Ah good old Eurovision back for another year and, this year, I thought was a vast improvement on last year’s show in Düsseldorf. To start with, the stage isn’t too big - which I have felt from a few of the more recent contests. True, Florian Wieder’s design last year was fantastic but the stage was just that little bit too big. Screens are used, as they always will be now, but aren’t overused and are interesting shapes at least! Screen content is also good and fits with the atmosphere of the show - especially the show identity during opening/voting sequences etc. I’m sure they’ve nicked the green room in the arena idea from Melodifestivalen this year too.
Graphics are good - same as last year as someone has already pointed due to same production company. Good set of graphics though, clear and a good design.
The camera scripting and direction this year is much better than last year and actually used the long lenses on the mid-audience Peds for a more useful purpose as opposed to last year where they were about a mile away from the stage preventing any useful shots whatsoever really. One strange addition is this Towercam above centre-down stage that achieves OK-ish shots but then seems to hold an awkward pause on the end of some of its moves. It seems to have replaced a Technocrane or second jib on camera right but isn’t nearly as useful. Nice to see the return of the Spidercam. Plus the jib they have seems to have an incredibly long reach on the arm!
The annoying 3-shot of the hosts at show opening is still there though - would look so much better with singles thrown into the mix too!
The postcard VTs for Azerbaijan are also well made, if a little repetitive by the 18th song! Also like the touch of the nations flags appearing on the Arena itself at the end of each postcard - a nice touch even if the camera work itself outside was a little shoddy - could they not have been pre-rec’d!?
As for the BBC’s contribution I much prefer to watch Sara Cox and Scott Mills struggling with live TV than a boring interval act, I mean, it’s obviously costing them 50p to produce, that much we can tell just by watching, but it is quite amusing!
I was wondering as to how the BBC are putting it together? Are they sub-mixing the cameras and the international feed on site in Azerbaijan then downlinking (or fibre I suppose) into TVC where the graphics are overlaid or is everything mixed in London with ISOs of the BBC cameras beamed from Azerbaijan to London as well as host and pres ISDN comms?
Entries wise, there were some good songs but I particularly liked the fact the ‘Russian Grannies’ are using their appearance at the Contest to raise money for a Church in their home town/village that was demolished by…Stalin (you’d think they’d have managed to raise the money by now!)
The BBC Three show was a bit of a shambles but its all in jest anyway, Eurovision is hardly taken seriously in this country, is it?
I have to say the opening theme music is very catchy this year. I like the Azerbaijani influences and the strong beat it has. The icon for this year is nice also, last years heartbeat was a little stale, I thought.
I was wondering as to how the BBC are putting it together? Are they sub-mixing the cameras and the international feed on site in Azerbaijan then downlinking (or fibre I suppose) into TVC where the graphics are overlaid or is everything mixed in London with ISOs of the BBC cameras beamed from Azerbaijan to London as well as host and pres ISDN comms?
I believe in previous years it was all mixed in London, with the BBC inserts being uplinked as a separate feed to the international one. Some of the issues on tonights show would certainly suggest that's the case given the obvious delay between the director and the presenters.
Of course though I don't know for sure so please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Entries wise, there were some good songs but I particularly liked the fact the ‘Russian Grannies’ are using their appearance at the Contest to raise money for a Church in their home town/village that was demolished by…Stalin (you’d think they’d have managed to raise the money by now!)
Yeah, even if they waited until Communism was defeated, they've still had more than 20 years!
I was wondering as to how the BBC are putting it together? Are they sub-mixing the cameras and the international feed on site in Azerbaijan then downlinking (or fibre I suppose) into TVC where the graphics are overlaid or is everything mixed in London with ISOs of the BBC cameras beamed from Azerbaijan to London as well as host and pres ISDN comms?
It's usually mixed in London, with the EBU team on-site providing the unilateral feed of the presenters (They provide news stand-uppers for member broadcasters so usually have a number of live crews and circuits). There has to be a gallery at TVC to handle the graphics and commentary anyway, so it makes sense to do the mixing away from the host multilateral to a BBC/EBU uni there as well.
BTW - was the semifinal available in HD anywhere? NRK1 HD weren't flagging it as HD, neither were RTE, and the BBC didn't show it on BBC HD? I ended up watching SVT Play - and that looked pretty good - but tricky to tell source quality over web streaming.
I was wondering as to how the BBC are putting it together? Are they sub-mixing the cameras and the international feed on site in Azerbaijan then downlinking (or fibre I suppose) into TVC where the graphics are overlaid or is everything mixed in London with ISOs of the BBC cameras beamed from Azerbaijan to London as well as host and pres ISDN comms?
It's usually mixed in London, with the EBU team on-site providing the unilateral feed of the presenters (They provide news stand-uppers for member broadcasters so usually have a number of live crews and circuits). There has to be a gallery at TVC to handle the graphics and commentary anyway, so it makes sense to do the mixing away from the host multilateral to a BBC/EBU uni there as well.
BTW - was the semifinal available in HD anywhere? NRK1 HD weren't flagging it as HD, neither were RTE, and the BBC didn't show it on BBC HD? I ended up watching SVT Play - and that looked pretty good - but tricky to tell source quality over web streaming.
Yeah it was in HD on 7E and my friend in Austria said it was on ORF 1 HD too but they may have all had to switch to backup? I fell asleep by 8 due to the heat and ended up watching around midnight on recording from BBC Three
