Lighting Sound America What’s Next for Eurovision? · 44 † May 2014 † Lighting&Sound America...
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40 • May 2014 • Lighting&Sound America Last year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) saw the host nation Sweden make a sharp left turn off the tread- mill of bigger, better, brasher. Not for them the grandiose confines of a pur- pose-built performance palace in Azerbaijan (no matter how ropey the building may have been, you have to admire the country’s chutzpah); nor indeed the gargantuan Düsseldorf Esprit Arena, the enclosed 55,000- person capacity football stadium that preceded Azerbaijan. No, the Malmö hockey arena was an altogether more modest affair, though no less exciting for those who attended or merely watched on TV. On that basis, you have to say they proved a point. When the costs of staging the next competition can appear so daunting, fear of winning becomes an unwant- ed influence upon a nation’s choice of song. However, just when it looked like Sweden had shown the way to get everyone off the hook, the Danes have decided upon an industrial premises formerly used for ship- building. Now, no one doubts that the Danes are equal to the task, but the bigger question is whether or not it will be worth it. While a shipyard doesn’t spring to mind as anyone’s first choice to stage a major international television event, its selection does have some advan- tages, as show director Per Zachariassen explains. “We want to tell the story in the show that we are based in a shipyard, and it is not just a classic venue at all. First of all, let me just say, it is actually not a venue, it is just a hall; at the same time the host city of Copenhagen is building a venue, we are also creating a huge television show.” Thus, the shipyard becomes part of the narrative, and, more functionally, the building serves as a shell, a blank canvas almost. “And that is complicated—yet the advantage of the building is that we can do whatever we want. There is a bigger advantage, I think, in that we have a lot of height that we have never been able to work with before. It’s 60m [200'] above.” There are many sound engineers around the European circuit who will not be so enthralled by the height: Industrial buildings tend to be boom- Photos: Michael Søndergaard What’s Next for Eurovision? By: Steve Moles This year’s edition promises plenty of innovation The front-of-house position for Eurovision 2013. BUSINESS Copyright Lighting&Sound America June 2014 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
Transcript of Lighting Sound America What’s Next for Eurovision? · 44 † May 2014 † Lighting&Sound America...
40 • May 2014 • Lighting&Sound America
Last year’s Eurovision Song Contest(ESC) saw the host nation Swedenmake a sharp left turn off the tread-mill of bigger, better, brasher. Not forthem the grandiose confines of a pur-pose-built performance palace inAzerbaijan (no matter how ropey thebuilding may have been, you have toadmire the country’s chutzpah); norindeed the gargantuan DüsseldorfEsprit Arena, the enclosed 55,000-person capacity football stadium thatpreceded Azerbaijan. No, the Malmöhockey arena was an altogether moremodest affair, though no less excitingfor those who attended or merelywatched on TV. On that basis, youhave to say they proved a point.
When the costs of staging the next
competition can appear so daunting,fear of winning becomes an unwant-ed influence upon a nation’s choice ofsong. However, just when it lookedlike Sweden had shown the way toget everyone off the hook, the Daneshave decided upon an industrialpremises formerly used for ship-building. Now, no one doubts that theDanes are equal to the task, but thebigger question is whether or not itwill be worth it.
While a shipyard doesn’t spring tomind as anyone’s first choice to stagea major international television event,its selection does have some advan-tages, as show director PerZachariassen explains. “We want totell the story in the show that we are
based in a shipyard, and it is not justa classic venue at all. First of all, letme just say, it is actually not a venue,it is just a hall; at the same time thehost city of Copenhagen is building avenue, we are also creating a hugetelevision show.” Thus, the shipyardbecomes part of the narrative, and,more functionally, the building servesas a shell, a blank canvas almost.“And that is complicated—yet theadvantage of the building is that wecan do whatever we want. There is abigger advantage, I think, in that wehave a lot of height that we havenever been able to work with before.It’s 60m [200'] above.”
There are many sound engineersaround the European circuit who willnot be so enthralled by the height:Industrial buildings tend to be boom- P
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Mic
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What’s Next for Eurovision?By: Steve Moles
This year’s edition promises plenty of innovation
The front-of-house position for Eurovision 2013.
BUSINESS
Copyright Lighting&Sound America June 2014 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
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42 • May 2014 • Lighting&Sound America
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ing, resonant canyons of echo space.“The acoustic is very challenging,”agrees head of production KamillaMonies. “One challenge is to reducethe reverberation time. We are work-ing together with a company onreducing the reverberation time usingequipment such as fabric, Rockwool,and also newly developed tools.”
The newly developed tools soundintriguing, but apparently we will haveto wait until we actually visitCopenhagen for the show to discoverwhat they are. Of one thing we canbe certain: With a TV viewing audi-ence in the hundreds of millions, it isa given that reverberation will havebeen reduced to tolerable levels, if
not completely eradicated. “Our head of sound, Claus Holm
Pedersen, is definitely the bestaudio guy I know because audio—for me—requires discipline,” saysZachariassen. “Claus is really disci-plined. He’s very well-organized; heknows every cable and everymicrophone. And he’s always look-ing for good people who can sup-port him to make it even better. Sodiscipline is probably the mainthing we have been looking for asthe most important element in theaudio department.”
I called a good friend in the worldof Danish pro audio, LarsFrederiksen, of Alfa Audio, who
confirmed Zachariassen’s choice:“Claus Holm Pedersen is one of themost experienced and meticulousaudio guys in the audio departmentof DR [Danish Radio].” It’s signifi-cant that Frederiksen should chosethe word meticulous to describePedersen’s talents; not only does itendorse Zachariassen’s own com-ments about knowing every micro-phone, but Frederiksen offered thisopinion before this Q&A sessionwith the Danish production teamwas conducted.
But what of the design? We askedZachariassen for some pointers. Hesays, “We have four different surfacesthat we are able to produce content
Claus Zier, set designer. Nicoline Refsing, creative director/contentproducer.
Kasper Lange, lighting designer.
Claus Holm Pedersen, head of sound. Kamilla Monies, head of production. Per Zachariassen, creative director.
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on, so the stage can be transformedfrom act to act. We have a huge LEDback wall. It’s over 100m [330'] wide,and it’s actually a classic back wall.On this, we can have all kinds of con-tent and create all kinds of feelings …The second kind of surface we haveis the LED floor, which we also canput content on. Then there is theCubus, as we call it, the third surface.
The Cubus is 18m [60'] tall and partof the stage design. We have LEDpanels on the Cubus as well. And thefourth kind of surface is what we calla magic film. It’s a film that either canbe transparent when you put poweron it, just like ordinary glass, or if youswitch off the power, it becomesopaque and you can actually projecton it.”
After Malmö chose to completelydrop LED as a stage medium, that’s afairly emphatic reimposition of LED asa significant element of the stageset—and with projection, too. If noth-ing else, this show will look quite dif-ferent from last year’s.
“Our lighting designer is KasperLange,” continues Zachariassen. “I’vebeen working with Kasper for many,many years. He is definitely the bestlighting designer I know. He reallyunderstands simplicity, which I’malways fighting for. Even though youhave a lot of tools and a lot of power,you don’t have to use it all. So themore you have, the more simple youhave to keep it. That is the trick tomaking a nice show. It doesn’t meanit cannot be spectacular. Of course, itcan be spectacular. But you need tohave a core idea and make that coreidea even stronger. And Kasper isvery good at that. If he wants to makethis act red, it will become red, andthere will not be any other color in theact, and that is, for me, simplicity.”
And presumably that simplicity isreflected in the set design. “Setdesigner Claus Zier and I have also
44 • May 2014 • Lighting&Sound America
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been working together for many, many years,” continuesZachariassen. “It is almost 20 years since we did the firstproject together. Claus is an architect. He’s always think-ing of what kind of shape and what kind of object isimportant to communicate before he starts building. Andhe thinks very much like an architect; that’s what I likeabout him. He’s looking for the idea first, and then he’sadding layers to the basic idea.”
With that classic Scandinavian imperative of simplicityin design, might we imagine video content will bear con-siderable responsibility for differentiating between per-formers? “This is a new working relationship for me. Thisis the first project where creative director/content produc-er Nicoline Refsing and I have worked together.” Not thatZachariassen appeared unduly worried: “I’ve heard manygreat things about her. She is based in London and hasbeen working with a lot of really creative people in Londonfor many years, doing a lot of high-end shows. I like thatshe has this combination of being very creative and verydisciplined; she is very well organized. And at the sametime, she is able to think outside the box; that is a reallygood combination.”
That’s probably as much as we’re going to know inadvance; perhaps the most tantalizing detail is the 60m[200'] of clearance. The fact that Zachariassen chose tomention it hints that we may expect some flown coup dethéâtre (or should we say coup de TV?).
How have Zachariassen and Monies tied all the depart-ments together to drive this along? “The whole develop-ment period was a very long process. For example, it tooka long time to end up with the Cubus. Then new ques-tions arose: What is going to happen in this Cubus? Howis the stage going to work? And all these kind of ques-tions, and that was a very long process,” Monies says.
Zachariassen is more direct. “We have an overall value:the tagline ‘Join us.’ For me—again—it is about simplify-ing things, especially with vision because it usually has somany layers. And even though you are using a lot ofequipment, it’s still all about people. It’s all about the peo-ple who control the equipment. For me, it was more aboutremoving unnecessary layers and focusing on the corevalues of the show—the competition and the ‘Join us’tagline. We look at the core values every time we takeaction or make a decision. And from that, it’s easy to takecreative decisions.”
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“After Malmö chose to completelydrop LED as a stage medium, that’sa fairly emphatic reimposition ofLED as a significant element of thestage set—and with projection, too.If nothing else, this show will lookquite different from last year’s.”
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