Project Type
Architainment/Immersive Experiences. The Lidl Final4 2026 is a large-scale live sports and entertainment production at LANXESS Arena in Cologne, Germany, combining professional handball, live performance, real-time technology and immersive visual storytelling.
Project Name
Handball Lidl Final4 2026 marked the final weekend of the DHB-Pokal, Germany’s premier handball cup competition, bringing together four of the country’s leading teams across two days and four match blocks.
At the centre of the production was the world’s first professional handball tournament played on a full LED video floor. The ASB GlassFloor transformed the playing field from a traditional sports surface into a dynamic digital canvas that could change its function throughout the event.
PlanValley was responsible for the technical direction and operation as well as the creative direction and content creation of the show program surrounding the matches. This included media server programming and operation, sports graphics, player and team presentations, real-time content, show content, custom software (halftime game), tracking integration, fan interaction and partner activations.
Clients: Lidl/Schwarz Group and Handball-Bundesliga (HBL)
Design Criteria
The creative brief was to rethink how a professional handball event could be experienced and to transform the Lidl Final4 into an arena-scale sports and entertainment production.
The ambition was not simply to install an LED floor and display content on it. The objective was to integrate the playing surface into every phase of the event and make digital content a meaningful part of the sport, entertainment and fan experience.
The production therefore had to fulfill several very different functions.
During the matches, the technology needed to support the sport rather than compete with it. Match-relevant information had to be communicated clearly and quickly, helping audiences understand important moments such as referee decisions, suspensions and other game situations.
Before each match, the same surface needed to completely change character and become a stage for club introductions, player walk-ins and high-energy opening sequences.
During timeouts and breaks, it needed to create opportunities for fan engagement and partner activations.
And during the four major entertainment shows, the entire arena needed to transform again into an immersive performance environment in which content, lighting, performers, music and real-time technology worked together.
Another fundamental design objective was to create an experience that worked equally well for the approximately 20,000 spectators inside the arena and the broadcast audience watching from home.
This resulted in a visual system that had to work simultaneously from multiple viewing angles and distances, while selected content was specifically designed around the perspective of the main television camera.
Rather than designing independently for the LED floor, jumbotron, perimeter LEDs and additional arena displays, the goal was to treat them as one connected visual environment.
The creative challenge was therefore to design a system flexible enough to move seamlessly between:
sporting information, emotional storytelling, entertainment, live performance, branding, audience interaction and real-time visualization.
Project Description
For the Lidl Final4 2026, PlanValley developed a complete visual and technical environment around the final weekend of the DHB-Pokal. At its centre was the full-court ASB GlassFloor LED playing surface, creating the world's first professional handball tournament played on a full LED video floor.
Rather than using the floor simply as a large display, PlanValley developed a visual system in which the court continuously changed its role throughout the event. It became a sports information platform, a stage, a branding environment, an interactive surface and an integral element of the live show.
1. Sport as part of the visual experience
The sporting side of the event was an essential part of the creative concept. Each of the four participating clubs received its own dedicated sport intro, designed to build anticipation before the team entered the arena. Club imagery, highlights, typography, motion graphics and team-specific visual elements were combined into individual sequences that introduced each club and created a transition between the entertainment programme and the upcoming match. The player walk-ins extended this concept further. Instead of athletes simply entering a traditionally lit playing field, the LED floor became part of their entrance. Dedicated animations accompanied the players onto the court, visually framing the athletes and creating a much stronger presentation for both the arena and television audience.The objective was to give the arrival of the players an emotional weight normally associated with major international sporting events.
2. Bringing information directly onto the court
Once the match started, the role of the digital floor changed. PlanValley created a dedicated package of in-game animations and match graphics designed to support spectators in following and understanding the action.
Important match situations could be visualized directly on the playing surface, including elements surrounding:
- referee decisions
- two-minute suspensions
- penalties
- match-relevant information
- player and game statistics
- and other key moments throughout the match.
Instead of forcing spectators to look away from the action towards a conventional scoreboard, selected information could appear directly within their natural field of view. This required a very different design language from the entertainment content.
Animations had to communicate information within seconds, remain clearly readable from different positions in the arena and provide context without distracting the players or interfering with the match itself. The LED floor therefore became not only an entertainment medium, but also a new communication layer for professional sport.
3. Fan and partner activations
During timeouts, breaks and transitions between sporting moments, the system changed character again. These windows were used for dedicated partner integrations and fan activations, allowing brands to become part of the arena experience rather than simply appearing as static advertising. The large LED surface enabled branded content to take over the playing field and connect with the surrounding display surfaces, creating highly visible and coordinated arena-wide moments. Fan engagement was treated in the same way. Content could respond to the rhythm of the event and transform traditionally passive breaks into active parts of the experience, maintaining energy inside the arena even when the match itself had stopped.
4. Four individual arena shows
Beyond the match-integrated content, the live shows were a central element of the Lidl Final4 experience. Across the weekend, PlanValley created four distinct arena shows, one for each match block. These were not simply visual interludes between sporting moments. Each show was designed as an individual live entertainment experience combining media, lighting, music, performers, choreography and real-time technology. Pre-rendered 2D and 3D content created in After Effects and Blender was combined with generative real-time visuals created in Notch.
This hybrid approach allowed highly polished cinematic sequences to transition into visuals that could react live to performers and data.
The LED floor became the main stage of these performances while the jumbotron, ribbons and additional screens extended the imagery throughout the venue. Lighting was developed in close relation to the media content so that the physical arena and digital surfaces could behave as one visual composition.
5. Connecting physical performance and digital content
One of the most innovative aspects of the shows was the integration of the Kinexon sports tracking system.
Kinexon technology is normally used to collect positional and performance data from athletes. For Lidl Final4, PlanValley developed a custom software bridge that made this positional information available inside the creative show environment.
Performers equipped with trackers could therefore directly influence visual effects on the LED floor through their movement. During an acrobatic performance, for example, two tracked dancers generated real-time particle effects that followed their positions across the playing surface.
The technology effectively connected physical movement and digital imagery: the performers were no longer simply dancing on top of an animation. Their movement was generating part of the animation itself.
6. Designing specifically for broadcast
The LED floor also enabled visual ideas specifically designed for the television audience. Selected sequences used forced-perspective and anamorphic content calibrated to the main broadcast camera position.
From this specific viewpoint, graphics appeared to gain depth and extend vertically from the playing field, creating large-scale three-dimensional illusions visible to viewers at home. This created another layer to the production: some visual moments could simultaneously provide one experience inside the arena and another through the broadcast camera.
7. Interactive halftime experience
The integration of real-time technology was taken further with a bespoke interactive halftime game developed specifically for the event. Spectators were invited from the audience onto the playing field and became participants in a game taking place directly across the LED surface.
Using custom software and live positional tracking, animated elements reacted to the participants' locations in real time. Players had to move and jump between animated areas while elements disappeared directly beneath them.
The entire handball court therefore became a giant interactive game interface. Rather than spectators simply watching entertainment during halftime, members of the audience could physically enter the digital environment and become part of it.
8. One arena, one visual system
To make this level of integration possible, PlanValley reconstructed the complete LANXESS Arena inside the Disguise Designer environment before arriving on site.
This enabled the team to previsualize the shows and match content, map the different display surfaces and prepare sequences across the floor, jumbotron, ribbons and additional arena displays in advance. Content was therefore not conceived screen by screen.
Instead, the arena was treated as one connected visual canvas. Across an individual match block, the same technological environment could move through multiple completely different functions:
Team introduction → Player presentation → Match information → Partner activation → Fan engagement → Live performance → Interactive entertainment → Match → Trophy ceremony.
This transformation was at the heart of the project.
The Lidl Final4 demonstrated that immersive technology does not have to sit around the edges of professional sport. It can become part of the sport itself, helping communicate the game, strengthening the identity of teams and players, creating new opportunities for partners and fans, and turning live performances into experiences that exist only because of the technology beneath them.
The result was a single visual ecosystem in which sport, information, entertainment, performance, branding, real-time data and audience interaction became part of the same live experience.
Challenges and Solutions
Delivering the Lidl Final4 meant combining a professional sporting competition with an ambitious live entertainment production using technology that had never previously been implemented at this scale in professional handball.
The challenge was therefore not only technical. Every creative decision also had to respect the requirements of the sport, the athletes, broadcast, spectators, performers, partners and live production.
1. Working around professional sport
Unlike a conventional concert or entertainment production, the show system could never interfere with the sporting competition. The LED floor was simultaneously the primary playing surface for a major professional handball tournament and the production's largest visual canvas.
Content therefore had to be designed around strict moments in the sporting schedule.
During live play, information needed to be immediate and functional. During player entrances and pre-match sequences, it could become emotional and cinematic. During breaks and timeouts, it could become branded or interactive. During shows, almost all creative restrictions could be removed and the floor could become a performance environment. Creating one design system capable of adapting instantly between these requirements was one of the central challenges of the project.
2. Designing useful in-game graphics without distracting from the sport
The possibility of displaying content directly on the playing surface created a completely new communication opportunity, but also a major responsibility. Match information had to make the game easier to understand without becoming a distraction. For this reason, the visual language of referee decisions, suspensions, statistics and other match events was deliberately separated from the more elaborate show content.
Information had to be recognisable, readable and visually clear within only a few seconds. This turned the LED floor from a pure entertainment surface into an additional interface between the game and its audience.
3. Less than 48 hours on site
The team had less than 48 hours after arriving at the venue to connect to the Kinexon tracking infrastructure, integrate the tracking data into the show system, calibrate match cues and conduct full rehearsals with dancers and acrobats.
To reduce the amount of work required inside the venue, a significant proportion of the technical setup and programming was completed beforehand.
The entire LANXESS Arena was reconstructed inside Disguise Designer, allowing the team to previsualise content and prepare screen mapping, playback structures and show sequences before installation.
4. Arena audience versus television audience
The project had to function for approximately 20,000 spectators inside LANXESS Arena while simultaneously delivering a high-quality experience for broadcast viewers. These two audiences experience the LED floor completely differently. Content that works from a high seating position does not necessarily work from the main television camera, and vice versa.
Selected 3D sequences were therefore mapped specifically around the broadcast camera using forced anamorphic perspective, while the wider visual system remained readable and impactful from multiple positions within the arena.
Even the brightness of the LED court markings required precise calibration. The markings needed to remain clearly visible to players and the audience while avoiding overexposure on broadcast and unwanted illumination of the athletes.
5. Real-time rendering at arena scale
The shows combined large-format pre-rendered media with computationally demanding real-time graphics. Notch scenes had to react instantly to live tracking information while being rendered across an enormous LED canvas.
The production therefore relied on the GPU rendering capabilities of Disguise GX 3+, enabling the team to run complex generative scenes and make live adjustments without compromising playback performance.
6. Turning sports tracking into a creative medium
Another technical challenge was taking a system designed for sports analytics and making its data available as a creative input. PlanValley developed a custom integration that connected Kinexon positional tracking with the visual show environment. The resulting system allowed performer positions to become parameters inside generative graphics, opening up a completely new relationship between choreography and media.
Instead of preparing every visual movement in advance, parts of the graphics could be generated directly from what performers were doing in the arena.
7. Connecting multiple disciplines
The production brought together numerous disciplines that would traditionally operate as separate systems:
sport operations, media server programming, motion design, 3D content, real-time graphics, software development, tracking, choreography and lighting design.
The solution was to develop these areas as part of the same production architecture.
Lighting, for example, was designed closely around the media output rather than being treated as an independent layer. This enabled lighting and screen content to work together during the four arena shows and allowed large-scale visual changes to affect the entire venue simultaneously.
The technological innovation of the project therefore did not come from one individual piece of equipment.
It came from connecting technologies and creative disciplines that would normally remain separate and turning them into one real-time production system.
Photo credit: Handball-Bundesliga
Equipment
The production used a combination of media server technology, real-time rendering, LED infrastructure, tracking systems and custom software. Each component was selected not simply for playback, but to create a flexible environment capable of changing between professional sport, real-time information and live entertainment.
The ASB GlassFloor formed the visual centerpiece of the production and served simultaneously as a professional handball court and a full-resolution LED canvas.
It was used throughout the event for:
- club and sport intros
- player walk-ins
- in-game information
- statistics and match communication
- partner activations
- fan engagement
- opening and halftime shows
- interactive content
- real-time performer tracking
- and the trophy ceremony
Its ability to switch instantly between a regulated sporting surface and a completely digital environment was fundamental to the creative concept.
The Disguise GX 3+ provided the GPU processing required for the production's demanding real-time content. It was particularly important for the complex Notch scenes used in the arena shows, including generative graphics and tracking-driven particle effects. Its rendering capacity allowed complex real-time graphics to run at arena scale without restricting the creative team because of performance limitations.
Disguise VX 4+ servers were used as part of the media server infrastructure handling the large amount of high-resolution content required across the production.
Together with the GX systems, they created an environment capable of combining traditional playback with real-time rendering.
Disguise Designer was used for previsualization, mapping and show preparation. The complete LANXESS Arena was reconstructed digitally, allowing the team to position and preview content across the:
- LED floor
- jumbotron
- perimeter LEDs
- ribbons
- and additional arena display surfaces
This was particularly important given the extremely limited amount of setup and rehearsal time available on site.
Notch provided the real-time generative graphics engine for the production. It enabled content to react dynamically to data and performer movement instead of relying exclusively on pre-rendered sequences. It was used throughout the four arena shows for effects ranging from reactive visual environments to live particle systems controlled by Kinexon tracking data.
The Kinexon tracking system provided live positional information for performers. Through a custom software bridge developed by PlanValley, this data became available directly within the creative environment and could influence Notch graphics in real time. The same principle was also used for the bespoke interactive halftime experience.
Custom software was developed to bridge tracking data with the show environment and to power the interactive halftime game.
This software allowed the system to understand the position of participants on the physical court and immediately translate their movement into changes on the digital playing surface.
Blender was used to create pre-rendered 3D environments, animations and assets for the sports and show content. These assets were combined with the real-time elements inside the Disguise environment.
Adobe After Effects was used extensively for motion design and 2D content production, including elements of the sport presentation, player and team sequences and the wider show package. The final workflow therefore combined pre-rendered 2D and 3D media, real-time rendering, live tracking data and custom interactive software within one playback environment.
Team
Technical Director
Jan-Philipp Heyne — PlanValley
Show Creative Director
Benjamin Petit — PlanValley / Let There Be Light
Sport Creative Director
Julian Gehring — PlanValley
Project Manager
Rosie Bell — PlanValley
Technical Operation & Software
Key Technical Operators & Software Programmers
Tobias Arndt — PlanValley
Aron Klauke — PlanValley
Content Creation
3D Artist
Julian Gehring — PlanValley
Théo Delamare — PlanValley / Let There Be Light
Notch Artists
Théo Delamare — PlanValley / Let There Be Light
Benjamin Petit — PlanValley
2D Artists
Maya Bonnot — PlanValley / Let There Be Light
Julian Gehring — PlanValley
Interactive & Tracking Development
Halftime Game Developers
Charlie Crottier-Combe — PlanValley
Baptiste Scalier — PlanValley
Tracking Developers
Lukas Herbers — PlanValley
Benjamin Petit — PlanValley
Lighting & Performance
Lighting Design
Daniel Gündner
Choreography & Music
DDC Entertainment
Key Technology Partners
ASB GlassFloor
Full LED professional sports flooring
Disguise
Media server, real-time rendering and previsualization platform
Kinexon
Real-time positional tracking
Notch
Real-time generative graphics
Client
Lidl / Schwarz Group
Handball-Bundesliga (HBL)