• May 18, 2012

Presenters at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards, taking place on Sunday in Las Vegas, will be reading winners’ names off of Sony tablets, rather than tearing open traditional envelopes.

If all goes as intended, category presenters will open the folding, dual-screen tablet to reveal the winner’s name on the screen inside. Additionally,behind-the-scenes producers will use Sony tablets to monitor ongoing discussions across social media sites.

"We're thrilled to be working with Sony to make the Billboard Music Awards winner announcements more exciting and dynamic than ever before," said Tommy Page, publisher of Billboard, in a statement.  "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."