The security around the Abdi Ípekçi arena is building up day after day, while inside the stage for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest is almost finished. And what about the greenroom? Ola Melzig, Senior Technical Manager at lighting company Spectra+, updated us with the latest news from Istanbul!
Security building up
This year, there is a different approch to security. Both in Tallinn and Riga the security efforts were quite big, with double fences, body search, bar code readers and so on from day one. “Here, the security increase by the day and will not be fully up and running until the delegations arrive. This system has both positeve and negative sides, but the main thing is that we feel safe,and we do”, Ola told us.
Stage almost finished!
A team of 150 technicians and 6 stage designers is currently working on the stage. ” We're putting the last touch to the stage, as we speak. The stage team has been working all night and are now fixing the final details”, our Spectra+ 'correspondent' said.
Catering
You can't work with an empty stomach, they say in several countries accross the world! According to several insiders, the catering is working quite well. There is food for everyone, and they changed the so-called “jailhouse rock trays” to real porslin. Ola tested the TRT catering for us: “There is good variation on the meals, so I have to say it works very well”. For those of you who will be coming to Istanbul in the upcoming weeks, it might give a comfortable feeling to know you don't have to take your own bread!
The well-known statistics
It's always funny to know some statistics, for a boring birthday or to show your friends your Eurovision Song Contest knowledge on the big night itself! Spectra+ is currently using 300 moving lighst, 600 conventional lights, 65 square meters of LED, 18 high output projectors, a lot of moving trusses and 8 followspots. The show is runned of four lighting desks and there is a total of 36 people needed to run light and video during the show! “And we use 85,000 meters of cable to make it work”, Ola added.
And what about the greenroom?
As usual, insiders are quite reserved when they speak about the greenroom, which should be kept a surprise as long as possible. “It is very turkish… but not in the way that you think”, was Ola's comment when we asked about the greenroom. Based on floorplans of the current setup in the Abdi Ípecki t's already known that the greenroom is situated behind the stage.
