Eurovision Song Contest 2009
PRG’s Bad Boy distinguishes itself at Moscow Eurovision show.
The Challenge: Provide a powerful luminaire that would stand out in a massive LED lighting rig.
The Solution: The annual Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most-watched television productions in the world, with close to 200 million viewers. Contestants representing 42 countries compete in three live broadcasts -two Semi-Finals and one Final.
For the contest, held in Moscow for the first time, Russian show producers were immediately driven to make the production the biggest and most breathtaking in Eurovision history. The equipment list was impressive with an astounding 2,000 square meters of LEDs, but the real talk of the show was the Bad BoyTM luminaire from PRG. The 72 fixtures were installed around the entire rig and positioned directly over the stage. Rich Gorrod, lighting gaffer said, “The Bad Boys were bright as hell, with lightning fast color and gobo changes. Plus the zoom is unbelievable, from pencil beam to super wide, and most of all they were incredibly reliable. They ran 18 hours a day for four weeks.”
Lighting designer Al Gurdon was equally pleased, saying, “They’re simply a dream come true. We had loads of LED and the Bad Boys still stood out with no problem whatsoever. They looked amazing on camera and delivered these vibrant, saturated colors with incredibly smooth and fast precision. A show of this magnitude demands quite a lot from its equipment and the Bad Boy has proven itself.”
Eurovision Production Manager Ola Melzig particularly appreciated that the Bad Boy is a hybrid luminaire, which combines the qualities of a traditional automated light with a large-venue fixture. “It was one of the first things specified for this production,” he said. “When I first saw it I could immediately tell that it was developed for today’s shows,which often involve high-brightness LED screens.”