May 19, 2025 - Basel, Switzerland
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 brought its iconic production to Basel, Switzerland this May - and for the third consecutive year, MATools plugins played a pivotal role in supporting one of the most complex lighting productions on the live events calendar.
Transforming Workflow Across Isolated Sessions
With a lighting rig of unprecedented scale, this year's setup ran across three GrandMA3 sessions - one for key lighting and two for effect lighting. Using the MArkers plugins, the team maintained fully synchronized cue lists and timecode values across all sessions.
"Using the MArkers suite of products allows us to have totally synchronised cuelists and timecode events," said Tom Young. "When one of us makes a change, it can be instantly transferred to all, despite being in isolated sessions. It also makes cue-based editing incredibly easy - we all share the same cue numbering."
Alex Mildenhall added: "MArkers was an invaluable tool in the process of preparing and editing timecode. It meant all three consoles could run in sync as if driven from a single source, and edits were easily kept up-to-date across the system."
Introducing Trader: Cross-Session and Network-Based Show Sharing
The team also piloted a new beta plugin, Trader, developed for importing/exporting show data and dependencies across sessions - both live and visualised. This allowed for real-time collaboration between operators on the main rig and programmers working in Depence.
"This plugin had two massive benefits," Young explained. "Alex and I could share objects while working in separate sessions, and our associate programmers could send us updated sequences and timecode remotely from Depence, even while we were making notes on site."
RecipeTools: Programming Speed with MA3 Power
Another addition this year was the integration of RecipeTools, a plugin suite built to simplify and accelerate programming within the MA3 recipe workflow.
"RecipeTools meant we could program at the speed we're used to with traditional workflows," said Young, "but we still gained all the benefits of MA3's powerful recipe system."
Building Phasers at Speed with the MATools PhaserCollection
The team also relied heavily on our PhaserCollection which comprises of FlyoutMAker, BounceMAker, and RandomMAker to craft Eurovision's signature fast-moving, evolving effects.
"These tools are essential when building and refining complex effects quickly," said Mildenhall. "They let us experiment and iterate on looks without getting bogged down by repetitive programming."
GridMAster: Advanced Selections for Complex Designs
With intricate pixel arrangements across the back wall and stage set, GridMAster provided the flexibility needed to move beyond MA3's existing grid layouts.
"I was able to use GridMAster extensively on the back wall of pixellines to create shapes that broke away from the usual linear or blocky looks," said Young. "It also let us apply phasers on custom radial selection grids, giving our effects a much more unique character. The ability to manipulate selection grids visually was a huge time saver."
PatchImporter for Fixture Management
The project's evolving design required responsive patch management - and PatchImporter proved invaluable for importing and updating specific patch fields without disrupting the broader showfile.
Responsive Support and Ongoing Development
Beyond the toolset itself, the MATools team provided hands-on support throughout the production.
"The support from MATools was exceptional," said Young. "Given the size, scale and complexity of the project, we ran into a few unique issues - but they were super quick to respond with fixes and updates when needed."
What's Next for MATools
With Eurovision 2025 in the books, the MATools development team is pushing ahead with new updates and features for their expanding plugin suite, including:
- Real-time sync in MArkersPRO
- Selective dependency imports and exports in Trader
Designed to meet the demands of arena-scale productions and modern programming workflows, MATools continues to put speed, reliability, and creativity at the heart of its plugin ecosystem.
About MATools
MATools creates innovative, user-focused plugins for GrandMA3 lighting consoles. Our goal is to streamline workflows and enable lighting programmers to focus more on design and creativity, and less on repetitive technical steps.
Eurovision 2025 Lighting Credits:
- Lighting Designer: Tim Routledge
- Associate Lighting Designers: James Scott, Morgan Evans
- Lighting Programmers: Alex Mildenhall, Tom Young, Marc Nicholson, Alex Passmore, Martin Higgins
- Followspot Caller: Louisa Smurthwaite