On 9 February 2017 five candidates presented themselves before a specialist jury
and a Europe-wide television audience, and fought for the right to represent
Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev.
With the eloquent Barbara Schoneberger presenting the show, former ESC winner
Lena Meyer-Landruth sat next to Tim Benzko and Florian Silbereisen in the three-
piece jury.
The show was broadcast live under the management of the NDR from the studios of
Cape Cross Studio + Filmlichtgesellschaft mbH, one of Germany’s leading suppliers
of film and TV stage and lighting technology, in Cologne-Muhlheim.
The lighting design for probably the most important pop contest on German TV,
came again from the hand of Jerry Appelt, who is almost a fixture at the Eurovision
Song Contest.
In 2011 in Dusseldorf and 2012 in Baku he was already lighting designer of the Final
shows. In addition, in 2013 he designed the lighting for the Junior ESC in Kiev and in
2014 he took over the lighting design for the preliminary German voting for the ESC
— just to name the most recent ESC appearances.
The new GLP GT-1 hybrids, of which Jerry Appelt had specified a total of 52 pieces
in his design, were extremely prominent and always in camera shot. “This lamp
takes care of everything — design, performance, output and features,” enthused
Appelt about the GT-1.
“It’s the whole package that’s impressive: beam, spot and wash all combined in
such a compact footprint. Thanks to its slim design and the absence of the classic
base, the GT-1 can be perfectly integrated into a set without having to conceal the
lamp.
For this, it is just seems too good, and with the new light source I do not have to
worry about reliability issues.
“In fact, we did not have a single problem with the GT-1 from the first set-up day to
the last minute of the show,’ adds the lighting designer, who has been specifying
GLP’s spot and wash lights for many years.
Equipped with a 440 watt discharge lamp, the GT-1 offers a unique zoom range of
3.5 to 56.7 degrees — equivalent to an impressive 16: 1 zoom ratio. This hybrid
spotlight also features a CMY colour mixing system plus an additional colour wheel,
eight rotating and 14 fixed gobos, a high-speed shutter and three rotating prisms.
The GT-1 is fitted with an auto-sensing power supply, and an internal battery makes
the programming and addressing of the GT-1 possible remotely from the network.
The compact baseless design completes the feature set of a lightweight fixture
weighing just 25kg.
In conclusion Jerry Appelt is unconditionally positive: “We produced a great live
show with great looks and we were completely satisfied. The GT-1 continues to be a
realistic option for me.’
