Eurovision 2006

Not that uncommon on the continent - it was the only way PAL Plus worked (though there aren't many places still using that!)

I've seen 16L12 pop up all over the place in Europe - and not just for movies.

The graphics most certainly were 14:9 safe only - I was only watching them on Channel Four News a few hours ago and the scoreboards were mercilessly cropped. The numbering on the left was non-existant, possibly including the first letter of each country. Indeed even during the broadcast I think it was the 'final state of affairs' board that came up with the first digit down the left cropped off, in 14:9 . Bit of an error there.

As for those feckin peds , yes okay I partially assumed they were new because they are HD, but also because when the white lights illuminated them as they so often did, they seemed to have no scuffmarks or dirt or chipped paint or bits of sticker about their bodies as peds usually do. They just appeared to be a nice clean, matching set of new HD cameras - that is all!
Isn't it extraordinary all the same to think that Eurovision, even a few years ago got by with little more than maybe four peds, a jib-arm, and a handheld or two in the audience?!
Incidently it was "Éire's" RTÉ that introduced the jib-arm to Eurovision, way back in 1988 for their techno extravaganza from the RDS in south Dublin.

http://www.eurovision-spain.com/imagen/escenarios/1988.jpg

Of course jib-arms and Celine Dion go hand in hand, but it was a mere coincidence at the time I'm quite sure

Just on audio, did anyone see that performance that was just in the semi on Thursday I think, where the performer sang from about four different microphones being handed to her? How the heck did the sound ops manage that one?! I'm surprised they allowed her to do it.

Ah - I thought you were talking about the actual peds - rather than the cameras on them! Obviously a ped itself is neither HD nor SD - it is just a clever bit of metal filled with gas that allows a camera to be mounted on it!



The interesting differences year by year are whether jibs (with fixed length arms) or technocranes (which telescope) are used. Technocranes are popular in smaller spaces - and widely used by the BBC in studio shows - with Noel's House Party being an early adopter (though the BBC don't own one AFAIK - they are only ever rented from Technovision) - but the "SVT" style use a larger number of the cheaper jibs - presumably because there is more space to throw them around in a Eurovision size arena.



The song had noticable pauses between each line (which suited the syncapation of the track) to allow her to both phsyically change mics and the sound supervisor to change mics. (It didn't look like they were props !)

That's them. I thought they were both quite good!