Eurovision 2026: NEP shares tech plan for seventh consecutive song contest outing

SVG Europe

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In NEP’s seventh successive Eurovision Song Contest it is operating vision mixing from UHD2 (from the Netherlands) and UHD24 (from Germany). Both are outfitted to be capable of use for the live acts or the interval acts and moderation, although in practice those roles are divided between the trucks and two directors. If one truck happens to fail the other one takes over.

These are accompanied by a pair of vans from ORF supervising the broadcast music mix (one acts as a backup).

A TOC has been built on site by NEP because the complexity and volume of signal management is too vast to be contained in an OB truck alone.

There are 28 live cameras in the arena of which 24 are Alexa 35 Live augmented by four Sony FR7 and FX6 cine-style cameras (four handheld, one gimbal). Ten of the total are outfitted as RF cams, eight on a tripod, two mounted on Scorpio 45 cranes and four Steadicam. The total includes three railcams (remote dolly with telescopic tower), three PTZs and three aerial camera systems (two 2D systems and one  RTS Rope Climber overhead tracking system).

In the trucks NEP is deploying a Grass Valley Karrera/K-Frame vision mixer with Lawo mc²56 and mc²66 on the audio side.

The router and multiview is controlled by NEP TFC, the company’s software management platform.

Screen control

NEP division Creative Technology has supplied the video wall (which is about 500sqm in total of Roe panels) and controls them as well as the media that runs on them during the show.

“What we’ve done here is special,” explains Karl Wigenius,head video for CT Sweden and product manager for video on ESC 2026. “All signal distribution is ST 2110 natively, directly from the media servers to the screens. There’s no baseband cables like SDI or HDMI and no conversion. That’s unique at this scale.”

This system has been developed over the past three years for Eurovision.

“We built a main and backup system so every system has a one‑to‑one backup. If something fails, we instantly switch,” he adds.

Monitor screens in the video control room shows live values from 26 MediorNet network switches and roughly 480 devices connected over IP. They’re sending about 4.2TB per second across the network.

CT’s video screen control also integrates with the OB trucks, receiving signals, timecode via Riedel, and graphics feeds.

 

One wrinkle is that the rolling‑shutter of the Arri cameras makes synchronisation with the LED screens challenging. Wigenius says: “That’s new for this year, it’s something that we haven’t worked with before on this scale. It’s a learning curve certainly. The lighting team like a rolling shutter because they can play more with strobes and lasers but it’s more of a challenge. If you step frame‑by‑frame, the LED might already be on the next frame during the camera’s first capture.”

The Riedel network itself includes 230 analogue and 430 digital radios communicating over 60 channels. It is supplying over 190 Bolero wireless intercom beltpacks, over 120 intercom panels, more than 80 network switches and the 26 MediorNet Racks for signal distribution across the entire main venue).

Lighting and graphics

The ESC has switched for the first time to a fully LED and laser-based lighting rig which delivers CO2 savings. The design by Tim Routledge comprises 3,107 fixtures (mainly Ayrton, Martin and Robe) featuring 28,000 individually controllable LEDs all supplied and rigged by Neg Earth Lights and Acme Lighting. Eighty high speed winches are used for a moveable grid of lights – another first for ESC.

“Tim has created a ‘ballet of lights’ above the main stage,” describes Michael Krön of Austrian public service broadcaster ORF who leads the host broadcast and is executive producer of the ESC 2026. “Each light has its own winch and can move down to the stage floor, creating a dynamic, beautiful choreography of light. It’s something truly new.”

For graphics, ORF is using a range of Vizrt solutions, including Viz Engine, and virtual environments and AR graphics with Viz Virtual Studio. Viz Engine is also rendering all on screen graphics and the data-driven graphics that display each country’s scores throughout the broadcast.