The closing ceremony marked the end of the 41-day festival, which comprised of a series of events to include performances from national and international artists. The closing ceremony took place in the vicinity of King Abdullah Sports Stadium, which gave festival-goers a view of the iconic stadium as a backdrop to the main stage.

The event was not only the largest music festival to have been held in Saudi Arabia, but it also marked a milestone in KSA’s 2030 vision to expand the entertainment sector in the country.

Creative Technology (CT) worked alongside their client The Manual, ROQU Media, Technical Director, John Adkins (World Class Events) and Production Designer, Mark Cunniffe to deliver all live video aspects of the sold-out event.

CT supplied fifteen custom mounted 4.8mm outdoor LED screens in the shape of diamonds at 4x4m each, two 4.8mm rolling DJ risers and 150 running meters of ROE LED strip which outlined the stage and catwalk.

The unique design was achieved through rotating the screens 45 degrees across the 90-meter structure.

Giorgio Devecchi, CT’s Project Manager, explains “Mark Cunniffe’s creative design was so unique that it required an engineering safety approval before we could hang the LED panels 45 degrees along the scaffolding structure. Prior to delivering the project, we carried out pre-production testing of the large diamonds at CT headquarters in Dubai. During this pre-production phase, we compiled a full pixel study to ensure the content and live feed was displayed at the correct angle. Once on-site, the install seamlessly went together with no issues thanks to the dedication of the CT team of 12 professionals who worked together to achieve our clients creative brief.”

CT provided a full video control package, driven by disguise gx 2 servers incorporating Notch for live camera processing and visual effects.

Tom Stocks, CT’s Senior Video Engineer states, “The screen control and switching was managed from a linked Barco E2 and S3 system with an additional two Image Pro 4K’s at Front of House for VJs and touring media servers. We also supplied our PPU for a sub mix of the broadcast cameras for IMAG to correspond to the diamond pixel area of the LED screens.”

Stocks goes on to say, “A full 4k@50, pixel for pixel workflow was maintained with our Gen2 Barco system, Lightware 2.0 Matrix and Novastar 4K processors as well as 4K fibre distribution.”

Devecchi continues, “The event was a huge success from start to end. Everyone came together to work as a team and our client, The Manual, did a fantastic job of bringing the full production to life. This is a new chapter for the local entertainment scene in Saudi Arabia, and it was a pleasure to be part of this fantastic event. Thank you once again to our client for trusting in our ability to deliver world-class video solutions.”