Brompton Technology Powers LED Processing for 50th Anniversary Olivier Awards

Blue-i Theatre Technology relied on Brompton Technology's Tessera LED processing platform to deliver the visual experience, both in the room and on screen, for the 50th anniversary of the Laurence Olivier Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall. Marking the prestigious ceremony's return to prime-time BBC television, the technical production supported a historic night for British theater where Into The Woods and Paddington The Musical led the field with 11 nominations each, with the latter securing seven trophies, including Best New Musical.
 
The LED rig was split into seven pieces: a central 16:9 screen flew in and out throughout the ceremony to display VT packages and scenic content behind performers, while another six screens built into the scenery as 'posters' were used for both scenic content and imagery celebrating nominated and winning productions.
 
The setup comprised two Tessera 4K SX40 LED processors and two Tessera XD 10G data distribution units for the main flown screen, with a matching configuration of two further SX40s and two XDs powering the poster screens.
 
This year also saw Blue-i transition to its latest batch of Absen Saturn 2.6mm panels, chosen specifically to run on Brompton processing. The move brought a significant practical advantage, with the new panels weighing less than half their predecessors, a benefit welcomed by the automation and rigging teams working within the Royal Albert Hall.
 
"Productions of this scale demand complete confidence in every element of the LED workflow," says Darren Jackson, Business Development Manager (UK and Ireland) at Absen Europe. "The combination of Absen Saturn panels and Brompton processing gave Blue-i the performance, colour fidelity and reliability needed for a live prime-time broadcast, and we're proud to have contributed to such a landmark celebration of British theatre."
 
For Blue-i's Head of Technical Theatre, Sam Jeffs, the Olivier Awards is a personal highlight of the year, and marked his 12th consecutive year working on the show. As a broadcast production, the technical stakes were particularly high and redundancy was a top priority. "Being a live broadcast, project timings are really tight, so ensuring we could load in quickly and have a rock solid system with full redundancy was very important," Jeffs explains. "The SX40 and XD combination allowed for multiple layers of redundancy, which makes it one of our favourite Brompton features."
 
Ultra-low latency was equally critical for the live camera feeds that were central to the show's broadcast. This feature reduces end-to-end latency to just one frame across the processor, providing an effective solution for exactly these kinds of broadcast demands. Because the production signal had to pass through an outside broadcast system, minimising latency at every possible point in the chain was essential.
 
Genlock further supported the broadcast pipeline, allowing the entire LED system to be synchronised to the production's house sync, helping eliminate any risk of on-camera artefacts during the live transmission.
 
The fine colour control offered by the SX40s, in particular ChromaTune, which includes a 14-way colour corrector, also proved invaluable in collaborating with the broadcast engineering team to achieve the precise on camera look required. "Having the fine colour controls was heavily used to work with the broadcast engineers to get things looking just right on camera," Jeffs says. "The different levels of control really helped dial things in quickly." 
 
He also highlighted Brompton's Stacking feature, which ensured any changes made were propagated across all four SX40 units simultaneously, enabling rapid adjustments across the system. The Frame Store feature meanwhile provided an added layer of confidence, giving the team the ability to store and recall video snapshots as a contingency should any issues arise during the live broadcast.
 
"It's always a highlight of the year, celebrating the success of UK theatre, and it's such a privilege to be a part of that," Jeffs reflects. "For me it's special, as it's one of the few shows for which I'm still in the hot seat looking after programming."
 
"The Olivier Awards' return to prime-time TV is a landmark occasion," concludes Patrick Goodden, Technical Sales Manager (UK and Ireland) at Brompton Technology. "Live broadcast is one of the most demanding environments for LED processing, with latency, redundancy and colour accuracy requiring no margin for error. The fact that Blue-i have built their entire workflow around the SX40 is a real testament to what the platform can deliver; it's a privilege to support them in making something this special look its very best."

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