BERLIN – Wireless Solution Sweden AB was recently in Berlin to help the city celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the wall. A focal point for the four-day event was the Festival of Freedom held at the Brandenburg Gate. Thousands attended, including representatives of the former GDR opposition, eyewitnesses, official guests and personalities from politics and culture. The Berlin Staatskapelle and State Opera Chorus, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, opened the ceremony on the Pariser Platz. (Major events were staged at the Potsdamer Platz, 18th of March Square and the Reichstag as well.)
Gerd Helinski, managing director of Helicon-Media GmbH, served as LD for the concert. Afterwards, the fall of the Berlin Wall was symbolized with the toppling of a domino wall made up of over 1,000 large Styrofoam dominoes, stacked along the entire wall path. Following the symbolic "fall", hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets to celebrate and watch a fireworks display.
Helicon-Media specified a system that included 90 DeSisti Outdoor 5kW Fresnels, various blinders by Major, 12 Falcon 7kW and 30 High End Systems Showguns, controlled by two grandMA Full Size consoles and two MA NSPs. To reliably deliver signal to the fixtures, 10 Wireless Solution W-DMX BlackBox S-1 transmitters and 15 W-DMX Outdoor BlackBox R-512 receivers were used.
"We have been using W-DMX equipment successfully since the World Cup in soccer in 2006," said Helinski. "The W-DMX system has worked at numerous events beyond the specified limits of the system. For instance, we have used the system over a distance of 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) reliably and without interference at the opening ceremony for the new Strelasund bridge."
He added, "For the Festival of Freedom this year, a total of 21 light towers had to be networked. We expected it to be quite a challenge to set up a data system in an urban environment where masts of the big TV and radio stations added to the usual city data chaos. The Wireless Solution W-DMX however worked without a glitch."
Udo Thimm operated the show. Stefan Krawietz and Tobias Müller of Helicon-Media were project managers, and Gerald Poneski of Compact Team was producer. Art Projects of Berlin organized the show. Helicon Media GmbH supplied lighting.
For more information, please visit www.wirelessdmx.com .
