APRIL 11

WELCOME TO THE 10TH EDITION OF THE EUROVISION DIARY!

APRIL 11

Hello there boys and girls!

Today I thought we should take a deep dive into the pre-programming studio of this show. I don’t think there is ANY show in the world that invests so much time and money in pre-programming and operation of a show as the Eurovision Song Contest.
Judge for yourself!

Let’s start with the sign that is posted at the entrance of this magic world. It kind of says it all about the ambition in here 🙂

Here it is! The place where dreams and visions become reality. And also the home of 1 lighting designer, 4 operators and one gaffer, accompanied by 1 video content designer, 5 video content creators, 3 video operators and two content and media server managers. They will spend 4 weeks in total in here before we let them out in daylight for 48 hours. After that, it’s time to be duct taped to the chairs at FOH.

We are running this show in six sessions, each one represented by a cute little My Little Pony. Session 1 aka Pinky Pie is Timo Kauristo’s system. Session 2 aka Fluttershy is Danne Persson’s system. Session 3 aka Applejack is Calle Brattberg’s system. Session 4 aka Twilight Sparkle is Fredrik Stormby’s session. Session 5 aka Rainbow Dash is Q-lan Wallertz system (followspot caller). Session 6 aka Rarity is the wonderful world of the three video operators’ system.

Here is the MA OnOC used by Gubi to overlook all the sessions we have in our show.

The reason why the lighting operators are on separate sessions is quite simple. It allows them to work independently on separate songs at all times. They all have a Cuebase project to playback the songs with the correct time code, and they can switch to the main time code stream just using a simple A&B switch.

All systems merge into this poor MA3D computer, that constantly lives without its sides, so it gets extra air.

This is for Fredrik to get all operators programming onto one screen so they can view the total of any song once it’s done.

As you can see, Fredrik and his team are getting there with the songs. Their aim is to have 90% of the show in the desks when we move from the studio to the FOH at the Globe this weekend.

Calle Brattberg is one of the blessed geeks operating lights. Since we have such an extensive pre-programming session, all the lighting operators are working with grandMA II Light, since they simply don’t need all the faders on the full size version.

Here’s another golden child. This is Timo Kauristo’s 11th Eurovision Song Contest! Good to have you back sir!

Mr. Danne Persson is another veteran in this game. I think he is celebrating his 10th Eurovision as well!

And here is the wild child that we brought in when we lost Bullen Lagerbielke to cancer. Fredrik Stormby is just as clever, crazy and funny as his forerunner, and it’s an absolute joy to have you on board!

And as you can tell, focus is absolutely spot on at all times within the lighting FOH team…………….

Mikki Kunttu is not only a horrible hockey player! He is one of the most gifted video content designers I know! So, why bring anyone else in when we could lure Mikki back into the game!

And here are the pixel smurfs that fulfill every one of Mikki’s wishes. We actually allow countries to supply their own content too, but we scrutinise it very carefully before we approve it.

The content creation team was carefully handpicked by Mikki. Here is David from Sweden and Emery from US&A.

Together with David’s colleague Victor, also from Sweden, and Mikko from Finland. Mikko is just as horrible at ice hockey as Mikki. And just as crazy…………

And here is Pekka Martti! Some of you might recognize him from the diary back in 2007. Pekka was one of the lighting operators back then, but now he turned to the video world instead. Our three video operators work on grandMA II Full-size since they have so many parameters that they need the extra faders. Our other two operators on video, Neil Trenell and Fraser Walker live on a remote island outside the mainland of Europe, and they were still in transit to the studio when I was there yesterday. I’ll show those pretty boys for you another day!

Here is one of our Hippo Gurus Andreas.

I asked him how many servers we have in the show now, and he replied¨I don’t know, I thought you kept track of the ever growing pile.¨  Smart ass…………
Anyway, we are using BorealKarst and Amba

Questions?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

A famous man once said: “In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities” That goes for our studio too!

Love you long time!

Recent Posts

Leave a Comment