Germany - On 9 November, the city of Berlin – representing the entire country – celebrated the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Instead of a central celebration at the Brandenburg Gate, this time it decided on a decentralised concept with five stages. In addition, 5,000 posters, designed by Berliners, lined up in a row to trace the course of the former wall.
The artistic collective phase7 performing.arts, led by Sven Sören Beyer, was responsible for the creative concept of the celebrations on behalf of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH. Flo Erdmann was entrusted with the lighting design of the large main stage at the Brandenburg Gate (design by Sven Sören Beyer and Janik Albrecht), as well as the four side stages at the Futurium, Checkpoint Charlie, Paul-Löbe-Haus and Potsdamer Platz.
The stage production thus stretched over 4km through the city. Coordinated by the Italian music project Rockin’1000, 700 Berlin musicians performed the evening's musical programme on all stages simultaneously, and in absolute synchrony, enveloping the capital in a ‘cloud’ of sound.
Flo Erdmann specified over 130 GLP fixtures for the main stage. He used 24 GLP impression X5 IP Maxx to create the audience backlight and the lighting for the stage forecourt. 92 GLP impression X5 IP Bars were artfully integrated into the entire stage design, which was characterised by numerous spatially offset LED surfaces.
The Bars were used as effects lighting, but also provided pixel mapping with which the content of the LED walls could be transported into the sky. The special arrangement of the LED walls, devised by phase7, also resulted in platforms for the musicians, which were illuminated by 16 Fusion X-PAR 12Z LED pars with zoom.
“I specifically wanted the X5 IP Maxx for this production because of the higher output and colour consistency within the X5 Series,” says Flo Erdmann. “I expect GLP's X5 IP Maxx to become the standard outdoor washlight. Fortunately, GLP thinks in terms of long product life cycles, which makes the lamps a sustainable and safe investment for rental companies.”
The designer had already been convinced by the qualities of the impression X5 IP Bar at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics last year: “The impression X5 IP Bars have fantastic output. But I also appreciate them for their clear, functional design, which doesn’t take centre stage.”
On this occasion, Erdmann came into contact with the Fusion X-PAR 12Z for the first time. “We needed small lamps with high output and ideally with zoom,” he explains. “The weatherproof X-PARs did their job really well and also convinced us in terms of output and colour mixing.”
The technical service provider for the event was Production Resource Group AG under the direction of the Bärlin team.
