Why is there such a big gallery team located in the UK?
As far as I understand, they would only be displaying British relevant graphics (as well as blocking advertising), monitoring the televotes and controlling the spokesperson feed. Yet they have a full gallery team on board?
The requirements are pretty much identical to handling a high-profile major sporting event with on-site commentators but production back in the UK.
You need a sound team to mix the commentary, handle the communications between the UK and the site (including checking and switching to backups should they be required). You also need someone to handle the communications for the voting spokesperson. I'm sure the UK sound team would also have pre-recorded elements from Graham to give the phone numbers should commentary be lost. The sound facilities need to be 5.1 capable. It's unusual to find a decent 5.1 capable sound desk attached to a tiny control room...
You'll no doubt have a camera operator and lighting/vision person, and possibly a floor sound person, to handle the studio elements of the in-vision voting that is fed back to Ukraine to give the UK jury's 12 points.
There are 3 or 4 different feeds of the contest that rights holders are expected to pick up and have available in their local control room, and use should one of the feeds go down, plus a recording of the Friday jury dress rehearsal that must be played (and constantly kept in sync by a
VT op).
The phone numbers and some other domestic graphics are added locally in the UK - so a graphics operator and graphics platform are needed.
For the BBC Four shows there also need to be facilities to handle the in-vision presentation (more comms, unilateral incoming feeds so more outside sources to line up etc.) from Scott and Mel in Kiev.
Add to that the production team need to handle two separate jury votes, co-ordinate all the practical requirements for the teams in both the UK and Kiev (transport, hotels, sorting the props for staging etc.) and then the requirement for the phone voting co-ordination and monitoring, and the editorial policy issues in broadcasting an event you have no direct control of, and the number of people isn't massively different to a regular show.
I'm sure you could build a smaller control room to do just what is required - but the reality is people don't build control rooms just to make the Eurovision Song contest, so you no doubt end up hiring what is available. There are smaller studio-less 'live galleries' available - but they probably end up being too small, and engineering a local camera (and lighting and studio sound) into them is likely to be more hassle than it is worth.
As can be seen from the Blue Peter behind the scenes filming, the BBC were at IMG Studios. Which specialise in sport production (big galleries, small studios) and are a very good fit for the Eurovision Song Contest. The other facility that would make sense is Timeline in Stratford (which BT Sport use)
When you are broadcasting a show that includes a public phone vote and that is watched by more than 8 million people (the show peaked at around 8.8m during the voting) you need to ensure you have all your ducks in a row...
Last edited by noggin on 20 May 2017 10:47am
