Achern, the smallest of the three towns with a population of 25,000, had its screen in the Stadtpark where up to 5,000 people congregated for the matches; Offenburg, with a population of 60,000, saw an average of 7,000 people joined the public viewing at the central marketplace; and Freiburg, a university city with a population of 155,000 which includes young and international students, had more than 10,000 fans watching each game on its screen in one of the city's parks.
"The games were transmitted in 16:9 format, so we had 20 panels of Lighthouse R19 at each site in a five-column by four-row configuration and we used a Lighthouse X-Drive Pro and LIP-SX for processing," says Cassiopeia's lighting manager Martin Heuberger.
"As the championship lasted for 30 days, it was very important that we had a weatherproof system," he says. "During the last week we had short, but heavy, thunderstorms with strong winds. The Lighthouse screen worked perfectly for the duration in both the heat and the rain.
"Since none of the towns had high population, affordability was a key issue. The Lighthouse R19 was the perfect solution because of its affordable price. Additionally, as all venues had the same screen configuration and all were 19mm units, it was easy for us to service the screens and our technicians move from venue to venue."
In fact, the screens were so popular that the marketplace in Offenburg often had to be closed hours before the games began. "One other thing that quite amusing was that the official England camp was just outside Achern and had its own screen," adds Heuberger. "But the prices were so high there that the English fans enjoyed the public viewing alongside the Germans inside Achern's beautiful park on our Lighthouse screen!"
(Chris Henry)
