Microsoft: Technology partner of Eurovision 2015
With nearly 200 million viewers, the Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s biggest entertainment show, and Microsoft will be providing valuable technical support and solutions.
Facilitating the live transmission across more than 45 different broadcasters around the world is Microsoft Azure, an open enterprise-grade cloud platform.
Microsoft Azure will also be providing video on demand to potentially an even wider audience, in addition to hosting the official Eurovision Song Contest app – available to download on Windows Phone in the next couple of weeks.
“We have a reliable partner with Microsoft, which has fully convinced us and met all of our requirements with innovative solutions at the highest level. Thus we make sure that the Eurovision Song Contest, on the motto of ‘Building Bridges‘, breaks in a new age of technology”, says Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor of the ESC from behalf of the European Broadcasting Union.
With the official Eurovision Song Contest app fans will receive live updates of the competition and have the chance to vote on the their favourite acts – right from a Lumia.
Behind the scenes at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 will be 800 volunteers, offering assistance to anybody who needs it.
Each volunteer will be equipped with a Lumia 535, the Eurovision Song Contest app, Yammer, and other services, apps and features that will ensure they’re kept up-to-date throughout the show.
“At Microsoft, we are dedicated to helping people achieve more as a mobile-first, cloud-first company, and the alliance with the Eurovision Song Content allows us to beautifully illustrate what this means. With our mobile technology – including powerful, yet affordable, Lumia handsets coupled with apps like Yammer – even teams working internationally under tight deadlines can work seamlessly, anytime, anywhere. And, with our cloud, any organization can quickly scale to meet demand, even if it’s around one of the biggest international entertainment events of the year”, says Microsoft Austria’s CEO Georg Obermeier.
The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place on the 19th, 21st and 23rd of May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. Don’t forget to tune in and vote, using the Eurovision Song Contest app.