Lighting, Video Companies Team Up to Support Eurovision 2012

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Major production companies across Europe — but mostly from Germany — supplied the technical equipment for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, staged here in late May at the purpose-built 23,000-seat Baku Crystal Hall. The complexity 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).

LONDON – ETC’s LED Source 4 won Lighting Product of the Year at an Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) show ceremony in London. The ABTT judges commended the Source 4 LED for its “good light output, flat beam, crisp imaging, and the ability to change color.”

NORTH TYNESIDE, UK – The skies of North Tyneside in the UK were lit up on the last day of February with vibrant shafts of laser light marking the start of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Artist Yvette Mattern brought her “Global Rainbow” work to the UK, powered by lasers from Lightwave International. She intends the rainbow to encompass geographical and social diversity in its reach and symbolize hope.

MASADA, Israel – HSL sent crew and more than 500 lighting fixtures to the Dead Sea for the third consecutive year to service the 2012 Israeli Opera Festival at Masada, which premiered a production of Bizet’s “Carmen.” Working in the desert with the heat, dust and hostile terrain offered challenges, with plenty of cable runs and other infrastructure having to be buried into the ground.