Moscow is introducing 450 tonnes of the latest stage and lighting technology to the huge Olimpiyski Arena for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. 2,000 square metres of LED walls will bathe the two semi-finals on the 12th and 14th of May and the final, on the 16th of May, in an extraordinary display of light and colour. And for audio transmission, host broadcaster Channel One’s partner is Sennheiser.
Since Dima Bilan and his rendition of “Believe” won last year’s competition, Moscow has been preparing for the world’s biggest live music show. The Olympic Arena can hold a crowd of 80,000 but as the stage of the 54th Song Contest is so vast —1,000 square metres — there will only be space for an audience of around 20,000!
When the artists’ first rehearsals start on 3rd May, Sennheiser’s RF expert Klaus Willemsen will have already been on site for a week – the wireless microphone and monitor equipment is being installed during late April in conjunction with Channel One and Sennheiser Audio (Moscow). Frequency planning will also have been completed in the weeks running up to the event.
“The incredible amount of lighting technology in the arena means there’s also an increase in RF disturbance,” explains Willemsen. LED walls in particular disturb radio transmission as they consist of hundreds of thousands of pulsed LEDs, creating broadband interference which reaches far into the UHF range used by wireless microphones. “That’s why precise frequency planning and the right choice of antennas and antenna locations are vital,” continues Willemsen.
Natalya Berezovskaya, General Manager of Sennheiser Audio, adds: “Successful implementation of this large project was made possible thanks to the great international teamwork demonstrated by Sennheiser’s specialists from Russia, Germany and other countries.”
56 microphone channels and 16 links for wireless monitoring will be in action in Moscow. The artists can choose between Sennheiser’s top SKM 5200 handheld transmitter and KK 105 S Neumann capsule or the SK 5212 bodypack transmitter and HSP 4 headset mic. Klaus Willemsen knows from experience that “sometimes the decision about which equipment the artists would like to use is only made after the first video recording.”
The Green Room, where the artists wait to hear the audience and jury decisions will be kitted out for the hosts to broadcast using their own microphone and monitor systems. Willemsen has also coordinated the frequencies of the production radio, security and reporting teams. During the show the frequency spectrum will be scanned to avoid any nasty surprises cropping up in the form of unregistered radio mics.
Even an old Eurovision Song Contest hand like Willemsen is impressed by the sheer amount of technology: “At the moment I can’t see anything beating what this lot are doing. The winning country will probably have to develop a new concept — it means that every year there’s something for us engineers and the audience to look forward to!”
The only thing I am unhappy about the Eurovision Song Contest is that the use of English, in the Contest increases year by year.
As a native English speaker I think this is unfair!
It’s certainly time to break the habit of “language imperialism”, in the Eurovision Song Contest, and use a song, sung in Esperanto instead!
This is a serious suggestion, as you can see from the Esperanto music which is already available at http://www.vinilkosmo.com/?prs=listen or at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
There’s even cheesy Esperanto music available! See http://www.ipernity.com/home/56084