Eurovision Song Contest 2024

As the Official Event Supplier of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, we at Creative Technology got to deliver all audio, lighting, and video technology to the spectacular event in Malmö, Sweden.

With months of prepping the technology, days of building the set, and a week full of rehearsals and shows at the Malmö Arena culminating to an extraordinary Grand Final, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest‘s technical outcome was a true showcase of the best event technology expertise there is.

In this case study we want to highlight all the three segments, audio, video and lighting technology, and the cutting-edge technology manufacturer partners, that were a crucial part of the success of our technical delivery. Now, let’s dive deep into our event technology solutions, and how our team at Creative Technology delivered the technical spectacle to the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.

Audio delivery: A Seamless Audio Delivery at the Malmö Arena

Audio FOH

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was mixed through two Stagetec Avatus consoles fed from two Stagetec Nexus Matrices provided by Creative Technology with the help of Stagetec. With almost 100 channels of audio needing to be processed, FOH engineers Mattias and Pontus, delivered a crisp and clear mix that engaged the entire arena.

Monitor World

For the artists monitors Creative Technology provided dual redundant DigiCo Quantum 7’s and SD-racks. At the heart of the signal distribution system is several Direct Out Prodigy’s and M1K2’s in a fully redundant setup, making it possible to seamlessly switch between consoles, IEM systems and Backtrack rigs. The backtrack rigs were also fully redundant within themselves making the level of redundancy quadruple on both monitors and backtracks.

PA supply

As part of Creative Technology’s technical supply for the Eurovision Song Contest, we provided the main PA system as a joint venture between Creative Technology Sweden and Creative Technology Middle East. The L-acoustics L2 system shined at the Eurovision, proving to be the perfect solution for the show. System Designer Magnus Johansson’s design ensured full coverage of every seat in the house as the audience response was evident to. The system, with its light weight and small size, is ideal for a production of this type was run on a fully redundant AVB network with analog fall back.

Wireless

In a complex wireless environment, Creative Technology provided Shure Axient Wireless systems, including ADX1, ADX2FD transmitters and Shure PSM1000 In-Ear systems. With over 100 wireless channels in use the team deployed Shure AD600D’s for monitoring in conjunction with Wireless workbench software. The system proved to be extremely reliable and provided stable RF throughout the broadcasts. A world class system for a world class event.

A big thank you to Stagetec, DigiCo, Direct Out, L-acoustics and Shure, for the successful outcome and cooperation with this year’s Eurovision Song Contest!

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Video delivery: Pushing the limits of technology

In this chapter we will talk about the impressive video delivery and the first SMTE 2110 Video over IP ever deployed in a live event of this scale.

Video Playout & Processing

With EBU’s stated goal of pushing the limits of technology with the Eurovision Song Contest, it was decided from the get-go together with host broadcaster SVT, to deliver an end-to-end uncompressed IP video solution for media servers, image processing and LED screens, a world’s first achievement for a live broadcast.

To this end two full systems each capable of delivering the show where constructed and tied together with a fully redundant network to transport ST 2110 video as well as control data built entirely from COTS hardware, with specialty equipment provided by longstanding technology partners of Creative Technology. Top of the line disguise gx3 media servers were used for playout arranged in two redundant systems, each consisting of one director providing control, three actors outputting video via disguise IP VFC cards, and one actor providing pixel mapping for the lighting rig, with upwards of 1000 universes of DMX patched.

At the core of the system, redundant Panasonic Kairos KC2000S1 tied the system together providing vital capabilities including several custom multiviewers for operators, clean switching for all disguise outputs for backup purposes, as well as ingress and egress of baseband video.

On the receiving end was 10 Helios LED processors from Megapixel receiving ST 2110 natively on the brand new 100 Gb input cards making their world premiere for the ESC. The processors were arranged in two redundant stacks of five with two processors for the upstage ROE Black Quartz 4 LED wall, two processors for the ROE Black Marble 4 LED floor, and one processor taking care of the cubes constructed of ROE Vanish V8T.

Early in the production we decided that we wanted to push IP over video technology forward in the Live events industry, therefore together with SVT we wanted to make this the first fully IP2210 based production in this scale.

Together with our partners Disguise and Megapixel we truly delivered a perfect setup making a fully redundant 2110 Video over IP solution without any single point of failure. The playout consisted of 10 Disguise GX3 media servers with VFC IP output cards feeding all signals to 14 Megapixel Helios 8K LED Processors.

LED Cubes

The LED cubes were built of 460 m² ROE Vanish V8T transparent LED panels, build into a custom set making sure the most transparency was kept creating a holographic effect, and the ability to position lighting fixtures inside the cubes to create stunning visual effects.

LED Back wall

The back wall was created in two different pieces of ROE BQ4 LED, which made it possible to split it to make the green room reveal. The accuracy of the ROE BQ4 panels also made it possible to reset the giant 34 x 10 meter wall with millimeter accuracy making the seam invisible and ready for the next show.

We want to thank our wonderful partners ROE Visual, Megapixel, Panasonic and Disguise for providing the cutting-edge technology for our video delivery for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

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Lighting Delivery: Over 2000 Lighting Fixtures and the Biggest Grand MA 3 -system Ever Done

Control System

We deployed the largest MA3 Control system in history, 19 Consoles, 21 PU-X Processors, 96 MA3 8-Port nodes for synchronized outputs and another 10 Luminex Node4 for outputs from the Follow-Me system. The network backbone was created with 50 Luminex Switches. The main Fiber ring was a 10GB ring with 20T units at 3 locations with 42 16XT switches used to provide the necessary number of ports. With more than 350 IP addresses on the network, including all the StageSmarts Power distros, the overall complexity of the network was substantial. The systems engineering team monitored the entire network with Luminex Araneo software with the MA Plugin, and also real-time logged all consoles in the network to render support for the programming teams.

Automated Pods

The main overhead lighting element was the 20 “Pods” – built from a custom truss frame and steel structure with 3×3 Ayrton Rivale, a single GLP JDC-1 and an outline of 3 Claypaky Tambora Linear fixtures. A total of 179 Rivales, 20 JDC-1 and 240 Tambora Linnear 100 was put into these overhead elements.

Infield Pods

Another scenic lighting element was the Mac One Infield pods – 12pcs of 4×4 Matrix sections with Martin Mac One and Roe Strips were used as kind of a middle ground between the stage and the audience. The cable management was crucial as every little detail was visible. All 12 infield pods running on automation.

MT Truss

The third scenic Lighting element was what we called the “MT Trusses” a group of 12 Linnear trusses in between the main LED wall and the center stage area. These trusses were crowded with Tambora Linnear 100s and Chauvet Colorado 16s and were used in various positions throughout the show. We designed and manufactured custom hardware to mount all the fixtures for these trusses, as with the LED wall as a background the tidiness of the trusses was crucial.

Key Lighting

In a design with almost everything being a scenic piece on Automation, the great challenge was how to do key lighting – which for CT meant a substantial amount of 64 fixtures used for the Follow-Me system, many of them also on Automation trusses. This created a need to distribute PSN positioning data that was used to align the fixtures to the follow me refinement. The key lighting was primarily done with 52 Robe Forte HCF, 14 T2 Profiles and 61 T1 Profiles in the Greenroom.

A total of 524 Chauvet Colorado 16 was used all over the system, from stage to audience. 376 Ayrton Rivales complimented these as the main profile used for the design amongst many other fixture types and models. The Lighting system required 2200 ch of power distribution, all with StageSmarts C72TV and C24 units.

We received great support from all manufacturers involved, and especially MA Lighting, Luminex, Ayrton, Martin Professional and Robe were with us throughout the project.