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Eurovision 2024: Technical fun facts about the stage in Malmö Arena!

In a few days, it will be Sweden‘s 7th time to host the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Stockholm in 1975, 2000 and 2016, in Gothenburg in 1985, and in Malmö in 1992, 2013 and 2024.

Here are some technical fun facts about this year’s Eurovision stage, as provided by the SVT Communications Team:

Cameras & Broadcast

  • 26 cameras used for the Broadcast

Of those 26 cameras:

  • 4 are mounted on a Rail
  • 2 are used on Telescopic Cranes
  • 7 Wireless Cameras (5 Stedicam, 2 Handheld)
  • 2 Aerial systems, 1 is a 2D camera system and 1 is a Drop camera system (top shot).
  • 2 identical OB-vans + a container village with all broadcast related built in.
  • LiveEdit is used as ACS system (Automated Camera Scripting). It is a system that is programmed to operate the vision mixer automatically, runned by time code from the music track. It also cues each camera operator before their shot.

Communication

  • We are using over 400 radios to communicate on site.
  • Over 60 radio channels (both analogue and digital) are used.
  • On top of that we also use over 200 intercom panels, both stationary and wireless.
  • The IT set up contain 110 WiFi access points and 82 network switches. And only the IT use over 8,2 km off signal cables

Rigging

  • 196 variable speed hoist is used to position and move most of the lighting and LED element in the design.
  • 204 tons of technical gear is suspended from the arena ceiling.
  • 3,5 km of truss

Lighting

  • 2168 Lighting fixtures. All lighting fixtures have a LED or laser source.
  • 4 weeks of pre-programming is needed.

Video

  • There’s about 1 000 square meters of LED screen in and over the set.
  • Stage floor LED is 186m2
  • 5 LED video cubes are 460m2
  • 340m2 LED screen
  • 10 Media servers runs video content on all LED screens.

Sound

  • 68 speakers
  • 56 microphones
  • 9 sound desks
  • 3 different sound mixes are done IEM (in ear monitor) for the artists, PA for the audience onsite and the broadcast mix (for the TV-audience).

Stage management team

  • There is a six person stage management team. To assist them there is an additional stage crew of 36 people. They will have 55 SECONDS to move each prop into perfect position on stage while at the same time, rolling another prop off the stage. These movements are carefully choreographed and rehearsed, just like everything else in this show.

General

  • It requires in total about 230 people to operate the Eurovision broadcast, among them there are:
    • 3 Multicamera Directors
    • 40 camera operators including crane swingers, focus pullers, 2D cam pilot etc.
    • 6 operators for lighting & 2 for video
    • There are 8-9000 tickets for each show, sold to ticketholders from more than 80 countries.
    • The production team is on site 46 days in total, including the set up and dismantle.
    • We have about 350 people working on site right now and this number will grow to about 1500 in total during the broadcast week.
    • 1100 accredited media are expected from about 60 countries around the World.

You can watch the Eurovision stage in all its glory at the video down below:

Special thanks to Madeleine Sinding-Larsen, Head of Communications of Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and SVT for the invite!

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to be held this May in Malmö, Sweden!

Source: SVT
Photo: Andreas Papayiannakis/Eurovisionfun

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Eurovision 2024: The Malmö Arena stage just got revealed!

Andreas Papayiannakis and EurovisionFun are reporting live from Malmö, got invited at the Stage Reveal event that took place earlier today at 14:00 CET and got the chance to have a first glimpse of the stage in full operation.

Today, the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is unveiled, and it is a well-qualified gang that is behind this year’s sparkling stage experience in Eurovision this year. It’s about the stage, lighting design and specially written music that will lift the competition and the entire TV show into a feast for eyes and ears – both for the audience on site and for TV viewers around the world.

 

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Florian Wieder – Production Designer
Florian Wieder is based in Los Angeles and Munich. Over the past 30 years, he has developed the creative and visual concepts for several large-scale shows, concerts, tours, ceremonies, music and television productions worldwide. Florian has worked with artists such as Beyonce, Adele, Jennifer Lopez, Robbie Williams, U2, Lady Gaga, Rammstein. He was a designer and creative producer for seven MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), 12 MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) and has developed the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since 2011. In 2022, he designed the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. For the MTV VMAs, he was awarded a Primetime Emmy/Best Production Design.

Fredrik Stormby – Light and Screen Content Designer
With almost 25 years of experience, Fredrik Stormby has worked with concerts, theatre, corporate events and television productions. His latest engagements span several roles in projects such as ABBA Voyage, Melodifestivalen, Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour and Eurovision Song Contest 2013, 2016 and with Loreen 2023. Fredrik is one of the founders of Green Wall Designs, a creative studio specializing in lighting, stage and screen content, based in Stockholm. He takes a holistic approach to production design, seamlessly integrating light, video, and scenographic elements.

Eirik Røland and Johan Nilsson – composers for this year’s musical identity
As a duo, Eirik Røland and Johan Nilsson have collaborated since 2016 to produce music for games, television and other media. Previous notable work includes RAGE 2 (gerAAA games) and American Song Contest (NBC). When asked what their specialties are, they answer that it is about exploring and finding the soul and identity in something and touching and conveying a message to the listener. They specialize in composing adaptive music with the technology that this entails. The adaptive music leads to seamless transitions and in the Eurovision Song Contest it provides opportunities to create a soundscape that contributes to a more exciting voting. The duo expresses:

“The music for Eurovision is a mix of energetic dance music, modern film music with big EDM sounds and a touch of Nordic melodies and timbres. Extra fun is that parts of the music will be adaptive, which is the first time ever for Eurovision.

Special thanks to Madeleine Sinding-Larsen, Head of Communications of Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and SVT for the invite!

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to be held this May in Malmö, Sweden!

Source: media.melodifestivalen.se/SVT
Photo: Andreas Papayiannakis/Eurovisionfun

Follow us in all our social media, so that you wont miss a thing of what’s happening in Malmö:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eurovision 2023: King Charles and the Queen Consort revealed the stage of the contest!

In Liverpool -the host city of Eurovision 2023- , today the royal couple of the United Kingdom attend to events that are related to the Eurovision Song Contest. One of them was the unveiling of the stage, which is ready to welcome in a few days the 37 participants of this year’s contest for the first technical rehearsals.

The stage of Eurovision 2023 has already taken shape, while these days the stand-in rehearsals are also taking place, so that everything is ready for the technical rehearsals and according to the plans that the organizers have already received from the missions of 37 countries competing this year.

The royal couple will also tour the M&S Arena. They will meet the creative team, the presenters of the contest and this year’s British contestant, Mae Muller.

The BBC has revealed via Twitter the moment that the royal couple flip the switch and the Eurovision stage comes to life oficially for the first time. The stage is flooded with light and glitter.

https://twitter.com/bbcmerseyside/status/1651206498955976705?s=20

It’s the first time we’ve seen this year’s stage in action, giving us a small taste of what it’s capable of, which we will be looking at in more detail in the next days.

The royal family are heavily involved in Eurovision 2023, as the contest come to British soil for the first time after 25 years with the last time taking place in 1998 in Birmingham.

Now, Eurovision 2023 takes place in Liverpool following Sam Ryder’s 2nd place in Eurovision 2022. The winner was Ukraine but due to the war, Ukraine wasn’t able to host.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news regarding Eurovision 2023!

 

 

Eurovision 2023: King Charles and Queen consort to reveal Eurovision stage!

Their majesties King Charles and the Queen consort will be in Liverpool on April 26.  During their stay they will visit the M&S Arena facilities, where the Eurovision Song Contest will be held.  During their special visit, the king and the queen will unveil the stage, which will be ready by then.

Marking the first Eurovision contest to be held in the United Kingdom in twenty-five years, the King and Queen of the United Kingdom will be in Liverpool on April 26th to attend events related to the contest.  According to the official statement:

Their majesties will reveal this year’s stage and tour the M&S Arena, meeting the creative team, presenters and this year’s UK contestant Mae Muller.

After a visit to the arena, they will also visit Liverpool Central Library to mark the twinning of the library with the Regional Science Library in Odessa, Ukraine.  King Charles will unveil a twinning monument with the city of Odessa, in a live broadcast between the two cities.

This is not the first time that the royal family of a host country has attended the Eurovision Song Contest. As fans may remember, members of the Danish royal family, Prince Frederik and Princess Mary attended the 2014 Eurovision final in Copenhagen.  Also in 2010, Princess Mette-Marit and Marius Borg Høiby of the Norwegian royal family were present in Oslo.  In 2021 King Willem visited the stadium where the competition would take place to oversee the preparations.  In fact we can go back as far as 1986, when Crown Prince Harald, Crown Princess Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise and Prince Haakon Magnus attended the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 in Bergen, Norway.

As you can see, the Eurovision Song Contest has a significant importance in many countries apart from being a music festival.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more updates about Eurovision 2023!