Osram lights up the Eurovision Song Contest for the fourth time in a row as its official lighting partner

The majority of the moving heads on the ESC stage in Lisbon come from Osram and its entertainment brands Claypaky and ADB

After lighting up the stages in Vienna, Stockholm and Kiev, Osram is once again the official lighting partner for the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Lisbon. This international competition in the Altice Arena will be lit by a large number of moving heads and static spotlights from the Munich high-tech lighting expert and its entertainment brands Claypaky and ADB Stagelight which are supplying around 80 percent of all the moving heads. “We are delighted to be supporting the ESC once again this year as an official partner. Our highly effective lighting solutions help to turn the performances of the artists from around the world into unforgettable experiences charged with emotion”, said Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO Specialty Lighting at Osram.  

With more than 200 million viewers, the Eurovision Song Contest is the world's largest TV entertainment event. This year's contest takes place from May 8 to 12 for the first time in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. Artists from 43 countries will be gathering at the Altice Arena where the theme will be “All Aboard!”, reflecting Portugal’s history as a sea-faring nation. This year there will be four presenters: Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado. As the official lighting partner, Osram will be responsible for the spectacular light shows at the two semi-finals on May 8 and 10 and at the grand final on May 12. This year’s ESC slogan for the lighting manufacturer is “Leading Lights”, alluding not only to the artists in the spotlight but also Osram’s role as a market leader in entertainment lighting. With its innovative lighting solutions, Osram regularly sets new standards for lighting events of global proportions and will continue this tradition by giving the audiences at ESC 2018 a fascinating and awe-inspiring experience. 

More than 800 Osram entertainment fixtures

The spectacular light shows for the Eurovision Song Contest have been created using many products from Claypaky, an Osram entertainment brand which have won multiple awards for their innovations. The companies have been leading players in event lighting and innovative product developments for decades and have made crucial contributions to the success of the shows in recent years. At ESC 2018, the staging for the artists will include 750 moving lights from Claypaky together with around 50 static lights from ADB.  One of the highlights is the Axcor Profile 900, which is making its official debut in Lisbon. This LED-based profile spotlight from Claypaky is the most advanced of its type on the market. Its powerful 880 W pure white LED light engine delivers 46,000 lumens. There will also be more than 300 products from the Scenius family on the ESC stage. They are all equipped with highly efficient 1,400 W lamps from Osram, specially developed for such demanding applications. The contestants in the Eurovision Song Contest will also be lit by Claypaky’s Hepikos, a hybrid beam/wash light equipped with an Osram HRI Sirius 440 W lamp and by the new ADB Klemantis, an asymmetrical cyclorama light based on a six-color LED module.  

Great anticipation

“I’m very thrilled to have over more than 750 active Claypaky fixtures in the 2018 edition of Eurovision Song Contest”, said Ola Melzig, Technical Director of the ESC. “The combination of high output, creativity, low weight and power efficiency is utterly important for a show of this magnitude. The fact that the fixtures are so reliable is the icing on the cake.” The man responsible for the light show is the award-winning German lighting designer Jerry Appelt, who also lit the contests in Kiev in 2017 and Stockholm in 2016. “Even though this is my fourth time, the Eurovision Song Contest has lost none of its charm but is also a challenge for me. Thanks to the wide variety of entertainment luminaires from Claypaky and ADB, I can give free rein to my creative instincts in designing the lighting and visual effects, and I’m already looking forward to the shows”, said Appelt, who is best known for his innovative lighting design involving moving lights.

Wonderful light shows throughout Lisbon

Following on from the successes of the past two years, Osram is again giving fans the chance to vote for their favorites in an interactive poll that runs alongside the official voting for the Eurovision Song Contest. During the semi-finals and the grand finale, fans can use the Light Voting function, which is part of the official ESC app, to vote for each song as it is being performed. Depending on the points gained by a song in the Osram vote, four famous landmarks in Lisbon – the Praça do Comércio, the city hall, the Castelo de Sao Jorge and the Cristo Rei statue will be lit in corresponding colors. Blue means that a song has left viewers cold, while red at the other end of the scale means that the performance was hot. The results will be immediately visible in the city and via webcams throughout the world. 

All of the products that will be used for the ESC will also be on show at the Prolight + Sound fair in Frankfurt from April 10 to 13. Osram and Claypaky/ADB can be found there in Hall 3.0, booths E50 and E45 respectively.  

For more information on the Eurovision Song Contest go to http://www.osram.com/esc and for information on entertainment lighting from Osram go to www.osram.com.

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