This year's Eurovision Song Contest, the 54th edition of the famous show,  took place at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia. It was the biggest contest held to date, with 550 tons of production equipment in  42 trailer trucks sent to Russia’s capital. Nearly 2,000 square metres of LED screens plus approximately 700 moving lights were assembled. 42 artists participated in the contest. For control of most of the massive lighting rig, Lighting Designer Al Gurdon used a grandMA system consisting of 4 x grandMA full-size consoles and 16 x MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors).

One grandMA full-size plus another one as backup were networked via fibre optic cable with HP2626 switches and 14 MA NSPs. The MA NSPs were installed at the FOH position, and at the two main dimmer cities. From there the DMX signal was distributed to the fixtures. This grandMA also controlled one Catalyst media server feeding the decorative elements. A second system with one grandMA full-size plus backup and one MA NSP was connected to additional media servers for further video screens – the main video elements were handled by a Virtuoso.

The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey and was based around the theme of “contemporary Russian avant-garde”. Casey created a theatrical design for the contest that incorporated Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting, almost entirely made up of different types of LED screens. Furthermore, large sections of the stage could move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which allowed each song to have a different feel.

Ola Melzig was the Production Manager and Matthias Rau was the Technical Production Manager for PROCON. Assistant Production Manager was Tobias Åberg. Operators were  Andy Voller, Ben Cracknell, Ian Reith and Timo Kauristo. Richard Gorrod and Dave Hallet were the gaffers. System techs were Dennis Drewen and Johannes Wahl. Frank Karpinski was the Lighting Crew Chief for PROCON. PROCON Event Engineering delivered lighting, rigging, video and sound. The host broadcaster was Channel One.

Photos: Copyright – PROCON Event Engineering