All eyes on Barco projection solutions during 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen
Kortrijk, Belgium, 6 May 2014 – After a very successful contribution to last year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Malmo, Sweden, visualization expert Barco is proud to be the Official Technical Event Partner of the 2014 edition. During this week’s semi-finals and finals in Copenhagen, Denmark, 32 Barco projectors and three Encore presentation switchers, provided by rental partner Mediatec Solutions, will project sharp images and video, in crisp detail, onto the cube-shaped central stage.Only last week, online readers of Studio Live Design, a platform for designers and technicians of live events, chose the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 as the winner of the Annual Excellence award in the ‘Live for Broadcast’ category. The award is a credit to Barco, as Eurovision 2013 was an all-Barco show powered by a total of 60 Barco projectors, including 26 units of the high-brightness HDQ-2K40. That same HDQ-2K40 will now play a starring role in this year’s Eurovision too. The 16 HDQ units will be combined with 16 HDX-W20 projectors to display the brightest images. Three Barco Encore presentation switchers will be used to control and map the video content.
Projecting onto the cube
This year’s 35m x 20m Eurovision stage is designed around a glowing cube, showcasing the industrial heritage of the B&W Hallerne venue – a former shipyard. The cube itself consists of 120 modules with a special surface of projection film, which allows the display of pictures or animation. Mediatec Solutions took care of integrating the Barco gear into this setting, just as it did last year. Niclas Ljung, Project Manager: “It was an absolute delight to work with Barco’s HDQ-2K40 projectors at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo. We are confident that the projectors will perform as flawlessly this year. The HDQ-2K40 projectors are so bright and powerful that they can project high-resolution images from the most extreme angles. The HDX-W20 projectors are equipped with class-leading on-board image processing for extreme scaling. They are, therefore, perfectly up to the challenge of projecting onto the cube from a very short distance.”
Largest TV show in the world
“Barco is delighted to be the Official Technical Event Sponsor of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, together with Mediatec Solutions. Year after year, the ESC show manages to amaze 120 million spectators, dotted around the world, with its incredibly creative set-up,” says Richard Marples, Strategic Marketing Director Venues and Attractions at Barco. “This year again, every projection the TV spectators will see on their screen will be powered by Barco. We can’t think of a better way to showcase our innovative projection solutions.”
About the Eurovision Song Contest
Since 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been Europe’s favorite TV show. After more than five decades featuring some 1,100 songs, the contest has become a modern classic, strongly embedded into Europe’s collective mind. The competition is broadcast throughout Europe, but also in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States, even though these countries do not participate. Without interruption, the Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast every year since 1956, which makes it one of the longest-running television programs in the world.
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with 4,000 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 1.158 billion euros in 2013.
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