News Blog

Production Resource Group, L.L.C. (PRG), the world’s leading supplier of entertainment and event technology, announces a multi-million dollar investment in assets and personnel at its operation in Saudi Arabia following the group’s strongest performing year in the region, Peter McCann, CEO for PRG in the Middle East announced today. 

Located in the Riyadh Industrial Zone, the 40,000sqft facility is equipped with high-end assets and resources in video, audio, lighting, rigging and staging technologies. 

Tom Van Hemelryck, Co - President EMEA & APAC said, “We are delighted to see our ongoing work with live event producers in Saudi Arabia evolve further and at such pace”, adding, ”This investment is instrumental in guaranteeing that  our globalclients  will have access to world-class expertise and technology when working with PRG across Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.” 

PRG’s Managing Director for the Saudi Operation, Bruce Mac Lean, commented, “Current client demand and the increasing market opportunities across GCC territories is exciting.  Over the last five years we have seen rapid growth within the event and entertainment sector in Saudi Arabia, featuring both local and international artists and an increase in world-class events.  We’ve enjoyed great success in the region to-date and our mission now is to ensure we can service the increasing customer requirement at good pace and efficiently, whilst also developing the next generation of technical expertise within the local talent pool.”

Media contact EMEA & APAC: Valérie Cuno vcuno@prg.com
Media contact UAE & KSA: Harriet Stewart hstewart@prg.com
Sales enquires in Saudi Arabia: Adam Rhodes arhodes@prg.com  

For their 40th anniversary, the French band Indochine certainly didn’t do things by halves. Originally scheduled to take place in June 2021, the 45m high tower with a diameter of 30m has been in the works for 2 years. With 6 concerts on the agenda, the Indochine Central Tour performed in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and closed with two concerts in Lille for their fans from Belgium to be able to come and sing along.

Imagined and sketched by the singer and leader of the band Nicola Sirkis himself, the design of the system presented a particular challenge. The entire rigging construction and sound system had to be invisible whilst still providing the best audio experience for the audience in the stadium. This meant that all the speakers needed to be placed inside the tower, behind the massive 360° LED wall, a groundbreaking concept in event technology.

Based on Nicola’s design, PRG France & PRG Projects worked tirelessly to make his dream a technical reality. Built in conjunction with StageCo, the tower was composed of specially manufactured Titan-X LED and PRG’s latest innovation of the SoundBlast Solution definitely is one for the books! “Nicola wanted to offer an unforgettable experience to all the fans. Building a 360° tower in the middle of the stadium with the audio and lighting inside would allow everyone to see better and be immersed in the pure musical performance and the artistic presence,” says Stéphane Desch, Director of Production. He adds, “He sent me multiple sketches of what he had imagined about two years ago and we started from that. In fact, the end result is very close to his original concept.” 

While part of the PRG team started drawing up technical plans and diagrams of the tower, PRG Projects started developing and manufacturing an LED product that would make this endeavor possible. In response to Nicola Sirkis' vision, the 360° tower would need to be fitted with a customized LED screen, specifically developed and manufactured for the Indochine Central Tour, providing a solution that integrated the entire sound system, lighting and all of the cabling within the tower behind the LED screen, to be as streamlined as imagined. 

“When we saw Nicola's first drawings, we immediately saw that there were some challenges. Firstly, we had to find a solution to place the sound behind the video screen and there was no solution to that at the time. Secondly, it was the height of the screen. The height of the screen meant that we had to create a new, very light product that had all the features of the PRG SpaceframeTM, including wind bracing, built into it,” says Frederic Opsomer, General Manager of PRG Projects. “At the same time, we needed a product with a transparency of over 70% to allow the sound to penetrate from the back of the screen into the stadium. This meant that we needed to develop a new product.”

INFiLED and PRG worked together closely to develop the TITAN-X. From the first drawing to a 1850m2 setup for the Indochine Central Tour, the collaboration and the combination of the PRGs know-how and INFILEDs agile developing capability has played a major role. R&D teams from Belgium, the UK and China worked tirelessly during more than 9 months on this project and created the ultimate, robust, mesh rental & touring solution with the foldable X-frame structure for a new level of stability. We’re delighted to have collaborated with such a long-term and strong partner like PRG on this impressive project!”, stipulates Michael Hao, CEO at INFILED.

The next challenge was to install the complete sound system behind the LED wall. This would allow for the images on the tower, fitted with 360° LED, to be enjoyed to their fullest, without any audio stacks obstructing the video content. PRG Projects carried out numerous tests with several audio manufacturers and developed the SoundBlast Solution which uses the weight of the audio as a ballast behind the LED screen to support the weight and structure of the LED installation.  

“The Titan-X and the PRG SoundBlast Solution will allow us to take a step forward in the development of large videos and video content design because being able to place the sound behind the video screen has been the dream of all designers!” adds Opsomer.

Standing at 45m tall, the Indochine Tower was fitted with 2500 m2 of Titan-X, creating a video wall that was 30m in diameter and 24m high. This gigantic construction in its whole  takes about 3 days to assemble and weighs 260 tons. The LED setup weighs 65t and takes 16h to be installed. With its 26, 542, 080 pixels (9216 x 2880) the images on the Titan-X as well as on the central screen in ROE CB5 below, were processed by 7 disguise GX2 servers.

PRG's Technical Director, Romuald Beaufour, who drew up the plans and initial diagrams of the tower comments: "The installation of our Titan-X in stadiums was sometimes complex because the tower protruded from certain stadiums (in height) which posed problems for the municipalities. In order to comply with the relevant legislations, the tower had to withstand a 72km/h wind speed for 3 seconds.”

The lighting kit was made of 1360 lighting fixtures, including LED Striplights and Floods, MAC Viper Wash, Movinghead Impressions X4, LITECRAFT OutLED AT10.plus, ELATION Proteus Smarty Hybrid IP65, and last but not least, 8 PRG GroundControl Longthrow Followspots.

Lighting Designer Jean Christophe Aubrée describes: “There were a lot of challenges in terms of lighting, which is mainly due to the 360° configuration of the tower. The idea was to be able to create some volume in all of this and to use the surfaces, the seats, and the structures of the stadium a little differently. We positioned lighting all directions, from both inside and outside of the tower. We also had to carefully consider the size and weight of our fixtures, since they all had to fit into the tower. Working with a 3D model allowed us to visualise the project more effectively, since sometimes you tend to lose the feeling of distance and dimensions a little.”  

In total, 250 technicians were mobilised for the entire Indochine tour and more than 950 shift workers were hired. The PRG touring crew represented 9 different nationalities. “Whether it was PRG Belgium, PRG Projects or PRG France: everyone got involved in this beautiful project. Everyone did a great job. We brought people together from all over the world to grow this team for the tour. It was wonderful to see the synergies and sharing of know-how. But the success of this adventure is also a choice of companies with whom we collaborated. Everyone contributed to this. Whether it's StageCo for the structure or MPM for the sound, this all is a big part of the success of the adventure!” finalizes Laurent Boillot, Production Director, PRG France.

During the concert on June 25, 2022 at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, 22 digital cameras recorded the show, allowing Indochine to offer a retransmission of the concert from November 24th, 2022 in IMAX cinemas, the world's first live concert filmed in its entirety for IMAX.

Produce. Rehearse. Go Live.

The Bridge is an exciting and unique addition to the PRG UK network, opening a hub for productions of all sizes in the heart of the country. The space has been designed to be completely flexible and has the power to support whatever your production needs. Located just next door to the PRG UK headquarters in Longbridge, the space richly benefits from a direct link to PRGs wealth of equipment and expertise onsite. From truck splits and prep to full studio productions and pre-production rehearsals, The Bridge can deliver.

Production teams have complete privacy at The Bridge, with access to the space and the resources to run their projects through from planning to show day.

Backstage, it offers a spacious 170sqm office space including: a modern kitchen, showers, accessible bathrooms, bright and comfortable green room and artist dressing rooms, plus spacious production offices, a board room and a gallery viewing space.

Downstairs, The Bridge is home to a 17m x 35m clear floor production area with a minimum 6.2m height clearance. Wall and ceiling drapes line the space and spray insulation has been provided to ensure heating and soundproofing. The space includes a 400A 3 Phase Powerlock, dedicated highspeed production internet, 24hr secure access, and parking for cars, tour buses and trailers. 

“With the introduction of The Bridge to our Longbridge location, we are harnessing the power, space, technical capability, and world-class experience of our business and people. It really is a flexible space that offers solutions for live event productions.” Yvonne Donnelly Smith, Sales Director – Music, PRG UK.

To see how The Bridge can help your production, contact the team at thebridgeuk@prg.com.

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After an impressive debut in 2019, EDM fans have waited with bated breath for the return of MDLBEAST Soundstorm – the world’s largest (and loudest) festival. The wait was certainly worthwhile, and Soundstorm 2021 roared back into the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh with an even grander and extraordinary second edition. The line-up across the four-day festival featured the biggest names in dance music, including: Martin Garrix, David Guetta, DJ Snake and Tiësto, as well as 11 of the Arab world’s biggest stars, from Nancy Ajram and Elissa to Tamer Hosny and Amr Diab. These performers and over 700,000 fans partied across eight stages, including the behemoth main stage “Big Beast” which stood at 250m wide and 42m tall – one of the world’s tallest and largest stages! PRG were on hand yet again to provide 360° technical support for Big Beast, as well as site-wide EVAC PA and lighting activations for one of the site’s “VIB” entrance gates and projection mapping of the MDL Town Sculpture.



This epic vision for the main stage was a huge undertaking for the PRG team. PRG supplied gear from its newly established Riyadh warehouse, and this was then supplemented by various European depots. Over the course of our 7 months of continuous prep and planning and almost 3 months of set up on site, we delivered nearly 600 tons of technology; including the stage’s entire video, lighting, audio, comms and rigging package.

The record-breaking, continuous screen comprised of over 4,000 sqm of LED, and around 70 million pixels. For the screen’s centre, PRG supplied 2,200sqm of its brand-new Titan-X panels which were developed by PRG and Infiled this was supplemented with ROE MC-7H for the mid wing sections, plus ROE CB5 for the DJ Riser. To cater to the mass of stock, weight, power and pixel considerations that come with such a large single screen project, PRG designed a comprehensive control system, delivering a large yet flexible sync network solution for all artists.

For lighting, the main stage rig included over 1,000 fixtures, with 130 Universes of DMX, 6 x 400A Supplies and 26 km of cable. Fixtures included GLP X Bars, JDC1’s, Robe Pointe, Hybrid fixtures, and LED Bars. For audio, PRG supplied and distributed L-Acoustics K1, K2 and KS28 systems across the main stage and the delay towers which ran using L-Acoustics LA12X controllers and were monitored using P1 processors. Carrying it all were PRGs master riggers with a truss 3.3km long, and 410 hoists.

“The great thing about working with the 360° from PRG is that each department can draw upon its own wealth of expertise and resources, and each team comes together to deliver one exceptional event. This is a bespoke project, and so PRG built a bespoke team. Such a vast production really needed the internal workings and conversations between all our expert technicians to flexibly develop solutions smoothly. From a production point of view, this certainly makes things a lot easier and has definitely been appreciated on this show.”  Yvonne Donnelly Smith, UK Sales Director Music.

PRG Middle Beast Team 2021

To match and deliver the increased scale of the 2021 festival, PRG mobilised its global workforce. Working over 3000 man days, 130 members of PRG crew headed to the event site from our offices in Riyadh, UK, Dubai, Belgium, Germany, and Spain.

“What I see we are doing here is we're at the very forefront of the formation of the entertainment industry in Saudi Arabia. We've insisted that our vendors have a Saudi Arabian presence because we can't continue to support events unsustainably. We have to get going here and everyone has shown a willingness to do this and PRG have now moved into Saudi Arabia.” – Michael Jobson, Executive Director – Events, MDLBEAST.

In the spirit of the Saudi 2030 vision, this focus on supporting the region and its wealth of talent is certainly shared by PRG. Thanks to our newly launched Riyadh office and warehouse, PRG now has a pool of regional assets and resources for future events. After proudly supporting the Saudi Arabian F1 Grand Prix in Jeddah and Soundstorm 2021 for MDLBEAST, PRG has established a regional depot which already houses a great selection of assets, building a foothold for accessible equipment in Saudi Arabia to deliver exceptional events in the future.

“Part of our drive within Saudi Arabia will be to make sure that we are enabling and empowering and recruiting local Saudi resources and training them to ensure that they develop the skills to help deliver the events of scale that we put on. And that's one of the key drivers where we've been aiming our expansion within Saudi over the last three years.” Bruce MacLean, Manging Director PRG Middle East.

PRG would like to congratulate and thank MDL BEAST, Production Glue and Silent House for this outstanding second edition of the festival and give special thanks to our incomparable global PRG team for their incredible work.

Expo 2020 Dubai, the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East region, officially opened its doors to visitors on October 1st showcasing architectural wonders and technology innovations from more than 192 countries.
UK’s contribution to Expo 2020 Dubai is the mesmerizing cone-shaped UK Pavilion with a circular façade which was created by world-renowned designer Es Devlin. The 25-meter-high LED façade which is integrated into the wooden sculpture is designed to celebrate global cultural diversity and collaboration. The UK Pavilion uses an advanced AI learning algorithm developed in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture which allows visitors to add their word to a continuously changing Collective Message from humanity to the universe displayed on the LED modules.

PRG was appointed by Pico to deliver the engineering of the 2,000 customized LED tiles through our PRG Projects team, sourcing the bespoke LED technology via PRG China as well as the custom designed immersive audio system, designed by Polyphonia. The technology package was then installed by PRG in Dubai.

“This is one of the most remarkable projects that I have been involved with in my whole career,” says Frederic Opsomer, General Manager PRG Projects, “I have known Es for many years, and we have collaborated on several projects together. She is an amazing Designer, and I must say that this project reinforces her already stellar reputation. This breath-taking design of evermoving poetry, displayed digitally and integrated to illuminate the façade of the UK Pavilion was a beautiful challenge for us at PRG, and we are very proud to collaborate with her on this journey of innovation.”

This message of collaboration and international openness is reflected in the delivery of the project. The UK Pavilion is a truly global collaboration; designed in close partnership with Avantgarde, supported by structural engineer Atelier One and supported and executed by Pico International, delivered by our experts from across the PRG global network and finally executed on site by our dedicated PRG Dubai team.

Gavin Short, Senior Technical Project Manager for PRG in Dubai, said: “The UK Pavilion is an exceptional and unmissable part of the overall Expo experience, located in the Opportunity District and is clearly a space that will inspire visitors to the site.”

Expo 2020 is expected to attract 25 million visits, of which 70% are expected to be international visitors.

From 25 May to 27 June 2021, the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) will be held in the beautiful city of Rimini, in Emilia Romagna, Italy, However, due to Covid-19, this edition is taking place entirely in a secure bubble totally isolated from any contact with the outside world in order to preserve the athletes and the production team. 16 men's and 16 women's teams will compete for victory.
PRG is proud to support the FIVB & VNL as a global technical production partner for this edition and also to offer its services and expertise in terms of support and advice on the technologies used.

As a global technical production partner, PRG provided project management, technical direction, design, coordination of on-site technical staff, lighting design and much more!

"The FIVB has renewed its confidence in us for this new competition," says Thierry Kra, General Manager of PRG France, "Our involvement in the Technical Management, in the Design with #ConceptK as well as the support of our local Alliance in Italy are once again the strong points that characterises us."

In addition to the services, PRG provided a wide range of technologies including rigging, lighting, audio, digital intercom, video & media servers and power distribution for no less than 2 competition pitches, 2 warm-up pitches and 6 training pitches.
Over 500 fixtures were installed from the Vari-Lite, Martin, SGM, GLP catalogues as well as PRG's proprietary Icon Edge® and Icon Beam® products.
We also installed 100 m2 of video screens of Black Pearl 3, ROE Blackface screens divided into 7 screens and 500 PRG Revolution Blades were installed all around the 2 competition fields allowing a 270° interactive display.

No less than 9 semi-trailers of material and almost 1000 days of labour will have been necessary for this project.

PRG relied on the strength of the PRG Alliance network for this project; complementing PRG EMEA's experts & department heads with teams of local technicians & team leaders from New Light Group, PRG Alliance's Italian partner #OneTeam

PRG has once again teamed up with ConceptK for the lighting design & set design

A great collective team result of which we are proud.

Special thanks to:
The VolleyWorld team in particular Guido Betti & Tom Suwannamai
PRG Account & Technical Director : Antoine D’Halluin
PRG Project Manager : Laurent de la Haye
PRG General Crew Chief: Mathieu Antoine
Light & Stage Designer : ConceptK – Frederic Fayard
PRG Alliance Partner : New Light S.r.l.
Head Video director : Nello Isola
SPR & Content Lead: Kelly Reed
LOC : RCS, Luca Piantanida

EMEA – April 20, 2021 • Production Resource Group LLC, (PRG) is known as the entertainment industry’s go-to production solutions provider for music, TV, film, corporate events, and theatre. Over the last year, the company has created a worldwide network 20 of studio environments, including locations owned and operated by PRG Alliance partners. Ideally suited for efficient, scalable production of pre-recorded and live content, each location is equipped with the most sophisticated gear and engineering to service its local market. These studios offer artists, brands and other creators a COVID-compliant setting and the resources to bring their visions to life. Beyond their responsiveness to today’s need for safety, they represent the future for digital and hybrid events.

“The studio environment has never played a more significant role, not only for legacy TV and film creators, but in music, corporate events and emerging fields like esports,” said Jere Harris, PRG Chairman & CEO. “Over the past year, we transformed spaces within our facilities—with every expertise and technology at hand—to serve that surge in demand, and we are seeing a very strong response from our customers.”

PRG Virtual Production Studios are located in Hamburg, Paris and Los Angeles. The PRG Digital Studios can be found all over the globe, including in "The EGG" in Brussels, London's trendy "Saatchi Gallery", Madrid, Dubai and Buenos Aires, Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York Metro, Orlando and PRG Alliance Partner Studios are in Budapest, Lisbon, Milan, Athens, Sao Paolo, Singapore and Zagreb.

Studios are strategically housed in the immediate vicinity of major facilities, putting both PRG’s inventory and technical expertise within reach, businesses, brands, musicians, filmmakers, and advertising agencies are given the opportunity to realize their projects with maximum security, expertise and cutting-edge technology.

Each studio has its own character, catering to the markets it serves such as music, TV/Film production or corporate event. An expert team is in place to supervise and staff each location, which all offer a variety of solutions for realizing productions and online events. PRG Digital Studios provide the perfect studio environment for pre-recorded or live broadcasts of a wide variety of digital event formats. 

Select locations within the network are PRG’s Virtual Production Studios, which seamlessly combine the physical and digital worlds. Advanced technology solutions—including extended reality (xR), mixed reality and proprietary Enhanced Environments and Ncam® technology—are used to add virtual environments onto real stages. These Virtual Production Studios are equipped to host green screen, standard capture or xR shoots, depending on the needs of production. Here, limitless creative possibilities are available to cinematographers, advertisers, event producers and DPs. From entirely imagined worlds to realistic scenery and backdrops, any environment can be brought into the studio with options for real-time visualization of virtual elements. As a result, talent can interact with their setting in real time, while producers realize major savings in post-production and travel costs.

Whether a simple livestream, an online product launch, a virtual session, elaborate film, television spot or advertising production, our studios are suitable for almost any digital production. High-quality technology, expert engineering for multi-purpose suites and spacious guest amenities characterize the studios. 

“What makes these studios so valuable is their location near the world’s major business and production centers, the range of technologies and people skill sets immediately available and our ability to bring all these technical solutions and workflow expertise elements together in-studio to realize the project vision of our customers,” said Stephan Paridaen, President & COO.

Visit our new microsite for all the details and info on our digital studios: studios.prg.com
 

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About Production Resource Group
PRG is the world's leading provider of entertainment and event technology solutions and has the largest inventory of rental production equipment. PRG provides comprehensive and discreet services to an array of clients in the live music, TV/Film, Broadway, sports, gaming, corporate experiential, and live events markets. Clients and partners depend on PRG's innovation, experience, and depth of experience in audio, video, lighting, rigging, staging, virtual production and extended reality, and scenery and automation systems to bring their stories to life. With 65 offices across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia, PRG has capabilities to provide services worldwide. PRG is owned by The Jordan Company and GSO Capital Partners and PRG Management. For more information, please visit prg.com.

PRG team, together with PRG Alliance member Easy Group, supported Cameroon in celebrating the opening of the African Nations Championship.

The first large scale sports ceremony since March 2020 took place last Saturday, 16th January 2021 - the opening for the 6th edition of the African Nations Championship, the biennial football tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The tournament was a long-anticipated event. Cameroon presented a spectacular show, with production by Leap Creative Studio from France. The show took place in the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé where than 300 artists, dancers, performers, cultural references and Cameroonian singers, all wearing masks, performed in front of an audience of 10,000 people, a quarter of the stadium's capacity.

The producers sourced the services of Production Resource Group (PRG) to deliver the communication and playback sound systems, while our local PRG Alliance partner, Easy Group, built the central stage, provided tents and other logistical material needed. The companies also provided the technical team necessary for the installation and rapid dismantling of the scenic elements in place for the first match of the championship, Cameroon-Zimbabwe, which occurred right after the opening ceremony and led to the victory of the host country.
PRG, in cooperation with other service providers, ensured a flawless show with safe operation. The team will be back for the closing ceremonies on February 7th.

With this championship, Cameroon is showing the world that it is ready to host an even bigger event, the African Cup of Nations in 2022.

PRG has already proven its expertise and know-how for the smooth logistics and set-up of COVID-related major projects in a very short time, with the provision of the technical infrastructure for the temporary COVID- 19 treatment centre, in two halls on the Berlin exhibition grounds. Following this, PRG Germany has also been entrusted with the set-up of a similar technical framework for the temporary vaccination centres at Tempelhof Airport and the Arena Berlin Treptow.

PRG is supplying the complete infrastructure for this, including:

• Rigging
• Video
• Lighting
• Audio
• IT and power cables
• Floor plan & AV/IT planning
• Special software solution: Management system for inoculation booth assignment
• Digital signage (route guidance system via LED displays)

 
The rigging, which consists of a total of approx. 1.4 km of truss for both locations, is used to attach the fixtures for the comprehensive lighting, to lay and provide the IT and power set-up for the vaccination booths and the reception and care areas, as well as for the distribution of audio and video signals. As a special software solution, PRG supplied an automated vaccination booth management system, so that the booths are efficiently utilised during operation, minimising waiting times for patients and providing medical staff with an overview of occupancy at all times. PRG also developed a digital signage system using LED screens to help visitors find their way around. An area-wide public address system ensures that announcements can be made.

These temporary installations are carried out in close cooperation with the Berlin Senate Administration for Health, Care and Equality (GPG) and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which ensures that the vaccination centres (also in accordance with the Covid protection rules) are ready for operation as efficiently as possible and within a short time. The challenge for all parties involved, but especially for PRG as the technical service provider, is to ensure planning permission is in place, plan the movement and disposal of large quantities of equipment and also personnel, and ensure the installation is managed on site within a very tight time frame. The two temporary vaccination centres are expected to be completed on schedule by mid-December. PRG Germany will then support the vaccination centres with technical staff on site for the entire duration of the vaccination process.

December 19th to 21st, 2019, are dates that EDM fans in Saudi Arabia will not easily forget! The very first edition of the MDL Beast Fest held in the capital, Riyadh, was an immediate hit. The stellar line-up included 28 International music acts, such as Tiesto, Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, and 24 home-grown Saudi Arabian DJs including DJ Duo Dish Dash and EDM DJ Cosmicat. PRG is proud to have provided 360° technology support and production services to this.

From a creative dream to technical reality

The record-breaking festival took place at a purpose-built venue on the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Entertainment offerings were split across five stages delivering a truly spectacular event. PRG was the proud provider of 360° technology and production services for this remarkable first of its kind and it proved a real showcase, demonstrating the collective capabilities of the PRG teams from Dubai, UK, Belgium, Germany and France and their ability to collaborate in making that creative dream a technical reality!

MDL Beast is a festival of superlatives. The PRG team set up a total of 480 tons of equipment on-site — audio, lighting, video and rigging for the five primary stages — but it’s not all about the gear!

For this world-class and amazing first in the region, PRG has come together as a global team to deliver production excellence across all disciplines. This is what PRG is all about…it’s all about our people!

5 stages, 1 big immersive experience

More than 400,000 visitors immersed themselves across the 5 performance arenas, each of them beyond spectacular in terms of scale and visual impact! This, together with a mix of art & cultural zones, fashion activations and food & beverage outlets created a fantastic festival setting.

“We delivered over 3000 square metres of high resolution LED Screens across the festival site, from the impressive and Guinness World Record winning main stage, reaching some 37 metres high, to the immersive 360 degree video performance zones, the scale of this event was truly mind-blowing ”, explains Niel Beelen.

PRG in the Middle East

The supply of state-of-the art equipment was simply one aspect of our scope of work for MDL Beast. Added to this technology was the supply of a diverse range of technical specialists from the across the PRG world.

“PRG is all about technical production services. In a short time-frame our teams across three continents were able to come together team to deliver a truly mega event. MDL Beast was a great festival and we are really proud to have played a part in making this a success!” says Stephan Paridaen, CEO of PRG Group, who was in Saudi Arabia for the occasion. Paridaen continues: “We are really proud to be supporting the vision of 2030, delivered by the Saudi Arabian Leadership, has a focus on culture and tourism, sports and entertainment and what better example than this amazing event, MDL Beast!”

PRG wants to thank and congratulate MDL Beast LLC and Sela for this incredible achievement and to our fantastic global PRG Team.

An enthralling creation where acrobats, dancers, comedians, singers and musicians take the stage. A total experience, in which technology plays a leading role. Cirque de Paname brings a story of superlatives: “The World of Jalèya”.

Spectator-centric

The construction at the Hippodrome de Longchamp is one without precedents. Metallic arches shape an open space of 6.000 m2, without any pillars or supporting structures that could impede visibility. Light Designer Romain Labat explains “We have removed the masts and the pillars to offer maximized visibility to all spectators. This results in a good visibility, regardless of the type of ticket one buys, in each category. Everyone can see the whole scenography and truly enjoy the spectacle.”

A lighting spectacular

The high complexity in the scenography required automatic tracking, to which our signature solutions PRG GroundControl, in combination with the PRG Bad Boys were the perfect answer. Romain Labat, light designer of the show, also compliments the PRG Icon Edge’s and PRG Best Boy Washes, two types of fixtures with which he could build all desired elements for the show. “I have discovered the Icon Edges, super hybrid, polyvalent beams with flux, great colours and nice gobos. The second surprise for me, and these are my little favourites: The Best Boy Washes. With these two devices I have filled the whole stage and it is just perfect.”

An immersive auditory experience

With so many performers on stage, 120 sound inputs and 74 outputs were needed. Yamaha’s PM7 was the choice par excellence, because of its perfect integration in the DANTE ecosystem. The DS100 from DNB was chosen to answer the spatialization needs, which is a matrix allowing to build a mix at 360° around the public. “It is amazing to what it leads and how it truly makes a change, to forget the panoramic sound and the mixing we are used to, but considering each sound device in the entire space. This really opens new perspectives for the mixing” state the audio designers Arnaud Bayssat and Grégory Carlet.

Our approach

To ensure the success of this project, in a record time, one dedicated PRG France team remained at continuous disposition for the project; permanently assisted by our international network of experts in order to guarantee excellence in all areas.

Or as our valued client, Guillaume Brossollet puts it ‘The people have a total engagement in the project, together with us, and that is really essential and it warms our hearts”.

Every year for the past thirty years, on the first weekend in August, metal fans from all over the world gather in the small community of Wacken, Northern Germany. With around 75,000 visitors, the Wacken Open Air is now one of the largest metal festivals in the world. PRG has been part of the festival for 17 years now, taking care of the entire lighting and LED technology, as well as the rigging. Holger Hübner (Founder and Organizer, Wacken Open Air) is thrilled about the trustful cooperation: "The main thing is that we have fun, create a cool event and for everyone to get something out of it. PRG, us and all staff - and above all, our fans.".

 
If it were up to lighting designer Jerry Appelt, the collaboration would be continued for at least 13 more years, so that WOA, Jerry Appelt Lighting Design and PRG can celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their fantastic collaboration in 2032. It won't fail because of the festival's success; tickets for WOA 2020 were already sold out within 21 hours.