International News

BAKU, Azerbaijan — For the 57th annual Eurovision Song Contest, with semi-finals staged May 22 and 24 and the finals on May 26 at the 23,000-capacity Baku Crystal Hall, Cape Cross Studio + Filmlicht GmbH served as general technical service provider. Among the many companies contributing to the success of the event was Germany-based Sommer Cable.

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.

SYDNEY – Christian Marclay’s The Clock is a 24-hour video collage that is attracting audiences in the art world. Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the Southern Hemisphere premiere of the piece, working with Jands’ staging department to create the proper curtained cinema environment for the three-month art installation.

LONDON – Clay Paky equipment figured heavily in rapper Example’s first arena tour. LD Graham “Grum” Leesmith spec’d 50 Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures, along with 30 Sharpys and 20 Alpha Wash 1500s, all from rental house Neg Earth.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Irish lighting rental company Production Services Ireland (PSI) became fully embroiled in the weekend commemorating the centenary of the sinking of the world’s most famous cruise ship: Titanic. They supplied lighting, rigging and crew to three major events to mark this moment in maritime history. On the same weekend, PSI also supplied lighting to three major boxing and wrestling events, so it proved a real brain-teaser for logistics and pre-planning and left PSI’s Belfast warehouse bare.

DONETSK, Ukraine – CORTMI Ltd. has carried out an innovative lighting installation at a war memorial in their native city using PR Lighting’s new ARC LED 3216, among other lighting. The three LED spotlights have been placed on specially installed masts around the monument, illuminating it with red light to symbolize the bloody years of war.