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Grammy Awards Fun Facts

Feb 26, 2009 2:06 PM

  • The Grammy® Award show is the largest physical production of an annual awards show.
  • The Grammys was the first high-profile award show six years ago to be broadcast in HD/5.1. 
  • This year’s show is bigger in size and scope than all previous Grammy shows. This year, the show has 25 percent more music in it than the 50th Grammy Awards Show.
  • There were be a total of 30 songs performed on 22 different setups across four different stages.
  • Rehearsals, sound heck and camera blocking with the performers takes four days.
  • The crew for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards comprises more than 150 stagehands, 130 technicians and 18 stage managers.
  • It takes 40 riggers approximately seven days to load in and hang all the equipment before rehearsal can begin. Several crews working multiple shifts work 24 hours a day to accomplish the task in the first few days.
  • One-hundred-thirty tons of lighting, sound and set pieces were hung from the ceiling of Staples Center. It took 330 chain motors to hoist them up and is secured by 400 points on the ceiling.
  • There is approximately 1.5 miles of trussing.
  • There are more than 400 computer-controlled lights.
  • It takes more than 13,000 amps to power all the lights, sound and video equipment.
  • Approximately 4,000 feet of Versa Tube LED video technology is being employed for the first time, creating changing color with moving color patterns, and glowing with dynamic visual effects on the walls of the set — this is the largest amount of Versa Tube ever used on a live awards show.
  • Eighteen high-definition cameras were used during the broadcast.
  • The stage comprises 12 video screens, including a massive video wall. The video is flown in behind U2 during their performance and is made up of 157,697 LEDs to create a hi-definition backdrop.
  • The music mix for broadcast takes two music mixers who are “tag-teaming” to share the load of mixing the 22 live performances across the span of the three-hour broadcast. All consoles for mixing front-of-house and broadcast are digitally controlled mixing consoles, which allow the mixers to recall the exact settings they did in rehearsals.
  • A dedicated “mirror-image” broadcast truck (called NOVA) allows the mixers a new level of rehearsal time so they are familiar with each artist’s performance prior to airtime.
  • The audio system in the house uses 94 speaker cabinets flown from the grid that includes a cluster of 12 subs in the middle. This also includes nine delay clusters to get the sound to arrive at the right time for everybody. There is also an additional 14 fill speakers under the stage to cover the first few rows.
  • The sound system requires 100,000 watts to power it.
  • It takes four Yamaha PM1D consoles just for the house sound systems.
  • The show is only mixed in 5.1 and is folded down to stereo automatically where 5.1 is not available.
  • More than 600 mics are used for all the different band setups and hosts, including 46 wireless microphones.
  • Microphones are placed all around the Staples Center to highlight and capture hot pockets of activity in the audience during performances and awards, including a unique microphone by Holophone: a single point-source microphone with six capsules designed specifically to capture 5.1 audio.





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