Lighting designer Jerry Appelt, who was also the lighting designer of last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Germany, specified an impressive lighting rig to compliment the new arena. More than 1,400 moving lights (2,891 lighting fixtures total) with 39,860 parameters allowed 42 countries plus an elaborate interval act and opening performance to have a completely unique look during the overall 7-hour broadcasts.
MA Lighting took total control of the show. Eight grandMA2 full-size consoles, as well as five grandMA2 fader wing ran all lighting, triggered via Timecode. Fifteen MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) devices and 21 x MA NSP (Network Signal Processor) handled all traffic in one session on the MA-Net2.
"I feel very good having grandMA2 on this show, it's very reliable and that's so important with a show of this magnitude," said Appelt. "Its Timecode is the very best. Absolutely every millisecond is cued and then rehearsed again and again and again. The MA system always delivers a great result."
Preprogramming was accomplished on a grandMA 3D running on five custom built Cape Cross PCs. In total there were 78 patched universes and 4,310 cues.
Cape Cross of Cologne, Germany provided all lighting and rigging for the show. Thomas Brügge, managing director of Cape Cross said, "MA Lighting is a very strong partner for us. The desks are of unparalleled quality and the support is second to none."
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. "It all comes down to timing and control and grandMA2 delivers every time. I've worked on many Eurovisions where MA Lighting desks were used and the results are always exactly what we expect."
(Jim Evans)
