In 2025, the event took place in Basel, Switzerland, where the St. Jakobshalle was turned into an immersive arena filled with dynamic lighting, massive LED walls, and moving scenic elements. Responsible for the show’s spectacular lighting visuals was Lighting Designer Tim Routledge, supported by associate Lighting Designers Morgan Evans and James Scott. To bring their ambitious creative ideas to life, they relied on the real-time design and visualization software Depence. From early concept development to pre-programming and detailed visual simulations, Depence provided the ideal platform to explore and refine every aspect of the show’s visual design, long before stepping into the venue.
This year’s stage, designed by Florian Wieder, was both conceptually sophisticated and visually striking: Inspired by the Swiss grid system, there was a huge set behind the main LED wall. It was built of a huge, three-dimensional light installation consisting of a complex grid of spotlights. Within the 3D grid, a further two-dimensional grid with additional lighting elements was integrated, supplemented by numerous moving spotlights.
Constraints such as the venue’s relatively low ceiling were creatively turned into advantages. A smartly designed ground support system created a theatrical proscenium arch that framed the stage and enabled dynamic camera shots from all angles.
From the earliest design phases, Depence played a central role in shaping the creative and technical process. 3D stage models from Vectorworks were imported via MVR and turned into interactive, true-to-scale visualizations in Depence. Associate Lighting Designer Morgan Evans was responsible for making the models, he developed the Depence Project – from simplified pre-rigs to a fully patched and animated production project with moving trusses, media servers, camera angles, special effects, and more.
Depence made that goal achievable: lighting cues, video content, timing, movement, and visual effects could all be tested and refined in real time – helping the team make confident creative decisions long before arriving on site.
During creative “speed dates” with the delegations of each country, realistic simulations rendered in Depence allowed the lighting team to preview full performances including camera movements, floor lighting, pixel content, and pyrotechnics - all from a single virtual project.
ESC 2025 was one of the most technically advanced productions ever visualized with Depence, with more than 800 DMX universes of lighting and effects simulated in real time. Thanks to the latest GPU hardware like the NVIDIA RTX 5090, the team could handle vast numbers of fixtures, moving elements, LED floors, and pixel-mapped screens without compromising performance or quality. “So, the performance for us has been really great. We're running over 800 universes of DMX as well as automation, video camera angles, and Depence is being able to keep up with all of that and more, so we're really, really happy with the performance.” Says associate Lightning designer Morgan Evans.
But Depence didn’t just serve the lighting department. Screenshots, camera views, and rendered animations were utilized across multiple departments, from rigging and automation to directing and content. The software proved to be an essential tool for communication, collaboration, and alignment between teams.
Another key factor in the show's success was the close collaboration between the design team and Syncronorm. With the Eurovision Song Contest pushing the boundaries of what’s technically possible, the demand for a reliable and responsive visualization system was higher than ever. The team worked with a large number of brand-new fixtures that had never been used in Depence before, requiring rapid integration and continuous software updates.
“We needed the system to be fully reliable […] If software and the fixtures changed, they've been working with us really fast to get us what we need, support us, help us with, you know, tweaking the software and giving us functionality that we needed.” -Tim Routledge, 2025
Thanks to this responsive partnership, the team could rely on Depence throughout every phase of the production.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 demonstrated once again how essential modern tools like Depence are for realizing world-class productions. It’s more than a visualization platform – it’s a creative engine, a simulation powerhouse, and a communication tool all in one.
With Depence, Routledge and his team turned a complex technical vision into a unified, breathtaking show experience – optimized, rehearsed, and pre-programmed before a single light was rigged. And when the show finally aired live to millions across the globe, the result was nothing short of spectacular.
Credits:
Lighting Designer: Tim Routledge
Associate Lighting Designer: James Scott, Morgan Evans
Programming, Operating Movinglights: Tom Young, Alex Mildenhall
Programming, Operating Keylight: Marc Nicholson
Latenight-Programmer: Alex Passmore, Martin Higgins
Follow-Spot-Caller: Louisa Smurthwaite
Gaffer: Keith Duncan, Mark Henry
