W-DMX™ at "Festival of Freedom" 20th
Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall W-DMX™ proved itself as a valuable rental solution at the "Festival of Freedom" celebration held on November 9, 2009 in Berlin, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The show was the crown glory of four days of celebrations around Berlin incorporating music, fireworks and over-the-top lighting.
The Berlin Staatskapelle and State Opera Chorus opened the ceremony on the Pariser Platz, one of the main historical focal points in the center of Berlin, situated next to famous Brandenburg Gate. The gate was awash with lights and color, with 14 Falcon 7kW fixtures atop the structure, lighting up the sky and drawing a huge crowd. Two 4-metre video screens flanked the gate for better visibility of the entertainment. After the concert, the fall of the Berlin Wall was symbolized with the toppling of a domino wall made up of over 1000 giant Styrofoam dominoes, stacked along the entire wall path. Following the symbolic "fall", hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets in one giant party, complete with a fireworks display.
Lighting Designer Gerd Helinski, Managing Director of Helicon-Media GmbH, specified a system which included 10 Wireless Solution W-DMX™ BlackBox S-1 transmitters and 15 W-DMX™ Outdoor R-512 receivers to deliver signal to the Falcon fixtures, in addition to 90 DeSisti Outdoor 5kW Fresnels, 14 blinders by MAJOR and 30 Barco High End Systems Showguns. control came from 2 grandMA Full Size consoles and 2 MA nSPs, operated by Udo Thimm. Stefan krawietz and Tobias Müller of Helicon-Media were project managers, with Helicon acting as supplier of all W-DMX™ equipment and lighting. Producer Gerald Ponesky of compact Team worked closely with Art Projects of Berlin to realize the vision. According to the team, the W-DMX™ system was used thanks to a stable history of reliability.
"We have been using W-DMX™ equipment successfully since the World cup in soccer in 2006," said Helinski, "The W-DMX™ system has worked at numerous events beyond the specified limits of the system. For instance, we have used the system over a distance of 2.3 kilometres reliably and without interference at the opening ceremony for the new Strelasund bridge."
The majority of the lighting was placed on a total of 21 light towers around the area, which had to be networked. Helinski explained, "We had lighting distributed all around the building, lighting up the sky and complementing the music and fireworks. We expected it to be quite a challenge to set up
a data system in an urban environment where masts of the big TV and radio stations added to the usual city data chaos. The Wireless Solution W-DMX™ however worked without a glitch."
Another success story from Wireless Solution. W-DMX™ not only spared the public from the hazards of cable, but it protected an historic site from unnecessary rigging to support additional cable. The technology from Wireless Solution provides THE solution. Save Time. Save Money. Save the Planet.
