09.02.2021 | ZDF New Year's Eve show at Brandenburg Gate with weatherproof Elation lighting

AMBION GmbH meets challenges to deliver technical setup for live TV show.
The annual New Year's Eve show on broadcaster ZDF (Silvestershow) is a fixture of the German TV calendar. Moderator duo Andrea Kiewel and Johannes B. Kerner welcomed the New Year with numerous musical guests, yet this year everything was different. Instead of the traditional fireworks display, a stage light show with no audience took place.

As technical service provider for the event, AMBION GmbH was faced with the challenge of setting up and dismantling an open-air TV show in the cold, wet December weather. The show took place in the middle of the capital under the strictest hygiene regulations and used over 800 lighting fixtures. Some 130 weatherproof moving lights from Elation's market-leading Proteus™ series were an essential part of the solution, supplied by Motion Rental.

In addition to the Proteus fixtures, 16 new KL Panels™ with RGBWLC array were used for white light on the moderator stage. The fixtures, broadcast-quality softlights, brought an additional challenge however: AMBION had ordered a number of the versatile LED soft lights but delivery was tight due to extremely high demand in combination with the global effects of the pandemic. "It was not an easy task for manufacturers and sales," says Marc Petzold, Managing Director of LMP Lichttechnik, Elation's German distribution partner. "But we worked between the holidays to get the goods, which had arrived just in time on December 29th, delivered to Brandenburg Gate in Berlin."

AMBION GmbH was not only responsible for the lighting, but also for the functional sound system optimized for the transmission, including artist monitoring and wireless technology, as well as set construction, rigging and rigging support.

Denny Arndt from BlendWerk, who developed the lighting design on behalf of production company sib Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH, specified the Proteus lights. Project manager was Knut Winkler from AMBION. He comments: "Since so many lamps were hanging completely unprotected in the open, it would have been very time-consuming to provide all of them with weather protection. That is why IP65 lights were extremely important and also a great help visually. So many lights with weather protection would not have looked nice on camera, especially since many fixtures were directly in the picture."

A total of 67 Elation Proteus Rayzor 760™, 43 Proteus Smarty Hybrid™ and Proteus Hybrid™ moving heads were used as show lights on the stage and on the surrounding buildings, all of which did a great job, as Winkler adds: "We were extremely satisfied with the performance of all devices. There was not a single failure. Despite the challenging circumstances with open-air production, tight schedules and of course the strict hygiene requirements, everything went well and was a lot of fun."

Photos: 0liver Walterscheid