Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) Is a Europe-wide annual competition with a reputation for unpredictability and diversity.

Official Eurovision website: http://www.eurovision.tv

Documents


Midlands Today: Prepare for Eurovision, National Indoor Arena (April 1998)
[External Website]
From BBC Rewind

Eurovision 2002 (July 2002)
[2.2Mb PDF]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2003 (June 2003)
[External Website]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2008 (July 2008)
[External Website]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2009 (July 2009)
[9Mb PDF]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2011 (June 2011)
[4.88Mb PDF]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2013 (July 2013)
[11.91Mb PDF]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision 2018 (June 2018)
[3.91Mb PDF]
From Lighting & Sound International

Eurovision Song Contest Lighting Systems (May 2021)
[208kb PDF]

Eurovision Song Contest Rotterdam (July 2021)
[External Website]
From Lighting & Sound International

LSI: Eurovision (June 2023)
[External Website]
From Lighting & Sound International

2024 from Malmö

Dates; 7 May 2024 – 11 May 2024


Live Design: Eurovision 2024 (April 2024)
[External Website]
From Live Design

2023 from Liverpool Arena, Liverpool

Dates: 9 May 2023 – 13 May 2023


Live Design: Tim Routledge on Lighting Eurovision (August 2023)
[External Website]
From Live Design

LSI: Eurovision (June 2023)
[External Website]
From Lighting & Sound International

2022 from Turin

Final: 14 May 2022

Article (in French): https://www.lightzoomlumiere.fr/photos/eurovision-2022-backstage-eclairage-structure-scene/

Schedule:

Set & Lighting installation began 15 March 2022
Set installation complete 11 April 2022 – the time until the contest performances was used for rehearsals & programming. 
Final performance: 14 May 2022
Get-Out: 15-30 May 2022

Kinetic Sun consists of: 

  • Robe MegaPointe
  • Ayrton MagicBlade FX
  • GLP KNV Cube

Although the arches the sun was composed of were able to rotate, it was not fast enough to achieve the fast changes between each song, so was static during the performance. There was a maximum 1 minute 14 seconds between each song, except for around 3 longer intervals when the presenters talked to camera, due to more complex changes. 

Lighting
2821 moving lights
14 control desks (TBC)

Sound
39 audio crew
3.8km of speaker cables
10 mixing consoles
Over 400 audio sources
440 speakers
86 In-Ear Monitors
78 Wireless Radio Mics

Rigging
450 rigging points
150 tons flown weight
Over 1.8km of truss

TV Presentation
24 cameras

2021 from Rotterdam

Final: 22 May 2021

Equipment List (from AmpCo Flashlight website)

  • 1782 automated fixtures from Ayrton, Robe, Clay Paky, GLP
  • 16 x grandMA 3 lighting desk, with 30 processing units
  • Follow-Me 3D: 64 followspot fixtures, PSN-motion integration
  • Robe RoboSpot followspot system & Motion Cam
  • 6 x Capture stations – pre-programming lighting, content & broadcast
  • 2653 metres of trussing
  • 506 electric chainhoists
  • 220 tons of static load
  • 298 speaker cabinets: L’Acoustics, Synco
  • 4 x DigiCo Quantum 7T Consoles
  • 20 Shure Axient digital quad receivers
  • 4200m of speaker cables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Q0SMFx3rw

2019 from Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

Final: 18 May 2019

Equipment List:

  • 358 x Ayrton MagicBlade-R
  • 206 x Ayrton MagicBlade-FX
  • 106 x Ayrton Khamsin
  • 54 x Ayrton MagicDot-R
  • 46 x Ayrton Ghibli
  • 44 x Ayrton Bora
  • 152 x Clay Paky Sharpy Wash
  • 116 x Clay Paky SharpyPlus
  • 72 x Clay Paky Unico
  • 66 x Clay Paky Axcor 600
  • 376 x DTS Katana
  • 48 x DTS Synergy
  • 210 x ETC Source 4 LED 2, Daylight HD
  • 106  x GLP X4 Bar 20
  • 30 x GLP JDC-1
  • 28 x Goldpix 7×7 LED Matrix
  • 116 x Robe BMFL WashBeam
  • 87 x Robe BMFL Spot
  • 78 x Robe MegaPointe
  • 94 x SGM Q7
  • 17 x LC Innovation Spotdrive Remote Followspot Control
  • 8 x LITECOM Camera Ringlite, DMX Bi Colour
  • 9 x LITECOM Camera Mini Panel DMX Bi Colour
  • 8 x LITECOM Camera Panel DMX Bi Colour
  • 4 x MA Lighting MA2 Full size
  • 13 x MA Lighting MA2 Light
  • 22 x MA Lighting NPC
  • 22 x MA Lighting 8 port node
  • 4 x MA Lighting 8 port node onPC

2018 from Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal

Final: 12 May 2018

First year for a while with no giant LED video wall at the rear of the stage.

Information from M-M-PR blog:

  • 14 lighting desks
  • 152 000 control parameters
  • 300 active DMX universes
  • 2632 lighting fixtures (including…)
    • 36 Portman P1 Retro Lamp
    • 12 Portman P3 PIX3L
  • 24 days of pre-programming for the lighting designer and 6 operators
  • 88024 metres of cable
  • 3172 main power circuit breakers for lights
  • 24 Follow spots controlled by ROBE RoboSpot Followspot system
  • Prototype of GLP KV-N Arc strobe
  • Back wall has 351 Ayrton Magicpanel FX

2017 from Kyiv, Ukraine

9, 11 & 13 May 2017

Equipment List
(89000 Parameters and 9856 Fixtures)

Light Designer: Jerry Appelt

Light

  • 68 x PRG Best Boy HP2
  • 160 x CP Scenius Unico
  • 56 x PRG Best Boy Wash Blade
  • 55 x PRG Best Boy Wash
  • 130 x PRG Icon Edge
  • 132 x Elation Platinum FLX
  • 70 x Elation Platinum Seven
  • 142 x Elation Platinum 1200 Wash
  • 20 x GLP A4 Bar 20
  • 23 x GLP JDC-1
  • 88 x Ayrton Magic Panel FX
  • 60 x SGM Q7 RGB
  • 36 x SGM Q7 W
  • 36 x SGM P2 110x Elation Sixbar 1000 RGBAWUV
  • 37 x Robe BMFL Wash/Beam
  • 52 x Martin MAC2000 Wash XB
  • 24 x Expolite TourLED CM42
  • 351 x Elation Paladin
  • 78x ETC S4 CE LED Series2 Daylight HD 15°-30° Zoom
  • 4x PRG Ground Control Follow LongThrow
  • 14x PRG Ground Control Follow BadBoy
  • 8x LitePanel MiniPlus daylight, wireless control
  • 6x RingLite DMX-control
  • 12x Arri Broadcaster DMX
  • 48x Fresnel 500W/650W
  • 20x Fresnel 1000W
  • 6x MDG ATMe, DMX-controlled + extra Fan
  • 4x Fog Smoke Factory CaptainD

FOH lighting

  • 12x Robe pickle patt

Light Control and Parameters

  • 1 GrandMA2 Light as a System Desk on the Front of House
  • 1 GrandMA2 Light as a System Desk inside of The Arena
  • 1 GrandMA2 light as a Trigger Console at the Sound Department (running out of Session)
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Keylights
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Keylight
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize as Backup for Keylight
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Main operator
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize as Backup for Showlight
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Audience lights
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Video Operator
  • 1 GrandMA2 Fullsize Video Backup
  • 1 GrandMA2 Light Delegation Specials
  • 4 GrandMA2 Fader Wings For Special Faders
  • 2 OnPC Fader Wings with a Running OnPc sending DMX in to Control Camera Lights
  • 3 Grand MA3D running for the visualisation
  • 20 NPU/Network Processing Unit active in the Session
  • 9 NPU/Network Processing Backup out of the Session but plugged in the Network
  • 28 Nodes (8port Nodes)

Video

  • 16x Hippotizer V4 Boreals
  • 9x Active
  • 7x Backup
  • 35x Active HD Outputs
  • 168x Video Layers Over 72 Million Pixels
  • 3x 33×33 Lightware Matrixes
  • 2x Avitech Titan 9000 Multiviewers
  • controlled by FIX8Group / Trust.
  • Rental /Beacon

Power

  • Total: 38,05km of cable
  • 29km single core cable
  • 6,7 km multi core cable
  • 660 yellow jackets
  • Lighting needs 854 000 watts
 

Behind the Scenes 2017

2016 from Stockholm, Sweden

Live Design article about the technical production: http://livedesignonline.com/eurovision-song-contest-2016/eurovision-fun-facts-2016-technical-production

Equipment List

ADJ Matrix Dotz 16 x 30
Ayrton Magic Dot -R x 90
BBS Area x 14
BBS Pipeline x 5
Chromlec Elidy Big x 21
Clay Paky Mythos x 120
Clay Paky Scenius x 58
Clay Paky Sharpy x 308
Clay Paky Sharpy Wash x 166
Clay Paky Stormy x 5
GrandMA2 Light x 11
GrandMA2 Full x 2
Hes Uno x 102
Martin Atomic LED / Atomic Colours x 105
Martin Mac Aura x 173
Martin VDO 10 Spectron 32 x 60
Robe BMFL Blade x 88
Robe BMFL Spot x 6
Robert Juliat Lancelot x 8
SGM P5 x 200
Tourpro Lightsky Aquabeam x 67
Vari*Lite 3500 Wash x 40

2015 from Vienna, Austria

Lighting Tests:

Clay Paky lighting equipment: Mythos, Sharpy Wash 330, A.leda B-EYE, Stormy
Lighting Designer: Al Gurdon
Set Designer: Florian Wieder
Rental company: Production Resource Group (PRG: Live)
PRG: UK Head of Event Services: Richard Gorrod

Pyrotechnic Effects:

Props and Scene Changes:

2014 from Copenhagen, Denmark

Information from technicians posting on Facebook, with many thanks

VENUE

The event was held in a former shipyard called the B&W Hallerne on the Refshaleøen which is a small island just off Copenhagen.
Venue website: http://www.bwgrandballroom.dk/bwgrandballroom/English.html
Google Maps: Venue location
Virtual tour: Inside the venue in the industrial days (Google Maps)

LIGHTING

260 Dimmers
52 RGB LED strips (some 100 meters..)
4 ETC Source4 LED
24 ClayPaky Alpha Beam 1500
192 ClayPaky Sharpy Wash 330
248 GLP Impression X4
199 Martin Atomic 3000 Color
56 Martin Mac 2000 Wash XB
192 Martin Rush MH3 Beam
26 Martin Quantum Wash
210 Martin Viper Profile
142 PRG BadBoy CMY Spot
376 SGM Sixpack SP-6
736 ShowTec Sunstrip Active (10 ch)
29 Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot
48 Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash
188 Vari-Lite VL5 (mode 5)
Total 2982 fixtures.

16 NPUs and 8 8Port nodes in 5 dimmer-cities
Network Distribution 16 Luminex Gigacore on fibernetwork
About 160 DMX splitters, MA and Luminex

3 Hippos send 43 Universes back into the system via artnet for mapping of the Sunstrips, Atomics and Sixpacks.

50,000 DMX512 channels, 97 DMX universes, 3000 fixtures, 1700 movingheads
8MPU’s
4 grandMA 2 full size

SOUND

The performers’ vocals are all live – the musicians play their instruments, but the audio is not broadcast (or amplified) – the logistics of managing the wide variety of instruments and cable permutations in a fast-moving live TV production mean that it’s not possible.
29 x L’acoustics K1
20 x L’acoustics K1-SB
42 x L’acoustics K2
83 x L’acoustics Kara
22 x L’acoustics SB18
75 x L’acoustics LA8 Amp
7 x L’acoustics LA4X Amp
Monitor / Rehearsel
3 x Midas XL8 Console
5 x Midas DL431 Input Splitter Unit 24Ch Analog
16 x Midas DL451 Modular I/O Unit 12Ch
15 x Midas DL442 Analog Output Card 8ch for DL451
33 x Midas DL452 AES/EBU Card 8/8 for DL451
8 x Klark Teknik DN9650, AES50 to MADI 64ch
200 x Shure SE535 InEar
Wireless + split
1 x Digico SD10
15 x Sonifex RB-AES4X3
FOH
2 x Digico SD7
4 x Digico SD Rack

VIDEO

Video back wall is 110m long
LED floor is a new touch-sensitive video surface, 8mm thick
16 x Barco HDQ-2K40 for the upper rows of the cube
16 x Barco HDX-W18 for the bottom row of the cube
~1200m2 of Kindwin 30mm Spider LED for backdrop
4 x Barco SLM R12 for end of catwalks
4 x Barco SLM R12 for portrait oriented screens on columns in audience
Custom made Martin fixtures on all facets of the cube structure
D3 media servers

For audience screens:
A mix of Panasonic PT-DZ21K and PT-DZ13K

POWER

5MW from the local grid, an additional 10MW from generators
50 km Powerlock cable and 275+ km of other power cables

SUPPLIERS

MANUFACTURERS

Eurovision Steadicam – 2009


Best of Eurovision


Past Eurovision venues:

2016: Stockholm, Sweden (The Globe Arena, which was completed in 1989, already hosted the Eurovision Song Contest before, back in 2000. The venue’s regular capacity is between 14,000 and 16,000 spectators)
2015: Vienna (Wiener Stadthalle)
2014: Denmark (Copenhagen, B&W Hallerne)
2013: Sweden (Malmö Arena)
2012: Azerbaijan (Baku, Baku Crystal Hall)
2011: Germany (Düsseldorf, Esprit Arena)
2010: Norway (Oslo, Telenor Arena)
2009: Russia (Moscow, Olympic Indoor Arena)
(to be confirmed: “The set for the Eurovision Finale in Moscow in 2009 utilised 30 percent of the world’s supply of LED screens”)
2008: Serbia (Belgrade, Belgrade Arena)
2007: Finland (Helsinki, Hartwall Arena)
2006: Greece (Athens, Olympic Indoor Hall)
2005: Ukraine (Kiev, Sport Palace)
2004: Turkey (Istanbul, Abdi İpekçi Arena)
2003: Latvia (Riga, Skonto Hall)
2002: Estonia (Tallinn, Saku Suurhall)
2001: Denmark (Copenhagen, Parken Stadium)
2000: Sweden (Stockholm, Stockholm Globe Arena)
1999: Israel (Jerusalem, International Convention Centre)
1998: UK (Birmingham, National Indoor Arena)
1997: Ireland (Dublin, Point Theatre)
1996: Norway (Oslo, Oslo Spektrum)
1995: Ireland (Dublin, Point Theatre)
1994: Ireland (Dublin, Point Theatre)
1993: Ireland (Millstreet, Green Glens Arena)
1992: Sweden (Malmö Isstadion)
1991: Italy (Rome, Studio 15 di Cinecittà)
1990: Yugoslavia (Zagreb, Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Centre)
1989: Switzerland (Lausanne, Palais de Beaulieu)
1988: Ireland (Dublin, RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion)
1987: Belgium (Brussels, Centenary Palace)
1986: Norway (Bergen, Grieghallen)
1985: Sweden (Gothenburg, Scandinavium)
1984: Luxembourg (Luxembourg City, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg)
1983: Germany (Munich, Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle)
1982: UK (Harrogate, Harrogate International Centre)
1981: Ireland (Dublin, RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion)
1980: Netherlands (The Hague, Nederlands Congresgebouw)
1979: Israel (Jerusalem, International Convention Centre)
1978: France (Paris, Palais des Congres)
1977: UK (London, Wembley Conference Centre)
1976: Netherlands (The Hague, Nederlands Congresgebouw)
1975: Sweden (Stockholm, Stockholm International Fairs)
1974: UK (Brighton, Brighton Dome)
1973: Luxembourg (Luxembourg City, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg)
1972: UK (Edinburgh, Usher Hall)
1971: Ireland (Dublin, Gaiety Theatre)


Scene Around Six: Eurovision (April 1971)
[External Website]
From BBC Rewind

1970: Netherlands (Amsterdam, RAI Congrescentrum)
1969: Spain (Madrid, Teatro Real)
1968: UK (London, Royal Albert Hall)
1967: Austria (Vienna, Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg)
1966: Luxembourg (Luxemboug City, Villa Louvigny)
1965: Italy (Naples, Sala di Concerto della RAI)
1964: Denmark (Copenhagen, Tivolis Koncertsal)
1963: UK (London, BBC Television Centre)
1962: Luxembourg (Luxemboug City, Villa Louvigny)
1961: France (Cannes, Palais des Festivals)
1960: UK (London, Royal Festival Hall)
1959: France (Cannes, Palais des Festivals)
1958: Netherlands (Hilversum, AVRO Studio)
1957: Germany (Frankfurt-am-Main, Großer Sendesaal)
1956: Switzerland (Lugano, Teatro Kursaal)