Morse code at Eurovision 1917 ?A report suggests Morse code may be used between the Heliport and the Kyiv International Exhibition Center during the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine

A ESCKAZ website report on the success of Kyiv in beating rival cities of Dnipro and Odessa to host the contest says:

"There is an idea to make a connection between locations using a type of Morse code. Guests of the Eurovision will be able to communicate from the roof of the heliport with flashing lights, waving flags with those who will be in IEC and in this way supporting their countries", say in the IEC."

ESCKAZ Eurovision 2017

Kyiv will host Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The main venue of the contest is the International Exhibition Center on the left bank of Dnieper river. Host city of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was announced on 9 September, at 12:00 CET at the special briefing in the press-center of Government House. According to Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko host city was chosen by 19 votes of the 22 members of the organizing committee which were present, two voted for Odessa and one abstained.

"Kyiv has the best infrastructure, there are two airports, there is a sufficient number of hotels, there is a lot of things for which other cities would have needed to spend considerable time", stated at the press-conference Minister of Culture Ievhen Nyschuk. Kyiv also was recommendation of EBU, admitted Nyschuk, "Because European institutions have the way of thinking in order to avoid any possibilities of risks and problems". At the same time in Dnipro there were questions to the arena proposal, which required start of constructions already a month ago. However, the project itself was good, notes Nyschuk. "I think they would have been able to do everything in time", he said. Another issue with Dnipro was a lack of certified hotels, instead of them it was planned to use cruise ships. In Odessa, there were questions towards the project with the covering of "Chernomorets" stadium, but as Nyschuk noted, experienced foreign companies were involved in it. On his own questions what was the wisdom of spending such huge funds for a one-time solution, since the roof has to be dismantled and removed after the show - representatives of Odessa assured it will be moved to "Spartak" stadium to turn it into covered arena. It was planned that the work in Odessa was due to start in late November - early December - and completed by March, very close to the Eurovision dates. Another issue was Odessa Airport, although there was obtained guarantee of its readiness by March. In Odessa and Dnipro there were safety issues as well.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro: SWOT-analysis by NTU Director General Zurab Alasania. KYIV...

Posted by ESCKAZ.com / ESCCovers / OGAE Rest of the World / Eurovision South Africa on Friday, September 9, 2016

"In fact, an important component were financial guarantees. You know that the government has fulfilled its financial guarantees in front of EBU. Accordingly, it was very important to focus on covering the large part of the guarantee by the city, which is committed to host the contest", Nyschuk said. Odessa was ready to invest 150 mln UAH directly to the contest, 300 mln - to cover the Arena, and 1 billion UAH to the infrastructure, which in any case would be used for this purpose. Kyiv has guaranteed to allocate not less that 200 million UAH for the contest itself and again 1 billion UAH for the preparation of location and infrastructure. "It was a really serious competition, there was a lot of discussions, debates, each issue was discussed throughout - it was a very long process, and up to today's vote, no one knew who would be the winner", said Ievhen Nyschuk.

Director General of NTU Zurab Alasania noted the role of the President and Prime minister of the country in the setting up of the decisive meeting of the Organizing Committee, while noting that their merit has been primarily in the collection together of all the decision-makers to participate in this meeting in which the decision was made. According to him, the next step of the organizing committee will be work on the budget of the contest. "Everything has been open, the decision was not taken by one person, but the whole committee, but all the same, people are not happy, and are asking why it took so long - but precisely because there was a real discussion and decision making process" he said.

On Monday in Berlin will take place meeting of the Reference Group of the contest, which will be attended by NTU representatives. Alasania also said that Ukraine in the organization of the contest will receive assistance from the Swedish capital Stockholm. "Half of the EBU delegation, which arrives at the end of next week, will be from Stockholm. It is Stockholm's contribution to the Eurovision, not only financial, but overall, which was recognized by the EBU as the most significant of all the host cities of recent years. There will be employees of Stockholm city administration, who will show us what can be done and how. There will also be five Eurovision specialists - executive supervisor and technical specialists".

"I am concerned about what kind of partner Kyiv may turn to be, how correctly and precisely they will manage finances, how timely everything will be done", said Alasania, mentioning that locations of Euroclub, Eurovillage, Venue and adjacent places, official hotels have to be ready by the end of January, when insignia transfer ceremony will take place. Separate tenders/competitions are planned for the visual design of the contest, host positions, contractor etc, he added.

Jon Ola Sand, the EBU’s Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest commented: "After a thorough selection process, we are very pleased to be announcing today that NTU will be working with Kyiv as host city for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. We would like to congratulate NTU on their extensive and careful assessments of each bid. Kyiv presented an excellent case and we are looking forward to working together to create the most electrifying show yet next May".

Check reaction to the announcement by Mayors of Kyiv, Dnipro and Odessa and other members of the bid teams here.

Kyiv

Kyiv: Largest city in Ukraine, TripAdvisor destination #1 in Ukraine; Population: 2,900,920, Area: 839 sq.km.; 725 km to ATO zoneHotels: 265 hotels, capacity: 23.000 in Region (19.500 in Kyiv itself)5* - 6 hotels, 1500 beds, 4* - 36 hotels, 3700 beds, 3* - 43 hotels, 3889 beds.Airports: 2 international airports: Boryspil: International flights to Amsterdam, Ankara, Athens, Baku, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Chisinau, Frankfurt, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Larnaca, London, Madrid, Milan, Minsk, Munich, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Sofia, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Tel-Aviv, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Yerevan, Zurich and other cities; Zhuliany: Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Cologne,

Dortmund, Gdansk, Hamburg, Larnaca, London, Minsk, Rome, Tbilisi, Vilnius and other cities. Urban transport: metro, bus, tram, trolleybus, intra-city ring railway service.

"We only have one year to ensure that we can organize Eurovision at the high level. In Kyiv we have all the facilities, all the infrastructure, and we have previously carried out major European events, this applies also to the Eurovision Song Contest when Ruslana won", - immediately after the victory of Jamala said the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko. "We do not fear competition, and are willing to speak the language of numbers, thus we are confident that Kyiv figures are much better than in all other candidate cities",- he said. "Not the last role plays the issue of the security. Let us remember how passed the Equality March in Kyiv and how in Lviv," recalls the head of the Office of Tourism of Kyiv city administration Anton Taranenko. "I think that the competition can be hosted only in Kyiv. Such traffic and the number of flights can be offered only by the city of chestnuts", he said.

Kyiv city administration had formed organizing committee for hosting of ESC 2017 in Kyiv already back in May. Kyiv has officially expressed interest to host the contest on 29 June and was the first of cities to submit finalized 450 pages long bid on 5 July. In several interviews at the time of submission of the bid mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko mentioned 3 possible options: Palace of Sports (citing capacity of 10.000), NSC Olimpiyskiy (70.000) and International Exhibition Center (50.000). Representatives of first 2 of the mentioned venues were invited to the meeting of the Kyiv city organization committee on 29 June and were provided access to the bid documents.

In the bid, Kyiv city administration also mentioned that it can organize the contest completely on the city budget costs. On 21 July city council has addressed an appeal to the Organizing Committee guaranteeing all the necessary funding of the contest. In order to be able to finance

the renovation of state owned facility "Sports Palace", KCSA will address to the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to transfer it to the municipal property. Details of funding without costs for the renovation of the arena were announced only for the plan with "Sports Palace" so may be slightly incorrect: Kyiv administration allocated at least 200.000 UAH (6.7 mln Euro) for the organization of the events themselves, including: press center: 30 million; Euroclub: 32 million; Eurovillage: 12 million; Opening Ceremony: 4 million UAH; Closing Ceremony: 4 million, fan zones, excursions etc. Over 1 billion UAH can be used for creation and renovation of the necessary infrastructure associated with the locations of the contest. At the same time Kyiv is hoping to get profit of 20 mln Euros from foreign tourists, expecting 20-30.000 guests for 10 days average spending 100 Euro per day. On the question of Deputy director general of the NTU Olexander Harebyn, if Kyiv is ready to fully fund the contest, allocating the entire budget of 15 million Euro, Olexii Reznikov said that "It is theoretically possible, since the surplus of the budget of Kyiv is nearly 5 billion UAH, and it is a matter for further discussions with the EBU and NTU to sign three side agreement to make the city become an official co-organizer of the contest, receiving corresponding rights".

International Exhibition Center: constructed in 2002-2005, total capacity: 50.000, capacity for Eurovision: 11.000-12.000. Privately owned venue.Originally IEC made it to the Kyiv bid only as the back up option, for the case the hockey issue with the "Palace of Sports" will not be solved. As representatives of IEC informed ESCKAZ on 6 July, after the official bid from Kyiv was already submitted, that at this stage they were not invited to the organizing committee meeting, nor contacted with any other negotiations. According to Anton Taranenko main issue why IEC was originally considered as back up option is that it's located on the left bank of Dnieper and served only by one metro station (despite it is located just 400 meters away from "Livoberezhna" station), compared to four located near Palace of Sports and Olimpiyskiy. However, later emphasis of the city authorities has been shifting to this option, which after Organizing committee inspection started to be considered as priority, and on 10 August Zurab Alasania stated in the interview to Espresso that this is now preferred option of Kyiv, while Sports Palace option was rejected.

Interestingly, IEC started as the preferred location for the Eurovision 2005, and actually second and third pavilions were designed having the Eurovision conditions in mind as well, their construction started on 9 June 2004. However, since they were not ready yet, upon EBU inspection, on 4 September 2004, it was decided to give the hosting to a safer option - "Sports Palace". Pavilions were put into operation in 2006 and since then IEC has hosted several high profile concerts: Rammstein, Scorpions, Deep Purple, А-Ha, The Prodigy, Armin van Buuren, 30 Seconds To Mars, Tiesto, Nightwish, Megadeth with capacity from 12 to 17.000 viewers.

IEC is proposing to combine 2nd exhibition hall (6.600 sq. m.) and 3rd exhibition hall (10.854 sq. m.) in a single venue (130 m length, 60m width in the stage zone, 95m width in the audience zone), and to construct amphitheatre-like seating facilities. Height of halls (floor-to-ceilings) in the central part is 15 (at Green room zone) to 25 m (at stage zone) (which is higher than at Sports Palace (18 m) or Halle D of Wiener Stadthalle (16 m). Height at side sections, where stands will be located is around 10m. The stage space is over 55x40 meters, which will allow to comfortably locate any stage (in 2016 stage was 24x16m with LED wall 37x10 m with overall stage space of 50x32m).

Special rigging design allows super heavy light and sound constructions, rig in any part of the stage is designed for loads up to 1 ton per square meter, while rigs in the middle of the second hall allow up to 240 tons. The complex has 15 entrances, allowing to deliver large loads of equipment on the TIR transport directly to the exhibition halls. Next to the main halls in the structure of the complex there are 16 conference halls, dressing rooms and other facilities that can be used for make-up, various service centers, while 1st exhibition hall (10.564 sq. m) can accommodate the international press center, using local computer network with Internet speed of at least 1 GB/s, wi-fi speed of at least 100 Mb/s. IEC has a modern fixed optical fiber line for transmitting a signal directly to the TV center of the National Television Company of Ukraine.

Preliminary plan of the International Exhibition Center includes 5 stands of 550+1200+1500+1200+550=5000 seats + 6000 standing fan zone places = total capacity of 11000. Also, 50 commentary booths will be installed. We have to note this is just a working version, and may be changed in course of preparations.

ESCKAZ was the first media to publish the proposal of IEC:

International Exhibition Center in Kyiv, in principle, is ready to host the Eurovision 2017 shows, but at this moment it...

Posted by ESCKAZ.com / ESCCovers / OGAE Rest of the World / Eurovision South Africa on Wednesday, July 6, 2016

For the latest details on IEC plans, you can watch the detailed report by Hromadske (English translation by ESCKAZ, subtitles can be switched below the video)

Watch concert video from IEC, for example here.

According to the Minister of Culture Ievhen Nyshchuk at the ICC it is required to conduct the works to improve the acoustics, to prepare infrastructure, adjacent locations, to do landscape design, to install the waterbus stops, to purchase water crafts themselves and to develop their work plan, and so on. Capacity of IEC for the competition will be 12-14 thousand people, depending on the final layout of the hall. One of the issues discussed by the ICC was that although it's height is 25 meters, in one place there is a girder, which reduces the height to 18 meters, however, according to Zurab Alasania - it is not critical.

"We have a huge parking lot, large entrance points, where at the same time 6-12 doors can be opened, welcoming the guests. Spacious WCs, each of 20-25 cabins. We need to slightly modernize ventilation, to purchase few new air-conditioner", said to "Segodnya" deputy head of the department of organization and planning of events of IEC Valeria Safornova. It is already known how will be decided problem with the long-term construction near the "Livoberezhna" metro. "It can be decorated by panels in the Eurovision 2017 colours, which

will resemble a semi-circular TV screen. And unfinished buildings near IEC can be covered in the form of embroidered shirts with birds", says Safonova.

Press-center will be located at it's premises - 1st pavilion, while Euroclub and Eurovillage will remain at the right bank, as Eurovillage will be used Sofiyska square (1 km from "Khreshchatyk" metro station, 700 m from "Maidan Nezalezhnosti" station), and as Euroclub - Congress Exhibition Center "Parkovy" located at former Heliport at Parkova alley, near Mariinski park (850 meters from "Arsenalna" metro station), which offers two exhibition halls - of 2000 and 1400 sq.m., overall capacity: 3000 people. It is planned that the Arena will be served by additional water-bus route from River terminal at Poshtova square, that is further connected by funicular train and Mykhaylivska square and a further 600 meters walk to Sofiyska square. It is also planned to introduce waterbus route from IEC to Metromost wharf, from which it would be possible to walk to Euroclub. Three main Eurovision locations will also be connected with a shuttle bus route.

"The heliport on the Right Bank offers a full view on the IEC. There is an idea to make a connection between locations using a type of Morse code. Guests of the Eurovision will be able to communicate from the roof of the heliport with flashing lights, waving flags with those who will be in IEC and in this way supporting their countries", say in the IEC.

In 2005, while developing project of the International Exhibition Center, Architecture and City Planning Council of Kyiv has proposed to reconstruct the traffic interchange near the metro station "Livoberezhna" to create entrance of the transport to the complex through a tunnel from the Metro bridge, to built pedestrian under- and overpasses from the metro station to IEC, as well as to build a 5-star hotel on the site of a unfinished building of the State Logistics Committee of the USSR, the construction of which began in 1984 and by 2005 had already been frozen. It is possible that construction projects of tunnel and crossings will resurface this year again.

The red carpet event at the Opening of the contest will be located on Sofiyska Square, where Eurovillage will also be located. "We propose to hold the opening ceremony on the territory of St. Sophia Cathedral - the world famous UNESCO site. Along with the opening ceremony

at the Sophia area, we will open the central fan zone that will allow thousands of tourists to be involved in the Eurovision Song Contest and become participants of this event," says deputy mayor Olexii Reznikov. The closing ceremony of the contest will be held in the museum complex "Mystetskyi Arsenal", however, the option to switch opening/closing locations is also considered.

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In total, five fan-zones are planned at Sofiyska, Kontraktova, Mykhaylivska, Poshtova and Troyitska squares. All of them will be operating for 2 weeks and special entertainment program is already being created for each of them. Kyiv expects up to 30.000 visitors of the city, who will be able to visit these public viewing area and watch contest on huge screens. At each of the squares will be installed 11 huge plates decorated with Petrykivka painting, for each country participating in the contest complete with flag, coat of arms, the landscape of the country allowing all foreign guests to make photos next to it. After the Eurovision plates will be moved either to Volodymyrska Girka park or to T.Shevchenko boulevard.