Green Hippo

Awards Season

Awards Season

With more awards ceremonies upon us than you can shake a stick at and line-ups of musicians, entertainers and actors queuing up on a different red carpet each week, Hippotizer programmer Jason Rudolph, and his colleague and server technician Matt Waters have been very busy working on half a dozen high spec shows over the past four months and we were very excited to learn that they used our Hippotizer servers in order to create a different yet amazing stage display for each of the following events:

Los Premios MTV Latinoamerica 2009 (Latin VMAs – 15.10.2009)

Taking place in four cities, Los Angeles (California), Bogota (Colombia), Mexico City and Buenos Aires (Argentina), the eighth Latin MTV Awards, recently re-named Los Premios MTV Latinoamerica, nominating artists who are most popular in Latin American countries, saw high profile musicians grace the red carpet and stage at all four shows.

Jason and Matt used five active Hippotizer servers, with three spares, at the Los Angeles based event on 15^th October 2009 at Gibson Amphitheatre. Co-hosted by Nelly Furtado and Calle 13’s Residente, the likes of the Backstreet Boys, Snoop Dogg, Wisin Y Yandel featuring 50 Cent, Morrissey, Fall Out Boy and Kelly Rowland featuring David Guetta made an appearance. Three of the active servers were used to edge-blend and project a wide variety of exciting and ever changing content across the downstage display, while the other two servers were controlling a rear projection screen stage right and a plasma wall stage left respectively, creating a dynamic visual spectacle.

Latin Grammys 2009 (05.11.2009)

14 Hippotizer HDs and 2 Hippotizer Stages – 12 active servers and 4 spares – controlled the elaborate and innovative stage display at the 10^th annual Latin Grammy Awards.

Hosted at the Mandalay Event Centre on 5^th November 2009, Jason created the video content and  programmed the Hippotizers to drive all video elements on stage. The servers controlled the panoramic projectors which were flipped on their sides, as well as Element Labs’ Versatubes and Stealth LED displays as well as Barco’s Mitrix, MiStrips and iLite LED segments, plus Plasma screens, which all contributed to the creative lighting and projection design. The elaborate stage design, with displays, screens and LED display being incorporated in the backdrop, made for an incredible show.

Photo courtesy of Matt Walters

With performances from Alicia Keyes, Calle 13, who also cleaned up various awards, as well as Omara Portuondo from the Buena Vista Social Club, who was the first Cuban artist living on Cuba to appear at the Latin Grammys, the show recognises Latin Music’s top artists.

Country Music Awards 2009 (11.11.2009)

Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Taylor Swift were only a few of names performing at the 2009 Country Music Awards on 11^th November at the Sommet Centre arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

These awards, organised by the Country Music Association and voted on by its members, are seen as one of the most prestigious accolades for artists in the industry and to match the musical talent an exceptional audio-visual show was create for this 43^rd annual event.

Jason utilised four Hippotizer HD servers to drive all the scenic Versatubes and to PixelMap the jarag light fixtures. Additionally the Hippotizer servers fed to the main screens on occasion to provide an alternative to the OB truck playback.

American Music Awards (22.11.2009)

With a moving comeback performance from Whitney Houston, several posthumous awards for Michael Jackson and a throng of musical artists from the pop, rock, R&B and country music scene the 37^th annual American Music Awards made for a high profile and emotional event on 22^nd November at the Nokia Theatre in LA.

Supplied by ATK Audiotek, Sennheiser held the monopoly on the sound equipment and production of the show. To complement this high-spec audio-outfit, Jason had four Hippotizer HDs to PixelMap  the Jarag lightfixtures, drive all the versatubes and support the main screens with the occasional feed.

Video Game Awards (12.12.2009)

The 2009 Video Game Awards on 12^th December, held at the LA Live Complex in California, had 9 active servers, with 3 spares for eventualities, driving an exciting set which created an extensive virtual reality for the audience.

The lighting was attached to an arch truss system above the stage and the Hippotizers were running the 4 ceiling projectors, used to project hi-resolution content onto the upstage and stage left displays as well as the ceiling. Jason edge-blended all their hi-res content over the whole set in order to create this virtual environment.

Additionally the Hippotizers took care of the playback for all the musical performances by artists such as Snoop Dogg and The Bravery. Honouring outstanding achievements of breakthrough technology, design, and animation the awards feature best moments of the past year and world premieres of new games and gaming technology. The event saw appearances by the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Jack Black, Green Day and Stevie Wonder, who presented the ‘Best Music Game of 2009’ title to “The Beatles: Rock Band”.

Photo courtesy of Matt Walters

People’s Choice Awards (06.01.2010)

The 35^th annual People’s Choice awards saw an estimated 60 million votes being cast for the US’ most popular faces from music and television as well as the big screen.

As the only American ceremony where nominees and winners are voted for by the public, People’s Choice provides an opportunity for fans to comment on and vote for their favourites.

The results are revealed during the extravagant awards ceremony featuring musical performances and appearances by a host of stars.

Working on the amazing visual design and display of this year’s show, Jason managed to integrate a staggering 16 Hippotizer HD servers, 12 of which were active during the show, with 4 spares, to drive the entire set.

Handling all visual scenes and musical performances the Hippotizers’ output went to 8 projectors which were arranged in a row projecting onto 6 horizontal screens, three either side of centre stage. Additionally there were 3 18mm Winvision LED rings on stage, driven by the Hippotizer servers, and scrolling mainly written content throughout the show. One of these rings was positioned stage left, while the other two were suspended together above centre stage, with the bottom ring being raised off and lowered onto the stage throughout the show, revealing three vertically arranged projection screens in the centre of the set.

The Utube video shows the stage in all its glory - see 13-19 seconds.

At Green Hippo we are very proud to have our Hippotizers involved in such an extensive range of ceremonies and would like to congratulate Jason and Matt on covering these major events of the 2009/2010 awards season. Now there’s one big show to go in only a couple of weeks, and we will keep our fingers crossed that this might be the icing on the cake for our awards coverage. Watch this space to find out.