Skip to content

Bavaria Sounds 2022

Share this Post:

Andreas Gabalier’s I-Mag mixed in visual content Photo by MH Vogel

Designing Germany’s Three Largest Open-Air Concerts

Bavaria Sounds 2022 in Munich, Germany came with many major production design considerations. One stage and one rig had to stay put for a month, outdoors. One design had to accommodate three individual concerts from popular artists of different musical styles: Austrian folksinger Andreas Gabalier (performing Aug. 8), Germany’s Helene Fischer (Aug. 20), and the UK’s Robbie Williams (Aug. 27). The rig had to withstand a month of weather, some hot days and rainstorms. It had to make the same statement during bright days and dark nights. And it had to have a striking visual impact to reach 100,000 fans that filled each show at the Munich Exhibition Center.

The three concerts would become Munich’s largest open-air concerts to date, and the largest in Germany this year. PLSN asked Lighting and Video Designer Roland Greil and Associate Lighting Designer Troy Eckerman, who both worked with Production Designer Florian Wieder of Black Project Design, to share the design experience.

Bavaria Sounds lighting and video creative crew (from left): Tom Levin Schwenzle (Video Programmer & Design Assistant); Haegar Deutsch (I-Mag Director); Michael Kuehbandne (Studio Associate & LX Programmer); Roland Greil (Lighting and Video Designer); Bianca Mastroianni (Follow-Me Operator); Troy Eckerman (Associate Designer); Leo Herrmann (Video Programmer); and-Klaus Kubesch (Lighting Programmer). Photo by Wieder Design

PLSN: Roland, you’re no stranger to large-scale shows—working on The Rolling Stones, Genesis, and Rammstein, for instance. What was different about this show?

Roland Greil: There are two main differences: The sheer size of the stage and the size of the production. Especially the width of Florian’s stage design, which is nearly 150m (492’) wide. This is far bigger than any of my current stadium projects that I’ve been involved with. On the other hand, with this rig we created three vastly different full-on stadium-sized shows for three different artists in a very short time. Helene Fischer is Germany’s biggest female act and currently one of the most successful ones in Europe. Andreas Gabalier of Austria is one of the most successful artists within the German speaking countries. And Robbie Williams, formerly from Take That, has been one of Europe’s biggest acts for the last two decades.

Helene Fischer’s architectural look is created with video. Photo by Wieder Design

Talk about your collaboration with Production Designer Florian Wieder.

Greil: We were collaborating from the very first moments working on this project. This is absolute key to create an overall cohesive result. You can only create magic if you work together. This starts with creating into the architecture incorporated lighting positions and vice versa, putting together a lighting rig that works with the overall architecture and not fighting it. We both share the belief of a greater all, which includes all elements, that are visible. Only if all those elements work together, you will be able to create those magical moments and cohesive looks. Versatility and a collaborative approach are the keys to success. For Robbie Williams’ performance, we also collaborated with his current LD, Matt Pitman, who came with his artist.

Let’s start with the diamond-shaped stage at 150m (492’) wide and 20m (66’) high. Why was it so large?

Greil: Here you have to consider the size of the site and audience. Taking this in consideration, you have to build something which is meaningful and is a statement. Also for an overall immersive and cohesive design it is important to create an architecture, which also allows to include, for instance, the needed I-Mag screens. The overall production has to keep up with the overall size of the event itself and also needs to reflect an architectural value, as we’re dealing with an outdoor scenario, which doesn’t allow anything to hide, and the spectators see more of the stage in daylight than in darkness.

ROE Vanish V8T video screens allow lights to shine through for Andreas Gabalier. Photo by MH Vogel

What were your main lighting and video design challenges?

Greil: Again, the size of the whole production, as well as the audience viewing area was challenging. Furthermore, there were the time restraints in terms of creating three completely different shows. As an icing on the cake Helene’s show was fully recorded by 25 cameras, beautifully directed by the über-talented Paul Dugdale, for a later broadcast, which adds another layer of challenges to it. In terms of video, it is the creative challenge of immersing the much-needed I-Mag into the overall creative.

What were your considerations when specifying lighting?

Greil: Obviously foremost, they had to do what they were supposed to do. Furthermore they had to be versatile enough, had to have the firepower to keep up with the production’s size and withstand all weather conditions outdoors. And not to forget, they had to be available on the market within the given budget. The whole lighting rig stayed out for the whole production period. Therefore it was super beneficial to have the majority in IP65 rated fixtures, which helped tremendously.

More than 450 Elation fixtures light up the rig. Photo by MH Vogel

What new products are you using, and why did you specify them?

Greil: In terms of kit, we’re using quite a bit of new stuff like Ayrton’s Cobra, Elation’s Proteus Excalibur and a custom Follow-Me [followspot] solution.

We put the Ayrton Cobras on top of the far upstage wall to create some impressive beam looks into the sky, to extend the onstage look and feel, as well as to frame the main stage area on top. I’ve picked them because of their firepower and clarity of their beam, which goes far into the sky.

I chose the Elation Proteus Excalibur because I wanted a strong beam light with a big front lens to substitute for a traditional searchlight. Again, it was to frame the overall looks, and immerse the audience as well, as we’ve also put them on the delay towers. Those strong beam looks definitely extended and complemented the overall created looks.

What was your custom Follow-Me followspot solution? You used two Follow-Me systems with six targets.

Greil: I’ve been a fan of the Follow-Me system for a while, and again, it didn’t let me down. We avoided having traditional followspots and were way more flexible with key lighting. Especially considering the limited rehearsal time, it has been a life saver, while also allowing some creative uses, as we have calibrated big parts of the overall rig to the system.

Fixtures calibrated to and used by the Follow-Me system were: 67 Elation Proteus Maximus, 23 Elation Proteus Excalibur, 32 Robe BMFL FollowSpot LT, 40 Martin MAC Axiom Hybrid, 24 Martin MAC Ultra Performance, and 18 Martin MAC Quantum Profile units.

The challenge here again was the size of the performance area, but thanks to all the help from our friends at Follow-Me and [Follow-Me Tech] Bianca Mastorianni’s great work, we overcame those with an ease and the system performed flawlessly for all three shows.

Talk about your choice for the LED video wall architecture. I understand there were about 1,500 sq. meters of LED screens in total on the site.

Greil: Florian and Cuno von Hahn integrated the video walls from the very first get-go into their architecture, which helped tremendously to avoid building huge television screens and made the screens immerse into the overall look. The side wings were built with ROE [Visual] CB5 5mm high res LED product, while the upstage center screen was built with ROE Vanish 8T, which is high-res but also see through, which allowed us to shine through with lights from the upstage center wall. Delay I-Mag screens were an 8mm product [AOTO M8]. The setup fulfilled our wish to work with high resolution products to create the best possible background and canvas. All screens were fired from a disguise VX4 setup controlled and programmed by Tom Levin Schwenzle and Leo Herrmann.

The stage spans 150m (492 ft) in width. Photo by Wieder Design

Who created the content design?

Greil: In general, we had the pleasure to work with Gravity, a Germany-based content house, for content on Andreas and Helene’s show. As we have worked together before, the collaboration was painless and efficient. On site, we combined their content with the I-Mag feeds coming from our talented Video Director Haegar Deutsch. Important for me was again to avoid creating the look of television screens, hence why we have treated the I-Mag in most of the looks and framed it, so that it fitted in the overall content look.

Troy, you’ve worked on lots of major projects. Yet you said this was one of the “most amazing.” What made it so?

Troy Eckerman: The size of the stage. The width and the height of the stage was quite large. This allowed for some great lighting positions—along with the delay towers that were lit from below by [SGM] P10s and the two [Elation Proteus Excalibur] moving light fixtures that were on the top of each delay tower. The entire viewing area was quite large.

Elation Proteus Excalibur fixtures are also positioned on the delay towers. Photo by MH Vogel

How did you get involved as associate lighting designer?

Eckerman: Roland and I have many mutual friends for many years. We met a while back at LDI. Since then, we have worked on several big projects and have a few more coming soon. I think it was all about being at the right place at the right time. It’s funny how that works from time to time.

Troy, describe your role and the collaboration process.

Eckerman: I was overseeing all the programing—along with our great team—for the first few days as Roland finished up his other tour in Europe. When Roland arrived, I took more of the role of associate designer and let Roland drive the ship. I would always throw in a few ideas when we were programing. There was plenty to do with keeping track of a big system, and we were also watching over the video for the first two shows. During the show—since we had very limited rehearsal time—we were tracking levels for spotlights, haze machines, video screens and the lighting system. We were all busy! Florian has been great to work with. He does give his opinion but not too often. It is always a pleasure to work with Florian and Roland.

Photo by Wieder Design

Talk about programming for the three different artists.

Eckerman: No programming for me on this one. We had some great programmers and operators: Klause Kubesch, Michael Kuehbandne, Leo Herrmann, and Tom Levin Schwenzle. Some of them have known and worked with Roland since grade school. They were such a big help on all of it. And they knew the songs from the Bavarian artist, Helene Fischer. That is a huge advantage. As far as consoles, we mainly had a lot of grandMA3 full size consoles, with a couple of the MA light consoles for video and tech world.

What else stands out about this experience?

Eckerman: We have learned that keeping the crew happy is important. Clair Global provided us a barbecue pit and we cooked for the FOH crew twice a day on most days. We always invited other departments and kept the whole crew happy. It was the least we could do for the guys and gals that worked for days and days in the rain. I can’t say enough about how awesome our team was. It was a great experience overall. And it’s always exciting to work with new faces that are true professionals.

Greil: Thanks to a great team, we have mastered all challenges in style and within the given time.

This article was written by Debi Moen.

Bavaria Sounds 2022

Production Team

  • Promoter: Klaus Leutgeb/Leutgeb Entertainment Group
  • Production Director: Frank Mahler
  • Production Manager: Howard Hopkins
  • Lighting & Video Design: Roland Greil
  • Associate Lighting Designer: Troy Eckerman
  • Production Design: Florian Wieder & Cuno von Hahn/Wieder Design
  • LX Programmer: Klaus Kubesch, Michael Kuehbandner
  • Video Director: Haegar Deutsch
  • Video Programmer: Leo Herrmann
  • Design Assistant: Tom Levin Schwenzle
  • Follow-Me Tech: Bianca Mastroianni
  • Technical Director: Jeremy Lloyd & Nick Evans/Wonderworks

Vendors

  • Lighting, Audio and Video: Clair Bros/Audio Rent/Philipp Kaetel (with support from Faber AV and Christie Lites)
  • Stage: Stageco/Dirk Lauenstein
  • Set: Unbranded/Antoine de Haas
  • Automation: Stage Kinetik/Jens Buller
  • Pyro: Pyro Unlimited/Joe Becker

Gear

Lighting

  • 5          MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size Console
  • 2          MA Lighting grandMA3 light Console
  • 171     Elation Proteus Maximus
  • 76       Elation Proteus Hybrid
  • 106     Elation Proteus Excalibur
  • 18       Martin MAC Quantum Spot
  • 24       Martin MAC Ultra Performance
  • 40       Martin MAC Axiom Hybrid
  • 12       Ayrton Cobra
  • 60       SGM P-10
  • 70       SGM P-6
  • 84       Chroma-Q Color Force II 72
  • 108     TMB Solaris Flare Q+
  • 100     Elation Arena PAR Zoom
  • 25       Varytec LED Typhoon PAR
  • 16       ROXX LED 8-Lite Blinder
  • 144     8-Light Mole Blinder
  • 32       Robe BMFL FollowSpot Longthrow
  • 2          Follow-Me Followspot Systems
  • 18       MDG ATMe MDG AtMe Hazer
  • 24       Look Solutions Orka Fog Machine
  • 24       Martin JEM AF-2 Fan

Video

  • ROE Visual Vanish V8T LED Panels