Disguise enables the first large-scale live broadcast running full ST 2110 for Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Disguise, for the sixth time played a major role in bringing the magic and visual spectacle of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 to a global audience. Appointed as an Official Technical Events Supplier, Disguise provided a full SMPTE ST 2110 workflow from the media server to the LED screens - making Eurovision 2024 the first large-scale live broadcast event to achieve this feat. 

The set-up saw the stage placed in the centre of the arena with separate LED backwalls and five moveable LED cubes hanging above the stage. Disguise fed the ST 2110 video outputs to the Panasonic Kairos, which was used as a multiviewer. The video output was then sent to the Megapixel Helios LED processor using its newly released 100Gb input module to output to 1,000 square metres of ROE Visual LED. Network distribution was handled by Arista switches, and synchronisation was managed by Brainstorm.

The production team had just 55 seconds to re-set the stage with unique lighting and screen content for each of the 37 acts, designed by Green Wall Designs. Disguise drove video playback across the stage. The set-up also featured a total of 2,168 lighting fixtures, each with their own LED or laser light source, imported into Disguise’s Designer software and pixel mapped and output the content to the LED strips and lighting fixtures across 900 DMX universes. 

Disguise worked with the official event supplier, Creative Technology Sweden, to deliver a system comprising ten Disguise GX 3 machines (one Director, four actors and four understudy machines) all equipped with 16 IP-VFC cards. The system was split across two separate red and blue networks for redundancy, with the IP-VFC supporting SMPTE 2022-7 seamless protection switching.

The VFC technology is Disguise’s patented technology that enables users to swap outputs from a Disguise media server with minimal latency to whichever format is required by production. It also ensures that video latency within the video system is kept to a minimum. 

Disguise also provided dedicated on-site support during pre-production and critical production phases.

“As always, Eurovision pushes the limits on technology, and this time we made huge progress with establishing ST2110 as the future standard in live events. We could not have achieved this without the continuous support from the Disguise team onsite. IP over Video is proving itself to be a futureproof way of building our infrastructure in a flexible and cost effective way, making it possible to build a truly redundant system without any single point of failure,” said Niclas Ljung, Chief Technology Office at Creative Technology Sweden.

“The Eurovision Song Contest has set many new standards over the years, but few editions have involved as many world records and new highs as Eurovision 2024. Embracing new technologies and doing things bigger and bolder has always been one of my biggest motivations for returning to this show year after year. Disguise has been a trusted technology partner to the project for many years and it would have been impossible to bring ST2110 to the table without them. Eurovision is the obvious show to establish ST2110 as the future standard, and I would like to thank the entire Disguise team for their passion and support which made this possible,” said Ola Melzig, Senior Technical Director for the show.

“We have had the pleasure and privilege of working on the Eurovision Song Contest for six years, and every year tops the last in terms of scale, technical ingenuity and, above all, spectacle. The creativity and technical talent required to successfully mount such a large-scale broadcast event is incredible. We are very proud of our partnership with the EBU and Creative Technology and can only imagine what we will achieve together in the future,” said Peter Kirkup, Solutions and Innovation Director at Disguise.

Credits

Media servers, LED and video distribution provided by Creative Technology (CT) Sweden

Lighting and Screen Content Designer - Fredrik Stormby from Green Wall Designs

Production Designer - Florian Wieder

Head of Video - Hans Cromheecke 

Senior Technical Director - Ola Melzig

Screens Director & Lead Disguise Programmer - Joe Lott

Disguise Programmer - Glenn Leyser

IP Specialists - Gustav Rahmquist, Sam Hatcher, Tom Copus

Media Server Specialists - Rune Ratting, Magnus Lewren, Fredrik Austrin

CT Key Account Manager - Niclas Ljung

CT On site manager - Karl Wigenius

Photos - Ralph Larmann