Four Weeks of PreViz and Programming
Long before the first truss arrived in Vienna's Stadthalle, the creative team spent more than four weeks inside Depence. Lighting Designer Tim Routledge, Associate Lighting Designer Morgan Evans and James Scott, the programming team, and the Syncronorm development team collaborated closely throughout the entire pre-production phase, refining every aspect of the show before rehearsals began.
Managing More Than 40 Unique Performances
Every competing delegation featured its own dedicated stage configuration. Inside Depence, these were organized into separate scene layers and automatically recalled using the platform's node-based Logic system via DMX. This allowed programmers to instantly switch between complete stage layouts, scenic elements, lighting states, camera environments, and media setups while working on more than thirty unique performances.
Over 14,000 Fixtures in Real Time
The scale of Eurovision 2026 pushed real-time visualization to an exceptional level. While the physical production featured more than 2,300 intelligent lighting fixtures, the addition of thousands of individually controllable LED pixel tubes resulted in a virtual environment of over 14,000 fixtures running simultaneously inside Depence. Despite this complexity, the software maintained a fully interactive real-time workflow throughout programming and rehearsals.
Connected to the grandMA3 Workflow
Connected directly to 11 grandMA3 lighting consoles, Depence provided immediate visual feedback for every lighting cue, fixture movement, stage transition, and media change. Designers and programmers could evaluate lighting, camera framing, kinetic movement, LED content, and timing months before load-in, dramatically reducing programming time on site.
From PreViz to Live Broadcast
By the time the first truss was flown into Vienna's Stadthalle, much of the show's visual language had already been programmed, refined, and approved inside Depence. Eurovision 2026 once again demonstrated how modern pre-visualization extends far beyond visualization alone. By combining real-time rendering, advanced lighting simulation, camera emulation, kinetic programming, and intelligent show logic in a single platform, Depence enabled the team to arrive on site with a production that was already largely complete, allowing rehearsals to focus on creative refinement rather than technical preparation.
