Eurovision 2023 technology: more spectacular than innovation

LED screens once again dominate the staging of Eurovision 2023, a contest that either by its very nature or due to a lack on the part of the delegations, bets all its spectacularity and not so much on innovative approaches in its broadcast production.

Eurovision 2023 returns with a production in which the BBC has made available to the UER an important arsenal of technical solutions. All with the aim of transforming the Liverpool Arena on the ideal set for the veteran musical contest, which will add 8 hours of live television that a potential audience of 160 million viewers will be able to enjoy.

Los numbers they are significant. 600 rigging points, a 140-ton steel structure, nearly 13 kilometers of wiring for lighting, sound, video and special effects, a 950-square-meter main stage, 165,000 lighting control channels, 23,700 individual light sources, 2,500 robotic lights controlled by 9 consoles or 150 microphones account for the dimensions of an event considered by Kate Phillips, director of BBC unscripted, as “one of the biggest events the BBC has ever produced.

Engineering and Technology provides additional technical data on the event, in which the LED screens They have a leading role again. british firm Creative Technology is the provider of more than 220 square meters of screens with mobile capabilities, which are added to the more than 700 panels integrated into the floor of the main stage. In this regard, disguise will have an important role in the celebration of the event, since it will offer support throughout the event and has developed a customized solution to attend to the coordination of the visual assets of each performance. The audio of this production, carried out with the technical support of NEP, is 100% IP through the already standardized network Dante and will be offered by UER both in stereo and in 5.1 for those interested broadcasters. The postcards, recorded from 111 locations in the United Kingdom and Ukraine, take advantage of common technologies such as drones, and not as frequent as 360 cameras.

Apart from R&D tests that may possibly be discovered over the next few months, Eurovision 2023 continues to bet on a effective technology, although clearly conservative, in which concepts such as virtual production, augmented or extended reality pass by, while the standardization of the UHD keep waiting for your chance. The formula, in short, is perfected, but does it necessarily improve?

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