When the Pro Cheer League debuted its inaugural competition, the production team faced an increasingly common challenge: create a live event that functioned equally well as a national television broadcast and a high-energy arena experience. The new league—developed by Varsity Spirit—represents the first professional platform designed specifically for elite cheer athletes to compete in a head-to-head format for a national audience.
For Nashville-based UpLight Technologies, the assignment was comprehensive. The company was tasked with designing and delivering the full production environment—set, lighting, video, and show systems—capable of touring between convention centers and major arenas while maintaining a consistent visual identity on camera.
“It’s a brand new concept,” explains David Surbrook, owner and creative director of UpLight Technologies and production designer for the event. “Competitive cheer has traditionally focused on routine-based performances, but this league shifts the dynamic to head-to-head competition, bringing a new level of professionalism to the sport. This is the first-ever professional cheerleading program to be staged for an arena audience and broadcast to television viewers simultaneously,”
The Pro Cheer League aired nationally on ION Television, placing additional pressure on the production team to ensure the show translated seamlessly from the arena floor to the camera.
From the start, flexibility was the primary design objective.
The Pro Cheer League tour moves between convention halls and full-scale arenas, each with different rigging limitations, ceiling heights, and floor plans. UpLight’s production system needed to adapt quickly while maintaining a consistent visual identity and meeting broadcast production standards.
“We needed something that would translate well on television first, but still feel exciting and immersive for the live audience with a wider scope,” Surbrook says.
Complicating matters was the project timeline. Initial discussions about the show began in late summer, but the production team did not learn the event would be broadcast live until early December.
“When we found out it would be live television, we essentially redesigned the entire show in an afternoon,” Surbrook recalls. “We finalized the gear specification in mid-December, built the rig right after the new year, and had it ready for the first show less than a month later.”
Given the tight production schedule and limited crew sizes, efficiency was a major factor in the rig’s design.
“Our prep week was critical,” Surbrook says. “We needed a system that could load in quickly, minimize troubleshooting, and still deliver a big look.”
The modular LED carts, simplified cabling, and integrated rigging approach allowed the team to deploy the system quickly across different venue types.
The centerpiece of the visual design is a large LED canvas built from INFiLED Black Widow AMT 3.9mm panels. Measuring approximately 40 feet wide by 16 feet tall, it is configured with 12-by-5 panels. Each 1000mm panel delivers a 256×256 pixel resolution, resulting in nearly four million pixels across the primary display.
Video designer and systems integrator James Mitchell lauded the panels for both image quality and touring practicality.
“The touring frames and carts made setup and strike quick and safe,” Mitchell says. “The pixel pitch and color accuracy—combined with 12-bit processing and multiple refresh rates—made them ideal for broadcast.”
In addition to the center wall, the design features two staggered wing walls of 12 panels apiece, as well as two notched floor pods, consisting of 3 panels each.
“This layout gives us strong visual interest while maintaining a true 16:9 center display,” Mitchell explains. “That was important for sponsor opportunities and television graphics.”
The LED system is powered by dual Brompton SX40 processors with four XD breakout boxes. Video signals are routed through an Analog Way Zenith 200 switcher, with dual outputs feeding each processor to ensure redundancy.
“Redundancy is built into every stage of the signal flow,” Mitchell explains. “Two XDs handle primary data distribution, while the other two provide looped backups.”
Content playback runs from a 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro running Resolume Arena with the Stageflow plugin, paired with a Blackmagic DeckLink 8K Pro G2 capture card.
“We tested several media server configurations during prep,” Mitchell says. “Once we landed on Resolume with Stageflow, it gave us the flexibility and stability we needed.”
For Surbrook, the INFiLED Black Widow AMT panels proved particularly well-suited for a broadcast environment.
“The touring frame system makes setup incredibly fast,” he says. “Everything rolls off carts, and the way the panels connect means less cabling overall.”
Equally important was the screen’s matte finish.
“When athletes are performing stunts above the video wall, you don’t want reflections bouncing back toward the cameras. The Black Widow panels absorb light really well, which makes them fantastic for television.” He adds, “It’s been a very reliable product. And the customer service and support we've received from INFiLED has been pretty top notch.”
While the LED system provides the primary visual canvas, Surbrook’s lighting design is responsible for delivering the energy and motion required for a televised sports event.
The lighting rig features a mix of fixtures from ACME Lighting, Claypaky, Robe, and Elation, controlled via an Avolites D7 console controlling more than 32 universes of lighting data.
“We’ve been using Avolites since 2011,” Surbrook says. “The programming structure is incredibly efficient, and the D7 has the right balance of screens, faders, and hardware without taking up too much space at front of house.”
One of the show’s most distinctive design features is the integration of lighting fixtures directly beneath the LED wing walls.
Surbrook and the UpLight team developed custom mounting brackets to position ACME Lighting Tornado fixtures beneath the video structure.
The result merges the LED canvas with dynamic beam effects into a single visual element.
“That’s where the design really came together,” Surbrook notes. “We were able to combine the Tornado fixtures with the video wall in a way that hadn’t really been done before.”
Sixteen Tornado fixtures provide high-impact aerial effects with pixel-mapped rings, wave patterns, and zoomable beams. Their versatility made them a centerpiece of the lighting design.
“They’re one of the most creative fixtures out there right now,” Surbrook says. “You can do an incredible amount with them.”
The lighting system was designed to balance two competing priorities: even broadcast illumination for athletes and dynamic visual effects for the show environment.
A layered rig addresses both needs.
Primary performance lighting is provided by 32 Robe Lighting BMFL fixtures delivering high-CRI wash coverage across the competition floor.
Additional beam impact comes from 24 Claypaky Sharpies.
For animated background effects and color bursts, the rig includes 48 ACME Lighting Pixelline fixtures. Their ability to switch between pixel-mapping and diffuse modes allows for filling visual space without distracting from performances.
Sixteen Elation Lighting Pulse Panels surrounding the center LED wall add additional motion and color-mapped effects.
The rig is organized across side trusses, downstage positions, and backlight zones to minimize shadows while ensuring consistent coverage for broadcast cameras.
Designing lighting for a broadcast sports event required careful balance between theatrical aesthetics and camera requirements.
“The hardest part is that the dramatic looks you’d normally do for a live audience—going completely dark and then bringing lights up for big reveals—don’t work the same way for television,” Surbrook explains.
Instead, lighting had to maintain consistent visibility on the performance mat while still creating visual energy in the background.
“You always have to assume the camera might cut to the athletes at any moment,” he says. “So the lighting has to support the performance first.”
The lighting and video design also needed to accommodate the branding of the league’s four teams: Dallas Drive (red), Miami Metal (purple), Golden State Grit (gold), Atlanta Air (blue).
Lighting looks and pixel-mapped effects were programmed to instantly shift between team color palettes, with split-color effects used during head-to-head matchups.
“We built different looks for each team,” Surbrook says. “And because it’s an unscripted, live broadcast, we had to be able to switch those looks on the fly.”
With the inaugural season attracting over 5 million viewers and surpassing internal projections, the League has been secured for a second season. Feedback from both broadcasters and production peers has been overwhelmingly positive, with ION Television praising the design and frequently using the lighting rig as the visual backdrop for on-screen graphics.
But for Surbrook and the UpLight team, one of the most rewarding moments came when the production moved into a major arena environment.
“I’ve always wanted to see our company deliver a full production inside a top-tier arena,” he says. “Walking into that space with our design and our team executing it—that was a huge moment.”
Production Company: UpLight Technologies
Production Designer: David Surbrook
LED Video System
LED Panels
- Black Widow AMT 3.9mm panels — INFiLED
- Panel size: 1000mm × 1000mm
- Resolution per panel: 256 × 256 pixels
Screen Configuration
- Center Wall: 12 panels × 5 panels (~40' × 16')
- Two staggered side wings (12 panels each)
- Notched floor pods (3 panels each)
Processing & Switching
2 × SX40 LED processors — Brompton Technology
4 × XD breakout boxes — Brompton Technology
Zenith 200 video switcher — Analog Way
Media Server / Playback
- Media playback via Resolume with Stageflow plugin
- Apple M4 MacBook Pro with DeckLink 8K Pro G2 card — Blackmagic Design
Lighting System
- Performance Lighting
- 32 × BMFL Wash fixtures — Robe Lighting
Beam Fixtures
- 24 × Sharpies — Claypaky
Effects Fixtures
- 16 × Tornado fixtures — ACME Lighting
Linear Pixel Fixtures
- 48 × Pixelline fixtures — ACME Lighting
Pixel Panel Fixtures
- 16 × Pulse Panels — Elation Lighting
Lighting Control
- D7 lighting console — Avolites
- System size: 32+ DMX universes
Production Team
- David Surbrook — Owner/Creative Director/Production Designer
- James Mitchell — Video Designer & Systems Integrator
- Zach Charles — LED Tech & Video Switch Operator
- Brad White — Lighting Programmer & Operator
- André Huff — Lighting Programmer & Operator
- Brian Suchoki — Lighting Production Lead
- Rhys Kiernan — Lighting Systems Technician
- Scott Dupre — Audio Systems Lead