Creative Technology delivers next-generation video for Eurovision Song Contest 2026 

Delivering a show of this scale is never a solo effort. The 2026 edition brought together a strong and diverse crew from multiple Creative Technology offices across Europe. The mix of experience, hard work, and collaboration on site was key to the success of this year’s production.

Creative Technology has served as a technical supplier to the Eurovision Song Contest since 2000, most recently delivering the official audiovisual production for ESC 2026 in Vienna. 

Celebrating its 70th edition, Eurovision 2026 brought together 95,000 fans across nine sold-out shows, alongside a global television audience of hundreds of millions. At the centre of the production, Creative Technology delivered the video infrastructure underpinning the scale, ambition and reliability of the broadcast. 

A video system built for scale and creativity 

For this year’s contest, CT supplied and operated approximately 500sqm of ROE LED, forming the visual backbone of the stage design. This included ROE Graphite 2.6mm LED, a Black Marble 4.6 LED floor, and a custom-built 12m x 8m curved “Infinity Screen” connecting stage and floor into a single visual canvas. 

The system delivered over 49 million pixels, giving designers and delegations full creative control. 

CT supplied the screens and managed video control and media playback, ensuring consistent output from rehearsal through to live broadcast. 

16 Megapixel Helios 8K LED controllers and eight Disguise servers handled 32 simultaneous redundant 4K outputs, maintaining frame-accurate playback across all surfaces. 

A step forward in broadcast infrastructure 

Eurovision 2026 marked a shift to a fully ST 2110-native workflow, removing the need for baseband signal distribution. 

“What we’ve done here is different,” says Karl Wigenius, Head of Video at CT Sweden and Product Manager for Eurovision 2026. “All signal distribution runs natively over ST 2110, from media servers to screens. There are no SDI or HDMI and no conversion. At this scale, that’s unique.” 

The system was developed over three years with resilience built in. 

“Every system has a one-to-one backup. If something fails, we switch instantly,” Wigenius adds. 

The infrastructure runs on a fully redundant 100GB network, with 2 Arista core switches plus an additional 24 utility Netgear AV switches throughout the venue and around 480 connected devices, transporting approximately 4.2 terabytes of data per second. Total throughput across the event reached an estimated 2 Exabytes. 

A decade of Eurovision delivery 

“Eurovision is one of the most demanding live productions in the world,” says Niclas Ljung, Group Technical Director at Creative Technology, who has worked on the contest for over a decade. 

“Each year raises expectations. The challenge is delivering at scale while enabling creative intent for every performance.” 

A landmark year for Eurovision 

The 70th Eurovision Song Contest concluded with Bulgaria’s first-ever win, as DARA took the title with “Bangaranga!” following the country’s return to competition. 

For Creative Technology, Vienna 2026 demonstrates its ability to deliver scalable, resilient and innovative video solutions for large-scale live broadcast environments. 

Photo Credits: Alberto Morand