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BBC 1Xtra Live 2009 (Sheffield Arena)

Working closely with XL Video’s Chris Saunders and Lighting Designer Bryan Leitch, Paul ‘Pablo’ Beckett from Bryte Desing worked hard to create the exciting video and lighting concept for this year’s BBC 1Xtra Live at the Sheffield Arena.

Hosted by Trevor Nelson and Mistajam on BBC Radio1 and live on stage by Tim Westwood, the event presented an impressive line-up of British urban artists performing in front of up to 12000 people. The acts, including the Sugababes, Tynchy Stryder, Chipmunk, JLS, Jay Sean, Taio Cruz and headlined by Dizzie Rascal, performed across a main stage , connected via a catwalk, the centre stage amidst thousands of fans.

Video and lighting were integrated, giving the designers and operators the option to utilise LED video walls as well as the stage lighting to create individual displays for each performer and focusing the show/action on one stage at a time.

Two Hippotizer Critters, supplied by Siyan Lighting, ran the two independent sets of video screens on the main and centre stage.

The main stage incorporated seven 5m hangs of Pixled F-40 along the back of the stage, while eight 3m hangs of Pixled F-40 where suspended from a circular truss above the centre stage, which were able to be raised and lowered with a Kinesis motor system throughout the performances.

Front of House two Avolite D4 Vision consoles, controlled by a Luminex system, were running the main stage and the centre stage plus catwalk respectively.

Pablo created around 40 pieces of custom content, including 1Xtra logos, artist identifications and general background, which was loaded onto the Critters, while also using a selection of the Hippotizer Critter’s own stock content to bridge/fill in the gaps, producing a fantastic video and lighting display for the event.