UKRAINE – Lighting designer Jerry Appelt recently specified over 140 Clay Paky fixtures to provide stunning lighting effects forming the backbone of the 2013 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) is an international song competition organized in 2003 by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The competition has many similarities to the wildly popular Eurovision Song Contest from which its name is taken. Each participating broadcaster sends an act, the members of which are aged 10 to 15, and an original song to compete against the other entries. Viewers from the participating countries are invited to vote for their favorite performances by televote and a jury from every country. The performance with the most points is declared the winner.
The show is broadcast live and streamed on the Internet, as well as performed in front of a live audience. The 2013 show took place at National Palace of Arts Ukraina with 12 countries participating.
Clay Paky fixtures made up the majority of the stage lighting for the show. Lighting designer Jerry Appelt created a powerful yet playful stage rig to reflect the show theme “Be Creative!” 64 Clay Paky Sharpy Beam fixtures were placed in four rows of 16 behind a semi-transparent LED back wall, creating stunning visual effects. 24 Sharpy Wash fixtures were used as sidelights for the stage.
Appelt said, “What can I say – if you need a pencil shooting through the air then the Sharpy Beam is the toy to work with! The Sharpy Wash on the sides were nice because on the one hand they’re lightweight and have powerful enough light output to generate good side light but by switching to a narrow beam you can also use them to create a Sharpy Beam-like look so you have two options with this fixture.”
44 AlphaSpot 800 QWO ST fixtures were used as keylight and 8 AlphaBeam 300 fixtures were incorporated into the rig. “In general the potential of the QWO 800s used as keylighting is phenomenal because it’s as powerful as a fixture in the 1200-1500 Watt range but that would require a completely different set of parts. And in terms of brightness they work perfectly so the petition, accuracy and all other features were really nice. It was a good decision to use the QWO 800s.”
The event was produced by Euromedia who also supplied all gear, and televised by host broadcaster, NTU, featuring a core production team working under the leadership of Executive Producer Roman Keryk. Technical Supervisor was Ola Melzig, Technical Director Arnis Grinsbergs, with lighting design by Jerry Appelt. Stage design was by Ilias Ledakis.
Melzig said, “There’s a reason Clay Paky is a favorite among lighting designers. The product range offers everything and is always continuing to grow and stay innovative, plus the fixtures deliver fantastic output, fantastic optics, lightweight, and just so reliable. They never fail to impress.”
In the end, Malta took home the trophy with Gaia Cauchi’s performance of “The Start”. Coincidentally, Malta also won the bid to host the 2014 contest, so the show will take place in Malta in 2014. The show continues to evolve technically each year so Clay Paky will likely be on stage with the young performers in Malta.