When Austrian
drag act Conchita Wurst was crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision
Song Contest in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, it brought to the end a
spectacular show, in which SGM’s pioneering LED lighting reigned supreme.
In a groundbreaking design, the show’s
creative director, Per Zachariassen and lighting designer Kasper Lange (with
whom he has worked for ten years) ensured that content throughout the 26
artistes performing could be delivered to four different surfaces, allowing the
stage to be transformed from act to act. This included the huge, classic SGM
LED back wall — measuring 110 metres wide by 13 metres high — and it was here
that over 350 SixPack blinders were used to such dramatic effect.
Once again, SGM had been appointed an
official technical event supplier as the evergreen event arrived in the
company’s own back yard … taking place in the spectacular B&W Hallerne at
Copenhagen’s Refshaleøen — a former ship’s wharf that has been transformed into
a Eurovision Park.
The SixPack pixel blinders, that last
year’s production director Ola Melzig had fallen in love with in Malmö, were in
evidence again as Kasper Lange used most of a complete inventory of 362
SixPacks to form a dazzling, pixel-mapped back wall matrix effect. Each fixture
combines six outputs of powerful 40W colour mixing with built-in
electronics, and individual DMX control over each lamp, to boost the LD’s
creativity.
Given a free hand to design and specify the
show, he was using the fixture for the first time — and was thoroughly
impressed. “I had a strong idea where I wanted to go with the design — and the
SixPacks are a good, stable and very powerful fixture which we used
selectively, as special effects.” A Hippotizer was used for the pixel mapping
and the lighting was controlled from a series of grandMA desks.
After a week of spectacular events leading
up to the final, SGM CEO Peter Johansen had declared that over his many years
in the industry this was probably the finest lightshow he had witnessed. “I am
proud of the design Kasper Lange made and delighted that he chose SGM fixtures
as part of his incredible show,” he said.
It further underlines the fact that Denmark
is emerging as a growth country in the lighting industry, with both the company
Peter founded in the 1980s and SGM now sharing residence in Aarhus. “It\’s great
to know that the coolest lights in the world are being developed and produced
in Aarhus, which is fast becoming the lighting industry’s answer to Silicon
Valley. In fact Denmark supplied 25% of the lighting used at Eurovision.”
With an innovative approach to lighting
technology and LED, SGM constantly strives to produce new tools for important
lighting designers such as Kasper Lange — and the results were all too clear as
the extravaganza at B&W Hallerne proved.
The inventory of SixPacks was supplied by
main contractor, LiteCom A/S, sub-contractor PRG and SGM’s rental partners from
around the world. The purchase of the SixPacks represents a substantial
investment for both vendors.
While PRG are already a heavy user of SGM
equipment worldwide, LiteCom is fast becoming a significant SGM rental customer
in its native country, having steadily increased its investment in X-5 LED
strobes and P-5 wash lights — and now the SixPacks.
According to LiteCom account manager,
Balder Thorrud, Litecom had joined forces with PRG in order to answer an EU
tender issued by DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation).
Having been respective leaders in their
field for several years, the vendors had already set up a close working
relationship with Kasper Lange. “And once again, it has proved a great
collaboration,” confirmed Thorrud, adding that the back up from SGM had been
extremely positive.
Although Lange is experienced at working
high profile TV talent shows for DR, including X Factor, Denmark’s Got Talent
and Danish Eurovision, he admits, “This was the largest project I have been
involved in — by far.”
To get an idea of scale, the production, in
which 450 staff were engaged, attracted an expected television audience of more
than 120 million fans. Figures released the following day showed Eurovision
generated 5.4 million tweets on social media, with a peak Twitter activity of
47,136 tweets per minute when Wurst\’s victory was announced.
Photos by Jakob
Boserup
