As arenas compete to pull audiences away from the sofa, immersive visuals are becoming central to the live event experience. Projection mapping, LED and interactive content are no longer reserved for opening moments; they are becoming part of the venue’s wider entertainment ecosystem.
Inavate speaks to Eric Gazzillo, VP of innovation at Quince Imaging, about changing fan expectations, the convergence of themed entertainment and arena design, and why projection still has a powerful role to play in large-scale venues.
Inavate: How are audience expectations in arenas changing when it comes to immersive experiences?
EG: This shift has been dramatic. There is such consistent post-covid barrier to overcome to get people out of their houses. For years, venues have been pushing to break this barrier, which has created something of an arms race across the USA. Coupled with the boom surrounding FIFA World cup and LA28 the bar has never been higher all the way around.
Inavate: Are you seeing a convergence between themed entertainment and arena design? Where is that most evident?
EG: One hundred per cent. While evident everywhere in the arena, this is most clear on the perimeter. Unlike the past, fans are now expecting to be ‘in the experience’ the moment then enter the venue... and I don’t mean the arena bowl. At this point, pretty much the moment fans leave the parking garage they’re surrounded by entertainment, shopping and dining experiences, team stores, before they even enter a concourse full of experiences.
Inavate: Projection mapping is a core part of themed entertainment, where does it still offer clear advantages over LED in large venues?
EG: What we’ve been guiding our clients to has been protecting the sanctity of the playing surface. Fans can see teams are starting to move towards ‘halo’ LED boards as massive centre-hung LED’s overshadow the court/rink and experiments such as LED courts have infuriated players. Projection can offer a way to augment and add excitement to the most important surface in the venue without impacting the playing area. While that’s been our theme, not to be lost the growth of projection in outdoor experiences and ‘smartglass’ façade projection as well.
Inavate: Are hybrid environments combining projection and LED becoming more common, and what are the integration challenges there?
EG: They are becoming more common, but the challenges have been minimal as projection brightness increases, and high-resolution processing comes down in price to allow for both.
Inavate: What are the biggest technical challenges when scaling projection mapping to arena-sized environments?
EG: The biggest challenges are usually the most mundane. The process has become so streamlined, the real challenge is operationally keeping things reliable, and low maintenance as venues become busier every year.
Inavate: What are the key challenges in maintaining alignment and visual consistency across multi-projector systems, particularly in large or complex environments?
EG: Automatic calibration has been key to this. The training and time constraints in arenas make this a necessity.
Inavate: How does content influence the design of projection systems, and what are the key challenges in aligning creative intent with technical delivery?
EG: Over the years this has gotten far easier with streamlined previz tools and overall uplift in education from teams and their in-house designer.
Inavate: From an integration perspective, what are the most common pitfalls when deploying large-scale immersive visuals?
EG: The biggest pitfalls are typically education. While this has improved over the years, many teams have decades in a given ecosystem for LED, broadcast or audio systems, and trying to transition some of those arena technical staff to new technology has always been a hurdle.
Inavate: Looking ahead, what should integrators be preparing for as immersive technologies continue to evolve in large venues?
EG: We see two major trends. The first is brightness. Projection technology tends to improve brightness and simultaneously reduce cost per lumen. Larger LED displays have made this mandatory. The second is on the content side. While projection used to be something great for an opening presentation, it’s grown to become integral to the game and require just as much content programming as other LED boards in the venue. This includes, interactive features, real-time stats, along with traditional hype graphics.