- The National TV Awards 2009

For the 5th year running XL has supplied the equipment for the National TV Awards. This year saw the event move to the larger capacity O2 Arena venue, after previously being held at the Royal Albert Hall.

As technical partner XL Events had to demonstrate its ability to deliver large scale High Definition display in the O2 and ensure we met their budget and exceeded expectations. The brief was to provide main screen and backdrop and the 3 separate audience relay side screens.

As this was the first time the National TV Awards had been held at the O2 arena, the main issue here was to deliver a TV show with Graphic content in High Definition to an 18,000 capacity arena and audience.

We needed to create a massive 18m x 10m screen in full HD that was to integrate as the main set piece for the show. All playback was in 1920 x 1080 pixels. The image needed to be of the highest quality and, due to the scale and nature of this awards show, it was key to make the right impression without breaking the budget. As technical partner we also needed to interface with the TV Outside Broadcast services.

XL utilised a total of 18 x Barco FLM22k HD projectors formed in 6 stacks of 3 with 7 of the edges blended. Each triple stack then had to be overlaid. Light output from each of these units had to be accurately matched, colour balanced and intensities trimmed to ensure that the single image was flawless. XL used a Barco Encore system to create the blends and manage the content that went live to screen. HD playback was driven by XL’s own VVTR (Virtual VTR). This is a MAC based system that can allow for automated playout of screen content in High Definition to high degrees of accuracy.

Over and above the playback and projection requirement, we also provided a full camera system and PPU (Portable Production Unit) to capture images of presenters and performers on stage and relay to the IMAG repeater screens. This was facilitated via one of the new HD PPU’s recently added to the XL fleet along with 5 x Sony HXC100 HD Cameras.

To view our wide range of equipment click here. If you would like to speak to us about how our equipment can be integrated into your large scale event, contact us.