Italy – The stage – a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The audience – millions of people worldwide. The occasion – the world’s most prestigious Winter Games. And right in the middle of it all, a lighting design team working with 750 units of a product that isn’t even on the market yet. This is how a story begins about the moment when light stops being technology and starts being a language.
The Arena di Verona in February 2026: the famous amphitheatre is the backdrop for two ceremonies that could hardly be more different. First, the grand finale of the world’s most prestigious Winter Games – a moment of farewell and paying tribute to the finest athletes. A few days later, the same stage, the same technology, but a completely different atmosphere: the opening of the Winter Games for para-athletes, a fresh start full of energy and anticipation. Both times the same arena, the same technology, and yet two events that stand on their own.
What the audience experienced during these two events was the result of close collaboration between the Italian production company Filmmaster, which was commissioned directly by the organising committees, the Milan-based design studio Giò Forma, and the lighting design team at Blearred Milano. Together, they created a production that had an impact far beyond the realm of sport. Fabrizio Audagnotto, Executive Producer of Ceremonies at Filmmaster, says: “‘Beauty in Action’ – in all its forms. That was the promise we made to the world. To transform the Arena di Verona into an immersive stage for the first time in Olympic history, weaving together dance, music, technology and Italy’s cultural heritage into a single moment. This can only succeed if every partner truly understands this vision. On stage, you can see the light. But what you don’t see is the trust that underpins it.”
Light as a design element
Claudio Santucci, set designer and founder of the Milan-based design studio Giò Forma, knew from the very beginning of the project: “Light is a structural component of the set design, not an afterthought. At the Arena of Verona, we faced the challenge of resolving the backdrop along the Arena’s tiers, an especially delicate condition, as any intervention there inevitably meant negotiating the balance between enhancing the historic setting and integrating contemporary technology. We therefore reinterpreted the background as a luminous canvas spanning the Arena’s tiers, employing a versatile and highly impactful lighting system. In this way, light becomes a true scenographic tool, shaping space, depth, and narrative without relying on additional physical structures. To achieve this, we brought Cameo into the conversation, providing the decisive cue for the lighting designers at Blearred. Together, we transformed the Arena into the visual heart of the project: an immersive backdrop where light, architecture, and design converge, enhancing and amplifying every performance.”
New perspectives
For Blearred, the task was to design two consecutive live productions with virtually identical stage and technical setups in a way that was both consistent and yet distinctive: “Our biggest challenge was to avoid repetition as much as possible and to give each ceremony its own emotional touch,” explains Ivan Russo, Technical Project Manager and one of the founders of Blearred. “The aim was to reframe the audience’s perspective whilst conveying a consistent overall atmosphere.”
Blearred sought solutions that worked both creatively and practically. The creative ideas called for lighting architecture that showcased the entire space, not just the stage. In other words, lighting to create depth and set the rhythm. And solutions robust enough to withstand the demanding conditions of a huge open-air venue, without the need to protect the historic masonry unnecessarily restricting the production.
A matter of trust
Giò Forma’s recommendation led the Blearred team straight to Neu-Anspach in Hesse, to the Adam Hall Group’s headquarters: “When we first saw the OTOS L16, the product wasn’t even on the market yet,” recalls Jordan Babev, lighting designer and co-founder of Blearred. The fact that the team nevertheless opted for Cameo’s new IP65 moving bar demonstrates the trust the studio placed in the product and the brand. “The Cameo team never left us in any doubt that they could supply the OTOS L16 in such large quantities for the shows. That was the deciding factor for us.”
For Nicolò Maffeis, Lighting Programmer at Blearred, the just under 750 Cameo OTOS L16s, which were distributed across the ancient steps in the semi-circular amphitheatre, played a crucial role in the creative realisation: “The OTOS L16s are the most striking visual element in both ceremonies.” Blearred uses the IP65-certified moving bars for both coloured surface effects and symmetrical effects and lighting accents with a strong sense of depth.
Lasting memories
Ultimately, ceremonies of this scale are not about individual effects, but about what stays with the audience. “Above all, I’d like the audience to remember the emotions they felt whilst watching on TV or live in the arena,” comments Ivan Russo. Jordan Babev is already looking further ahead: “I imagine us sitting around a table as a team in ten years’ time, looking back with pride on this experience that we shared with millions of people.”
