We’re proud to have set the stage for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest

“Stage one, with an incredibly professional team, turned our design planning into an absolutely detailed implementation plan.”

– Matthias Kublik, Art Director Eurovision Song Contest 2023 process and is much more sustainable than printing off reams of paper.”

The broadcast of the contest was watched by over 160 million viewers worldwide, with over eight hours of live TV and 50 live feeds. A total of 29 commentators broadcast live from the arena, with less than 50 seconds to strike and set between performances.

“Every host country’s approach to broadcasting is different – from electrical standards to the way we run our playback network to physically producing the programme,” Broadcast Technical Producer, James Bonnar said. The biggest challenge, Bonnar believes, is the scale of the project.

“It’s only when you witness the scale of it – from the delegation to the prop stall and catering for 1,000 people two meals a day, the visiting media, and everything else – that you realise how big of an event Eurovision is,” he recalled, praising the project’s vast communications network as key to the success of the event. “Riedel Communications is fantastic. They are the commonality to every year of Eurovision and a great source of information and technical resources, which we couldn’t have done without.”

Aggreko power was another crucial component of the contest, with a MW of UPS power, 60 miles of cabling around the arena, 150 distribution boards, and 5,000 man-hours dedicated to power works. “We’ve tried to be sustainable as much as we can with this production. We would have loved to have used fewer power generators, but the venue doesn’t have back up power and it’s an important show. However, for the broadcast compound, we are running off national grid power with generators as a back-up,” he concluded. “It was a pleasure to be involved in the most-watched Eurovision to date with such capable support on site.”

Showforce supplied stage, production, and backline crew, as well as plant operators, international crew chiefs and crew managers. The firm worked alongside ES Global and Stage One to construct the stage, while assisting with the set-up of dressing rooms and brand activations. In total, 1,335 trucks were unloaded and loaded over the course of two months, with over 200 crew involved in the event’s de-rig.

Showforce worked with its sister company, THE Production TEAM, as the recruitment arm of the Spendlove Group, to vet and interview around 1,000 candidates over two months.

“The successful delivery of this event is testament to the hard work shown by every team member involved in making this happen, from back-office operations to the crew onsite,” said Showforce Head of Operations UK & Europe, Becky Meers. A mammoth 2,345 crew shifts were fulfilled, and 22,380 hours amassed by Showforce staff between 28 March to 20

May. “As a local company, we’re lucky to be part of a city that delivers incredible events, so we knew Eurovision was going to be special. The reality far exceeded our high expectations and the sense of pride we all felt in playing our part in delivering it will be something that stays with us for a long time.” www.eurovision.tv www.bbc.co.uk www.ebu.ch www.aggreko.com www.britanniarow.com www.blackskullcreative.com www.ct-group.com www.cuepilot.com www.er-productions.com www.esglobalsolutions.com www.faber-av.com www.led-creative.co.uk www.negearth.co.uk www.showforce.com www.syncronorm.com www.northhousecreative.com www.oglehog.com www.opertec.tv www.riedel.net www.stageone.co.uk www.showforce.com www.unusual.co.uk www.yellowstudio.com www.wicreations.com