Sofia, Bulgaria – The annual BG Radio Music Awards ceremony took place at Sofia’s Arena 8888, with a sold-out show seeing Bulgaria’s biggest names perform in an immersive video environment, driven by Green Hippo Hippotizer Media Servers.

The stage consisted of ten individual LED media surfaces, forming a highly modular and immersive visual environment. The centerpiece was a wide, curved LED wall, complemented by additional vertical and horizontal LED elements integrated into the set. All LED surfaces were controlled via six Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers.

“Delivered in a fully tour-ready rack system, the servers allowed us to achieve extremely fast setup times - the system was ready to operate within minutes,” says Sebastian Huwig, aka Huwi, Managing Director at trust event group, which delivered content design, operation, server system specialists and the Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers. “The Hippotizers enabled pixel-accurate mapping and real-time control, and lighting and video were fully synchronized through shared timecode, creating seamless transitions and a unified show experience.”

The production design was realized by Lighting Designer and Programmer Raphael Demonthy at Sunrise Studios and Creative Director Marvin Dietmann.

“Due to the high number of LED surfaces with very fine pixel pitch, data volumes were especially large,” Huwi continues. “Hippotizer’s MediaManager was crucial for keeping an overview of all clips. Furthermore, using the new NotchLC codec significantly reduced import times and optimized playback performance. We also relied heavily on VideoMapper for managing the complex LED configurations. In addition, LiveMasking was essential for integrating IMAG live camera streams directly into the content in a creative and seamless way.”

All visuals were fully pre-rendered, with the team aiming to create a unique world for each song performed live.

“A central challenge was meaningfully integrating the IMAG feeds into the content, adding an extra immersive layer and storytelling dimension to each performance,” Huwi explains, “but we were impressed by the versatility of the Hippotizer platform. We can use Hippotizer equally well for TV shows, live entertainment productions, and corporate events. This makes it a true multifunctional tool for video playback and media integration.”

The video planning, content design, and media server operation were managed by trust.event engineering, while the media servers were supplied by trust rental GmbH.

Two of the most well-known faces in Bulgarian cinema and theatre, Maria Bakalova and Julian Vergov, hosted the awards, which celebrate ‘the modern musical history of Bulgaria’. Singer-songwriter Vasil Naydenov received the ‘Most beloved Bulgarian pop artist of all time’ award, with Bogdana Karadocheva awarded the 2025 ‘BG Inspiration’ gong for outstanding contribution to Bulgarian music.