2005
Products: Versa TILE
Designer: Grier Govorko

Talk about your tough crowds. For the 2004-05 Creative Arts Primetime Emmys, production designer Andy Walmsley had the unenviable task of creating a stage design that would dazzle the jaded crowd. "It's challenging because the entire industry-producers, directors and (worse still!) all the production designers are in the audience, so you are under incredible pressure to impress," he says.

By incorporating the eye-catching Versa TILE system from Element Labs into his design, Walmsley was more than successful in meeting the challenge. "The TILEs really helped make the show look more spectacular," he says. Technical director Beth Stiller was among those on the crew who enjoyed the TILEs' performance. "They were really different and interesting and very attractive-they really added to the set design," she says. "It was a lovely look."

The design included 49 square meters of Versa TILEs (2 curved walls, 7 meters wide by 3.5 meters high), which were run from 1 Versa DRIVE D2 processor controlled by an Apple PowerBook running Versatility II by Element Labs. Jeremy Hochman and Jason Mika of Element Labs programmed the show keeping with the show's own graphic titles. "I wrote the software that ran the system in advance along with some of the content," Hochman explains. "Two-thirds of the content was created and/or customized on the show site to match the lighting colors and also to match the motion graphics on the projection screens and plasmas."

Stiller notes that Hochman's contribution greatly enhanced the event. "Jeremy interfaced well with all of us and it was really a pleasure working with him," she says. "He and the lighting designer came up with many different colors and styles that made the producers happy. The TILEs themselves are good for being seen from far away because they are actually quite large. So they're great for decoration and worked really well for long shots."

Walmsley expects to be creating similarly stunning Versa TILE designs in the future. "In a world where producers are now obsessed with video screens on sets (it's always the first thing mentioned when I go for a briefing meeting), it's just a matter of time before I can use the Versa TILE system even more ambitiously on a set," he says. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented the creative awards for programs and individual achievements at the 57th Annual Emmy Awards presentation at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sept. 11.

Photos courtesy Andy Walmsley