To provide the best visual experience across the Eurovision Village 2023 and multiple activations around the city of Liverpool, Adlib used the unique array of features of OPTC fiber optics extension solution from Lightware Visual Engineering. The Eurovision Village was a free fan zone where both locals and visitors could immerse themselves in the festive atmosphere of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision 2023 was outstanding and special in many ways. First and foremost, the event was held on behalf of Ukraine, the winner of Eurovision 2022, which, due to security concerns arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was prevented from hosting the event. This meant that the UK, which placed second in the 2022 contest, was to produce the show on behalf of the Ukrainian broadcaster UA: PBC. The decision on which British city would host the event, came only at the end of 2022, which halved the normal project implementation time. This put additional pressure on the Liverpool City Council to host The Contest and deliver ESC-related activations, including the Eurovision Village, which was a stone’s throw away from the Liverpool Arena, where the Eurovision Song Contest took place.
Having been a frequent host for multiple large-scale festivals and football events, Liverpool City Council were well aware that both the time factor, and the high profile of the event demanded a professional project implementation team, the best technology, and efficient management. To achieve that, the council held a tender for the technology supply.
Adlib, for whom Liverpool is their hometown, bid among others for the tender award. With years of experience in delivering large-scale live events and their professional approach to developing optimal solutions that utilize the best technology, Adlib was entrusted to provide the technical production for the Eurovision Village, including audio, lighting, and video.
Part of the brief demanded a fast and reliable fiber solution to transport uncompressed 4K60Hz video with zero frame latency down a large-scale site on the bank of the river Mersey.
For Eurovision Village, the Adlib team deployed 2 of Lightware’s MX2-8X8-HDMI20-Audio-L matrix switchers and 6 pairs of HDMI20-OPTC-TX/RX220-Pro extenders to enable switching and transporting of uncompressed 4K UHD at 60Hz 4:4:4.
Adlib’s team have been using Lightware for about 10 years. Over the past 5 years, the company has confidently utilized plenty of newer Lightware’s matrices and OPTC220 series of fiber optics extenders to transport signals over a single optical line. Adlib’s Project Manager, Nicholas Whitehead, remarks:
On the fiber side of things, we do not think there is a better product on the market, the flexibility of the Lightware units is unbeaten, and we constantly make use of the EDID management, ethernet pass through and remote monitoring.
Apart from the transport of uncompressed 4K60Hz video with zero latency over distances up to 700 meters that were deployed for the Eurovision Village, Adlib relied upon the OPTC220’s unique functionality, including:
- Advanced EDID management, that provided seamless handshaking when plugging in guest media servers and guest laptops to get the forced EDID
- Ethernet capability that helped in monitoring the delay screens
- Remote management of the units that ensured the total pan-site device control
Outlining the deployment of Lightware’s technology, Nick commented:
As part of the Eurovision Village, we delivered 2 delay screens. One of them utilized a pair of Lightware’s OPTCs; one going over 500 meters and the other reaching out to deliver the signal up to 700 meters, which was the output side. Additionally, we used the same fiber product for all the inputs, which were coming over a 100-meter distance, allowing us to take inputs to our system whilst outputting into delay screens using OPTCs. Our inputs included media servers and HDMI-featured laptops.
Overall, for 9 Days of back-to-back events, the Eurovision Village welcomed over 250,000 visitors from around the world, and I hope we did Ukraine proud. The technology we deployed did not skip a beat, including Lightware OPTC220s, which allowed for a reliable and secure fiber connection for the duration of the village” he concluded.
For more information on Lightware devices deployed at the Eurovision Village 2023, please, check out the links and follow us on social media.
