Barco powers the spirit of the Chengdu World Games
China · 2025
On August 7, 2025, the grand opening of a world-class sporting event unfolded in Chengdu, where Barco UDX projectors transformed the stage and lakefront into a dazzling visual spectacle. A magnificent scroll of light and shadow stretched across the landscape, seamlessly blending mountains, water, and the city skyline. The result was a breathtaking fusion of Sichuan’s millennia-old culture and cutting-edge visual technology, shared with audiences around the globe.
Barco solutions:
- 66x Barco UDX projectors
Key benefits:
High brightness, ensuring bright projection even at long distances in outdoor environments
High resolution and vivid color, delivering detailed imagery across stage surfaces and water screens
Reliable performance, maintaining stable operation in hot and humid conditions
Context
Breaking away from the conventions of enclosed stadiums, the ceremony was centered around the “Tianfu Roof” - Asia’s largest free-standing timber structure – facing the expansive Xinglong Lake. The stage, shaped like a ginkgo leaf, served as the canvas for one of the evening’s highlights: the dance performance “Splendor of the Brocade”. This piece merged floor projections, dancers, lighting, and the lakefront backdrop into a seamless artistic experience.
During the athletes’ parade, twin fountains created water-screen projections on the lake, forming a “Gate of Welcome” to symbolize friendship and a “Gate of Triumph” to represent honor - an evocative gesture of warmth and blessing from Chengdu to the world’s athletes.
Challenge
The opening ceremony posed multiple challenges for projection technology. First, the outdoor setting introduced unpredictable lighting and weather conditions, which required robust equipment capable of performing reliably in a dynamic environment. Additionally, the projection set-up involved stacked, multi-level installations that demanded precise alignment and calibration.
The stage itself measured 110 meters in length and 40 meters in width, with throw distances ranging from 33 to 80 meters. This scale necessitated ultra-bright projectors capable of delivering high-resolution imagery across vast surfaces. The intricate textures of the stage design, combined with vivid color palettes and dynamic water-screen effects, placed high demands on image sharpness and color accuracy.
Finally, the extreme summer heat posed a significant challenge. During rehearsals and the live event, outdoor temperatures reached up to 39°C, putting the projectors’ thermal management systems to the test.
Solution
To meet these demands, fifty UDX projectors were mounted on elevated platforms on both sides of the stage. Through stacking and seamless edge blending, they projected vast, flawless visuals across the stage floor. Engineers fine-tuned and calibrated each angle and equipped the units with 1.65:1 and 4:1 lenses to accommodate varying throw distances, ensuring immaculate detail.
Meanwhile, sixteen additional UDX projectors illuminated the fountain water screens with radiant imagery, weaving water, light, sound, and color into a dreamlike tableau. To safeguard stable performance under extreme heat, each projector was fitted with a specialized ventilation system, enabling stable cooling and uninterrupted operation throughout rehearsals and the live ceremony.
Results
The Barco UDX series delivered a majestic spectacle of light and shadow – grand, dreamlike, and unforgettable. The ceremony not only projected Sichuan cultural symbols onto stage and water, but also showcased the transformative power and artistic impact of projection technology. It reinforced Barco’s leading position in the field of large-scale cultural and sporting events worldwide.
