The 2011 MTV EMA (Europe Music Awards) show is MTV’s largest international music property, hosted in a different city each year. This year’s show was hosted by Selena Gomez live from Belfast, and featured A-list performers such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Snow Patrol and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
MTV used Blackmagic Design technology for live video switching and graphics for production of daily news content for their international TV channels, as well as with MTV’s digital media group to produce online content and live webcasts on the night of the awards. To accomplish this, MTV used Blackmagic Design’s ATEM 1 M/E production switcher and ATEM 1 M/E broadcast panel, plus Blackmagic Design’s Micro Videohub, Smart Control, DeckLink Duo and Mini Converters.
The ATEM 1 M/E production switcher was used to bring exclusive behind the scenes footage to viewers from numerous cameras located on the red carpet and backstage. Video bumpers, lower thirds and inserts, including a red carpet fashion highlights package, were played out using Blackmagic Design’s Media Express software and were mixed using ATEM’s built in DVE and chroma key functions.
The show’s production room had four Apple Final Cut Pro editing stations equipped with DeckLink Studio cards for broadcast-quality monitoring, along with three live ingest stations with DeckLink Duo cards. Video sources were managed using Blackmagic Design’s Micro Videohub, which was controlled by a Smart Control panel, allowing a fully tapeless production workflow that routed content to various on site OB trucks. Live webcasts of the show with additional backstage footage were also mixed during commercial breaks using the ATEM 1/ME production switcher and ATEM 1 M/E broadcast panel, along with a number of Mini Converters, to piece together all incoming footage.
