Eurovision 2026: IP-native broadcast workflow powered by Creative Technology and Disguise

Broadcast to more than 160 million viewers across 35 countries, the Eurovision Song Contest is one of the world's largest live television events. Behind every performance is an enormous technical operation, with each competing nation requiring a completely different visual environment and only 42 seconds to transform the stage between acts.

For the eighth consecutive year, Creative Technology partnered with Disguise to deliver Eurovision's visual playback infrastructure. This year, the team introduced a fully IP-native SMPTE ST 2110 workflow powered by eight Disguise GX 3 media servers and Disguise's IP Video Format Conversion (IP-VFC) technology, helping simplify operations while delivering the flexibility and resilience needed for one of live broadcasting's most demanding productions.

The challenge

Eurovision demands constant change. Every performance features its own creative content, meaning engineers must completely reconfigure playback across a massive LED stage between acts without interrupting the live broadcast.

For the 2026 production in Vienna, that meant managing more than 49 million pixels across a 500-square-metre LED canvas, including a large-format backdrop, an interactive LED floor and a custom-built curved Infinity Screen.

Traditional SDI workflows have long delivered reliable broadcast playback, but at Eurovision's scale they can become increasingly complex to manage. The production team wanted an infrastructure that could be reconfigured quickly while maintaining the redundancy and timing accuracy required for a global live broadcast.

The solution

Working together, Creative Technology and Disguise deployed a fully IP-native SMPTE ST 2110 workflow centered around eight Disguise GX 3 media servers equipped with Disguise IP-VFC technology. By outputting native ST 2110 video directly from the servers, the team reduced signal chain complexity while separating live video traffic from everyday network activity, allowing content transfers and system management to continue without affecting playback.

"In traditional setups, network-based video output has to fight for bandwidth with massive content file transfers on the same network interface," explains Niklas Ljung, Group Technical Director at Creative Technology. "What makes Disguise's IP-VFC technology so critical for a show like Eurovision is that it completely splits the two. Live video has its own dedicated hardware path out of the GX 3 servers, keeping the standard network completely clear for our team to move files and manage the system without a stutter."

The system distributed more than 49 million pixels to ROE Visual LED displays via 16 Megapixel Helios 8K processors over a fully redundant 100 Gb network. Red-and-blue network topology, machine failover and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) synchronisation ensured uninterrupted playback while keeping the LED processors, media servers and broadcast cameras perfectly aligned throughout the show.

The IP-native architecture also gave engineers greater operational flexibility. Instead of physically rerouting signals, they could monitor and manage the entire playback network from a single software interface, allowing the production team to respond quickly throughout rehearsals and live performances.

"Instead of managing a physical web of point-to-point signal cables, our engineers could monitor and manage the entire video network from a single interface," says Ljung. "Signals could be moved, duplicated or rerouted without physical intervention. We're no longer limited by hardware routing; the network adapts to the creative needs of the show in real time."

The result

With a more flexible, software-defined playback infrastructure, Creative Technology successfully delivered one of Eurovision's most technically ambitious productions to date. The team supported rapid stage transformations, maintained precise synchronisation across the entire LED system and delivered uninterrupted playback for one of the world's largest live broadcasts.

For Disguise, the project demonstrated how IP-native media server workflows can simplify complex productions while giving engineering teams greater flexibility and control. As live events continue to scale in size and ambition, Eurovision 2026 highlights how broadcast and live entertainment are increasingly embracing IP workflows to deliver more agile, resilient productions.