Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Highlights

EUROVISION 2019

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EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2019 HIGHLIGHTS

The 64th Eurovision Song Contest saw almost 10,000 ESC enthusiasts gather at Tel Aviv Expo, Israel and around 180 million watching the televised live broadcast. The amount of technical expertise required for three shows was outstanding, especially as this year the contest played in two halls. TPi took a look at some of the manufactures that made the event possible.

Photos by Ralph Larmann.

As partner to the rental company Agorà, Sennheiser RF experts were on site to assist with the system planning for wireless microphones and monitors, as well as frequency management and RF monitoring. The system deployed by Agorà and Sennheiser included 140 wireless microphones from Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 and 9000 Series, plus 42 channels of 2000 series IEMs with a total of 196 IEM bodypacks.

“The main technical challenge for the ESC 2019 was the fact that it took place in two halls, with a third hall of Expo Tel Aviv hosting the press centre,” said Volker Schmitt, Director Customer Development and Application Engineering. “The main hall with the stage and its extraordinary LED wall seated 7,500 spectators. From here, the stage shows were transmitted to a second hall with the Green Room, where another 2,000 audience members watched the live shows via a huge video wall.”

The serious phase of frequency planning for Schmitt and his team began in early March with another round of frequency measurements on site. “We checked occupied frequencies inside and outside of Expo Tel Aviv, and compared the data to earlier measurements in order to have a broad basis for our frequency plan. We found quite a bit of DVB-T activity, but with the frequency efficiency of Digital 6000, we managed to find room for all mics and in-ears,” said Schmitt. “The frequency plan also encompassed the press centre, because we wanted to avoid disturbance if a media team with wireless equipment walked over to the stage hall or the Green Room.”

When installing the RF wireless infrastructure on site, special attention – as always – was paid to the positioning of the receiver and transmitting antennas. Asked about the biggest challenge in this field, Schmitt mentioned the video wall in the Green Room: “Unlike the fantastic stage LED wall, this smaller video wall emitted a lot of RF noise, so special care was required in positioning the antennas to circumvent the disturbances. For the Green Room interviews between artists and hosts, we deployed two A 2003 receiver antennas plus two A 5000-CP for transmitting the monitoring signals.”

Another challenge that popped up shortly before one of the live shows was the dress that one of the hosts was going to wear. Said Schmitt: “This dress was mainly made of metal threads – underneath it, the transmitter was more or less perfectly shielded! We briefly spoke with production and

SENNHEISER

the dressing team, and convinced them that the transmitter should be worn above the dress. Together, we quickly came up with the idea of a sort of belt for the dress, which we could attach the host’s SK 6000. When something like this happens shortly before a show, it really gets exciting.”

Of course, a frequency plan needs to be closely monitored and protected on site. Despite an armada of warning signs saying that nonapproved wireless gear must not be used anywhere on the ESC grounds, a total of 39 unauthorised wireless users were located and “caught” before their gear could disturb any of the performances.

RF World accommodated 44 two-channel microphone receivers and 21 two-channel in-ear monitoring transmitters.

While the Sennheiser wireless system for the stage and the Green Room was supplied by Agorà and the press centre system by Kilim, the Sennheiser ESC team brought some last-minute extras with them to cater for special requests. “We had specially-made headsets for the lady hosts, who also got IE 500 PRO in-ear phones instead of the standard IE 40 PROs. Another extra option on hand was a pair of SKM 9000 for the Russian participants, who needed silver microphones. For the same reason, the hosts were switched to SKM 9000s, too.”

With the rehearsals starting almost four weeks before the finale, the Sennheiser RF team on site included eight RF wireless experts. “This enabled us to rotate the team members,” said Schmitt. “Actually, our team was almost as international as the song contest itself: one person from the Netherlands – who was a very happy guy after the finale – two Danish guys, one Brazilian, one Korean and three Germans. We were extremely pleased with the excellent cooperation within the entire production team, and in particular with the Agorà team.” www.sennheiser.com

WAVES

Senior Audio Broadcast Engineer, Omer Barzilay and FOH Engineer, Eran Ben Zur, chose Waves plugins and the Waves eMotion LV1 live mixer to power the sound, broadcast live to over 200 million viewers.

For Barzilay, Waves was the obvious choice for broadcast mixing. “It is a clear advantage to have a software-based system,” he commented. “We were able to easily create identical systems with 2 Waves SoundGrid servers each, and we created even more backups on our personal laptops.”

Barzilay continued: “One of the greatest advantages of using the LV1 is that I was able to mix most of the songs ahead of time.”

During the show the engineer routed all audio to the eMotion LV1 mixer and to a multi-track recording computer. He then used the LV1 mixer’s A/B input to route the recorder back in, so he could continue mixing the show between takes.

He added: “My go-to’s are the Scheps Omni Channel– this was the only channel strip I used for all vocals, including de-essing, EQ, compression and saturation. On lead vocals, the Waves C6 Multiband Compressor was extremely valuable in controlling high and low frequencies and for controlling pops and hisses. We also used the Waves Dugan Automixerplugin for all hosts’ and guests’ mics.

“The Waves H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb is my main and go-to reverb. Having said that, we also used the Waves IR1 Convolution Reverb and Renaissance Reverb. My main delay is the Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay, which I used for around 90 percent of the delays in this production. In addition, I used the Manny Marroquin Delay for L/R separation. Finally, the Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain was on our master chain: all music was routing through it.”

FOH Engineer, Zur commented about his workflow and using Waves plugins: “You need to mix the show for the 8,000 seated in the arena, achieving the right sound pressure level to ensure that the audience receives the right amount of sonic energy. But you also need to make absolutely sure that the PA won’t interrupt a smooth, clean and clear broadcast.”

The FOH setup included 2 DiGiCo SD7 consoles with Waves MultiRackSoundGrid setups complementing each console, Waves SoundGrid Extreme Servers and touch screens to run Waves plugins, plus

2DiGiGrid MGB audio interfaces and 2 Mac computers running Waves’ Tracks Live DAW for multi-track recording. Said Zur: “I used Waves’ Primary Source Expander (PSE) and the X-FDBK feedback elimination plugins, followed by the Dugan Automixer on each host’s mic.” All these were then routed as a group, processed by Waves MaxxVolume. “I first used the X-FDBK for ringing the PA (with the PSE and Dugan on bypass). One of the techs, with a headset on, walked all along the catwalk while I was ringing the PA for more accurate EQ, and also in order to get rid of potential feedback. Then, I ‘locked’ X-FDBK and used the PSE just to make sure that only the primary source (MC) will be heard.”

The Dugan Automixer gave the Engineer the freedom to work on other things in the mix while a single host is speaking, or even when all of the four presenters are speaking simultaneously. “It’s as though I had another ‘ghost engineer’ behind the scenes, fading quickly in and out as the hosts speak into the mics.”

This way, he could easily get rid of all the ambiance rumble that usually occurs when using headset mics. The Dugan Automixer plugin also helped Zur maintain the same SPL in the mix, so if there are one or more speaking hosts, they will all be projecting the same volume.

Zur added: “For mixing the 41 delegations’ songs and the interim guest acts, and to ensure that it sounds as close as possible to the original tracks, each song had snapshots containing the changes of the vocal effects, the basic balance of the lead and backing vocals, and also the overall tracks.” The Waves Primary Source Expander and the Scheps Omni Channel came in handy for processing each of the vocalist’s channels, followed by the Waves C6 Multiband Compressor on the vocal group for final shaping.

The Engineer also used the Waves F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ on the playback group from the side chain/vocal group, to make sure that the vocals are in your face and up front, especially when the vocal was competing with a massive musical arrangement.

He purposed Waves’ H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb and H-Delay Hybrid Delay for vocal effects, the Waves Doubler for harmonizer, JJP Vocals for backing vocals, and the Waves/Abbey Road EMI TG12345 Channel Strip for special overdrive effects and parallel compression on lead vocalists. To complete the sonic picture, on the Master L/R, I slapped on the Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor followed by the L2 Ultramaximiser.

“Eurovision 2019 was a massive production in terms of scale and responsibility,” Zur concluded. “Waves tools enabled us to take on this challenge with the confidence and conviction that we will have a smooth ride.” www.waves.com

Once again, Osram was the official lighting partner for the Eurovision Song Contest with a total of 406 Claypaky fixtures being featured on the rig. Included on this years setup was the brand new Axcor 600 and Sharpy Plus, along with the Sharpy Wash and Scenius Unico.

Lighting for the 2019 edition was entrusted to Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay with support from Danish rental company, LiteCom. The two Israeli lighting designers who were able to combine their respective skills in the live, musical and television fields to ensure that high level of quality expected from the contest.

The show’s lighting design was based upon a concept created by Florian Wieder, who wanted to create a scene recalling the Star of David – the symbol of the state of Israel. Ronen Najar began: “There are a total of around 1,600 fixtures for the main stage, alongside a further 200 for the green room. These fixtures are largely LED, a decision which prompted an in-depth study in order to provide balance with a choice of colour temperature from 5000K to 5600K. This provides an output that is not too warm, tending slightly towards pink.”

The 406 Claypaky fixtures - 66 Axcor 600s 152 Sharpy Washes, 116 Sharpy Plus’ and 72 Unicos - performed the lion’s share of the show’s lighting. In particular, Sharpy Plus’ gave life to extraordinary spot-beam effects, working in combination with luminous triangles that covered the entire roof of the venue. “As far as the choice of fixtures is concerned, the main objective was to make the most of the triangular shapes on the roof” said Najar.

“We worked closely with the Claypaky staff to find the best solution and, many months before the event, went to the company’s Seriate headquarters in Italy to see the various projectors up close,” commented Najar. “Scenius Unico, mainly used for the high and low backlight sections between screen and stage, was the product that impressed us the most. Its complete feature set leads to extreme flexibility, making it the obvious choice to use within our design.

“Among the most recent Claypaky innovations, we have chosen to use the Axcor Profile 600and the Sharpy Plus. These were both positioned

CLAYPAKY

inside and around the luminous triangles on the roof. Axcor 600s were also dedicated to lighting the sets of the various artists and, if necessary, for lighting the walkway that ran around the stage. Finally, Sharpy Washes were entirely dedicated to lighting the audience.”

An extremely important aspect for any television production is maintaining a level of balanced light intensity across the whole location. “We were easily able to maintain the same level of intensity throughout the show, whilst maintaining a balance between keylight, backlight and the rest of the rig lights. This was, of course, achieved in unison with the video, effectively facilitating the work of the camera operators,” added Najar.

There was also great satisfaction from Osram, as well as amongst Claypaky staff, who once again wanted to support the show closely to welcome all the reflections and inputs of the professionals employed for the majestic event.

“The Eurovision Song Contest is a very important platform, offering the possibility of providing further visibility to our brand in a country such as Israel – one hugely active in the entertainment market,” commented Massimo Bolandrina, Claypaky’s Sales Manager. “Claypaky has an excellent distribution capacity in the country, with many contacts with leading lighting designers and rental companies.”

Marcus Graser, designated CEO of Claypaky concluded: “Being here and following this event with a different role and through different eyes is extremely interesting, as it allows us to even better understand what a fixture can do and how complex and fascinating its uses can be. The result is a perfect mix of technology and creativity.” www.claypaky.com

ROBE

Nearly 300 strategically placed Robe moving lights, a mix of Robe BMFL WashBeams, BMFL Spots and MegaPointes, were specifically requested by this year’s lighting designers, Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay.

The 116 Robe BMFL WashBeams were installed across the roof of the venue and were utilised for all the key lighting “from the front, rear and side and several positions.”

“We needed a powerful lightsource, and we wanted one type of fixture to take care of every aspect of the key lighting,” elucidated Najar. “For this, we thought the BMFL WashBeam was the best option.”

A total of 87 BMFL Spots were used for all the audience lighting. This is vital in a show like Eurovision to ensure that TV directors Amir Ukrainitz and Sivan Magazonik had a constant and consistent selection of go-to audience shots to add to the broadcast mix.

The 78 Robe MegaPointes were dotted around the audience trusses and above the stage, used for effects and to assist in the epic lighting looks. Another reason they were keen to use these Robe fixtures was the lightweight, keeping in mind the weight loading of the roof a show like this with a massive production is not an everyday occurrence. They chose multiple LED fixtures

for the same reason, and the placement of fixtures around the venue also referenced weight and involved some careful calculations.

Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier in South Africa ran the audience lighting and the key lighting was looked after by Azulay who had all the master intensities on his console and ran these in conjunction with Ivan Eftimov operating a separate desk. Moti Aroshas operated the green room lighting.

Integral to the lighting programming team was lead programmer Matti Murray, ensured the night-time sessions ran productively and efficiently assisted by Chris Bolton of Keystone Productions, also from South Africa.

Najar really enjoyed working collaboratively with so many first-rate people and being part of a cosmopolitan team bringing so much collective experience to the table. “We all learned a lot from one another, and it was a very invigorating environment!” he declared.

The team were onsite in Hall Two for 4 weeks, and before that, Najar, Azulay and the core lighting creative team spent three weeks in a visualisation studio running WYG and MA3D. Applying some special trickery, they were able to mimic the production rigs automation elements, the video content onscreen and the camera views and movements in the visualiser, being controlled via Cue Pilot.

Head of Automation on the event was Shay Bonder. Video content was produced by Gravity and the playback video was operated by Yahav Tenne. Lighting equipment was supplied and co-ordinated by Denmark based Litecom. www.robelighting.com

AYRTON

This year’s ESC lighting rig boasted over 700 Aytron fixtures to aid Set Designer, Florian Wieder, and Lighting Designers, Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay to created individual looks for each of the 41 competing countries.

Wieder’s iconic stage design was based on triangles and the number 12 - important symbols for Israel – while Najar and Azulay chose a large number and variety of lighting fixtures which allowed them to create enough unique

looks to handle a show of this size and diversity. Key to their enormous and extremely adaptable design were over 700 LED lighting fixtures from Ayrton.

“Our main idea was to maintain the special stage design developed by Florian,” explained Najar. “We therefore chose to use a significant amount of Ayrton MagicBlades to create new geometric lines as a backdrop that enforced the triangular motif and allowed us to be innovative and create multi-dimensional art.”

A total of 330 MagicBlade-R and 206 MagicBlade-FX were rigged on ladders at regular intervals across the massive back wall and side walls, and interspersed with 100 Khamsin-TC profile fixtures. “The MagicBlades took a major role,” continued Najar. “We used them for the dominant moments, as well as a background to support the LED screen. When you have 500 pretty identical fixtures on the back wall, you definitely can create exciting looks and

mixtures! One of the most significant moments was the opening number for the very first broadcast - the host nation’s song Toy by last year’s winner, Netta.”

Najar and Azulay also chose 46 Ayrton Ghibli profile fixtures to outline the downstage edges of both the main stage and the catwalk which looped out into the arena, from where they were used to create stunning, striking aerial effects.

44 Ayrton Bora-TC wash fixtures were chosen for the Green Room where they were used as the main key light fixtures for the delegations from each country. “The Bora units definitely met the expectations we had for them, providing us with great colour and brightness for our purposes,” said Najar. “All of the Ayrton fixtures provided an impressive range of colours and intensities that were perfect for broadcasting conditions.”

48 MagicDot-R units completed the inventory from Ayrton and were used for the Israeli entry, Home by Kobi Marimi, to give it a unique look.

Ayrton’s LED sources also played an important factor, in terms of both size and cost savings. “The venue’s weight limits were much smaller than that of Eurovision 2018, so we preferred the smaller LED fixtures,” explained Ronen.

“The fact that all the Ayrton fixtures are LED driven generated savings of over 100,000€ in diesel for the generators,” added Ola Melzig, Eurovision’s Production Manager.

“Ayrton fixtures have become a major part of the Eurovision experience over the last two years and proved themselves the ultimate in versatility, creativity and cost-effectiveness. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to team up with this great company and yet again pull something amazing out of the hat on the absolute highest level of performance within music entertainment.” www.ayrton.eu

For the first time, DTS fixtures were chosen for the Eurovision Song Contest’s lighting plot, providing 376 Katana LED bars in the main hall with 48 Synergy 5 Profiles installed in the Greenroom.

Thanks to the Katana’s 3.5° - 30° linear zoom, meant the fixtures were able to project in the air an extremely bright lighting cut. Installed above the audience and all around the main hall and, with the single pixel, adapted to each performance with dynamic multicolour effects.

The extreme versatility and brightness made Synergy 5 Profile perfect to light up the multilevel scenography of the Greenroom, where the singers were interviewed during the show and were waiting for the on-air light with their delegation. Synergy 5 Profile, thanks to its rotating framing system, allows to direct the light and shape the beam without losing brightness.

Lighting Designer, Ronen Najar said of the DTS products: “We hung the Katana around the stage and above the crowd. Katana was the perfect fixture for continuing the triangle ceiling design and completing the lines from the triangle video strip. With the new module designed for us, we used the Katana all the time. Synergy was hung in the Green Room and helped

DTS LIGHTING

us to duplicate the feeling from the main venue. We were very happy and all units worked without problems.”

DTS Sales Director, Raffaella Scaccia, added: “Eurovision Song Contest is with no doubt an important event for people and companies who work in the entertainment industry. We are really proud of this new challenge that made us better known throughout Europe, showed our energy and focus on growth and improvement. According to the contest lighting crew, our products have proved to be very reliable and we are happy that the Made in Italy concept is once again confirmed as an added value.” www.dts-lighting.it

DISGUISE

The 64th edition of the much-loved song contest featured a 250sqm high-resolution LED, diamond-shaped stage, backed by a 36 x 12m high-resolution LED wall made up of 12 individual screens, all supplied by PRG. Over 16,998,976 pixels lit up the stage, making it the highest resolution LED set in Eurovision history.

Eurovision Production Manager Ola Melzig, and Head of Video and Stage Technology, Shay Bonder, approached disguise to deliver and manage a server system capable of processing the mammoth amount of data required for the vast scale of the project.

“With more than 50 live acts performing in quick succession with various tech props including huge screen projectors and massive amounts of LED, we needed a powerful system that offered multi-station editing capabilities,” said Bonder.

“A major challenge for us was making the pre-programming process as accurate as possible and then operating it in perfect sync, without issue. disguise’s software allowed us to pre-programme with cameras and automation - the camera directors actually showed the camera operators the render from the Designer machines in order to give them instructions, and the ability to programme one track while another is playing, plus the power to easily feed content to DMX screens and quick calibration of projectors,” he added. “The disguise system became an integral part of the creative process as we could test video content automation and camera angles in the pre-programming process and change them accordingly to achieve our vision.”

Peter Kirkup, disguise Technical Solutions Manager worked with Bonder to support him in the system design process. The team specified 6 disguise vx 4 servers and 2 4x4pro servers.

“The pro range of disguise servers were designed to play huge video content across massive canvases,” said Kirkup. “Thanks to the VFC technology, the vx 4 and 4x4pro servers allow us to drive large shows like this with fewer machines, reducing space, time, setup, risk, and management overhead.”

The vx 4 servers were used as Pure Master, output slaves and Backup servers. The 4x4pro servers were utilised for add-on elements and backup. The vx 4s were fully loaded with HDMI 2.0 VFC cards; the 4x4pros had onboard Quad-DVI VFC cards. disguise recently launched its vx 4 servers with more storage and a new NVMe RAID drive array.

“This system design is all about making sure that the performance

headroom is enough for the project,” said Jamie Sunter, Support Specialist at disguise. “With high resolution outputs, large number of props for all the different acts, as well as 400+ universes of Art-Net being output, the system coped fantastically with these requirements. A huge bonus was the larger storage space in the vx 4 meaning the team didn’t have to clean up older file versions during rehearsals.”

The disguise servers received LTC, ensuring the main cues were triggered at the correct time. Much of the programming was completed in the run up to the Tel Aviv events, using disguise’s r15.3 software to pre-visualise the whole show and sequence all the content. The team used disguise’s Visualiser Camera feature and then virtually mapped and sequenced each camera shot and path to the directors’ requirements. From there, they transferred the project from the Designer machines to the actual hardware.

“This was very powerful as this was the first time that the Camera Directors could see how all their shots would look for each song, and then send renders to the Delegates by simply recording the stage,” Bonder explained. “We had a full 3D model of the stage, as well as seating banks, so that it was a true representation. We also had all the country-specific props and screen movements so it looked exactly how it would for real. From there, the guys then used the OSC module in disguise to send out the Camera positions to WYSIWYG. This meant that the Lighting Team also had these Camera pre-visualisations and could see how their design worked with all elements.”

On disguise programming and operating duties was Gwilym Huws, workflow specialist at Bild Studios: “disguise’s feature-set made many elements of pre- and on-site production much simpler and more powerful. It was particularly useful for swapping out props when needed, as well as Screen Position Layer, for the mapping to be correct. Even generative things like radar and strobe were used for some animations in the show on the legs and catwalk.”

Ola Melzig concluded: “Video content, LED on a massive scale, and projection mapping is the backbone of the Eurovision spectacle and I was thrilled to bring it back in such an incredible way this year. This is the first time we’ve brought in disguise’s vx 4 and 4x4pro servers and their support team, including Jamie Sunter, and we’re hugely impressed. With so much to integrate, process and create, the machines and the people did a fantastic job.”

From commission to delivery, disguise’s support team were involved in all aspects of the video project, as Bonder said: “Their support was amazing throughout. Before the setup in the venue, disguise set us an online Slack account, on which they answered any questions we had from venue setup. On-site, Jamie checked system stability throughout the process and helped us with whatever we needed.” www.disguise.one

MA LIGHTING

MA Lighting was once again the control solution of choice for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. No less than 15 grandMA2 consoles graced the FOH technical area, controlling 71,061 parameters and a mix of over 2,500 light sources and LED fixtures.

These were lighting the main stage – another elegant design by Florian Wieder – the auditorium and the green room. As any ESC fan will know, the green room is a vital area for the broadcast, capturing the emotional thrills and spills of the delegations as the points are awarded and they yoyo up and down the leader board!

MA was chosen by several on the creative and technical team coordinated by ESC’s head of production Ola Melzig, including Jack Collins, the event’s lighting systems and control specialist who has worked on several ESCs in recent years.

The decision was based on it providing the most rock-solid reliable and flexible system option. “The multiuser functionality and ability to control every fixture from every console and to alter fixture types to suit your needs were two big advantages of the MA architecture,” commented Collins, “plus the network’s overall stability and troubleshooting facilities.”

Once the installation was up and running and the production period commenced, Collins watched all the grandMA2 system monitors from his console and could read out every command and, if necessary, search the history, track down errors and pass the information back to the programming team.

Macros were also an essential part of the lighting process for a show with short changeover times and many complex sets to accommodate. This enabled timecode information, presets, views, starting and preparing cues to be changed in an instant. Three grandMA2 full-size plus a backup were utilised as the main show desks, and 11 grandMA2 lights - six active and five backups - were also in the lighting network, created using 20 MA NPU (Network Processing Unit), 25 MA 8Port Nodes and two Swisson 8-port nodes, running on 10 UPS’s.

An MA onPC command wing located backstage was used for testing set and prop practical lights that were also integrated into the system for their slots.

The lighting fixtures were supplied by several leading manufacturers, a massive job which was co-ordinated via Danish rental company Litecom, including any extras packages requested by individual delegations. The production also had to accommodate a show-stopping interval performance by Madonna, whose creative lighting requirements were overseen by LD Al Gurdon.

Four dimmer city areas were connected via fibre and fed data and power to the whole rig. Three were located on a balcony running down one of the long sides of the venue - with cable runs added in via holes made in the wall. Dimmer City 2 was positioned behind the enormous upstage LED wall to provide power for the Matrix, which was built along the rear and sides of the stage area using Litecom’s MX Ladder system, holding a total of around 650 lighting fixtures.

The fully redundant ethernet network infrastructure comprised 22 Luminex 16xt and 12r switches, all monitored closely by Collins from his PRTG software.

Operating the main show lighting console was Angelo Di Nella (on a grandMA2 full-size). Joshua Cutts ran the audience lighting - also a major element of the broadcast - on a grandMA2 light. The key lighting was looked after by Ivan Eftimov on another grandMA2 light, all running with backup consoles.

Playback video was operated via another light run by Yahav Tenne complete with backup, while Moti Aroshas took care of the green room lighting, again utilising a grandMA2 light with full backup. Dakar had a grandMA full-size on which he ensured that all the crucial key lighting levels and master intensities were spot on for the cameras. Collins’ system desk was also grandMA2 light.

Najar didn’t operate a desk on this occasion; however, he creatively directed the overall show lighting and each delegation’s lighting in conjunction with all the operators. Integral to the programming team were lead programmer Matti Murray, who ensured the night-time sessions ran productively and efficiently assisted by Chris Bolton.

A.B. Electronics is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in Israel. www.malighting.com