© 2010 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members

ISSUE 31 /July 2010

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wysiwyg was once again an integral part of one of the biggest television productions in the world – The Eurovision Song Con-test, held this year at the Telenor Arena outside Oslo, Norway. The show this year was considered fresh in all aspects, stepping away from high-resolution LED walls and giving a state-of-the-art nod ‘back to the basics’.

The show included three live broadcasts - two Semi-finals on May 25 and 27, and the Finals on May 29 to a combined live audi-ence of over 50,000 and an estimated 200 million television and internet viewers.

Award-winning Lighting Designer Al Gurdon, along with the team from his company, Incandescent Design, provided the lighting de-sign and front of house services for Eurovision. PRG, with support from Norwegian supplier Frontlite, supplied all technical equip-ment, which included over 500 moving lights and more than 4000 fixed light elements, and crew for the show.

The low resolution LED elements, consisting mainly of Colour Blocks and Jarags, were positioned in the moving back walls behind the stage, as well as in a series of “spokes” extending out on the ceiling over the entire arena, and were chosen to produce both video images and lighting effects. The movable walls behind the stage were prefab-ricated by PRG specially for the event and overall, more than 6.8 kilo-metres (4.2 miles) of truss was used – a new record for Eurovision.

Moving lights included 79 PRG Bad Boys, 88 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200, 120 Martin MAC 2000 Wash, and over 230 Vari*Lite VL series fixtures. All moving lights were programmed through one V676 console by Andrew Voller, all audience lighting and screens were programmed by Theo Cox on a Full Boar and all LED elements were programmed from 2 PRG Virtuosos by Mike Owen.

The LED fixtures were controlled via DMX from Virtuoso VX show lighting consoles and fed video content pixel mapped from

Catalyst V4 media servers through Artnet and DMX merge soft

Eurovision 2010

Eurovision 2010 Plot as seen in wysiwyg

© 2010 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members

ISSUE 31 /July 2010

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ware using the PRG S400+ node system. All content was spe-cially created for the event and triggered from timecode for every song from either the Catalyst or the Virtuoso and sometimes both. Catalyst Operator was Ian Reith and Catalyst Technician was Nev Bull, delivering content supplied by Lauren Cahill, Rachel Sullivan and Dave Newton.

Previsualisation was carried out in London by Miguel Ribeiro in wysiwyg R25 Perform beginning in March, approximately two months before FOH was to move into the arena. The decision to use wysiwyg was an easy one. Load in was April 22, allowing a mere 13 days to have all rig-ging and lighting operational for FOH to begin running the lights on May 3, with a formal press reveal on May 6. Obviously, no time to experi-ment with looks for over 40 songs! With wysiwyg, the ability to create the design remotely allowed Al and his team to preview everything, identify errors and potential collisions, check camera views, precue, use AutoFocus & AutoPatch, and finally upload the cues and settings directly into the consoles, saving countless hours and loads of energy by not having to physically run the lights – which, considering the time constraints, wouldn’t have been possible anyway!

Miguel was impressed with the software’s capabilities in keeping up with over 4500 individual fixtures. He explained, “The wysiwyg sessions in London ran on three machines: one for the main rig, one for the Jarags, and one for the Colour Blocks. Each wysiwyg

machine displayed each part of the rig in a 30” monitor at a reso-lution of 2560 x 1600.”

He laughs, “For me, drawing almost 2000 Colour Blocks was a erm... a joy?... Especially when Richie [Gorrod, Lighting Crew Chief] told me that in the back wall they were not equally spaced so let’s draw them again, or again when I finished patching the whole lot and found out that a single Colour Block in the middle had been left unpatched...oh joy of joys... LOL.

“Once it was done, I left the three systems running for 5 weeks with very little attention.” He adds, “I saw the show on telly and I must say that personally I think it was the best looking one, light-

ing wise, in a long, long time.”

Miguel sent us the attached clip https://www.cast-soft.com/cast/showcase/media.php saying,“It might not look like much but I am

Eurovision 2010 - continued

Greek musicians performing - photoGreek team - wysiwyg rendering

Slovenian team - wysiwyg rendering

Slovenian musicians performing - photo

© 2010 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members

ISSUE 31 /July 2010

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VERY IMPRESSED with theR25 performance. The screen here shows 1884 Colour Blocks being driven by the Virtuoso Effects En-gine. OK, it might not be actual realtime but displaying 2000 fixtures in a total of 6000 DMX channels is an AMAZING achievement!”

Andrew Voller added, “In this case, wysiwyg Perform wasn’t just convenient, it was crucial. The amount of cues, effects and individ-ual fixtures on Eurovision is astounding – particularly when faced with the tight schedule. To be able to easily connect Miguel’s work to the consoles saved countless hours.”

The event was televised by host broadcaster, NRK under the

leadership of Executive Producer, Jon Ola Sand and TV Producer,

Hasse Lindmo. Production Manager of Design was Ola Melzig,

alongside Project Manager for PRG, Matthias Rau.

At the end of the broadcast, the public voted live and crowned

Lena Meyer-Landrut of Germany the winner of Eurovision 2010

with 246 points for her smash hit “Satellite”, meaning the 2011

contest will be held in Germany. And no doubt, 2011 will surely be

full of surprises!

Eurovision 2010 - continued

Eurovision stage rendering Eurovision stage photo

Serbian team - Wysiwyg rendering Serbian musicians performing - photo

© 2010 The official bi-monthly publication for wysiwyg Members

ISSUE 31 /July 2010

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Eurovision 2010 - Lighting Design Concept By Al Gurdon

The lighting design for Eurovision 2010 is based on the need for flexibility; to create a sufficient variety of visual moods and textures to under-pin the tones of the musical performances; grand scale; to suit the size and setting of the show, as well as the expectations of its audience; and the need to include the audience and the arena as part of the televised experience.

To this end, the approach to the lighting design has been, simultane-ously, a movement ‘back to basics’, but with a ‘state of the art’ ap-proach to the use of lighting technology. There is no high-resolution video element within the set this year, but instead we have created a totally immersive low-resolution lighting and video environment, designed to be used in an architectural way, rather than to provide literal images. It will be driven by cutting edge lighting and media server technology, by a team with a proven and impressive track record, employing the latest developments in lighting and video control software. With this three-dimensional approach to the visual design our television directors will have an unprecedented opportu-nity to shoot the show, virtually wherever they position and point the cameras. The audience both in the hall and on television will have an almost visceral sensation of participation within the visual land-scape and, by association, within the performance itself. Everything will feel connected.

A key component in this design will be an array of nearly two thousand LED Colour Blocks. Two hundred of these units were recently used to impressive effect on the 2010 Super Bowl Half Time Show in Miami, featuring ‘The Who’. In a venue of a comparable size, we have ten times that number, so there is no doubt that we will be able to create ‘looks’ as big as they come, but they will also be able to be used with great subtlety for the slower numbers.

Of course, with variety in mind, we will not want to use this for every performance, so we have an intelligent lighting rig that includes 84 PRG Bad Boys, capable of stadium filling moving light projection and beam effects. We also have a back wall containing 88 Alpha Spot 1200W Profiles, 80 Atomic Strobes, as well as 80 Chromalect ‘Jarag’ units, and for lightning effects we have seven 85KW Hungaro Flash.

So within the lighting rig there is great potential and flexibility, which will be even more extensive when used in combination with the variety of set drapes, which can be used either by themselves or in combination.

Al Gurdon explains the lighting concept to the press at a formal stage reveal on May 6

Hello Dear Readers,

I’m hoping you’re all off to either a very relaxing or very busy summer – both of which are good! (Remember, it is summer in the northern hemisphere where I am).

Despite the fact that this letter is being written from a very warm Austin, I chose to share this photo, taken in Oslo, Norway this past May during Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Yes, I’m the frozen one wrapped in three blankets with my barefooted good friend Philip Boht, one of the riggers from PRG in Hamburg. He had just emerged from the sauna and found the 5-degree air invigorating. Not me.

For Eurovision, wysiwyg R25 Perform played a very important role, which you will read about. In fact, I hear endless praise from our Members about the benefits of Perform over Design. Not that Design

isn’t a valuable tool! But the ability to take all your hard work and instantly load it to a console is an incredible timesaver. And let’s face it – time is money, whether it’s rental costs or labour.

Please continue to send your success stories to us. Not only do we enjoy them, but they often help us develop our products to help you in the best way possible.

Enjoy!Joan

r25 nEw FEaturEs – nEw PlacEs – nEw usEs Letter from the editor, Joan Lyman, Manager, Communications