Inside Lidl Final4’s world-first LED handball pitch, powered by Disguise and ASB Glassfloor

When creative agency PlanValley won a high-stakes pitch to completely redefine the fan experience for one of Germany’s top handball tournaments, the Lidl Final4 in Cologne, they knew they wanted to create a Super Bowl-esque event that fans could enjoy watching wherever they were. Their vision was to create an immersive live sports experience that combined real-time data, live performance and audience interaction to drive fan engagement.

To do this, PlanValley leveraged Disguise GX 3+ and VX 4+ servers with ASB Glassfloor's LED flooring solution and real-time Notch graphics to successfully transform the stadium floor, jumbotron and ribbons into an immersive, interactive 3D canvas and create the world’s very first full LED handball pitch.

The challenge

To pull off a world-first event of this scale, PlanValley had to overcome intense technical, creative and operational hurdles under extreme time constraints. “We had less than 48 hours from arriving on-site to connect to the tracking system set up by Kinexon, integrate the tracking, calibrate cues for the match, and run full rehearsals with the dancers and acrobats,” recalls Aron Klauke, key technical operator and software programmer at PlanValley.

The team also needed to manage a delicate balance to impress both the audience in the stadium and those watching from home. The LED pitch lines, for instance, required precise brightness levels to ensure the television broadcast colours wouldn’t wash out and inadvertently illuminate the players, while still being visible to the in-stadium crowd.

“Our 3D content needed to be visually stunning in the arena, while being simultaneously mapped to display correctly from the broadcast camera’s forced-anamorphic perspective,” explains Ben Petit, Show Creative Director at PlanValley’s creative studio, Let There Be Light. “This was another major challenge, as it involved managing a complex mix of pre-rendered 3D assets from Blender and live, generative Notch blocks that required massive rendering power for on-the-fly content changes.”

PlanValley needed a system that would allow them to combine this real-time content with audience interactivity to engage fans and bring them into the heart of the action.

The solution

The team looked to Disguise to bring the immersive sports experience to life and make the most of the cutting-edge ASB Glassfloor LED flooring solution already installed at the venue. Powered by Disguise VX and GX media servers, the interactive LED floor panels transformed the arena floor into a fully customisable interactive digital surface for players, fans and performers.  

The first step was to rebuild the entire Lanxess arena in a 3D pre-visualisation environment to help plan where the content would appear. “Disguise’s Designer software enabled us to map content across the floor, jumbotron, and ribbons, or even to take the floor content and instantly extend it across the banners, ring screens, and more. We could envelope the entire stadium in a unified aesthetic, ensuring a flawless experience before ever setting foot in the venue,” says Aron.

Together with DDC Entertainment, PlanValley’s creative studio, Let There Be Light, was then responsible for content conception and production, as well as creative and technical direction and operations. For the physical production, the team utilised the high-performance capabilities of the Disguise GX 3+ media server. 

Integrating the GX 3+ into their workflow enabled the team to work with large amounts of data to enhance the visual experience for fans, such as using it to drive reactive floor visuals for both opening and halftime shows. This transformed the stadium LEDs to display everything from anamorphic waves specifically calibrated for the main broadcast camera angle, to 3D lyrics that were cut out of a virtual wooden floor, and even real-time particle effects that trailed from two dancers during an acrobatic performance. Performers were fitted with Kinexon trackers to gather data on their movements, which directly impacted the Notch effects for a personalised touch.

The team even created a gamified experience for fans during half time. “We ended up building custom software to create a game inspired by Tabaluga, the classic German children’s TV show,” Aron adds. “We had spectators come from the crowd onto the pitch to compete in a game where they had to jump between moving dots that would dissolve. Our custom software tracked their positions in real time, causing the visuals to disappear right beneath their feet realistically.”

The results

With 20,000 spectators in the stadium and millions more watching across the world, PlanValley’s immersive sports experience for the Lidl Final4 handball tournament captured the attention of fans both in-person and at home. As well as driving storytelling on the pitch, the real-time visuals also provided deep context for the game, enhanced the emotional gravity of the live performances, and kept fan energy at its peak.

This historic event marked the first time a professional handball game was played on a full LED video floor by ASB GlassFloor, proving that cutting-edge LED technology can merge with top-tier professional sports to create an unforgettable match.