The Swedish SVT once again raises the bar in show production with the Eurovision Song Contest

The organization deployed 600 square meters of LED screens on walls and 250 m² on the surface, creating a spectacular set with very powerful optical illusions that collected a total of 26 cameras.

Followed by an estimated audience of 200 million viewers, the Eurovision Song Contest is, without a doubt, the largest television show from the point of view of the technology used in its production. Last Saturday, the Ericsson Globen Arena hosted the final of a festival in which 42 countries participated.

Starting from a budget of 25 million euros, the festival has generated seven and a half hours of live programming managed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the event. Contrary to what many think, the host broadcaster does not bear the costs of the organization since not even large European corporations such as the German ARD or the English BBC could face a similar outlay. This is why production costs are distributed among the fifty television stations at the EBU, although it is true that they do so in different proportions. In this case, the Swedish public broadcaster, after organizing the 2000 and 2013 editions, has demonstrated how to masterfully handle a budget of such magnitude.

The Ericcson Globen Arena, where the festival took place, is a unique space with capacity for more than 16,000 people in a venue with an impressive height of 85 meters (of which SVT took good advantage during the broadcast by offering overhead images from the top of the enclosure thanks to the use of spider cameras).

A total of 250 professionals worked day and night at the Globe Arena in Stockholm to deploy an impressive stage in which light, video and audio were the protagonists.

Since last September, an extensive production team led by Ola Melzig, technical director for the twelfth consecutive time, carefully designed sound, lighting, pyrotechnics, video, power supply, automation and set designs.

Bet on LED

Since Moscow opted for the use of LEDs in 2009, eventually using a third of the screens available for rental around the world, diode-based lighting has been the star of the stage set year after year.

In this case, the use of LEDs allowed us to create very powerful optical illusions. Compared to the traditional use of soft curves in the scenography, this year we opted for linearity and angular planes.

To do this, the festival deployed 600 square meters of LED screens on walls and 250 m² on the surface. A total of 1,500 luminaires were used for lighting, 400 more than in the edition held in Sweden in 2013 (Malmö).

The LED not only invaded the stage, but the entire venue as the organization distributed light necklaces to the attendees that shone in different colors depending on the performance.

Everything that happened on stage was captured by 26 cameras, including several cablecams, spidercams, steadies and robotics in an unparalleled technological display on a night in which the representative of Ukraine, Jamala, won with her song 1944.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P11j3HQumzY[/youtube]

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