Project Type
Live for Broadcast. An international classical music television talent show featuring young performers and an international judging panel. The production combined a 12-camera television recording with an extensive LED and virtual-production environment at United Illusions Studio.
Project Name
Virtuosos 2025
This event was an international classical music television talent show featuring young performers and an international judging panel. The production combined a 12-camera television recording with an extensive LED and virtual-production environment at United Illusions Studio.
United Illusions, part of Visual Europe Group, supported the Virtuosos production team with studio facilities and technical infrastructure. The program was broadcast in five countries, with a reported worldwide audience of 140 million across all platforms.
Design Criteria
The brief was to renew the program’s visual language and bring classical music to wider television audiences. The creative team sought a contemporary screen experience that complemented the music while preserving the intimacy of live performance.
Instead of a single fixed television set, the design placed musicians and judges within a flexible visual environment. LED imagery could give each musical moment a distinct atmosphere, scale and sense of place, while keeping the performers at the centre of the experience.
The principal design goal was to make performances feel immediate and cinematic. Virtual production brought the visual environment directly into the camera image, allowing classical repertoire and contemporary screen technology to share the same frame.
The design also needed to support a repeatable television production workflow while accommodating different visual treatments throughout the program.
Project Description
For the 2025 season, United Illusions provided its 28-meter-long, 6-meter-high studio LED wall and integrated approximately 200 square meters of additional LED surface into the production design. Together, these elements created almost 400 square meters of LED across the set.
The display system included ROE Black Pearl V2 panels and Brompton SX40 processing. Lighting infrastructure included 48 ARRI SkyPanel S60-C fixtures, while a separate, fully equipped television control room supported the 12-camera recording.
The LED imagery, physical set, lighting, performers and camera coverage were conceived as one coherent visual composition. The environment offered a broad visual palette, enabling changes in atmosphere without shifting attention away from the musical performances.
Nearly 300 crew members contributed to the production. Young classical musicians performed before an international panel that included Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Veronica Bocelli.
The project demonstrated how virtual production can expand the visual vocabulary of a classical music television format. Its defining approach was to use the technology in service of the music, giving performances a contemporary visual setting while maintaining the focus on emerging talent.
Challenges and Solutions
What difficulties were faced? How were they addressed? What innovations were implemented in the design? Were there special considerations above and beyond most projects of this scope?
The main challenge was the compressed preparation period. Set construction, studio arrangements, additional LED installation, television control-room infrastructure and a large crew had to be coordinated within a limited timeframe.
The production also introduced a technology workflow that was new to the program while meeting the operational demands of a 12-camera television recording. LED content, lighting, physical scenery and camera coverage needed to work together consistently across multiple viewpoints.
The technical approach combined the studio’s existing LED volume and lighting infrastructure with production-specific LED surfaces and a dedicated television control room. This provided an integrated environment for both the visual design and multi-camera recording.
The principal innovation was the application of a substantial virtual-production environment to a classical music talent show. Capturing the visual world directly in camera allowed the production to create varied cinematic settings while keeping the musicians and their performances central.
Equipment
28 m × 6 m studio LED wall: Provided the main visual environment for the performances and judging panel, supporting changes in atmosphere, scale and setting.
Approximately 200 sqm of additional LED surface: Extended the studio volume into the production-specific set design, bringing the total LED area to almost 400 sqm.
ROE Visual Black Pearl V2 LED panels: Formed part of the display system used to create the on-camera visual environment.
Brompton Technology SX40 LED processing: Provided processing for the LED display system.
48 ARRI SkyPanel S60-C fixtures: Supported the lighting environment, helping integrate performers and physical scenery with the LED imagery.
Dedicated television control room and 12-camera recording setup: Supported the camera coverage and production workflow required by the television format.
Team
List the key members of the creative team, technicians, vendors, manufacturers and other significant staff.
Virtuosos production team – Program concept, editorial direction and television production.
United Illusions / Visual Europe Group – Virtual-production studio, LED environment, production-specific LED integration, lighting infrastructure and television control-room setup.
Wider production crew – Nearly 300 crew members contributed to the production.
Equipment manufacturers represented – ROE Visual, Brompton Technology and ARRI.