BTS: FIFA World Cup 2026

IBC

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Time-zone differences, travel demands, and the geographic spread of host cities have forced FIFA’s host broadcast and rights holders the BBC to rethink traditional production approaches.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup nears kick-off, FIFA’s Host Broadcast Production division is confronting what may be the most ambitious live sports production ever attempted. With 16 venues spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — and 104 matches across a 39-day tournament — the scale of the operation is forcing a fundamental rethink of traditional World Cup workflows. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has likened the endeavour to “104 Super Bowls” which six billion fans are expected to watch at home.

At the centre of that transformation is a highly centralised production model built around the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Dallas, which FIFA Host Broadcast Production Head Oscar Sanchez describes as the “17th venue” of the tournament.

“We’ve been working on this project for over two years,” Sanchez explained at NAB in April. “The FIFA World Cup 2026 is humongous. I genuinely haven’t found another adjective for it. This is the largest project we have ever tackled.”

Sanchez should know. He has produced over 10,000 football matches worldwide in a 25 year career which has seen him contributed to six FIFA World Cups as a broadcaster or as part of the host broadcast team and a decade at Concacaf’s overseeing the broadcast of tournaments such as the Copa América Centenario, for which he won a Sports Emmy.

“Obviously, cost matters,” he says. “Centralisation saves a lot of money in travel and logistics. The less we need to travel, the lower the operational risk. No flight delays, no weather disruptions, no logistical issues. But the bigger factor is consistency.”

Valuable insights were learned during the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States last summer especially around staffing, logistics, and evaluating new directors. Working in US venues with local crews gave FIFA and production partner Host Broadcast Services (HBS) a clearer understanding of available talent, including replay and camera operators.

This includes deploying 16 dedicated production teams, one for each venue across the three countries, rather than rotating a smaller number of crews around the tournament. They are supported by seven centralised replay operations teams working from Dallas.

Dallas works well because it’s one of the few locations from which you can reach virtually every World Cup venue within about three hours.

The IBC is the technical heart of the tournament and the operational backbone for replay, graphics, camera shading, VAR, data processing, and stadium entertainment workflows. More than 2,000 media partner personnel are expected onsite, alongside FIFA’s own production and technology teams.

At venue level, however, the production footprint remains substantial. Each stadium will support around 50 commentary positions alongside a complex routing infrastructure capable of serving approximately 50 media partners per match.

While the core world feed philosophy remains familiar - football is still primarily directed through the main Camera One - digital production demands have transformed the scale of content creation surrounding each game.

“We’re producing six feeds per match, plus isolated feeds and over 10,000 hours of additional content and shoulder programming,” Sanchez explains. “The greater challenge now is helping broadcasters efficiently locate and curate content quickly.”

 Crew composition and local integration

Historically, World Cups have used 6-8 core production teams, mostly European. FIFA intentionally broadened the talent pool to include directors and crews from South America, the US, Mexico, Australia, and beyond.

“We wanted to open more opportunities to people who live, breathe and enjoy football,” Sanchez explains. “Nobody can say that a country like Argentina, the world champion, doesn’t live and breathe football.”

The Club World Cup proved particularly valuable in evaluating how those newer directors handled the pressure of a FIFA event.

“Anybody can direct a football match,” Sanchez says. “But when you realise you are going to a FIFA World Cup with 50 cameras and an audience that could reach a billion people, we need to go beyond technical knowledge. We need to analyse who is mentally ready to take on this challenge.”

Directors are encouraged to bring their trusted core team members (vision mixers, replay producers, etc.) with different editorial teams bringing slightly different directing styles. For example, South American directors often focus heavily on coaches, while European directors prioritise players. French directors may favour more artistic ultra‑slow‑motion shots.

To maintain consistency FIFA and HBS will continue using extensive editorial guidelines and a quality-control (QC) operation. The QC team provides live feedback for directors and produces reports for every match and every multi‑feed (training, press conferences, etc.).

EVS’ AI-enabled XtraMotion will also be used to create super slow-motion content from any camera. The latest version includes a Cinematic effect that simulates a shallow depth of field and again can be applied to any standard footage. Two replay specialists are producing a guide for HBS’ EVS ops as to how to consistently apply the techniques. Operators can trigger the application of the chosen effect directly from the LSM-VIA remote controller, with a single click on a shortcut button.

The camera plan

All 104 matches will receive premium coverage with 45 cameras, including Pole cams, Cable cams, Ultra‑motion and super‑slow‑motion, Cine‑style cameras, RefCam, 360° cameras and aerial/drone coverage (subject to strict US/Canada/Mexico regulations)

FPV drones were tested previously but face regulatory and insurance challenges. Their use remains under evaluation.

For the Round of 32, additional ultra‑motion cameras and isolated player cams will be added.

The camera plan is not designed solely around broadcast but to create content for every platform and every audience. Indeed, the most downloaded shot from Qatar 2022 was a Lionel Messi celebration which was shot on an iPhone.

The RefCam (called Referee View), developed internally by FIFA’s Football Technology & Innovation team, was considered a major success at the Club World Cup. It is not part of the ISO feeds for rights‑holders but is included in the host broadcast and will be used sparingly to maintain impact. It features AI-enabled image stabilisation to reduce motion blur.

Signal workflow

A clean world feed is produced from every stadium, sent back to Dallas where graphics are added and for onward distribution.

All camera feeds travel via Verizon’s contribution network to the IBC where centralised replay and graphics are produced.

Feeds are distributed via IP (using SRT) and satellite. For the first time, remote partners can access the same router as those physically at the IBC.

Fifa’s official post‑production hub which will handle editing for the tournament is not in Dallas, or Texas or even in the United States. It’s in London principally to leverage the large UK pool of talent experienced at fast turnaround matchday edits. It’s also another way for HBS to reduce travel costs.

Centralised replay & graphics

Replay operators will be based at the IBC, rather than stadiums (with on‑site backups for redundancy). This allows FIFA to assemble the world’s best operators in one location, improving consistency and quality. These teams are organised into language clusters (English, Spanish, French/German).

Graphics operations are also centralised and produced by specialists from AE Live.

Commentary strategy

With 104 matches, English‑language broadcasters will be stretched, increasing reliance on host commentary. FIFA is fielding 32 commentators (16 play‑by‑play, 16 analysts), with a more global, less English-centric mix than in past tournaments.

Their commentary is now used across highlights, clips, social media, and digital content not just live broadcasts.

3D Avatars for VAR

Lenovo’s sponsorship of the event as Official Technology Partner has yielded a number of innovations. These include AI-enabled 3D player avatars for integration into match broadcasts during semi-automated offside technology replays.

The system was tested at last year’s FIFA Intercontinental Cup staged in Qatar.  Before the start of World Cup 2026, each player’s body was scanned in process that took just 1 second. The scans form the basis of the avatars which are unique in appearance, dimensions and proportions which Lenovo says will provide a further data source for player tracking and VAR officiating.
Previously, VAR replays were generated solely using player tracking data. FIFA can use avatars to show a “visually matching” image of the player.

“The output will depict the player more accurately for fans watching in the stadium and around the globe,” Lenovo said.

The Chinese tech provider has also helped deliver an AI-powered data analytics tool. Football AI Pro is available to all coaches, players and analysts of all 48 teams at the World Cup and has been trained on “hundreds of millions” of FIFA-owned and -organised football data points to generate insights in text, video, graphs and 3D visualisations.

It is being pitched as a means to level the analytics playing field since it is available to newbie national sides Curaçao and Cabo Verde as well as the European and South American elite.

BBC opts for home advantage

The FIFA World Cup offers rights holders a chance to rethink how major tournaments are presented in an era shaped by sustainability, cost pressures, and increasingly sophisticated XR technologies.

The BBC is moving away from traditional green-screen presentation toward a fully LED-based virtual production environment at Dock10 in MediaCity. The project reflects wider industry trends toward hybrid production models.

While the BBC will still deploy teams on location, particularly for the latter stages of the tournament, much of the presentation output will originate from Salford.

“We’re still doing hybrid coverage,” explains BBC Sport design director John Murphy, “but the scale of the tournament and the realities of travel and sustainability mean this approach makes much more sense operationally.”

The broadcaster’s move builds on lessons learned during Euro 2024 coverage from Berlin, where the BBC successfully combined XR graphics with real-world scenery, including the iconic Brandenburg Gate backdrop. However, Murphy admitted that replicating that sense of realism inside a fully virtual studio presents a very different challenge.

“In Berlin, we had the advantage of a real location and were layering XR elements into it,” he explained. “This time we’re starting with a blank canvas, so the question becomes ‘how do you create something that still feels authentic?’”

The answer lies in a hybrid visual approach that combines LED volume technology, physical scenic elements, real-world imagery, AI-assisted processing, and Unreal Engine-style environments. Rather than attempting to recreate photorealistic cityscapes entirely through live-action video, the BBC is developing stylised virtual environments inspired by the architecture and atmosphere of World Cup host cities.

Murphy describes the goal as building “a space and a feeling” that reflects the cultural identity of the tournament’s host nations.

The production setup itself will feature four cameras, a jib, Mo-Sys camera tracking, LED walls, LED flooring, and HDR workflows throughout. The transition to HDR has proven particularly complex, with the BBC leaning on external expertise and technologies already proven in the American sports market.

Dock10 and Pixotope are central to the technical workflow, with the BBC also working alongside graphics provider AE Live and other specialist vendors. Perhaps the biggest lesson has been understanding just how many operational layers full LED virtual production introduces compared with traditional green-screen workflows.

“We probably went into it a little naively,” Murphy admits. “You quickly realise this is not just an extension of green-screen production. There are many more partnerships, technologies, and dependencies involved.”

Testing has reshaped key creative decisions. Early plans to use actual camera footage as virtual backgrounds proved problematic because of the precision required for parallax and perspective accuracy. The production pivoted toward more dynamic game-engine-generated environments built from processed still imagery and AI-enhanced assets.

 Importantly, the project is not being viewed internally as a one-off World Cup investment. The LED infrastructure is expected to be integrated into future football production workflows, creating a longer-term legacy for Match of the Day and other studio-based sports programming.

 

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Jean-Michel Jarre: treat artists as commercial partners not data suppliers

RedShark News

The French electronic music star evangelises use of AI in creative work but wants copyright rules in place

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Jean-Michel Jarre is perplexed at the creative industries’ luddite attitude to AI. Arguing that all technology is neutral until charged by human action, the electronic music pioneer claims AI is not a threat, or at least not only a threat.

“It can be one, especially regarding intellectual property, but above all, for me it’s the equivalent of a collaborator, a muse and an assistant,” he said at the World AI Film Festival (WAIFF) of which he is an ambassador. “AI can expand the boundaries of my imagination. That’s why I advocate so strongly for making people understand that we must not confuse the tool with its use. A paintbrush is neutral; it’s the person holding it who decides. And with AI, it’s exactly the same thing.”

The Rendez-Vous artist, now 77, has been using AI to create music and visuals for his concerts for a decade and prefers to think of AI as ‘augmented imagination’.

He expanded on this them at WAIFF in Cannes where his wife, the actor Gong Li, was president of the film festival.

“Ideas for a script or a film or music often appear mysteriously, from within us. But in reality our subconscious harvests from our analogue ‘big data,’ which is our memory, our culture, our environment, our family, even our children. All of that, gathered randomly, produces an idea. AI is not a category of creation in itself. It is simply an augmented way of using that source of inspiration.”

In which case, he acknowledged, all artists are thieves. “I steal everything I hear, everything I see, everything I watch. That’s what shapes an artist’s identity.”

Emotion in art comes from disobeying the rules he suggested. “Think of the greatest performers — Édith Piaf, David Bowie, Ray Charles. They often sing slightly out of tune or off the beat. That tiny deviation is what gives you goosebumps. It’s the creative power of disobedience.”

By extension he argued that creators can use AI to bend the rules. “Trying to extract something unexpected from it is our specificity. It allows us to give something back to [the machine] that is human and creative.”

The role of the creator becomes that of a curator of their own ideas, he contended. “Instead of choosing one path at a time, AI offers multiple possibilities simultaneously, which we can sort, combine, and prioritise. That fundamentally changes the creative process.”

Jarre claimed that music and cinema industries had grown conservative out of fear of innovation.

“Everyone stays in their lane and fears what might disturb them, which is paradoxical for creative work,” he said.

“When photography appeared, painters petitioned to have it banned, saying it would be the end of painting. When cinema appeared, it was seen as a threat to theatre.

“When I started in electronic music, I introduced it at the Paris Opera [in 1971], and the orchestra musicians unplugged the sound system in protest, saying electronic music would be the end of orchestras.

“I remember when people said synthesisers were cold and clinical and could never create music as well as acoustic instruments. But we forget the essential point that it’s not the orchestra or the tool that creates emotion. “It’s because we have invented the violin that Vivaldi existed. It’s because we invented electricity that we had Jimi Hendrix. And it’s because we are inventing a new learning AI model that new forms of art will be created in future.”

He was dismissive of the hyperbole around copyright theft saying that piracy has existed since the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer.

“We must not confuse the misuse of a tool with the tool itself. Fraudulent use of AI does not mean AI itself should be questioned.

“If you ask me whether the next Gainsbourg, or the next Tarantino is in danger, I would say no. What differentiates AI from an artist is that an artist transforms the past into something individual and unique. That cannot be replicated.”

On the other hand, Jarre - a former president of CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) - called for regulation and artist renumeration.

“The value of Generative AI companies today relies largely on human created content. So at some point, we must stop being treated merely as data suppliers and instead become full commercial partners,” he said.

The need to establish rules for AI is urgent, he added. “We need to bring together cinema, music, books, video games, literature, journalism and reach global agreements. I don’t believe we can apply traditional copyright philosophy anymore, simply because most algorithms can no longer identify the exact origin of their sources. It will be difficult to demand traditional copyright remuneration. We need a new model. That’s the challenge.”

Characterising AI’s current state as a “Wild West”, Jarre said rules would enable greater freedom not weaken it. “The difference between chaos and democracy is precisely rules.

“AI means democratisation. Just as music production became accessible from a bedroom twenty years ago, AI will allow people to make films at low cost. This will have a profound impact on emerging countries. Many young creators in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere struggle to produce work; soon they will be able to do so almost independently. That changes everything.

“And if tomorrow an AI‑generated work produces emotion, then perfect — that’s great. As long as intellectual property issues are resolved, there is no problem.”

Provocatively, WAIFF was held in Cannes and in the same Palais just a few weeks before the auteur-led 79th Cannes Film Festival. Jarre thinks one will soon outride the other.

“What we are witnessing here is the equivalent of the Lumière brothers’ The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat. Cannes began modestly with just a handful of people 79 years ago. WAIFF will take far less time to become a major global reference.”

Redefining Cinematic Creation - DJI Advertorial

interview and copy written for DJI in Screen Daily P24 Screen Dailies 

Since pioneering the gimbal camera category in 2015 and introducing the world’s first pocket-sized gimbal camera in 2018, DJI has continuously redefined how creators capture motion and tell stories. DJI is making its most visible move yet into the professional cinema space as it brings its new Osmo Pocket 4P camera to the Cannes Film Festival.

The decision to launch at Cannes reflects DJI’s growing heritage in professional production. The company has spent more than a decade building a presence in the film industry, with its technologies contributing to Oscar‑ and Emmy‑winning productions including F1: The Movie, Dune, and limited series Shōgun. It has also been awarded a technical Emmy.

With the Pocket 4P, DJI is spearheading a new era of cinematic excellence in handheld gimbal systems, where professional-grade filmmaking capabilities meet true pocket-sized portability.

Pocket 4P builds on a growing movement in which compact cameras are reshaping how stories are created and shared. Its Cannes debut highlights its potential to influence the future of cinematic vlogging, inspire a new generation of mobile-first filmmakers, and lead global trends in portrait-driven visual storytelling.

The device represents the convergence of high-end film technology and extreme portability.  Featuring a 1-inch CMOS sensor and dual lenses for portraiture and zoom, Pocket 4P is capable of cinematically smooth slow motion at 240 fps in full 4K glory.

There are two headline specifications that DJI believes sets the camera apart from other compact systems.

The first is its 17 stops of dynamic range, a level typically associated with high‑end mirrorless or cinema cameras. DJI claims the Pocket 4P is the only compact zoom‑lens camera currently reaching that benchmark. At the event in Cannes, guests are invited to see how its advanced sensor technology and refined imaging algorithms ensure clear, detailed footage, making it possible to shoot confidently in challenging conditions from nighttime cityscapes to indoor scenes.

Dynamic range remains one of the most important indicators of image quality, and DJI is clearly aiming to position the Pocket 4P as a serious tool for cinematographers who need flexibility on set and in post.

Major colour‑science upgrade

The second major feature of the Osmo Pocket 4P is the introduction of 10-bit D‑Log 2, DJI’s professional colour science profile. This marks the first time the company has upgraded its log system since the launch of the Ronin 4D, which was used as the main camera on Alex Garland’s Civil War. DJI describes D‑Log 2 as a “huge leap” in grading flexibility, offering a richer colour‑space and more robust data for post‑production workflows.

Its enhanced portrait capabilities deliver natural skin tones and cinematic depth, enabling more emotionally engaging storytelling across interviews, vlogs, and narrative content. Improved zoom functionality expands creative possibilities, allowing creators to capture distant subjects while maintaining image integrity.

At Cannes, DJI will deepen its relationships with cinematographers. The company confirmed that several DPs attended the Pocket 4P showcase, including Christopher Blauvelt, who shot recent Cannes competition entry May December, and Rodney Charters, ASC (the lead DP on Fox series 24).

Its compact form, paired with cinematic imaging performance, positions the Pocket 4P as a compelling companion for independent filmmakers and a powerful storytelling device for documentary work - whether as a main camera or as a flexible companion device to augment coverage of any scene.

While drones remain its most recognisable product category, DJI says its imaging systems are now becoming the default choice in several Asian markets. In Japan and China, the company claims its Pocket 3 camera has effectively become the “camcorder of choice” surpassing traditional brands like Sony and Nikon.

The Pocket 4P is the next step in that evolution. It is designed to appeal to both Hollywood‑level cinematographers and ‘elite creators’ who want uncompromising image quality for personal projects. DJI frames this as part of its mission to democratise technology, making advanced imaging tools accessible to a wider audience.

By unveiling Osmo Pocket 4P at one of the most prestigious stages in global filmmaking, DJI reinforces the idea that cinematic storytelling is no longer confined to large-scale rigs, but can now exist in a device small enough to carry anywhere.

IBC Behind the Scenes: Eurovision Song Contest 2026

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What began as a technical experiment in 1956 is now a global cultural institution reaching close to 170 million viewers on TV across three live shows and generating billions of views on digital platforms. IBC365 gets a tour back stage in Vienna.

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“This year we have several major innovations,” explains Michael Krön who is responsible for the Host Broadcast of Austrian broadcaster ORF and is Executive Producer of the ESC 2026. “This is especially important for a broadcaster like ORF in a year that has not been easy for the company, or for public service broadcasters globally. We want to show Austria, Europe, and the world what ORF can do. Ultimately, we want the Austrian public to feel proud that ORF, as their public service broadcaster, achieved something on this scale.”

That led to a decision that, for first time in Eurovision history, the host broadcaster would deploy a cinema‑grade camera system across nearly all acquisition points.

“We are working with ARRI cameras to create a highly cinematic look,” Krön said. “It’s the first time a show of this scale is using them as its main camera system. This allows us to capture faces and emotions with exceptional clarity which is something we always aimed for.”

The resulting hybridised broadcast‑cinema workflow, however, still operates inside a traditional HD 1080i and standard dynamic range production format.

Why 1080i still rules

Eurovision’s minimum requirement remains 1080i25, and while 1080p was evaluated, ORF’s Technical Production Lead Claudio Bortoli says the cost uplift across acquisition, routing, monitoring, and distribution made it impractical.

Instead of changing the format, ORF changed the image‑making tools.

The production is deploying 28 cameras in the Wiener Stadthalle concert venue with ARRI Alexa 35 Live as the primary source. This includes Alexa 35‑equipped rail, wire, crane and tracking systems augmented with Sony FR7 and FX6 models (four handheld and one gimbal).

“This is unprecedented for a live broadcast of this scale,” Bortoli says. “The Alexa 35’s dynamic range, colour science, and highlight handling offer a fundamentally different aesthetic from traditional broadcast cameras.”

There are some significant engineering implications. The broadcast trucks for example are optimised for system cameras (Sony, Grass Valley, Panasonic) where CCUs, RCPs, and shading workflows are tightly integrated. Cinema cameras break that model so to make integration easier conventional Canon broadcast lenses are being used (PL film lenses are used mainly in the Green Room area).

“The biggest early challenge was lens selection,” says Axel Engström, NEP’s lead technical project manager for Eurovision. “We made tests and found that cine lenses didn’t suit a large arena or the directors’ workflow. We switched to broadcast lenses for most positions to maintain zoom range and operational flexibility.”

NEP replaced or adapted CCUs to interface with Alexa systems in its trucks and ahis proved straightforward.

According to ARRI Managing Director, David Bermbach the first priority was proving reliability. “You need to deliver the baseline so people trust you. Now that we’ve done that, we can start adding new ideas.”

A major creative goal this year was giving each performance a distinct visual identity. Using profiles from ARRI (it has over 70 in its arsenal) the team created around 30 different LUTs (almost one per entry) which are applied at the camera head. One popular look was inspired by a music video by Justin Bieber.

In the weeks leading up to the broadcast, a colour grader fine‑tuned the camera looks for each performance before this was loaded into a LiveEdit automation system. During the show this software automatically sends commands, including cuts and moves, directly to the camera network.

Engström explains, “During the live show, the vision mixer is hands‑off since everything is pre‑programmed. If a camera fails, LiveEdit can automatically replace all shots from that camera with another although the vision mixer operator can also override manually.”

He explains that team delegations met with the show’s broadcast directors during the winter to present their creative ideas. “They submit staging scripts once songs are ready and then we rehearse with stand‑ins at first. We send those recordings back to delegations for feedback so by the time the artists arrive in Vienna the staging is already well‑developed.”

The final look was only locked shortly before rehearsals, in collaboration with the head vision shader, lighting designer, and directors.

Essential OB provision

Since 2015 which was also hosted by ORF in the same venue and with Bortoli playing a similar role, the broadcaster’s resources have been cut.

Bortoli says ORF now uses internal leads supported by a large freelance engineering pool. NEP provides the OB infrastructure, continuing a multi‑year partnership that gives both sides a shared operational vocabulary.

Eurovision traditionally deploys a main and backup truck but ORF is taking a more sophisticated approach in which both trucks will operate simultaneously.

Although both trucks are identically equipped, NEP’s UHD24 is covering interval acts, pre‑show, and non‑competitive elements like moderation directed by ORF’s Michael Kögler while the UHD24 in command of Swedish multi-cam director Robin Hofwander handles all the live acts.

“If one truck fails, the other can assume full control,” explains Bortoli. “All the camera feeds are available to both trucks and the routing matrices are mirrored. That means operators can switch roles with minimal disruption.”

It is what he calls a “live‑redundant architecture”, not a regular standby model.

The voting sequence is handled partly in the OB truck, with the EBU switch and distribution team operating from a dedicated cabin adjacent to the OB compound. All international routing, failover management, and signal integrity checks occur there.

Laser-based lighting

For the first time, an all LED and laser-based system is used, completely replacing traditional lighting and “significantly” reducing energy consumption and material usage, claim organisers. The lighting design is by Tim Routledge, a BAFTA winner for the lighting design of ESC 2023 in Liverpool who also worked on Basel last year.

He says the challenge was to create something that looks impressive, while at the same time being much less wasteful of energy.

“The fact that we are relying 100 percent on LED and laser technology on this scale shows that you can have both spectacular images and sustainable production.”

The overall visual concept includes more than 28,000 individually controllable LEDs. Eighty high-speed winches provide movable lighting effects—which is claimed as a first for Eurovision. Gear was supplied and rigged by Neg Earth Lighting and ACME Lighting.

The Stadthalle’s roof load limits forced the lighting team to redesign the rig multiple times. This included snow‑load modelling, since even 5–10 cm of snow could exceed structural tolerances.

“This amount of weight (from the lighting rig) has never been in the Stadthalle before,” Bortoli notes.

Video wall control

Creative Technology, part of NEP Group, is providing all LED screens and display solutions for the event.

The video wall is 2.50 sqm of ROE Graphite 2.6mm pixel pitch and the 2.68sqm LED floor is built from ROE Black Marble 4.6mm panels. Completing the wrap-around visual backdrop is a 12x8m curved infinity screen.

Video is processed through 16 Megapixel Helios 8K LED Controllers with ST2110 input with playout managed by eight Disguise servers capable of 32 x 4K feeds over ST2110.

Riedel provides the venue-wide signal distribution using MediorNet with around 25 nodes deployed across the venue. Timecode is distributed through MediorNet to sync lighting, cameras, and automation.

NEP uses its own TFC control platform in the TV compound to route signals, manage morte than 400 monitors, and to handle switching between the two OB trucks.

Audio mixing and RF density

Dietmar Tinhof is one of four audio engineers mixing the broadcast for stereo and 5.1 working out of two ORF supplied vans. “The acts are so different,” he says. “You switch from delicate acoustic folk to full‑force heavy metal. Some delegations say, ‘Make it sound like the record.’ Others send a several pages of technical notes. We try to follow them, but live situations have limitations, particularly around latency. For example, we can't use every plugin because they need a certain amount of processing time.”

They aim to have everything automated: “Ideally, during the live show we’d be sipping red wine because everything is programmed,” he added, but a recent Pro Tools bug changed that: “We can’t explain it. So we’re not as relaxed as before.”

Live performers also add unpredictability: “Sometimes they sing louder in the live show, so we counterbalance that. But we don’t do fine‑tuned automation live. There’s no reverb throws or EQ tweaks.”

Redundancy is extreme: “We have six layers of safety. Two identical Pro Tools systems monitor the MADI stream. If one sample drops, we’re already on the other machine. If there’s a deeper failure, the OB van is a complete mirror. If Pro Tools dies, we can still run on the MC²  Lawo. Six degrees of redundancy.”

The production format is stereo + 5.1 surround contributed from more than 70 Sennheiser RF mics and 40 open mics across the arena.

“The RF environment is one of the most congested in European live production,” Bortoli says.  “Our engineering team must coordinate frequency planning across dozens of delegations and use intermodulation avoidance.”

Redundant antenna distribution and failover paths for critical vocal mics are other considerations.

Eurovision by tech numbers

For those who like numbers:

The budget for the contest is estimated to be €36 million with local Viennese authorities paying €22m and the EBU contributing around €5m.

Over the course of the week at least 4,000 media files will be recorded and processed; 17,500+ camera cuts generated and executed; and 10,000+ review and validation comments logged by 80 operators tracking and annotating the show in real-time.

It requires 250 people to operate the Eurovision broadcast, among them; three multicam directors and 32 camera operators.

Nearly 200 SFX machines produce effects including flames, low fog, sparkulars, pyrotechnics, ECO2JET, and smoke.

It is calculated that 4.2TB of data will be sent every second of a live show over the 100GB network infrastructure.

Over the entire duration of ESC the total amount of data transported through this network is estimated between 5-6 Petabyte. To put that in context, 6PB equals approximately 101 years of continuously streamed HD video.

Postcards from Austria

Eurovision’s interstitial storytelling elements called ‘postcards’ were also shot on Alexa (by local production company Gebhardt Productions), giving them the same colour science as the live show.

Despite the rise of TikTok‑style formats and an astonishing 750 million views of ESC 2025 content on the platform, ORF is not generating a dedicated vertical feed. Social media teams will capture their own content using mobile and ENG devices.

That said, individual broadcasters are going social. Norway’s NRK is engaging audiences with an interactive ‘ESC 70’ online quiz alongside dedicated video content. Sweden’s SVT is expanding its digital offering with Eurovision Klubben on SVT Play. Ukraine’s Suspilne is delivering extensive multi-platform coverage, including three studio pre-shows on its YouTube channel.

For Bortoli, the biggest challenge is the timeline. “Time always moves very fast at Eurovision,” he says. “But everything looks good. The engineering fundamentals are solid.”

Creator takeover at MPTS: “You’re competing for tiny slices of attention”

IBC

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Exhibitor and conference sessions still nestle deep tech dives about compression alongside  ‘how tos’ on podcasting but this no longer feels incongruous.

For years, traditional television viewed the creator economy as adjacent but signs are that YouTubers are now taking over the roost.

“Creators have gone from individual talent to next generation studios,” said Rajarshi Lahiri, YouTube’s Head of Content Partnerships (UK & Ireland) at the Media Technology Production Show (MPTS) in London this week.

You can’t find a broadcast conference now without a YouTube exec on the programme but what they have to say always pales beside the energy and invention of creators themselves.

“YouTube is fundamentally a relationship business,” explained Jordan Schwarzenberger, CEO & Co-Founder, Arcade. “The product is the relationship between creator and audience. They understand audience relationships in a way legacy media often still does not.”

TV producers are belatedly trying to co-opt learnings from creators, if not the creators themselves, into their formats.

But Schwarzenberger said that many people entering YouTube from broadcast still treat it like linear TV. “‘We’ll make great content, put it out, and people will find it.’ But on YouTube, that logic collapses. The algorithm doesn’t reward prestige, budgets, or legacy. It rewards connection.”

Arcade are the management and ventures company behind Europe’s biggest YouTube group, The Sidemen, which has amassed 244 million followers. Yet success did not come overnight.

“The reality is that most major YouTube businesses are built over years of relentless consistency,” Schwarzenberger said. “Everyone I know who’s succeeded on YouTube has probably been making videos for 10 years, including the Sidemen. They never missed a Sunday [their regular content upload].”

Schwarzenberger also noted that creators are having to respond to shifts in audience behaviour. Pushing out content is no longer sufficient. The feeds have to be personalised to sub-groups and tailored to platforms.

“Ten years ago, people consumed maybe 100 pieces of content a week. Now it’s thousands. You’re competing for tiny slices of attention,” Schwarzenberger said.

“Platforms now serve content based on interests, not subscriptions. That means creators must constantly earn attention — not rely on followers.”

This is where many traditional media businesses still underestimate creators, he said. “What may appear spontaneous on screen is often underpinned by extraordinarily disciplined operational thinking. From understanding thumbnails, distribution, retention and audience psychology at an obsessive level.”

For Lahiri, the key misunderstanding is treating YouTube as a single-format platform. “The creators seeing the greatest success are those strategically connecting Shorts, long-form video, livestreaming and memberships,” he said.

This interconnectedness is increasingly important as creators diversify revenue beyond advertising. Lahiri pointed to the rapid rise of creator-entrepreneurs building product lines and direct-to-consumer businesses through YouTube’s online shopping function.

But for all the money and monetisation opportunities flooding into certain creators from brands, creators themselves seem to instinctively want to keep corporates at arm’s length. Authenticity is an over-used term but creators know that if they lose integrity with the audience for one second, their following will collapse.

This attention to dialogue with the audience extends to being wary of getting involved with the red tape of TV partnerships and also to technology that risks undermining the direct connection.

“As AI-generated content increases, human creativity and personality become more and more valuable,” Schwarzenberger said. “Audiences want raw stories, real perspectives, and genuine connection.  That’s why I think creators are entering a golden era.”

How to make a million

Grassroots storytelling and street talent is fundamental to the success of Million Youth Media (MYM), a platform designed to amplify youth voices and encourage social discussion through film.

Coo-founder Teddy Nygh argued that digital platforms allowed him to bypass traditional industry gatekeepers at a time when broadcasters showed little interest in the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. “We didn’t have to wait for permission,” he explained. “We could start creating, reaching people and tackling issues that mattered to us immediately.”

That thinking led to the launch of MYM in 2012 on YouTube.

“It was never just about views,” Nygh said. “It was about creating work that could stand for something and spark conversations.”

It now offers 730 films attracting 100 million viewers worldwide. More than half of views come from around 15 films, ten of which Nygh directed.

“We’ve reached a point where I can say, almost with certainty, that if we shoot a film today and upload it tonight, it will hit a million views,” Nygh said. “Algorithms change, but somehow we’ve managed to achieve that repeatedly.”

So what’s the formula? Nygh says it always starts with why. “If your ‘why’ is clear from the beginning it becomes much easier to protect the identity of the project.”

A key part of MYM’s production model involves integrating young people into every stage of filmmaking, from development through to delivery. “We mix experienced industry professionals with emerging talent. Whether you’re behind the camera, in front of it, shadowing, assisting, you’re on set, you’re paid, and you’re part of the process,  

“That energy feeds into the work,” he believes. “When you bring together some of the best people in the industry working alongside brand‑new talent, you get something powerful.”

Passion projects

It may be harder for broadcasters to engage audiences but it’s also harder in the social media space. With so many creators the market is saturated.

“It’s incredibly hard to stand out and stay relevant,” said presenter and photographer Cam Whitnall. “You have to stay true to yourself and be driven by passion.”

Two million people follow Whitnall’s social channels which are all about wildlife. “Wildlife is universal so straight away, I knew I had something that could reach everyone. If I could make it engaging, informative, educational and fun, people would respond.”

The biggest lesson creators can teach traditional broadcasters is speed.

“I’ve worked on productions made exclusively for TV where I wasn’t allowed to share anything on social media because everything was under embargo,” said Ash Dykes, Explorer & Extreme Athlete. “Then the show wouldn’t come out for a year or two. By the time it airs, the moment has passed.”

He compared that to project on an Amazon expedition where he made content specifically for social media. “When I completed the expedition, the footage was online within two or three months. It was still fresh. Everyone could see it. Traditional press picked it up, and the community could engage with it immediately. In social media, if you wait a year, everything has changed.”

It doesn’t have to be perfect from day one, or day 201, they said. Just as long as you are prepared to put in the time to regularly post content and to change it to fit your audience.

“There’s no structured formula,” Whitnall said. “I’ve seen videos filmed in landscape, with no subtitles and they go viral.  It’s just about putting it out there and seeing what happens. All it takes is one video. If that one hits, you’re onto a winner. Then the challenge is staying consistent and making sure you get that second video, that third video.”

It took six videos before Whitnall hit 100,000 views on TikTok. It took 100 posts on Instagram to reach 100,000 followers. And it took around 200 posts on YouTube to get over 100,000 subscribers.

“Consistency is everything in social media,” he stressed. “You have to keep connecting and chasing engagement. That doesn’t mean you need to post every day. But when you do post, make sure you love it.

“I’ve seen so many people give up after two or three posts because they didn’t believe in what they were doing.  So I’m really clear with myself — every single post has to be something I genuinely care about.”

Production companies crack the code

Factual producer Air TV is re‑versioning medical or blue light unscripted shows like 999 Rescue Squad for digital.  “It’s about taking a traditional high‑volume show, breaking it into different parts, and thinking about long‑form versus short‑form,” explained MD Matt Richards.

“We’re also doing original concepts. That’s the biggest learning curve. Changing the whole production model to make it repeatable, low‑cost, and doable in the margins of other shows we were producing.”

In March it launched YouTube channel First Landings capturing the moment student pilots make their solo flight. “If we thought of it as a TV show, we’d follow the whole backstory, getting to know the characters,” Richards said. “But for YouTube we strip it right down to the moment they begin their descent. It’s instantly repeatable, relatively low‑cost, and we can use AI editing and graphics to speed the production up.”

The channel may not yet be making any money but that’s not the point, he said. “We’re doing it to experiment. As a traditional TV production company, you’ve got a couple of options. You can say, ‘We’re not going into digital unless someone pays us,’ because that’s the old‑school commissioner model. Google is not going send you a massive cheque just because you put up content but you can find a way to do something that inspires the team, lets you test behaviours, and gets you moving.”

Most of Windfall Films’ content is still commissioned by a linear partner, but increasingly it is doing digital‑first alongside.

“We’re a producer, not a publisher,” explained Creative Director Dan Kendall. “Creators are both producers and publishers and that’s not our space. So we start by asking: Where is this going and what does that audience need on that platform? Because the platform changes the audience. Then we ask: What’s valuable to that particular audience? Then we work out how to tell the story appropriately.”

“In broadcasting now, big organisations expect producers to demonstrate digital experience. So for us, it was about getting that grounding so we could be taken seriously in that space, rather than expecting big revenue straight away.”

The Sun is a producer and publisher of its own content but its Director of Video Jon Lloyd suggested that the only difference between it and a solo creator was scale.

“We have 180 people across nine platforms making 25 long‑form shows every week and with 9 billion video views a year. And we’re about to start external commissioning. The crucial point is that there is no difference in quality between what we output for social and for traditional broadcast. The differences are workflow, format and audience. Just make something and put it out. Now anyone can do it.”

Lloyd worked in TV for many years before joining News Group and noted huge differences in delivering shows to digital compared to networks.

“In TV, I pitch to commissioners, we make the show, then we get the overnights and the feedback. We don’t really know what worked until after the fact. On YouTube, we have all the data from retention to drop‑off points. You can restructure instantly and you get instant feedback from your audience.”

Creators biggest kit mistakes

There were a number of big camera announcements this week, not least from Panasonic, Canon and DJI but cinematographer Keith Eccles dismissed them all.

“One of the biggest mistakes creators make is overspending on flagship cameras while neglecting lighting and audio,” he said.

Sharing his advice on the MPTS stage, Eccles stressed that “lighting and audio are way more important than a camera body or lens,” arguing that even an iPhone with good lighting and sound can outperform a cinema camera used badly.

Another common mistake, he said, is failing to fully utilise existing kit; “Many creators quickly replace gear when they’re unhappy with results, rather than learning how to maximise what they already own.” Eccles encouraged creators to buy versatile equipment that can serve multiple purposes, citing tripods designed for both landscape and vertical filming as an example of smarter investment.

He also warned against “chasing specs” instead of focusing on storytelling. With constant camera launches and social media hype around 6K, 8K and open-gate shooting, Eccles said creators often become distracted by features they rarely need.

“I shoot most of my work in 4K 50fps,” he explained, adding that an early documentary of his (now on Amazon Prime) was partly filmed on a Sony A7 III and partly on an iPhone. “Story is way more important than camera specs.”

He advised creators to “think seriously about storage and backup solutions early on.

“Reliable data management as an often-overlooked part of professional production,” he said.

Facilities offering postproduction and soundstages have to adapt too. It’s no longer just broadcasters and established production companies walking through the doors. Today’s customers include streamers, digital-first creators, branded content teams, podcasters, esports producers and social-native platforms.