology. This was apparent not only in the performance, but in the production of the show itself.
For the interactive sections which included a virtual presenter, flash game and flying drones, Inition provided us with feeds from three separate computers. This, in addition to the live MMS and photo competition which accounted for another two laptop feeds, led to a rather complex setup!
All these inputs were fed into 2x Barco DCS-200 switchers which in turn were controlled via Catalyst network serial commands. This meant that the entire video element (excluding cameras of course) could be triggered from one timeline and by one person (in this case James), eliminating the need for a VT operator, switcher and graphics operator.
For the audience competitions, winners and live scoreboards were rendered to screen using a Quartz system designed by James. Using an external laptop to send raw text to the system allowed scores to be updated in real time, styled using the Quartz system.
The camera crew were directed by Kevin Watts who also produced all the graphical content for the LED screens including animated logos, timers and name straps.
Visitors were treated to an impressive, loud and action packed show with live performances from Ortis and Polly, audience participation and lots of gadget giveaways.
If this year is anything to go by, next year will be even more impressive!
188 Bet Viral Advert Shoot, Twickenham
The second part of our project with Visible Partnership saw James at Twickenham Rugby Stadium to shoot a viral advert for 188 Bet.
Players from the London Wasps threw and kicked balls at a huge projected video game on the side of the stadium with the aim to hit ten dragons in the quickest time possible. The winner would then go on to try and kill the mother dragon.
The game was created using some intricate Vista and Catalyst programming to trigger animations produced by MiE. These animations were keyed over detailed video backgrounds which made use of the building's features.
To keep track of scores, James designed a Quartz leader board which can be updated remotely.
Please check out the video below:
Basic Monkey Launches Catalyst Van
The second part of our project with Visible Partnership involved shooting outdoors and so we decided to keep our precious equipment safe from the elements.
With a few ratchet straps, carefully placed boxes and of course a camping chair, we had our first Catalyst control vehicle. There was plenty of room for our 'Gorilla' Catalyst system and Vista console with a view from the side door that was ample to see everything that was going on.
Available for your next event...
Visible Partnership Advert Shoot
I'm currently working on a new project with Visible Partnership involving some innovative graphics.
We're providing our top Catalyst system along with all relevant bits and most importantly support to help realise the creative designs.
Watch this space...
James
Clothes Show Live, NEC Birmingham
Tonight marks the end of a very busy week for James with XL Video at the Clothes Show Live event in Hall 9 at the NEC.
The show this year was based around "A Night at the Movies" theme, with each act of the show as a different genre of film. Opening with a Mission Impossible sequence which rolls into James Bond, the show goes through High School Musical, Western, Sci-Fi, Fairytale Romance, Scary, Rocky Gangsters and finishes with a feelgood finale.
Guest live music acts joined the show each day to entertain the crowd before the main show, these included Lucie Jones, Sunday Girl and Inju5tice.
Tim Riley at XL Video supplied 3x Lighthouse R7 screens for the stage, two of which were on revolves, along with Barco projected side screens fed using a 4x camera HD Panasonic PPU. The LED was fed using Basic Monkey's new 'Gorilla' Catalyst system and additional side screen and centre screen content came from XL's own Catalyst system.
Lighting designer Nigel Catmur and content designer Colin Rozee built visually pleasing and tightly timed intro sequences for each act, with lighting closely tied to video using a RoadHog console to trigger the Catalyst machines.
For a change the bulk of James' work was as a shoulder mount cameraman, along with responsibility for the Catalyst machines and LED.
On cameras were James Cooksey, Alex Roberts, Arran Busk, all engineered by Jake Robertson and directed by Kevin Watts.
After 37 shows in 6 days, it's time for bed now! Please check out the photos below, all of which are grabs from the video.
Wella ITVA 2010, Paris
Tonight was the 2010 Wella International Trend Vision Awards show at Halle Freyssinet, Paris which saw competitors and guests from all over the world show off and discuss the big new hairstyles and colours for the next 12 months. The event was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide who brought together a huge number of suppliers to create a very successful show.
The event was built in three 'acts', the first being a demonstration of Wella's big new trends of 2011, 'Passionista', 'Lumina', 'Glamazon' and 'Polaris'. The afternoon act consisted of two competitions, 'Young Talent' and 'Colour', both of which are very prestigious awards to receive and can lead to great things for the winners.
In the evening, the guests and competitors were treated to dinner and entertainment from Diversity, The Noisettes and Soul Symphony.
The day show catwalk area consisted of 4x HD side screens and one 16m x 7m edge blended main screen. The main screen at the back of the catwalk had a revolving box at it's lower centre to allow four different apertures for the models to emerge from, each matching the style of the trend. In the afternoon, this box was opened up to allow a DJ to perform for the competitions.
XL Video were brought in to realise the video requirements on site, including fixed, jib and mobile cameras, LED screen, projection and control systems.
The trend content was designed and created by Knifedge with additional stings and animated name straps created by Jamie at JSCGI, all managed by Adam from JMW London and Justine Catterall.
James was tasked to turn the mass of video files, images and audio tracks into a programmed live show using Catalyst. Part of this process was done at XL Video's office in Hemel Hempstead to save time on site, however due to the delivery schedule of the video content lots more had to be done in Paris meaning some long days and late nights. Being involved from an early stage in meetings at Jack Morton's office in London and a wealth of emails and conference calls meant that James could ensure content was delivered in a way to work smoothly in Catalyst and make best use of the projection media.
Basic Monkey supplied a Jands Vista S3 system to control the 4x XL Catalyst systems and also our own new 12 core Catalyst system for surround audio playback and video processing. The system involved signal routing which allowed country and studio names to be keyed onto the live webcast at the same time as flags were displayed on the main screen. Live camera feeds were fed into Catalyst to be output to the side screens when not used as part of the trend video intros.
The show involved heavy use of alpha channel transparency to allow builds rather than fades, this involved some creative programming which was made readily achievable thanks to the the Jands Vista software.
Next years show is in New York and despite being pretty tired after the week, James is hoping to be involved again next year.
Many thanks to Nina Dunn from Knifedge who took the photos during the show (I was busy pressing the button in video city!).
Papal Visit to Cofton Park, Longbridge
For the past two days, James has been down at Cofton Park in Longbridge to rig LED screens for the Papal visit this weekend.
With some serious stage work, a huge crowd area and lots of LED screen from XL Video, this looks to be a major event. The crowd space had 20x PA towers and 6x screens to cater for it!
The screens consist of 3x Mitsubishi DV8 and 3x Lighthouse R7. 6 kilometres of coax and Triax cable are in use for the 10 cameras (not including BBC ones!) and screens.
A crew of 20+ from XL Video and XL Events were on site for the past two days, including LED screen techs, cable techs, camera techs and operators, vision mixers and engineers.
As you can probably see from the photos, it got a bit wet at times and the only shelter available was under the choir seating racks! Let's hope it's sunny for the 50,000 guests and 1,000+ crew/staff on Sunday.
BAMMA @ NEC
Today James was at the NEC to install lighting for the recording of the British Association of Mixed Marshal Arts contest for Bravo TV.
As part of a crew of 4 under Gavin Tomkins, James rigged the 'box truss' over the ring with a multitude of parcans mixed with a few moving lights. Of course these all needed focusing once the rig was in the air so it was time to get on the truss and get rather warm...
Soon after the rig was in the air and focused, the fighters arrived and practice began.