Hailed as one of the biggest live broadcast events in the world, the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest transformed Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle into a complex production environment over the course of two semi-finals and the grand final on May 16th. The indoor arena welcomed approximately 10,500 attendees and 35 competing acts, while the contest reached a global audience of 131 million viewers throughout Europe and beyond.
The 2026 production introduced several new approaches designed to enhance the auditory experience for audiences and performers alike, including Eurovision’s first cardioid PA system, built around L-Acoustics K3 loudspeaker clusters, as well as Sennheiser Spectera for microphones and in-ears. The audio team, led by sound engineer Richard Redl and mixing engineer Johannes Minichmayr, also faced the more complex challenge of how to make sound inside the venue follow the visual focus of the show as attention moved between two stages: the main stage and the green room. Amadeus Acoustics would provide the spatial control needed to make this shift in perspective feel natural to a live audience.
Located at the far end of the arena hall, the green room was where the competitors would gather before their performances and where presenters would visit between segments to speak with the artists. For the audience, the audio team wanted to create the effect of those voices coming naturally from the relevant area of the venue, rather than appearing to come from the main stage PA. This introduced the idea to reverse the perceived direction of the PA, shifting the audience’s sonic focus from the front of the arena to the rear. Critically, the team did not want this shift to feel like an abrupt snapshot change – the transition needed to be smooth enough for the audience to follow the changing visuals without being distracted by the technology behind it.
The implementation of Amadeus ART Immersive enabled the team to reposition the sound image in real time, maintaining alignment between what the audience saw and what they heard. Rather than using continuously moving positions, the system was applied to create controlled transitions between two fixed spatial locations of the main stage and the green room. The system was connected to the wider show infrastructure via Dante, with Amadeus’ ART::IP providing the immersive processing module and ART::Director serving as the software interface between the mixing console, DirectOut PRODIGY system, and spatial audio workflow. The fixed main stage and green room positions allowed audio snapshots to be triggered through an OSC Stream Deck. Fade times were then used between these positions, enabling the perceived sound image to shift smoothly rather than jump from one location to another. This gave the team a simple operational workflow for switching the perceived sound image during the show.
Across the event, the Amadeus ART system was used every time the hosts spoke from the green room, while its use for music was reserved for one key moment: the grand finale opening ceremony. During the ceremony, which featured a
performance by the previous year’s winner that blended Mozart-inspired elements, dancers, acrobats and an orchestra, the ART::IP module played a crucial role. With the orchestra in the green room, the team needed to fade the full mix to the reverse PA while preserving timing, localisation, and musical continuity. The Amadeus ART system allowed easy alignment of the loudspeaker clusters for the reverse PA setup, ensuring a smooth transition that left no abrupt pauses or noticeable changes. Music, presenters, and wider show audio therefore remained naturally connected to the visual production.
On the night of the Eurovision grand final, Wiener Stadthalle came alive with cheering crowds and high-energy performances. Inside the arena, Amadeus Acoustics helped deliver a sound design that was precise, responsive and closely aligned with the visual show, exceeding expectations for a production where every cue, transition, and audience moment had to feel effortless. “We spent a lot of time assessing the brief and the best way to approach it,” says Richard Redl. “We discussed the possibilities closely with our technical production partner, Agora, who had no previous experience with Amadeus Acoustics but were open to trying something new. From the very first test run, everyone was thrilled with the result. During our second checks, members of the production team told us they believed it was the best sounding Eurovision Austria had ever hosted”.
Looking ahead, Minichmayr sees particular potential for Amadeus ART Immersive in future musical productions, where spatial precision, automation, and creative flexibility can be used to support performers, staging and movement. The value of the platform lies not only in its spatial audio capabilities, but also in the speed and simplicity of its workflow. The ability to import 3D data, automate objects, work with tracking position
data and allow the system to calculate alignment automatically opens up creative possibilities for productions where sound design must follow action on stage with ease and accuracy. “This was the first time Eurovision had used immersive spatial audio this way,” continues Redl. “Perhaps in future years we can take it further. There may be potential for more targeted uses such as these specific production moments. What we do know is that this year Amadeus Acoustics worked really well, everybody loved it, and we will see what comes next.”
