PRG Projects has opened a new collaborative studio in central London, creating a space where production designers and other creative teams can work directly with the engineers responsible for turning large-scale live entertainment concepts into workable stage technology.
Called Project Studio, the facility is being presented as an extension of PRG’s custom engineering and technology integration work rather than as a conventional design office. The company said the space is intended to bring technical specialists closer to the people shaping live productions, allowing ideas to be examined, costed and developed before they reach the build and touring stages.
The opening comes from PRG Projects, part of the global entertainment technology company PRG, also known as Production Resource Group. Its stated offer covers the journey from early concept work through to delivery, with teams able to advise on budgeting, sourcing, engineering, integration, implementation, sustainability and project management.
A meeting point for ideas and engineering
Project Studio is not being described as a design studio. Instead, it is a dedicated environment where creative teams can explore unfamiliar technologies with PRG Projects specialists, test possible approaches and address technical obstacles while a production is still taking shape. That positioning reflects a reality of contemporary live entertainment: an eye-catching idea may depend just as heavily on materials, weight, power, movement and construction as on the image first imagined by a designer.
PRG Projects said the new London base builds on 25 years of experience developing and manufacturing bespoke audiovisual technology and combining it with stage elements for major live productions. The company’s managing director, Frederic Opsomer, is leading the operation. The business has built a profile around translating ambitious creative concepts into engineered systems for some of the largest productions in the international live entertainment market.
From touring structures to modular stage systems
Among the examples cited by PRG Projects are the custom inflatable LED spheres created for Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour and the eight-metre modular LED sphere developed for Eric Prydz’s Holosphere 2.0. Both examples show the company working at the intersection of visual spectacle and practical stage engineering, where a structure must serve the show while also being integrated into a production environment.
| Project or system | Role described by PRG Projects |
|---|---|
| Music of the Spheres World Tour | Custom-engineered inflatable LED spheres |
| Holosphere 2.0 | Eight-metre modular LED sphere |
| The Joshua Tree Tour | Lightweight carbon-fibre SPACEFRAME system |
| INFINIFORM | Reusable, customisable modular scenic platform |
The company also points to the lightweight carbon-fibre SPACEFRAME system made for U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour. Its INFINIFORM system, meanwhile, is described as a modular scenic platform intended to provide reusable and adaptable infrastructure for changing stage designs. PRG Projects said the system has been used on tours for Post Malone, The 1975 and Tate McRae, among others.
Closer collaboration, earlier in production
For the creative community, the importance of the new facility lies less in a single piece of equipment than in the opportunity to involve technical expertise at the beginning of the process. PRG Projects said designers and production teams will have direct access to specialists who can help shape concepts, identify constraints and develop solutions suited to the demands of live performance.
That approach also gives the studio a deliberately broad remit. It is intended to support the development of new technologies, but also the less glamorous — and often decisive — work of sourcing components, managing delivery and considering sustainability. In live entertainment, where productions can involve complex touring schedules and highly specialised structures, those practical questions can determine whether an idea remains a sketch or becomes part of a show.
With Project Studio, PRG Projects is placing its London operation closer to the designers and creative teams whose work drives the live entertainment industry. The result is a facility designed to make the conversation between imagination and engineering more immediate — a useful arrangement in an age when the stage is increasingly expected to behave like architecture, cinema and machine all at once.
