Success at the MTV Europe Music Awards
The 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, one of the most prestigious live music events in Europe, rolled in to Liverpool earlier this month to deliver a high octane awards show packed full of spectacular performances. And for the eighth year running we were on hand to deliver the high quality performance and presentation areas as well as scenic items for several performers. This included the giant chapstick which Awards host, Katy Perry, sat astride as she emerged from beneath the central stage into the arena and a scenically built ‘shipping container’ which opened up to reveal a plush velvet set in which Duffy made her debut MTV Europe Music Awards performance.
“We have established a close working relationship with the team from MTV and were absolutely delighted to once again be invited to form part of the team delivering this high profile event,” said Steve Dolan, a Senior Project Manager at Stage One.
Our involvement was greater than ever this year as in addition to the performance and presentation areas we were challenged to come up with innovative solutions to several engineering problems. This included designing and producing a mechanism to secure a hanging canopy of MI Strip panels; providing a rigging solution to fly over 70 vertical LED’s; and designing a non load bearing design for attaching an LED spider to the venue handrail.
We were also responsible for the construction of the 12m diameter central performance stage and connecting catwalks and providing access to the backstage area via two moving screens, which were controlled by Qmotion. Various lighting and light box elements were incorporated into both the stage and catwalks.
In a corner of the arena we dressed the ‘glamour pit’, an area which allowed the artists to watch the live action from within the arena, instead of from backstage. Finally we constructed an Awards Stage which incorporated a bespoke Qmotion controlled person lift, allowing a fast, smooth reveal of several of several of the celebrities.