For the first time ever, Eurovision Song Contest viewers across Europe voted using their Android smartphones, thanks to technology provided by TECTONIC® Interactive, a start-up based in London’s Tech City.
TECTONIC® Interactive were selected by digame mobile, the official voting provider for the Eurovision Song Contest, as their technology partner. Tectonic Interactive provided the high-capacity gateway for voting by Android devices across all participating European countries.
With the Official App of the Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovision has ventured further than the realm of telephony and SMS voting, signifying a key move forward for the largest voting show in the world.
Tectonic Interactive was selected because their specialist technology handles the voting peak from TV viewers and app-users during the 15-minute vote window.
The Tectonic Platform connected the viewers’ Android app to digame’s pan-European voting system based in Cologne, Germany.
The technology was developed by two ex-BT employees who recognised that more and more viewers are interacting with TV shows using their smartphones and tablets and that TV Broadcasters needed a platform that is reliable, secure and highly scaled. Andy Shaw ( ex Business Development Director at BT Agilemedia ) and Wojciech Nowak ( ex Head of Technology at BT Agilemedia ) helped develop the UK’s largest phone voting platform whilst they were at BT and they have now turned their hand to do the same for IP-connected devices.
Alex Moulakakis, MD digame mobile GmbH said:
“We only work with strong partners who understand the demands of Europe’s largest interactive TV event. From companies across Europe, we turned to Tectonic Interactive because they have the technology, the expertise and the team we knew we could rely on – and they did a great job. We look forward to working again on future projects.”
Andy Shaw, Tectonic Interactive’s CEO said:
“The Eurovision Song Contest is Europe’s largest voting show and it was an honour to be picked by digame as a key technology provider for the voting by tablet and smartphone. When millions of people want to have their say, they just expect it to work – and it did. We are happy to be part of the team that delivered a great service. We are now looking forward to help making it bigger and better next year.”
Wojciech Nowak, Tectonic Interactive’s CTO said:
“You need highly optimised technology to handle this number of interactions in such a short period of time accurately and securely. Working with cutting-edge technology at this scale means that Tectonic Interactive do all the difficult back-end stuff, so that the app developers can focus on the user experience and being creative. For us, the difficult bit is more interesting and that is our specialism.”
