World Youth Day Reaching 1.5 million youths across an enormous site with LED and innovative technology
Location – Lisbon, Portugal
Photo/ video credits – MERLIN: Filmes + Conteúdos
Festival grounds covering 222 acres
The World Youth Day (WYD) is the largest multi-day youth event in the world. At the Pope’s invitation, hundreds of thousands of youths from across the globe come together every two or three years for a multi-day program of music, celebrations, and festive activities. The 2023 edition took place in Lisbon in a park area covering approximately 222 acres. The World Expo was held in the same area in 1998. Pope Francis II also attended in person.
A view of the main stage from every spot
In collaboration with the client Pixel Light, we installed a total of 60 LED screens, of which we supplied 50, on the vast 1.9-mile-long and 328-yard-wide festival grounds. That was around half an acre of LED. Due to the strategic placement of the LED screens throughout the festival grounds, every visitor could enjoy the activities on the main stage to the full via these screens.
What is TFC Flow?
Synchronization challenge: remote audio and video
With a project of this size, the greatest challenge was synchronizing the audio and video on all screens. How can you ensure that the video and audio signals reach the audience when the Pope is on the stage? That is a problem, which if not solved, can mean that you see the speaker talking on the stage but hear the sound many seconds later. This is extremely challenging at live events in particular.
Customized software
Our Research & Development Department was commissioned to find a suitable technical and budgetary solution. They did just that in the form of a specific software development. The custom-made tool turned out to be highly suitable for transmitting synchronous video and audio over large distances.
TFC Flow: secure and extremely fast distribution via fiber optics
Creating a secure and, of course, fault-free distribution of the signal to the LED screens was just as big of a challenge for us. We were soon convinced that TFC Flow – Total Facility Control – would be the perfect application for this project. It enabled us to send and receive all signals across a single fiber optics cable: audio, video, internet, and intercom. An additional cable served as a back up alongside the main cable. NEP, of which we are part, developed the technology. This was the first time that we have used TFC Flow on this scale.
Impression
