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Lighthouse Screens Take Centre Stage at World Music Awards
The event was hosted by Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan and it featured performances from Beyonce, Nelly Furtado, Enya, Andrea Bocelli and Katie Melua. R&B star Chris Brown, backed by dozens of dancers in zombie make-up, opened for Michael Jackson – making his first UK appearance since 1997 – with a rendition of his seminal 1982 hit Thriller.
An impressive total of 130 panels of Lighthouse R16 16mm LED screen formed the arch – measuring 15m in height, with each leg being 3m wide – that sat at the centre of the stage and set slightly forward, with a glittering staircase descending through it.
Processing was via Lighthouse LIP-KX processors with Supervisor LH Universal Display optimisers for scaling. For processing purposes, the screen was split into two – the top of the arch and the two legs – but appeared as one seamless screen.
Besides using Lighthouse R16 LED screens, three projection screens provided IMAG requirements: one central rear projected and two front projected screens stage left and right. Additionally, 60 plasma TVs were arranged in vertical columns of three along the front of the stage, plus a small array of plasma TVs in a swastika arrangement in the presenter area.
Under the direction of Richard Shipman, with Richard Bagshaw and Kate Perring from Digital Insanity handling the video content, the combination of the Lighthouse LED arch, projection screens and plasmas created an interesting array of integrated effects. The LED arch and outer screens, which formed a frame for the central screen showing the performers, at times provided one complete canvas, whilst at others images of the presenters were displayed on the three projection screens with the LED arch containing the World Music Awards logo.
“We had a lot of screens tied up on the Bond premiere the previous day,” adds Pod. “So we bring in partner companies to work with, such as The Picture Works who are helping us here.”
“The collaborative nature of the business is a real asset for projects like this,” concurs Robin Wealleans, (PR firm to add title of Robin), The Picture Works. “As well as providing a great service, knowing that the screen you purchase has the ability to be cross-rented is a very important purchase consideration and our Lighthouse R16 has worked extremely well for us in this respect.”
Providing such a substantial amount of screens proved no problem for PSL and The Picture Works. “It’s actually been very straightforward,” adds Pod. “We had a four-day build using 16 crew plus 10 local crew and a 13 hour tear-down time. The Lighthouse R16 screen is easy to work with and, because of its good uniformity, mixing and matching with other company’s panels just isn’t a problem.”
“It’s always good to see innovative use of LED screen such as this,” concludes Lighthouse UK and Northern Europe sales manager Simon Taylor. “The R16 certainly proves itself the de facto screen for music set design.”
5th December 2006
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