The Eurovision Song Contest is a unique experience in
the world of entertainment made all the more special by use of some of the
largest lighting and video systems you’ll find on any show. Elation
Professional was proud to have been part of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest
in Kyiv with over 800 lighting products used as audience and stage lighting by
Lighting Designer Jerry Appelt and Eurovision Song Contest Head of Production
Ola Melzig.
Perhaps
no other show in the world lends itself to the use of intelligent lighting like
the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). With 42 different songs to highlight over
the course of three huge shows – not to mention rehearsals and a host of other
performances – the flexibility engineered into today’s lighting and video systems
allowed the ESC design team to be highly creative when custom-designing unique looks
for each performance.
Held May
9-13 at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, proportions mirrored
the enormity of the production with 1816 active intelligent lights and 1000 square
meters of LED screen used to decorate a performance space of roughly 350 square
meters. Some 11,000 spectators attended each show with over 200 million viewers
in 50 countries tuning in to watch the Grand Final on May 13.
Official Technical Event Supplier
Elation Professional served as an Official Technical Event Supplier
to the 2017 show with a large portion of the intelligent lighting package
made up of Elation lights. In the rig were 351 Elation Paladin™ hybrid
strobe/blinder/wash lights, 132 Platinum FLX™ hybrid moving heads, 140 Platinum
1200 Wash™ and 70 Platinum Seven™ moving head LED wash lights, along with 110
SixBar 1000™ LED battens.
Providing the lighting, video and rigging technology for the show was PRG
in cooperation with LITECOM.
Production
Manager Ola Melzig has handled the technical production on many ESC shows and
again mastered the myriad of production elements necessary to put on a world-class
show. Melzig, who produced this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in less than
five months, a much shorter time period than normal, produced three spectacular
broadcasts with the Grand Final marking his 30th Eurovision broadcast since
starting with ESC in 2000.
Melzig,
recipient of TPI’s Production Manager of the Year award, was key in the
decision to go with Elation for the 2017 edition of ESC. He commented, “We were
thrilled to have Elation as one of our Technical Suppliers this year on
Eurovision. Their product range is a great fit for this show, and believe me we
absolutely must have hard core lighting like this to stand up to the challenge!
Eurovision puts a tremendous amount of stress on fixtures and they really came
through.”
Paladin debuts on Eurovision stage
The Eurovision stage, designed by Florian Wieder,
featured a large circular LED stage floor with a dramatic, modern arch
proscenium curving over the stage that ran visual content. The slogan for the
2017 Eurovision Song Contest was Celebrate Diversity and Jerry Appelt’s
lighting design appropriately reflected the diversification and variety
presented on stage. When Appelt was on the hunt for a strobe effect that he
could place behind the huge, curved, semi-transparent LED video wall that served
as the all-important visual backdrop, Melzig set up a shoot-out of fixtures in
Cologne and Appelt liked what he saw in the Paladin. “I wanted to create an
additional layer behind the LED wall, something that had impact but that could
also work together with the LED video and other lighting. We chose the Paladin
and it did a marvelous job.”
Making its global debut, the full-color Paladin fixtures
were used in a large back wall matrix of 351 units (39 wide by 9 high) and played
a prominent role in Appelt’s lighting design. Paladin, a versatile hybrid RGBW
luminaire with zoom, functions as a bright blinder or strobe, powerful wash
light, or, because of its multiple pixel zone control, pixel map and eye candy
looks. “We used them independently and also pixel-mapped video across them,”
said Appelt, who lit the Eurovision show for the third time, having designed
lighting for the 2011 and 2012 events. Paladin effects, which Appelt
incorporated into a large number of songs, popped through the LED screen,
sometimes as impactful strobe/blinder effects or chases and sometimes as more
subtle eye-candy or warm or cold light twinkle effects, then stealthily
disappeared when not in use. “Some of the delegations even asked to have the
Paladins used in their performance to give it more power,” the designer added. Head
of Production Ola Melzig was equally enamored with them, stating, “The Paladin
kicks ass! I love the output, the color and the zoom. It’s an awesome fixture!”
Audience lighting
The Eurovision Song Contest proved an opportunity for
the Ukraine to show the world a positive face with enthusiastic crowds filling
the International Exhibition Center for all three shows, as well as rehearsals.
Most of the audience lighting for the show came from Elation’s powerful
Platinum 1200 Wash™ LED wash moving heads along with Platinum Seven™ LED wash
moving heads.
The Platinum 1200 Washes, which house (19) 65W RGBW
LEDs for plenty of power, worked from three curved trusses over the audience
with more fixtures lined on trusses on each side of the arena. Platinum 1200
Washes were also positioned each side of the stage and used for sidelight. The
Platinum 1200 Wash produces color washes on par with 1500W discharge fixtures,
a fact not lost on designer Appelt. “What can I say about the Platinum 1200
Wash” he said. “Its brightness is great and it has fantastic output. I was
very satisfied with them.”
The Platinum Sevens, reportedly the most stable
fixtures in the entire ESC rig, worked from trusses further back in the room and
were grouped with Elation Platinum FLX units, which were used to splay the
audience in beams when more upbeat moments were called for. “I absolutely love
the UV chip in the Platinum Seven,” said Ola Melzig of the high-power LED wash
luminaire that uses a 7-color multi-chip LED and also houses a zoom. “Well, I
love everything about that fixture, but especially the UV chip!”
Surrounding
the Beehive
Above the stage hung a key element in the stage
lighting setup, a movable ‘beehive’ surrounded by truss that included Platinum
FLX hybrids, Elation’s award-winning spot/beam/wash moving head with patented
dual optical system. The FLX’s provided some wonderful looks such as artists immersed
in concentrations of beams or splayed beam effects with the FLX fixtures
projected outward. Additional Platinum FLX fixtures worked from a sidelight
position together with the Platinum 1200 Wash fixtures.
The FLX, one of the more popular hybrid fixtures on
the market, was chosen by Appelt on reputation. “I knew that satis&fy had
added the FLX to its inventory and has been using them since last year,” he
said. “I took that as proof that it was a good fixture and they were right.”
Ola Melzig adds, “We used 132 Platinum FLXs and we\’re absolutely delighted with
this fixture. It\’s so versatile, it\’s fantastic and it\’s been working really,
really good for us.”
Arch support
The final Elation fixture in the ESC lighting package
was the SixBar 1000, one-meter long multi-purpose
LED battens with a 6-color LED multi-chip. Filling the
space above the stage arch and curving all the way around it on both sides to
reflect its shape, the vertically-positioned SixBar pixel strips provided
dynamic chase effects, wash and decorative eye-candy looks throughout the show.
SixBar fixtures were also mounted vertically on the outer edge of the beehive
for a defining decorative touch. \”I love the SixBar 1000!” Ola Melzig stated. “It’s
the perfect tool for wash or pixel effects with great color mixing and dimming
that hasn’t been seen before.\”
A Eurovision success
Holding such an immense, high profile show in the
Ukraine isn’t an easy job but an experienced production team can make it look
like it is, and the end result was a huge success. “Despite some of the
challenges working in the Ukraine, the goal was to create a state-of-the-art
light show and I was really quite happy with the result,” Appelt concludes
The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest was won by Portugal,
their first win ever, which means the 63rd edition of the show will
take place next year in Lisbon. The Contest has been broadcast every
year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running
television programs in the world.
Photos: Ralph Larmann
http://www.elationlighting.com
