Eurovision: LED Walls, Fog Screens and Hippotizers

I am looking more and more forward to see Hippotizer V3 at Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Most Green Hippo developers are working rather hard to improve V3 especially for Eurovision. It will be the most dignified launch of V3!

The stage in the Eurovision semi-final and final in Helsinki this May will be something totally unforeseen in Finland. The backdrops of the set will be done completely with LED screens sized up to 300 square metres. The design is done by lighting and screen designer Mikki Kunttu.

Kunttu tells the Finnish trade magazine Tekniikka ja Talous that the visual solutions of the stage are creatively based on LED technology. They will make shaping the stage possible in real time according to the different needs of the artists. The displays don’t need to be 16:9 aspect ratio any more and they don’t even need to be rectangles. Curved and round shapes make the LED technology organic. We can even create a see-through backdrop image, says Kunttu.

The Barco Mitrix video screens used in the backdrop are see-through so in theory the action on stage can even be extended behind the screens. The show will be managed by powerful Hippotizer V3 media servers, supplied by the Finnish company West Lighting. The programming for these over dozen servers was started in the first week of April, when the details of the different countries performances were received.

Currently the whole show is made into 3-D models using several types of software, including. ESP Vision and GrandMa.