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PRG Bad Boy Boasts Biggest Show to Date on Eurovision Song Contest 2009
The annual Eurovision Song Contest, now in its 54th year, is one of the most-watched television productions in the world, with estimates of some 200 million viewers. The format began simply enough back in 1954 - a live broadcast of the members of the European Broadcast Union competing to win the title of Best Song in Europe, with the winner bestowed the honour of hosting the contest the next year in their home country. The production has since reached astounding proportions, now with 42 countries competing in three live broadcasts - two semi-finals and one final.
When Russia won Eurovision in Belgrade, Serbia last year, Russian show producers were immediately driven to make the 2009 production in Moscow the biggest and most breathtaking in Eurovision history. The live broadcasts for the Semi-Finals were held on May 12 and 14 and the Finals on May 16, with viewer numbers skyrocketing to new heights, thanks to a live feed online via www.eurovision.tv.
The equipment list was impressive to say the least, with an astounding 2,000 square meters of scenic LED and a long list of lighting, but the real talk of the show has been the 72 PRG Bad Boy luminaries. Since the fixture hit the shelves at the beginning of this year, it has been seen on major tours from Oasis to Britney Spears and on television from the Grammy Awards to The Celebrity Apprentice, but in the words of Eurovision Production Manager Ola Melzig, "We got 72 - eat our dust!"
Two Virtuoso consoles controlled all of the stage lighting plus the 15 Catalyst Media Servers handling all of the video content. The Bad Boy fixtures were dotted around the entire rig and positioned directly over the stage to do "just about everything," says Rich Gorrod, Lighting Gaffer, who was on-site in Moscow since March 31. "They're absolutely spectacular," Gorrod continues, "They're bright as hell, giving the Syncrolites a run for their money, with lightning snap colour and gobo change. Plus the zoom is unbelievable, from pencil beam to super wide, and most of all they're incredibly reliable. They were running 18 hours a day for the last five weeks - which says a lot for such a new light. They just do everything that it says on the tin fantastically well. We brought two techs to Moscow just for the Bad Boys and they were bored to tears!"
Lighting designer Al Gurdon (MTV Europe Awards, Robbie Williams) was equally as pleased, citing: "The Bad Boys really were the right tool for a job of this scale, in a venue of this size. For the first time we have a profile lamp which delivers the intensity capable of delivering diverse looks from a subtle ballad to a burn-your-retinas rock song, all for a stadium size television show."
The Bad Boy is engineered as a hybrid luminaire combining the qualities of a traditional automated light with a large venue fixture. "It was one of the first pieces specified for this production," says Melzig, "I first saw it at PLASA last year, and I could immediately tell that it was designed with today's shows in mind, which often involve high-brightness LED screens and large rigs. I thought, 'A-HA!'"
The Bad Boy definitely stood out on the Eurovision stage, with a powerful 48,000 lumens. Its high definition optics work perfectly for television - yet another reason they were specified. In addition to the optical clarity that comes from using high-quality lenses, the Bad Boy features also include smooth, fluid control of focus, zoom range of 8:1 (7° to 56°), and imaging thanks to high-speed servo motors and full-field 0 to 100% dimming. The Quantum Color system utilises individual colour filters providing variation in both saturation and hue, resulting in a much broader and vibrant range of saturated colours. Plus, the Bad Boy was designed with energy efficiency and carbon footprint standards in mind.
"We at PRG are very pleased to have played a supporting role for the Eurovision Song Contest," says Anne Johnston, vice president of marketing for PRG. "It was exciting to see this many Bad Boys on such a grand stage with a worldwide audience."
"We all got a good laugh at Ola's posts on the Eurovision-Diary," added Kelly Cornfield at PRG, "especially the photos during load-in. We were pleased to see the Bad Boy was enjoying so many rave reviews from the hard working crew and designers. The production is a massive undertaking and we are proud to play a role."
As for the final results of the show, Alexander Rybak from Norway took top honours with his song, "Fairytale". Perhaps we'll see Bad Boys in Norway next year? We'll soon see.
21st May 2009
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