When monster rocker band Lordi overwhelmingly brought Finland a victory in last year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, they also fulfilled Finland’s dream of hosting the 2007 edition of this very singular show. Helsinki will obviously not come second to the previous hosts in anything and have staged the gigantic Helsinki Arena accordingly. And it is again Sennheiser, the German audio specialists, that have been appointed to ensure the finest sound performance levels available for the event.

That the Eurovision Song Contest has become a cult-celebration-must in 42 countries can also be chalked up to the set of traditions and rituals it is ensconced in, ranging from the most endearing to the utterly drollest. Long standing country rivalries artfully highlighted by mutual “zero point” scores, tears and waterworks during rehearsals, keeping still in the Green Room whilst waiting for 41 other participating country verdicts ... and, naturally, each year setting new record highs on the relative technology, organisation, venue size and spectator counts involved. Fortunately, Sennheiser’s outfitting the Eurovision Song Contest with breakthrough quality microphones, wireless microphone and wireless monitoring systems has also become one of the event traditions. This is the 22nd time that Sennheiser provides all miking and monitoring requirements, ensuring a consistent and noticeable contribution to the overall success of each individual contest.

Klaus Willemsen Photo by Ralph Larmann

“We shall be having the 54 microphone channels we had last year too, plus another 16 for wireless monitoring,” informs Klaus Willemsen, the Sennheiser specialist in wireless technology and major events that will personally be present for the 22nd time. “Although every edition is a law unto itself, with something new and all the more complicated coming up every time,” explains Klaus Willemsen. “Speaking in orders of magnitude, nothing equals the Eurovision Song Contest.”

For the semi-final and final events scheduled for the 10th May and 12th May respectively, the Helsinki Arena, also known as the Hartwall Arena, will turn into a raging sea of light, glass and steel topped by tons of technology and engineering. 400 moving lights alone have been planned, huge LED screens, and 24 camera positions for the Finnish public broadcasters YLE. 22 tons of wiring have also been laid in, hooked up and distributed to a total of 250 positions. “True Fantasy” is the motto adopted for the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest, with the stage design and setting — based on what the organisers have been willing to give away up till now — representing a fantasy-version of a typically Finnish theme: the “kantele”, a traditional Finnish-style musical instrument made out of the lower mandible of a pike. All is streamlined, dazzling, with optical suggestions involving fins, bones and naturally the pike jaws.

“What is particular about the Helsinki Arena is that this time the Green Room is located quite a distance away from the arena,” says Klaus Willemsen, “so far off that the traditional host visits are not possible here. So far off that this time we have had to outfit the Green Room with its own audio system.” This year too, the artists will be performing with SKM 5200 hand-held transmitters with Neumann KK 105 S capsules. “I also have a few MD 5235 with me,” he says, “our new microphone heads that in the past few weeks following their launch have already been nicknamed the ‘Rockheiser’,” adds Klaus Willemsen. The artists that prefer a headset microphone are outfitted with an HSP 4 and an SK 5212 transmitter. The wireless monitoring systems for the singers consist of EK 3253 bodypack receivers and SK 3256 twin transmitters.

The frequency management issue in Helsinki is a little less nerve-racking compared to Athens in 2006, “although the position is still critical all over Europe, as long as the current discussions on the frequency range space for the so-called secondary users are not giving any results,” points out Klaus Willemsen. “Even if there currently are sufficient frequencies available in Finland, future perspectives for events such as the Eurovision Song Contest are dark and dreary if the frequency ranges needed for wireless microphones were to be actually taken away, as planned.”

The press conference locations are also equipped with Sennheiser technology, comprising table microphones and evolution wireless microphones. Additionally, the reporters and commentators hailing from the 42 participant countries will use Sennheiser headsets in their reporting cabins, “otherwise they wouldn’t be able to move around freely whilst reporting, making matters remarkably uncomfortable for a show lasting for well over four hours.”

Klaus Willemsen’s team will be supported by Pekka Paukku and his team of IntoOy, a partner company of Sennheiser’s sales subsidiary Sennheiser Nordic: “Not only does this represent a welcome opportunity for a close cooperation with our locally-based colleagues. Their support is enormously important considering that they are acquainted with all the local uses and conventions, as well as the language.”

When Lordi opens the grand final contest on the 12th May garbed in their usual monster look — with Sennheiser microphones stashed under inch-thick latex masks — they will also be crowning three weeks of hard work by the Sennheiser teams. “It’s a great deal of fun in the end,” says the Eurovision expert Klaus Willemsen, who only a few weeks ago was awarded the Opus award at the Frankfurt prolight+sound exhibition for his work in the Eurovision Song Contest. “There are so many challenges, with just as many solutions — which can really make you feel good.”

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems, the Sennheiser Group with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, had total sales of about €300 million in 2005. The export share is 82.5%. Sennheiser has a total workforce of more than 1,650 employees, of whom about 60% are employed in Germany. Sennheiser is active worldwide and, in addition to other partnerships, has its own sales subsidiaries in France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, India, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and the USA.

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