Disguise Enables First Large-scale Live Broadcast Running Full ST 2110 For Eurovision 2024

Disguise, a leader in real-time production technology, 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 Song Contest 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 eight Disguise GX 3 machines (one Director, three 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.

You might also like...

Designing IP Broadcast Systems - The Book

Designing IP Broadcast Systems is another massive body of research driven work - with over 27,000 words in 18 articles, in a free 84 page eBook. It provides extensive insight into the technology and engineering methodology required to create practical IP based broadcast…

Demands On Production With HDR & WCG

The adoption of HDR requires adjustments in workflow that place different requirements on both people and technology, especially when multiple formats are required simultaneously.

NDI For Broadcast: Part 3 – Bridging The Gap

This third and for now, final part of our mini-series exploring NDI and its place in broadcast infrastructure moves on to a trio of tools released with NDI 5.0 which are all aimed at facilitating remote and collaborative workflows; NDI Audio,…

Designing An LED Wall Display For Virtual Production - Part 2

We conclude our discussion of how the LED wall is far more than just a backdrop for the actors on a virtual production stage - it must be calibrated to work in harmony with camera, tracking and lighting systems in…

Microphones: Part 2 - Design Principles

Successful microphones have been built working on a number of different principles. Those ideas will be looked at here.