Osram smart lighting app lets TV viewers relight Stockholm in response to Eurovision song contest

May 11, 2016
Smart lighting will help home watchers rate the songs broadcast on one of the world’s most viewed television extravaganzas.

Smart lighting will help home watchers rate the songs broadcast on one of the world’s most viewed television extravaganzas.

Osram is tapping one of the world’s most viewed television spectacles to show off smart LED lighting this week, as home viewers of the massive Eurovision song contest will be able to change the color of lights on landmark buildings in host city Stockholm to register their response to individual songs and performers.

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Source: Osram.

An app called Lightify@Eurovision will allow fans to rate a song from 1 to 12, with 12 being the highest level of approval. A collective low score will bathe certain Stockholm buildings in blue light, while “a song that inspires the masses and thus gets an average of twelve points will turn the landmarks bright red,” Osram said.

The Lightify “results” are separate from the telephone voting that helps determine the winner of the contest. The app is available through Osram’s website.

Lightify is the brand name of Osram’s home smart lighting system , which lets users program and control on/off, colors, color temperature and other features via apps, computers, and the Internet. Existing users will be able to create waves of home lighting colors to reflect their own personal ranking of the Eurovision songs.

Eurovision is the world’s largest television amateur song contest, and is open to the 52 countries from inside and outside of Europe that are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Occasionally winners go on to succeed professionally, such as champs ABBA, Bucks Fizz, and Celine Dion, champs in 1974, 1981 and 1988, respectively.

The song contest claims to attract roughly 180 million viewers. Wikipedia notes that viewership ranges between 100 million and 600 million depending on the source.

By comparison, the 2016 Super Bowl in February registered 111.9 million viewers. So Osram should help muster good attention for smart lighting this week.

The semi-finals were last night and tomorrow night, and the finals are scheduled for Saturday the 14th.

Buildings to be lit in response to Lightify voting include the dome of Glove Arena — the Eurovision venue — as well as City Hall Tower and Television Tower. A complete list of the seven landmarks is here.

As Eurovision’s official lighting partner, Osram is also providing the show's stage lighting, through Osram's Clay Paky subsidiary.

MARK HALPERis a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).