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Type Of Project
Corporate Event
Corporate conference and keynote experience with a fully immersive LED production environment for Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Project Name
CadenceLIVE 2026. The event is Cadence's flagship annual customer conference, held in person on April 15, 2026 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Hall D, Santa Clara, CA. The event was produced by AVT Productions, Cadence's multiyear production partner for CadenceLIVE.
Design Criteria
CadenceLIVE is Cadence Design Systems' largest customer facing event, bringing global technology leaders together for a keynote experience that demands executive level production at every touchpoint. The brief to the creative team was to design an experience attendees would not forget, one that showcased Cadence as a leader in technology innovation.
Main client goals:
1. Fill a 149 ft x 308 ft hall with one cohesive visual environment so every seat felt connected to the stage.
2. Give Cadence a bold, memorable stage presence that supports executive presentations and keynote content with clarity and impact.
3. Make Hall D feel purpose built for CadenceLIVE rather than a generic convention space.
4. Deliver a polished, seamless show from rehearsal through execution for both the client team and attendees.
Project Description
For CadenceLIVE 2026, AVT Productions designed and delivered a fully immersive LED production environment across Hall D at the Santa Clara Convention Center, managing every phase from concept and 3D previsualization through load in, rehearsal, show day and dismantle.
The centerpiece was a main LED wall measuring 106 ft 7 in wide by 20 ft high. Eight overhead transparent LED canopy runs, each 98 ft long and 6.5 ft wide, formed a continuous illuminated ceiling grid that filled the room from front to back. Two flanking transparent LED side runs of matching scale carried the visual field from the stage out to the audience.
The stage was 18 ft deep, 64 ft wide and 40 in high, with a single platform design, concealed central step access and a 48 ft wide integrated LED fascia for a clean, continuous front edge. Six downstage monitors were built into the stage design to give presenters confidence without cluttering the look.
The room itself was part of the reveal. As attendees entered, the immersive elements stayed dark, then came alive with the opening video, turning every surface of the hall into one canvas. The result was a visually immersive, technically seamless general session that elevated the CadenceLIVE brand and allowed the program to run smoothly from rehearsal through show.
Challenges and Solutions
Scale: Hall D measures 149 ft x 308 ft. The main wall, eight overhead canopy runs and full length side panels all had to run simultaneously as a single unified canvas across the entire room. AVT built full CAD floor plans and coverage models and previsualized every element in 3D, validating sightlines and coverage before a single piece of equipment arrived on site.
Precision planning: every element was modeled in Vectorworks and presented to the client as photorealistic video renders, so design decisions were approved and technical questions were resolved well ahead of load in on April 10.
A dense room layout: the design had to work around a full floor of banquet rounds, crescent rounds, VIP highboy tables, an airwall, a speaker ready room and a green room. A dedicated 8 ft x 24 ft front of house riser integrated the tech station, camera operator positions and A1 station into the room, with a separate back of house production area for crew coordination.
A clean executive look: concealed central step access, an LED fascia with no visible seams or hardware, and downstage monitors built into the stage kept the presenter zone polished from every seat.
Innovation: instead of leaving the LED surfaces on as room decor, the immersive elements stayed dark during walk in and were revealed with the opening video, turning the entire hall into one storytelling surface.
Zero margin for error: CadenceLIVE serves Cadence's global leadership and key customers. A prerig timeline, a full rehearsal on April 14 and a dedicated show caller running cue to cue on show day delivered the program on time and on brand.
Equipment
LED product: ROE Visual 2.6 LED tiles.
Main LED wall: 106 ft 7 in W x 20 ft H. Scaled to fill Hall D with the clarity and presence a large executive conference requires, with strong, unobstructed sightlines across the full seating footprint.
Overhead transparent LED canopy: 8 runs, each 98 ft L x 6.5 ft W (2 x 30 tiles per run). Transparent product let the canopy span the full ceiling grid, adding depth and immersion from every seat while keeping the room feeling open.
Side transparent LED: 2 runs, each 98 ft L x 6.5 ft H (2 x 30 tiles per run), extending the visual field from stage to audience across the full width of the hall.
Stage and LED fascia: 18 ft D x 64 ft W x 40 in H single platform stage with a 48 ft W x 3 ft 3 in H integrated LED fascia, completing the environment from floor to canopy.
Downstage monitors: 6 confidence monitors integrated into the stage design without breaking the clean front edge.
Media servers: MeyerPro (MPI) supplied redundant Disguise D3 media servers powering the main wall and the ceiling and side LED installations, delivering a total mapped raster of 20,832 x 10,368 pixels with frame accurate transitions and seamless integration with AVT's playback workflow.
Switching and signal flow: MeyerPro (MPI) provided redundant (Analog Way) Aquilon RS4 switchers with Lightware routers on both the input and output sides, programmed to support partial and full failovers. With a keynote of this profile, redundancy at every layer meant no single failure could take the room down.
Front of house: 8 ft x 24 ft x 24 in riser housing the tech station, camera operator positions and A1 station.
Crew
AVT Productions: full service AV production, including stage design, LED design and fabrication, lighting, audio, scenic design, show management and technical direction
Richard Herrera, Director of Operations, AVT Productions
Meyer Pro: media servers and screen switching
Cadence Design Systems: opening video production
Images: AVT Productions/Mallie Sovan-Soeung