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The control system and outboard racks also boasted L-Acoustics P1, M1.K2, Andiamo 2XT SRC, Ex Box BLDS, and Ex Box MD; Antelope Isochrome Trinity, Rupert Neve RMP-D8, RME 1610; DiGiCo SD- Racks and Orange Boxes; Optocore DD2FR; Waves Extreme servers; Ferrofish A32 converters, Klark Teknik DN1248 splitters and NETGEAR 4250 switches.

“We had an incredible team on site that makes this show tick, but what people often forget is the incredible operations team, warehouse staff and all those vital people back in the office who rose to the challenge and delivered additional requests,” Lloyd said. “They do all the work and don’t get the glory.”

Lead Project Manager/Account Manager, Tom Brown and Jono Dunlop; Crew Chief, Pete McGlynn; FOH Engineers, Adam Waller and Tom Gelissen; Monitor Engineers, Dan Ungaretti, João Escada and Phil Down; Playback Engineers, Eduardo Puhl, Jonny Keating and Leaf Troup; RF Technicians, Andy Lillywhite, Beth O’Leary, Dom Eve, George Hogan and Josh Podbury; System Engineers, Alizée Tricart and Sergiy Zhytnikov; Patch Technicians, Eluned Ashwood and Gabriel Stott; and System

Technicians, Dan Fathers and Jonathan Santonja made up the wider audio team. Brown commented: “To be entrusted to deliver the sound for a show as technically complex as the Eurovision Song Contest was a pleasure. We are proud to be involved.”

‘A SHARP AND VIBRANT DISPLAY’

Seven ROE Visual Black Quartz LED towers, two larger outer towers measuring 4m by 10m and five inner towers measuring 3m by 10m were supplied by Creative Technology. The towers attached to a bespoke automation system supplied by WICREATIONS. The systems not only allowed for upstage and downstage tracking of all seven towers but also rotation up to 720° of the inner towers.

Two curved LED side walls enveloped the stage with custom fabricated metalwork created by Stage One. “Black Quartz is an impeccable looking screen and with 10-Bit processing, which is ideal for a live broadcast. Utilising 4mm products for most of the surfaces within the arena made for a sharp and vibrant display that could be appreciated both within the venue and watching on TV,” commented Graham Miller, Head of Music/ Entertainment at Creative Technology UK.

Working closely with sister company Faber Audiovisuals, with assistance from Project Manager, Steve Ackein, a two-part LED floor made up of over 700 panels of ROE Black Marble covered the large oval, catwalk, and upstage sections of the stage.

A disguise ‘digital spike system’ – which depicted the precise markings on the LED stage for every change of set, instrumentation, and artist, removing the need for tape marks on the floor – was deployed to display plans for the show crew for prop positioning and LED extras. Each display was managed and controlled by Screens Producer, Chris Saunders of Ogle Hog, who harnessed six disguise vx 4 (director) and four gx 3 (editor) media servers, supplied by QED Productions.

Nort hHouse Creative designed and created broadcast graphics, on-screen branding, and performance visuals for six opening and interval acts. “It was fun to bring such a vast range of styles and techniques to this element of the show, combining rendered and realtime graphics along with camera-overlays,”

NorthHouse’s Tom Bairstow commented. “There’s something so uniquely epic about Eurovision, but this year’s show served a much bigger purpose than previous years by helping to unite nations amid conflict. It was special to be a part of it.”

Saunders made extensive use of the editing workflow within disguise workstations to design, layer and process the video content for each act. Designer software also allowed the video team to quickly switch between different asset iterations with the help of its content versioning feature, as artists finessed their content during rehearsals. A total of 1,250 digital spiking marks lit the stage throughout the show, with the help of the customdeveloped stage management solution.

The turnaround time between acts was just 50 seconds. The graphical annotations, which were rendered within disguise hardware and controlled wirelessly via an iPad, were created in the venue by the stage management team based on plans submitted by the delegations. “It’s a fantastic system,” Saunders said. “It’s useful for presenter and performer positions, photography amid rehearsals and the lighting team even used it to focus lights.”

Around 41 sq m of ROE Visual Vanish 8mm LED panels were supplied to create a ceiling with six flown elements – for the desired curved effect with facia masking provided by Stage One. Creative Technology provided multiple set extras for many of the acts including UK entrant, Mae Muller, who began her performance on an 8m by 2m LED riser on custom dollies.

The technical team and stage crew had the challenge of bringing the additional screens onto stage, joining them together and ensuring everything was working ahead of the live performances in less than 90 seconds. For Loreen’s winning performance, a 2.5m by 2.5m flown LED screen was built into a custom frame with automation by Unusual Rigging to create a moving ceiling; this was rolled onto stage and fully active within just 30 seconds.

Ot her LED elements for two interval acts included five custom LED risers of assorted sizes for Welcome to Our House – performed by Alyosha and produced by Freckled Sky – and three sections of tracked LED for Be Who You Wanna Be. For signal distribution, a bespoke fibre hub was at stage right, linked to 24 processors with over 2km of fibre providing full redundancy. An in-house developed LED processing feedback system was used to monitor faults and system warnings.

St age One managed the complex scenic package and worked closely with Creative Technology, Faber Audiovisuals, Unusual Rigging and WICREATIONS to integrate extensive lighting, LED, pyro and cabling.

The team coordinated the fabrication and assembly of structures such as sweeping curved arms and giant oval lighting boxes, the main stage and satellite stage, the green room, scrutineers’ boxes, and more. Reflecting on

11,000 individual parts and assemblies, over 550 drawings for manufacturing and 12,800plus hours in production and construction, Stage One Managing Director, Tim Leigh said: “It was great to play a part in such a large broadcast event. To see the names of our Project Managers, Graham Davy and Ben Fletcher, as well as the rest of our crew listed on the end credits was fantastic.”

As well as handling the rigging requirements of the show, Unusual Rigging was also contracted to supply the aerial rescue cover. The team had approximately 10 weeks of pre-production time for this huge-scale event. “Knowing exactly what we were working towards from day one was a huge benefit given the sheer quantity of work involved,” said Senior Production Rigger, Paul Rhodes.

The set design required nearly 600 motors, including 72 automation hoists, giving a total static load just shy of 140 tonnes. “We stock a large quantity of chain hoists in our warehouse and were able to supply all the standard motors from our in-house stock. We also have lots of Kinesys equipment, however it was decided that on this project we would use a Movecat system,” Rhodes explained.

Unusual recommended an outdoor selfclimbing roof system, installed by ES Global, to take some of the load out of the venue roof. “This is such a heavy show,” explained Rhodes. “We had to look at ways to take some of the stress off the arena’s main roof. There were four large clad lighting arcs, each weighing five tonnes, three scenic ovals that hung over the stage thrust, with the inner oval on computerised hoists, not to mention the vast amount of flown LED and lights.”

Unusual Rigging helped to install the infrastructure for seven 10m-high video and lighting towers that revolved and tracked up and down the stage. “The space above the stage was incredibly compact due to the temporary structure and as such achieving the required trim height was by far the biggest challenge of this project. Concealed above the LED ceiling were cable management trusses, lighting trusses, track screen trusses and trussing for the LED ceiling. This all had to be installed systematically and all squeezed into a 3m gap,” Rhodes reported.

Unusual also had the task of operating the inner oval, lighting pods, on-stage lighting trusses and LED ceiling prop, which was used for one of the acts. “We feel incredibly privileged to have worked on such a prestigious event, with the eyes of the world on it, and we’re proud of our performance.”

‘A COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTION’

CuePilot has been woven into the fabric of Eurovision since its maiden inclusion nine years ago on the recommendation of founder and then Video Director for Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Per Zachariassen.

“It would be difficult to imagine them not using CuePilot for a show of this scale,” said CuePilot Business Development Manager, Danny Hodgetts. “Although it was used primarily for cameras in the beginning, now every visual element of the show from cameras to lighting, graphics, pyrotechnics and staging uses CuePilot in some form.”

The music is broken down into a timeline with seconds or bars and beats, so when a member of the crew adds a cue, it appears on the timeline. The crew also has the option to personalise colours, but it’s a collective system that encourages collaboration within the same timeline. “Eurovision is such a collaborative production, so managing the workflow of constructive feedback from every creative from every delegation was much easier through CuePilot,” Hodgetts added.

“The camera crew liked it because it provided them with a fool-proof timeline of their charge, including a countdown, illuminated in front of them. It also sped up the revision