Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Robe Dares to Dream at Eurovision 2019

31/05/2019

Robe Dares to Dream at Eurovision 2019 posted: 31/05/2019

Lighting equipment was supplied and co-ordinated by Denmark based Litecom

Unashamed glitter, glamour, spandex, multicolour, bounce, camp costumes, fun and some properly superlative pop songs hit the airwaves hard and reverberated around Hall 2 of Expo Tel Aviv, Israel for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest - currently the world's largest music television show.

Lighting included nearly 300 strategically placed Robe moving lights - a mix of BMFL WashBeams, BMFL Spots and MegaPointes - which were specifically requested by this year's lighting designers, Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay, both accomplished and respected practitioners working prolifically in Israel and internationally.

They put together a joint pitch to creatively light the high-profile production organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and hosted by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation and broadcast via Israel's KAN network.

Once selected from some stiff competition, Ronen and Dakar worked closely with Eurovision head of production Ola Melzig and his international team and utilised over 2,500 lighting and pixel fixtures on the rig, amounting to in excess of 71,000 control parameters in total!

Ronen and Dakar looked after all entertainment lighting and Dakar also took care for the key lighting. Ronen lights many live events, theatre shows and music tours, while Dakar specialises in television and broadcast lighting.

They are great friends and working together produces a unique synergy allowing both the imaginative space to bring a different approach to the lighting design, which helped make this one of the best regarded ESC presentations to date. They also took briefs from the 41 individual artistic directors from each individual delegation.

The talented international team included production designer Florien Wieder of Wieder Design in Germany who created the performance environment's elegant architecture. In addition to the 41 contestants who battled it out to become the 26 finalists via two live televised semi-finals the week ahead of the final, Ronen and Dakar also lit 7 pre-show, playout and interval acts, the Flag Parade and other ceremonial moments.

The ESC lighting team also programmed for Madonna's two interval numbers during the final - her 1989 hit Like A Prayer' and new single Future' with US rapper Quavo - a task overseen by LD Al Gurdon, who looked after all the iconic star's lighting requirements.

The 116 x BMFL WashBeams were installed across the roof of the venue and were utilised for all the key lighting - from the front, rear and side and several fill' positions.

We needed a powerful lightsource, and we wanted one type of fixture to take care of every aspect of the key lighting elucidates Ronen. For this, we thought the BMFL WashBeam was the best option .

Both he and Dakar regularly use Robe products in their designs.

Eighty-seven BMFL Spots were used for all the audience lighting. This is vital in a show like Eurovision to ensure that TV directors Amir Ukrainitz and Sivan Magazonik had a constant and consistent selection of go-to audience shots to add to the broadcast mix. Eurovision fans are known for their enthusiasm and their presence is an essential part of the excitement.

The 78 x Robe MegaPointes were dotted around the audience trusses and above the stage, used for effects and to assist in the epic lighting looks.

Another reason they were keen to use these Robe fixtures was the light weight, keeping in mind the weight loading of the roof - a show like this with a massive production is not an everyday occurrence! They chose multiple LED fixtures for the same reason, and the placement of fixtures around the venue also referenced weight and involved some careful calculations.

Power was another challenge - even with thousands of LEDs in the rig - so lighting was primarily driven by a series of synched generators.

Lighting control was via a grandMA network with Angelo De Nella operating the main show lighting console. Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier in South Africa ran the audience lighting and the key lighting was looked after by Dakar - who had all the master intensities on his console and ran these in conjunction with Ivan Eftimov operating a separate desk. Moti Aroshas operated the green room lighting.

Camera views and movements were controlled via Cue Pilot

Ronen didn't operate a desk on this occasion; however, he creatively directed the overall show lighting and each delegation's lighting in conjunction with all the different operators. It was a huge undertaking for which his calm and affable personality - in addition to his natural eye for creativity - was ideally suited.

Integral to the lighting programming team was lead programmer Matti Murray, who ensured the night-time sessions ran productively and efficiently assisted by Chris Bolton of Keystone Productions, also from South Africa. The lighting systems control engineer and logistics whizz was Jack Collins.

THe four hosts of the show: Bar Refaeli, Erez Tal, Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub

Ronen really enjoyed working collaboratively with so many first-rate people and being part of a cosmopolitan team bringing so much collective experience to the table. We all learned a lot from one another, and it was a very invigorating environment! he declared.

He was very proud to have lit such a massive show - broadcast to nearly 2 billion people worldwide - and get a chance to show some of the team who were there long term for two or three months a little bit of the magic and vibes of Israel.

The winner of the ESC 2019: Duncan Laurence from The Netherlands

They were onsite in Hall Two for 4 weeks, and before that, Ronen, Dakar and the core lighting creative team spent three weeks in a visualisation studio running
LINK: https://www.live-production.tv/news/shows/robe-dares-dream-eurovision-...
See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

05/08/2026

Thomson toolkit added to virtual hub built to strengthen climate storytelling

Thomson's Climate Crisis Toolkit for Media in Tanzania is being included in a new virtual library designed to ensure accurate and engaging storytelling arou...

05/08/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit 2026: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

RSNs, teams, leagues, and streamers explore the present and future of local spor...

05/08/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Hitachi Vantara's Lenny Khaitov on Building Resilient Data Infrastructure for Sports Production

As sports-production workflows generate larger volumes of unstructured data and ...

05/08/2026

NESN's Women's Celebration Night Returns With Expanded Focus on the Next Generation

Three aspiring broadcasters will contribute on-camera and inside the production ...

05/08/2026

Union County Paints an Authentic Picture of Recovery and Community

Adam Meeks attends the premiere of his film Union County, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Sundance Institut...

05/08/2026

Steinberg celebrate VST & HALion anniversaries

Major discounts, updates & remakes of early VST plug-ins Steinberg are currently celebrating two significant anniversaries, with this week marking the 30th ...

05/08/2026

KRK introduce the V Series Five

Flagship monitor range gains wireless remote control KRK's flagship studio monitor range has just been upgraded, with three new fifth-generation models ...

05/08/2026

Rohde & Schwarz launches next phase of Airways New Zealand Air Traffic Control system upgrade

Rohde & Schwarz launches next phase of Airways New Zealand Air Traffic Control s...

05/08/2026

Rohde & Schwarz presents the R&SMP007, a man-portable tactical direction finding system for seamless signal detection from 9 MHz to 8 GHz

Rohde & Schwarz presents the R&S MP007, a man-portable tactical direction findin...

05/08/2026

Australia's retirement sector advertising rises more than 10% as millions plan for life after work according to Nielsen

Advertisers invested $53.6 million in the retirement sector in the last 12 month...

05/08/2026

New Nielsen data shows IKEA's New Zealand launch attracted more than 243,000 shoppers in the last month

Nielsen CMI and Ad Intel data reveals who's visiting IKEA, where else they s...

05/08/2026

Nielsen expands Four-Screen Ad Deduplication across CTV in Japan

Media buyers and sellers can now compare deduplicated campaign reach across computer, mobile, connected TV and linear TV across all measurable CTV publishers in...

05/08/2026

Stranger Things,' Bluey,' The Pitt' Top Nielsen's Streaming Charts Through First Half of 2026

Stranger Things' Leads All Streaming Titles with 23.3 Billion Minutes in Fir...

05/08/2026

Live Media Group, Gravity Media Strike Deal on U.S. OB Fleets

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Beyond VVC: Call for Proposals for Next-Gen Video Coding

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

QuickLink Expands North American Team With Appointment of...

QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, announces the appointment of Kane Peterson to its Nort...

05/08/2026

Seven in 10 UK advertisers exceed production budgets desp...

XR research reveals marketers believe they have control over production costs, yet budget overruns, campaign delays and creative cutbacks remain commonplace Se...

05/08/2026

Game On Live Studio Uses Blackmagic Design to Stream Tropical 7s

Game On Live Studio Uses Blackmagic Design to Stream Tropical 7s Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Every match of world's largest youth rugby...

05/08/2026

Chris Fitzgerald to Head TDC's Experiential Growth

Chris Fitzgerald to Head TDC's Experiential Growth Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Technical Direction Company promotes Chris Fitzgerald to...

05/08/2026

Gravity Media, Live Media Group Form Strategic Partnership

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Samsung Launches World's First HDR10+ Streaming on Prime Video

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

05/08/2026

Profuz Digital unveils new advanced search capabilities a...

Profuz Digital is set to launch a powerful upgrade to its Profuz LAPIS digital media management platform at IBC this year at Stand 8.A88. France Galop, Canal+ F...

05/08/2026

KRK Brings Advanced Wireless Control to Professional Moni...

KRK, a Gibson brand and leader in professional studio monitoring for nearly four decades, launches its new V Series Five Studio Monitors, the latest evolution o...

05/08/2026

Stable performance in line with plan - Magyar Telekoms H1 and Q2 2026 results

Network expansion, continued customer growth and stable financial performance characterized Magyar Telekoms business results for the first half and second quart...

05/08/2026

The Sky Foundation launches new bursary programme to support the future of UK dance

Wednesday 5 August 2026 The Sky Foundation launches new bursary programme to su...

05/08/2026

Charlie Sheen Launches Mostly Sheenius in Partnership with Red Seat Ventures

Charlie Sheen Launches Mostly Sheenius in Partnership with Red Seat Ventures After Decades as One of the World's Most Recognizable and Interviewed Celebr...

04/08/2026

MLB's Jason Hedgcock on Using the Cloud To Produce World Baseball Classic Games for Netflix Japan

Live production in the cloud is a growing trend across the industry, and Major L...

04/08/2026

Major League Soccer Names Larry Berg as Next Commissioner; Will Take Helm in 2027

LAFC co-managing owner will succeed Don Garber on Jan. 1, 2027, as league prepar...

04/08/2026

Foresight: Driving Growth Through Broadcast Flexibility - A Calrec + PGA TOUR Case Study

In 2022, when the PGA TOUR was breaking ground on its new, state-of-the-art broa...

04/08/2026

Dealer Cam Debuts as Omaha Productions Takes World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table Live on ESPN

Provided by POVORA, the new camera angle offers a dealer's-eye view of the c...

04/08/2026

USL To Trial FIFA's Football Video Support System During 2026 USL Cup

Spiideo will provide the camera setup, with NEP handling broadcast integration and off-site video operations...

04/08/2026

Game On Live Studio Deploys Blackmagic Design Workflow Across 15 Fields at Tropical 7s

Production team streamed more than 750 youth rugby matches using ATEM switchers,...

04/08/2026

NDI, KTC Partner To Develop Network-Native Commercial Displays

Agreement gives KTC early access to NDI's Advanced SDK for integration across commercial displays, digital signage, and interactive panels...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: IBC Innovation Awards Finalists Highlight Advances in AI, Cloud, Open Standards, and Accessibility

Twelve projects across four categories recognize collaborative work in productio...

04/08/2026

Ekstraklasa, Live Park Select Hawk-Eye for Tracking, Offside, and Broadcast Technology

Multi-year agreement will introduce SkeleTRACK, semi-automated offside, automate...

04/08/2026

Radio France Deploys Redundant Lawo AoIP Workflow for 2026 Concert de Paris

Three mc 56 consoles, dual A__UHD Core engines, RAVENNA networking, and HOME management supported live sound, monitoring, and international broadcast production...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: Haivision to Debut Makito ONE, Falkon X4 in Europe

New contribution products support ultra-low-latency video transport across fixed, remote, and mobile production environments...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: Chyron to Highlight AI, Cloud, HTML Graphics, and Sports-Analysis Tools

Company will showcase updates across PRIME, Chyron LIVE, Paint, virtual production, newsroom workflows, and venue control...

04/08/2026

TAB Show 2026: MultiDyne to Showcase Fiber-Transport and IP Infrastructure Tools

Exhibit will feature SilverBack, VersaBrix, VersaFrame, VF-9100, and FiberSaver-10G platforms...

04/08/2026

IBC2026: TAG Video Systems Adds MXL Support, Containerized Deployment, Expanded QC Tools

Platform updates target cloud-based production, high-density ST 2110 monitoring,...

04/08/2026

Gravity Media, Live Media Group Partner To Expand U.S. Mobile Production Facility Operations

Live Media Group will take control of Gravity Media's U.S. mobile-unit fleet...

04/08/2026

HeadRush update Prime, Core & Flex Core firmware

Amp-modelling rigs get major upgrade HeadRush have recently released a major firmware update that brings some powerful new features to their Prime, Core and...

04/08/2026

Am I Audio launch I Am Choir

Generate a choir from a single voice track Following years of development, Am I Audio have just officially launched their debut plug-in. Created in collabor...

04/08/2026

Universal Audio's EMT 140 & 250 plug-ins go native

Official EMT-endorsed reverbs now available to all Two more of Universal Audio's renowned UAD plug-ins have just gained new native versions that can be ...

04/08/2026

SBS helps Australians understand why every Census counts

SBS helps Australians understand why every Census counts Media releases As Australia prepares for the 2026 Census on Tuesday 11 August, SBS is helping ensur...

04/08/2026

Canada invests in the future of HF communications with Rohde & Schwarz solutions

Canada invests in the future of HF communications with Rohde & Schwarz solutions After selection by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) as the p...

04/08/2026

Blendkit Expands Beyond Blender

Blendkit Expands Beyond Blender Brie Clayton August 4, 2026 0 Comments Popular 3D Asset Library Launches Alpha Plugins for Maya, Godot, and Rhino Blend...