On December 14th, Eurovision unveiled the theme art for the 2024 edition of its iconic song contest. With a theme called “Eurovision Lights,” the design is based on simple, linear gradients inspired by the vertical lines found on auroras and sound equalizers.
The 163-million television viewers who tuned into the Eurovision Song Contest this May were also captivated by another collection of linear patterns as they watched the contest. These ones, however, more often horizontally oriented, as Senior Technical Director Ola Melzig and his team, including designer by Florian Wieder, accented the lines of the stage the Malmö Arena in bright, bold and brilliant colors with 524 COLORado PXL Bar 16 motorized battens from CHAUVET Professional.
Acquired through the company’s Swedish distributor Interlite, and supplied by Niclen through Creative Technologies, the IP65 rated, pixel mappable RGBW battens were “pretty much everywhere,” according to Melzig. Lighting Designer Frederik Stormby used the fixtures to outline the arena on three different levels, in addition to accenting the contours of the set from the ground to the ceiling and providing backlighting for the acts.
“Fredrik’s design was all straight lines, so these fixtures were perfect to outline it with lovely colors and dynamic looks,” continued Melzig. “We looked at a number of battens. The PXL Bar 16 was our choice because of its size, power efficiency, and output. This is a very bright fixture that produces lovely colors.”
The COLORado PXL Bar 16 was part of a historically massive show, which had a 210-ton rig, 50-tons more than any rig used at Malmö Arena in the past. Melzig notes that the design used 700 universes, plus another 700 universes pixel mapped through media servers.
Putting the size and scope of this production in perspective, Melzig pointed out that it is a world apart from his first Eurovision Show 16 years ago. As he recalls it, that show used 12 universes, which at the time was considered extraordinarily large.
The sheer scale of this production would have been unimaginable back then. Managing a production of this size presents special challenges, but Melzig relishes meeting them, noting that because of the scope and size of this rig, his creative team is able to meet the demands of creating unique and captivating shows for 37 contestant songs, three openings and six interval acts. “My job is to put together a tool chest that’s as big as possible for my creative team,” he explained.
Melzig has been following that philosophy for 16 years at Eurovision, as every season, he strives to enhance his rig with fixtures representing new and advanced technology – a group that this year included a large representation of CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Bar 16 battens.
At the end of the Grand Final, Switzerland’s song, “The Code” sung by the artist Nemo, was declared the winner, starting the clock on planning next year’s production, a production that will undoubtably feature more servings of the latest technology.
