Eurovision 2015 - 60th Anniversary Edition

A tweet from the Creative Director of the contest confirmed they had to rush the announcement of the finalists due to time. Apparently this was due to the montage featuring Australia. I disagree, I believe it was because of the long opening number featuring Conchita.

Out of interest, has anyone ever known anyone to have had a fit triggered by television? I know several epileptics that haven't.

Do they have photosensitive epilepsy?

Yeah, I appreciate there's a lot of fanwan--- er, interest in Conchita but it is overkill. The way some people fawn over him makes it like Dana International never happened.

Seems that Portugal are getting a re-run in tonight's Jury SF. Sound issues quoted ....

Just re-watched last nights semi-final. A few issues that stand out:

1. Not really liking the way the arena has been lit. Many of the wide shots of the crowd, there seems to be so much dead space in shot.
2. A few months ago they branded the stage to green room walkaway as a 'magic walkway' I was expecting something similar to Sweden with the bridge but we've got a really tacky looking stretch with security men holding back the audience with sticks.
3. Not a massive fan of the direction. There's some really nice visuals on stage, especially with Belgium and Hungary but most of the shots were missed
4. Not loving the sound effects of the results package when they call out the finalists names. It's like a little 'pop.'

Jeeze. That was a bit of a rant wasn't it? I guess i'm comparing a lot to last year which was unreal. I'm off to the final on Saturday so i'll be able to judge for myself in person.

Is there any way of me getting a 1080i or 1080p feed of the show that doesn't have BBC commentary? Tried the RTE player but the picture quality is sub-VHS.

I only caught four successive acts, so I haven't formed a rounded judgement on this year's contest yet. The stage is okay - with resonances of Dublin 1997 and Latvia 2003 - but not as dynamic as I had hoped, perhaps because there isn't the breathing space between it and the audience that we have come to expect. It's also quite shallow.

Like others, I am not a fan of the direction. The CuePilot may have a role (thanks for the information noggin), but it is shot selection that is really letting things down. It is inconsistent and has no particular logic, moving from sweeping wides to jarring, weird tight shots. There isn't a flow to proceedings, and certainly no sense of a dynamic, creative response to songs that we have so come to expect of SVT productions.

A particularly irritating trait is two sets of cameras performing the same function, but from entirely different positions. The majority of cameras are located in the stage area - nice and clean, in on the action, getting close-ups etc. But the head-on cohort of cameras in the middle of the arena are also being used for close-ups and they are simply too far back, with perspective stacking up like a pack of cards behind the performers. It gives so much of the production a distant, 'arena-based' production value, rather than one made exclusively for a television audience. This hasn't been a problem in previous years, but is very obvious here for some reason. Perhaps a combination of a shallow stage and a too-distant position in the audience. There's also a dated, almost comical reliance on fixed zoom shots which are not to be commended.

On further point - camera movements are all over the place. Shakes, shudders, mis-aligned shots, movement kicking in too late etc. Perhaps to be expected from a crew not used to such frenetic production values, as well as the CuePilot, but what I cannot explain are the creaky jib arm shots - even they are not smooth! Jolty in movement and countless awkward turns.

It is interesting how SVT, having set the new standard for Eurovision, may inadvertently have made future contests less polished than they otherwise might have been in their 'host style', as other broadcasters simply cannot operate in the production language that they are now all but obliged to operate to.

Looking forward to the next installments.

The EBU 4:2:2 H264 and MPEG2 feeds are unencrypted... But you need a decent dish and a 4:2:2 capable receiver to downlink them.

You won't find 1080i streams online - and the 720p stuff like SVT Play will be 720/25p.

Think they are overusing the Spider (or similar) wirecam and you are very much at the mercy of your operator with that. It's notoriously tricky to get a good Spider op... I don't think SVT used a wire cam in 2013. Didn't miss it...

Yes. A number of kids in Japan did during a notorious TV show with very heavy flashing. However the true number of people who actually had real seizures is not hugely clear.

AIUI epilepsy is a wide condition - and not all people who have it have photosensitive epilepsy.

Spider Op. I want that on my passport!

That would make sense alright noggin. But most of the camera shakes are coming from the peds on the ground. Like the ops cannot keep pace with things. Perhaps matters will improve by Thursday/Saturday.