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The contest introduced colour TV, intercontinental voting systems and uses the world's largest LED displays.
The Eurovision Song Contest is a special occasion where countries like Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and many more come together under the same roof.
The contest, originally created to unite Europe after the war, also started as a technological experiment. On May 24 1956, Switzerland hosted and won the first edition, which was mainly broadcast on radio. TV footage of the event has been lost, apart from the winning entry.
Today, nearly 200 million viewers in Europe watch the show live every year. CBR has put together this 'making your mind up' list in the run up of this weekend's extravaganza.
Why? Because it's Eurovision.
1. European Broadcasting Union
Underestimated, the EBU is the most technological aspect of the contest itself.
The organisation was founded in 1950 and includes 72 public media outlets in Europe, Asia and North Africa.
After discussions for the ESC started in 1955, with the first edition in 1956, the EBU has been behind several advancements in the radio and TV industries.
The organisation has helped with the development of AES3, an AES/EBU digital audio interface, and was involved in the development of serial and parallel interfaces for digital video.
The EBU also started the Radio Data System used on FM broadcasting, which has become an international standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission.
The association, a member of the European P2P-Next project, also played a major role in the development of the radio data system (RDS), digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting (DVB) and high-definition TV (HDTV).
2. Colour TV
Probably the greatest...