We worked with MDL Beast, Production Glue, and festival creative director Alex Reardon for four consecutive years from 2021 to 2024.
Our work involved creating LED video loops for the three main stages at MDL Beast Soundstorm: Big Beast, Down Beast, and Dance Beast. Big Beast is the world's largest stage, with an LED wall spanning three soccer pitches.
Along with this, we also covered artist content for headline performers such as Axwell Ingrosso, Alesso, and Tiësto.
Big Beast is the festival’s main stage and the largest in the world, an LED wall the size of three football pitches at 10K output. The content had to be produced in volume, and kept changing: pixel maps and show conditions were still moving in the final week before doors.
We built the Big Beast content in Notch for the render speed, so changes could be absorbed rather than scheduled. Millions of high-resolution particles, previewed on a real-time 3D model of the actual rig, so what was signed off was what played. Amended renders were turned around during festival week and dropped straight onto the servers.
Josh Gallagher led creative direction alongside Alex Reardon, Emil Bardh led the Notch build, with Sam Hodgkiss and Tom Harrison animating and Harry Bird producing. Visual Noise screen produced for MDLBEAST.
“Using Notch to turn around amended renders the week of the festival was hugely valuable. It allows for an authentic experience where what you see is what you get.”Harry Bird and Emil Bardh, Comix
Featured by Notch
Read their write-up
Three soccer pitches of LED. One of the most technically ambitious festival environments in the world. Our loops had to work at an almost architectural scale.
The first year. Establishing scale, process and the visual systems that would run across three stages simultaneously.
The world's largest stage. A LED wall spanning three soccer pitches. Three years. Three consecutive festivals. Riyadh on a global stage.
