Elation lighting success at Eurovision 2017
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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.
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 marvellous job.”
Making its global debut, the full-colour Paladin fixtures were used in a large back wall matrix of 351 units (39 wide by nine high) and played a prominent role in Appelt’s lighting design. “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 enamoured with them, stating, “The Paladin kicks ass! I love the output, the colour and the zoom. It’s an awesome fixture!”
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 final Elation fixture in the ESC lighting package was the SixBar 1000, one-meter long multi-purpose
LED battens with a six-colour 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."
(Jim Evans)
