So 2022.....another cracking year with peak viewers in the UK of 10.8 million. It averaged 8.9 million viewers.
So good to see our man Sam Ryder doing so well and a very worthy runner up....Missed his performance? See it here.
This year EBU have not been nearly as forthcoming with their tech info about the event.
Last year I found lots more info for this blog.
VIDEO
Some video clips shot by @ParkerDavidJ on Twitter and sent to me. I have edited them.
BROADCAST
This year the contest was broadcast in 4K for first time. Italian broadcaster (Rai) offered the UHD feed to all the other broadcasters, but only TVP and NOS decided to broadcast in UHD because it's exclusively provided with adverts.
Outside broadcast facilities were provided again by NEP Sweden and NEP Netherlands, both sending one of their UHD Trucks. You can watch the complete show here.
VISION MIXING
CuePilot was again providing the switching automation, operated by timecode to sync with lighting and pyro.
Read more about how this works on my blog from last year.
This year there were eighty different users in the one project. Fifty Cue App devices with iPad Mini the favoured choice.
CAMERAS
Like last year NEP used 24 cameras. These were Grass Valley LDX 86n and C86n. They have been the cameras of choice for the contest since 2018, and with its 4K upgrade, remains the workhorse of the contest. A lot of the cameras had Canon Digisuper box lenses.
There are always a few Steadicam ops on the show and this year Irene Castrogiovanni became the first female Steadicam operator on Eurovision.
The aerial camera is a 2D cable system from Opertec and their Active Magna Head.
OperTec made 3 rails systems out of 2, so they split their double-headed Active Dolly in two. Stage rail dollies have not been used since 2014.
In 2022 the cranes were telescoping and both Moviebird 50XL's, supplied and operated by Opertec, both with Active Head and Active Head Milli.
LIGHTING
A total of 2,821 lights were used this year. Over 1000 more than last year. Imagine the electricity bill?
Fixtures were supplied by Clay Paky, Ayrton Digital, Robe, DTS, and GLP. 40 Ayrton MagicBlade's were rigged on the back of the arches.
There's a whopping 5.8km of LED strip lighting being used.
FollowSpots are remote again. They used Robe BMFL Follow Spot controlled by Robe RoboSpot. Last year they used a 'Follow-Me' system but not this year. It's one person per light operation.
AUDIO
Ten Digico SD7 audio desks were used on the show.
Romania is one of very few artists this year using a DPA 4088 headset mic, with almost every other act sticking with the DPA 4018 Handhelds.
In Ear Dress and test is done pre performance, and the settings file is sent directly to the pre-stage area, where it's checked again, and then to the show desk.
CONNECTION ISSUES
I spotted three live link failures during the results section on one night. This is more than we have seen in 15 years.
STAGING
Water returned to Eurovision as a set piece for the first time since 2014. They used a closed loop system by Speck and Gerit which was driven by two very large pumps.
Switzerland is one of the very few countries using projection this year c/o Panasonic PT series units, 2 stacks on either side of the arena.
Check out this great video from Eurovision Alex of the stage being built.
GENERAL
Props get two doors either side of the stage; props come on to the stage camera right, and leave on camera left (below). The prop store itself is one level down from the stage. Just look at the back of that LED wall.
150 tonnes of equipment are in the roof for Eurovision this year, including 440 speakers, 4km of audio cable, all spread across 1.8km of truss held across 450 rigging points.
Intercom was provided by Riedel, as it has been for well over 10 years, with Artist and Mediornet.
Not everything you see is natural. Eurovision needs to ensure the audience look engaged. So if you see everyone waving their phones with torches on during a ballad that’s because the monitors told them to.
And lastly, let us not forget that hedge in the green room! All 380 metres of it....
MISSED SOMETHING? SOMETHING YOU CAN ADD? PLEASE EMAIL ME.
DISCLAIMER
I did not work on the show. I am just a fan. All the info above is available in various places in the public domain. @AtPeterHayes on Twitter has collated the lions share of this and inspired me to compile it as a blog to make it easier for people to view.
#Eurovision #Eurovision2022 #EBU #SamRyder #BehindTheScenes #BtS #NEP #NEPSweden #OutsideBroadcast #CuePilot #GrassValley #IreneCastrogiovanni #Opertec #MovieBird #SpeckandGerit
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