The complexity and magnitude of the production demanded long rosters of gear and staff for lighting and video support, to the specs of the design team headed by Jerry Appelt (lighting) and Florian Wieder (stage design).
Cape Cross Studio + Filmlicht GmbH of Cologne, Germany (capecross.de) once again supplied lighting, truss and control desks, 2,891 lighting fixtures and full support of all equipment.
The control setup included eight full-size grandMA2s and five grandMA2 faderwings, with 15 MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) devices and 21 MA NSP (Network Signal Processor) units handling all traffic in one session on the MA-Net2. The crew preprogrammed cues on a grandMA 3D running on five custom-built Cape Cross PCs. In all, there were 78 patched universes and 4,310 cues.
Of more than 1,400 moving light fixtures, 667 were from Clay Paky, including many shining from the overhead truss, designed to complement the angular stage design. There, there were 78 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500s, 157 Alpha Beam 1500s, 249 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, 47 Alpha Profile 1500s and 114 Sharpys.
“The Sharpys were everywhere,” said Appelt. In addition, 22 Clay Paky Shotlight Wash fixtures were in the ceiling “strictly used for effects.”
One lighting element new to the Eurovision stage was the Parasol KLR (Kinetic Light Ring) system, hung directly over the stage. The system in Baku included three concentric rings — two of which were the KLR rings — all lit with Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s. The inner KLR ring was 10 feet in diameter with 10 Alpha Beam 1500s and the second KLR ring was 16 feet diameter with 16 Alpha Beam 1500s. A third 30-foot diameter static ring comprised the outer circle. The rings were also rigged with moving hoists, allowing them to separate and lower.
“The Parasol system was totally unique and nice. It was used in the interval act and looked spectacular,” Appelt said. Parasol Technician John Johnson was on hand in Baku to oversee the setup and operation of the Parasol system. The movement of the KLR rings was controlled via Ethernet by Johnson from Parasol laptop controllers, while the control of the actual fixtures was handled by the lighting team on grandMA2 via wireless DMX.
The KLR truss was custom built by Xtreme Structures in Sulphur Springs, TX, and shipped to Baku. “The setup was straightforward,” said Johnson. “The arc segments bolted together easily and the electrical connections had been pre-arranged to comply with European standards.”
The followspot setup included six Robert Juliat Aramis 2500W and four Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W followspots, shining from three different positions in the ceiling. In addition, Cape Cross modified six Alpha Beam 1500s by adding a handle and removing the automated yoke, allowing these to be used as followspots as well. “These were great for targeting and color bumping,” Appelt said.
Concert and stage producer Ola Melzig consulted with the delegations and artists regarding the details of each performance including lighting, video, pyro, sound and camera angles. “The camera loves these fixtures,” he said.
For the live broadcasts, Brainpool TV, working with Ictimai TV, used an extensive installation from Riedel Communications to distribute the event’s video, audio and communications signals via MediorNet, Artist, RockNet, professional radios and wireless video links.
At the heart of the installation was Riedel’s fiber-based real-time network, MediorNet, which handled most of the event’s signals. 40 HD and SD video signals were distributed within the arena — including the broadcast feed and the signals for the on-site video walls and monitors.
Because MediorNet allows the transport of different signal types over a single infrastructure, it was credited for reducing the effort required to prepare for the event — which was particularly important, given the tight time frame for the completion of the arena itself.
Riedel was also responsible for five wireless video camera systems consisting of Grass Valley LDK 8000 equipment including wireless transceivers, and a communications infrastructure combining Artist Digital Matrix Intercom with digital trunked radios (TETRA) and professional analog radios. A total of 13 Artist 128 and Artist 64 mainframes were used as well as 82 Artist control panels including panels from the Artist 1100, 1000 and 2000 series. Nearly 900 Artist ports were available via the intercom matrix. Artist’s free scalability allows systems to be built with up to 1,024 x 1,024 ports. Riedel also equipped 25 commentator booths at the event with Artist CCP-1116 commentary control panels and other gear. More than 600 analog and digital trunked (TETRA) professional mobile radios completed the communications infrastructure. The 350 TETRA radios and the 10 analog professional radio groups were integrated into the Artist system using Riedel RiFace interfaces.
In all, the production required more than three kilometers of fiber optic cable and four kilometers of multi-channel AES/EBU + DMX cabling, according to Sommer Cable, another supplier of gear for the event. As a connector system, HI-Fiber4 series from HiCon was used in combination with flexible 4-fiber SC-Octopus Pur line from Sommer Cable.
With almost all of the gear arriving from Germany, the crew oversaw gear transport via 100 40-foot rail containers, 110 40-ton trucks and two Boeing 747 cargo planes.
Eurovision Immerses Song Contestants in a Sea of Video
BAKU, Azerbaijan — The annual Eurovision Song Contest 2012 (ESC) was broadcast to a viewing audience of more than 120 million people around the world on May 22 and 24 (the semi-finals) and May 26 (the finals), easily topping the record viewer count of the 2012 Super Bowl (113.1 million).
Instead of watching 22 helmeted players on a 100-yard field, the cameras focused on singers representing 42 European nations as they vied for top honors within the cavernous maw of Baku’s new 23,000-capacity Crystal Hall. Set designer Florian Wieder and lighting designer Jerry Appelt filled that void with an interplay of lighting beams and video surfaces.
Video provider Creative Technology (CT), which had also supported the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany and worked closely with Cape Cross Studio & Filmlichtgesellschaft mbH and other production companies. CT’s stats for Baku include 1.52 million video LED pixels, 1,380 square meters of LED screens, 14 Green Hippo media servers, 2,100 meter LED strips, 12 HD projectors and 10 kilometers of fiber optics.
In all, some 90 tons of equipment was transported in 868 flight cases via a Jumbo 747 freighter, and the 22 CT team members assigned to the project logged a total 7,270 working hours to support the event. Intensive preparations began six months prior to the competition, culminating in the massive efforts required for the load-in, rehearsals, semi-finals, grand finale and load-out.
In addition to the massive configuration of LED video surfaces on the central stage, which was built into 11 free-form screen components, CT supported the need for 450 meters of Schnick-Schnack’s LED C-Series system for the Green Room, 1.7 kilometers of Barco MiStrip installed on the stage floor and projections beamed onto 390 square meters of screen surface via 12 Barco FLM HD20 (20K lumen) projectors for the audience inside the arena.
In terms of video processing and control, along with the 14 Green Hippo media servers, there were two Encore systems, two DVI matrix switchers (each 32×32 with fiber optic connections for the operator’s desk) and fully-redundant signal cabling from the operator’s desk to the video system’s various components.
Nick Charalampidis, product specialist from Green Hippo, was providing a visual assist during the month prior to the finale himself, with image resolutions and the complexity of the networked systems both reaching new levels.
To ensure that crew members involved with the production would be able to see everything, the setup include more than 40 display monitors covering the action. The 2012 contest crowned the representative from Sweden as the winner. The 2013 rendition of Eurovision will be held in that country, with the finals set for May 18, 2013.
