Type of Project
Live for Broadcast. Netflix live-stream broadcast of the BTS comeback concert special.
Name of Project
Design Criteria
Create one off spectacular in heart of Seoul outside the royal palace, with one LIVE broadcast of the comeback of BTS, after their hiatus. This concert was streamed live on Netflix in March of 2026 and incorporated lighting and projection mapping on the historic palace.
Project Description
Korean Pop band BTS took the stage for their first show in four years, “The Comeback: ARIRANG,” in Seoul.
Challenges and Solutions
The lighting design for BTS’s historic ARIRANG comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square achieved the near-impossible: seamlessly marrying cutting-edge stadium illumination with the centuries-old cultural heritage of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Serving as the visual heartbeat for a global audience of 18.4 million viewers, the design transformed an open-air public square into a deeply immersive, dynamic canvas.
The lighting architecture masterfully balanced high-octane, automated stadium fixtures to match the group's explosive choreography on "Hooligan" with subtle, respectful architectural up-lighting that honored the historic palace backdrop. By blending traditional Korean artistic motifs with ultra-modern laser arrays and synchronized LED fields, the design did not just illuminate a stage—it framed a monumental cultural reunion. The result was a flawless, multi-dimensional broadcast and live experience that set a new benchmark for outdoor global events.
One challenge was the particularly tight timeline of loading in a never before teched stage, lighting, and video system, while the city around the stage continued to operate at full tilt. From load in to Live we had four days to execute this massive build and focus over 2500 lights, video and projectors.
Photo credit: Ross Williams, Reuters
Equipment
The lighting rig for the BTS ARIRANG Comeback Concert at Gwanghwamun Square featured an expansive, ultra-precision setup designed by Al Gurdon and Harry Forster. It utilized over 230 high-intensity fixtures deployed to seamlessly balance high-energy stadium pop looks with the delicate architecture of Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Control
ETC's High End Systems Tour Hog and Hog OS ran the fixtures. Tour Hog truly played an intrinsic role in enhancing the concert's lighting experience. This was our second time using Tour Hog, and the transition felt incredibly smooth, and having access to 64 universes straight from the console was a game changer. We used most of that capability during the concert.
Fixtures & Effects
ACME TORNADO: Placed in a triple-layered lighting array along the borders of the stage's monumental "cube frame". These high-intensity moving head fixtures featured five individually controllable heads to shape the main "Portal of Light" and project fluid, sweeping aerial beams.
ACME PIXEL LINE IP: Embedded directly within the contours and frame edges of the stage. These pixel-mappable, weatherproof linear fixtures were used for tight architectural strobing and high-energy rhythmic synchronization during dance breaks.
Architectural Up-lighting Arrays: High-precision, outdoor-rated LED wash fixtures deployed surrounding the historic walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Sungnyemun Gate to bathe the heritage structures in culturally resonant color tones without damaging the architecture.
BTS Official Light Stick (Ver. 4): A massive wireless field element consisting of the thousands of fan "Army Bombs" in the crowd. These were automatically synchronized via central RF wireless transmitters directly into the lighting cues, turning the entire audience into a living pixel map.
Team
Harry Forster and Al Gurdon - Incandescent Lighting
Ross Williams - Lighting Director
Alex Mildenhall, Alex Silvester, Alex Passmore - Lighting Programmers
Kenny Lo - ETC Asia