MAY 27
WELCOME TO THE 10TH EDITION OF THE EUROVISION DIARY!
So…….. Sweden out of the contest…….. Seriously Europe………
Oh well, what do you call a PA and a sound desk on the bottom of the ocean?
A GOOD START!
Oh yes! Sound jokes are back! But now, I need to get just as serious as your ordinary sound guy and hand over to Cille, who has been out with camera, pen and paper to learn more about what the guys in our sound department are up to.
It’s sound day. Oh, I mean IT’S SOUND DAY!!!!! (just to be sure you heard!)
Our sound for Eurovision comes from the 17 talented crew members from Avab CAC here in Norway.
So where’s the sound? Usually, in a typical live concert, the placement of the line arrays is a topic of discussion between the lighting designer and sound, but in this case the placement had to take cameras and props into consideration. Luckily, the high placement didn’t affect the audience sound – it’s still great! Avab has done a great job disguising an enormous amount of sound equipment. Take a look at this:
PA Speakers:
34 x Meyersound MILO
60 x Meyersound MICA
16 x Meyersound HP 700
32 x Meyersound M’elodie
6 x Meyersound UPQ
12 x Meyersound UPA
System Control:
5 x Meyersound Galileo’s
Mixers:
3 x MIDAS XL8’s
4 x MIDAS PRO 6
Splitters:
96 ch MIDAS DL 431 split 2 x 4 ways
Here’s Geir at Sound FOH with the 4 MIDAS PRO 6 mixers – 2 for the show and 2 backup. Remember? Everything here has a backup! In case of the worst, it would only take 10 seconds to switch everything to the backup.
Here’s a place you’ve seen before when Riedel gave us a tour. This is the sound splitter area, AKA “Gauteland”. This is where all the system control and splitters live.
Here’s the back side, what Geir calls “ordnung muss sein!” They don’t want ANYTHING out of place back here!
Here’s the in-ear monitor station. The artists go here about 20 minutes before their performance to get fitted before going to the next station……
……sound check with Sennheiser! Jonas here will make sure the system is working perfectly. They check no less than 68 microphones, 28 in-ear channels with 110 in-ear beltpacks and 300 in-ear phones for camera teams, audio crew and artists for every rehearsal and broadcast. Weeks ago, before this station was set up, all the prep work was done in a studio here inside the arena, the first time they’ve ever done that for Eurovision. The idea actually came from Eurovision Song Contest Junior.
Here’s Thomas, the monitor man and Stein Andre, his back up!
He’s working on this, one of the 3 MIDAS XL8 sound mixers. One was used for the in-ear prep in the studio and 2 are in Gauteland (sorry Gaute – we know you prefer calling it the Audio Gallery!)
A word from Ola: Now here is a note for ALL you other sound guys out there! The monitor desks are BEHIND the stage, without any visual contact with the artist, just a liason in direct communication with Thomas and Stein.
THAT IS THE WAY TO DO IT!
You can probably tell that this is the stage floor, but can you see the monitor secretly hidden under the grate? There are some artists that don’t want the in-ear monitor so they use these to hear! There’s of course a lot more going on with sound including the Green Room, commentary boxes, etc. but I don’t want to keep you all day. Thanks to the Avab guys for the great info.
Now back to you Ola!
About time Cille, I can’t be serious any longer! Thanks for the report though! You ROCK!
I receive a lot of emails about this show not being live, since there is NO way that we can do change overs between the songs as fast as we do. To all of you: YOU ARE WRONG!!! If you don’t believe me, ask our stage manager Nina Eliassen Brym and one of our floor managers Reidar Nikolai Lövlie who makes it all happen!
Turkey’s Cyber Madame needed a little touch up work before the show!
Sweden brought glow sticks to everyone with seats on the floor to be lit during their song. Even FOH got some!
It looked FANTASTIC!
Here is the GREEN ROOM! This is where the artists are sitting before and after their performance. It’s designed by the same designers as for the stage, but the lighting design is made by Sveinung Solbrekke from NRK, and operated by Odd Erling Högberg and Vidar Röis Jensen, also from NRK. The have over 100 VL5’s, 70 Frenels and almost 200 LED fixtures to play around with!
Azerbaijan happy to be here!
Israel watches the monitor closely – each booth had monitors installed under the glass table – it’s drink proof!
Romania waiting to hear the results as well. This year they are really PYROMANIA! I love it!
But with the help of their lucky Romanian doll…..
….They made it – along with Armenia, Israel, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Romania, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Turkey
CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to the FINAL!!!!!!
Afterwards Joan and Cille went to the press conference to find out the final running order while I have to sit in the bar all by myself, sad as a hetero cowboy in Montana……..
FÅ UT FINGER’N = Hurry up and get it done!
