The 2012 Billboard Music Awards, set to honor some of the best-selling singers, songwriters, and bands of the year, will no longer need envelopes to call out the names of each winner. Rather than celebrity presenters opening envelopes to announce this year's winners, Sony Tablet P devices, powered by Android, will be used.
Winners' names will be written across the digital face of the dual-screen tablet at the awards, set to take place Sunday, May 20, from 8:00pm - 11:00 p.m. EST on television network ABC, with two of hit comedy "Modern Family"'s stars hosting, Emmy winners Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell. Celebrities set to attend the awards include Taio Cruz, Gavin DeGraw, Gladys Knight, Julianne Hough, Natasha Bedingfield and Jeremy Sisto, according to Billboard's press release.
The P tablet's sister device, the flat one-screen Sony Tablet S, will, according to the Billboard press release issued on Friday, be used by members of the Billboard Music Awards production team throughout pre-production and during the show this weekend, in order to monitor and moderate discussions with fans across all social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.
"We're thrilled to be working with Sony to make the Billboard Music Awards winner announcements more exciting and dynamic than ever before," Tommy Page, publisher of Billboard, commented for the press release. "This new advancement in the show is a perfect extension of the Billboard brand as we are constantly evolving our digital content offerings on various platforms from Billboard.com to the Billboard chart app."
The Sony Tablet P, according to the company's website, comes with a 4 gigabyte storage system and 4G wireless internet access, while the Sony Tablet S is available in two versions: the $399 16GB set; and $499 32GB tablet. Both versions of the Tablet S have a 9.4-inche screen; and, according to Sony's website, both Tablet S and Tablet P are currently running a special, where if fans purchase either of the three devices, they will get a free eBook of the first installment of the "Harry Potter" series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," from the Pottermore Shop, home of the official eBook and audio-books of J.K. Rowling's popular fantasy saga.
