Celebrating Ten Years of Robert Juliat Followspots at Eurovision
Robert Juliat is proud to announce that 2012 is the tenth year in which RJ followspots have been used on the Eurovision Song Contest.
For the third year running, Lightpower of Germany supplied Robert Juliat followspots to this prestigious international event at the end of May, the two Semi-Finals and the Finals of which were broadcast in three live televised events from Baku, Azerbaijan.
Lighting designer, Jerry Appelt, used ten Robert Juliat spots in total - six RJ Aramis 2500W HMI followspots with DMX control and four of the mighty RJ Lancelot 4000W HTI followspots – to highlight participants from forty-two countries.
"We chose Robert Juliat followspots for two major reasons," says Appelt. "Firstly because Robert Juliat spots are extremely reliable which is a priority on a show of this size. The Aramis' remote DMX control is an essential feature which gave me precise control over the dimming of the spots, directly from the lighting desk.
"Secondly, and equally as important, Robert Juliat spots are very user-friendly. All our operators are familiar with Robert Juliat spots so know how to handle them and are very happy to work with them."
The Final, its spectacular opening performance and the interval act were watched by 23,000 spectators in Baku's Crystal Hall, and an estimated 125 million viewers worldwide, making Eurovision the largest televised music programme in the world. Every moment of the performances were captured by twenty-five HD television cameras.
Robert Juliat's Lancelot followspot has a flicker-free electronic PSU which is the perfect solution for use with television cameras. The narrow beam angles (2° to 5° for Lancelot, 4.5° to 8° for Aramis) were ideally suited to the long throw distances of the venue. The powerful, extremely flat beams were able to cut through the light output of over 2500 lighting fixtures, including 1400 moving lights, and 1300 square meters of LED surfaces to show the performers to their best advantage in these challenging and exciting conditions.
Ola Melzig, Concert and Stage Producer for the Eurovision, says, "Followspots from Robert Juliat have been a part of Eurovision Song Contest since 2002, when we first started to use the products on this show, so 'Happy 10-year Anniversary Robert Juliat'!"
Francois Juliat, CEO of Robert Juliat, concludes, "Eurovision is a huge event to be involved with and we are delighted that our followspots are being used again. It is a great compliment and affirmation of their good performance over the past ten years."
According to Burnett, the followspots “played an indispensable role in the production allowing me to supplement the stage lighting with pinpoint accuracy as sword fighters leapt around, climbed stairs and traversed bridges while the set was in motion. “Because of the fixtures’ accurate dousing mechanism, the spot operators were able to fine tune their performance to keep the light subtle or dramatic as needed to help convey the mood of the scene,” he reports.
