Because the Eurovision Song Contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBUs primary purpose is to develop and manage technical standards for European TV and Radio. The FLAC audio file format for example was developed in part by the EBU. They are here to make sure a TV or Radio bought in Portugal will also work in Finland and every country in between.
As such they don’t really care all that much whether a country is technically located in Europe or not. As long as it makes sense for a country to be part in the European Broadcasting Area it is allowed to join the organisation. That’s why North African countries such as Egypt are part of the EBU and that’s why Israel is a full member.
Australias case is a bit different. They are here despite not being full members. The participating broadcaster SBS is merely an associate member giving them the same status as American networks CBS or NBC. The inclusion of the singers from down under started as a joke to celebrate the shows anniversary and then they stuck around because SBS payed enough money and general audiences liked the idea.
You are correct. They are using the file format heavily but didn’t develop it initially. The German wikipedia page is a bit confusingly laid out in that regard leading to my mistake (They are classifing the use as a “tecnical development” along with the stuff the EBU actually developed).
The EBU is and was involved in the development of technical specs such as DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) or DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) but FLAC isn’t one of them.
Yes, if only because the Peacock app is hit or miss for me depending on the device. It’s good on Xbox but I also have my Xbox on a 4K TV with a soundbar. We don’t really have seating for the people coming to watch in that room today, though. The TV downstairs where we have room is on an Apple TV and the Peacock app specifically seems to be sending channel 1 and 2 of the 5.1 mix to the TV’s stereo speakers instead of the stereo mix, so the vocals are almost inaudible. Peacock is the only app doing this. I forced the Apple TV audio settings to stereo instead of auto, but it seems like it’s making a stereo mix out of the 5.1 mix instead so while it’s improved, it’s still not great. The Peacock app also randomly stops letting us rewind or fast forward, only allowing us to restart the program, change subtitles, or view additional info. I have to back out of the stream and then resume from last watch to rewind or fast forward. Peacock is the only app where I have this problem. I’m debating switching to an old Roku but I think I’ll just move the Xbox and soundbar downstairs because I know it will sound better. Maybe use the Roku with the soundbar but then I’ll be relying on WiFi.
UPDATE: Keeping the Apple TV forced to stereo and using the soundbar seems adequate. Still not sure if Peacock is giving the official stereo mix or the Apple TV is having to force one out of the 5.1 mix, but I’m still confident this is ultimately Peacock delivering the stream wrong.
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