The live design and creative production studio NeonBlack chose a rig of Ayrton Rivale Profile luminaires as the main lighting backbone for the Wales Investment Summit 2025 which, presided over by the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan MS, took place on November 30 at the International Conference Centre of Wales (ICCW) in Newport.
Nearly 350 delegates from 29 countries attended this key event, organised by the Welsh Government with the explicit aim of encouraging high-value international investment into the country.
Looking to create a different and more engaging experience than a traditional conference dinner, the Welsh Government approached NeonBlack directly, asking them to bring a touch of magic that would make the evening memorable. NeonBlack’s proposal was to design an immersive dining experience with a strong wow factor, integrating creative video content with an enveloping lighting design.
The ICCW is a huge conference space that gave us a massive blank canvas to work with. To create something immersive, you need to surround the audience with an environment, so we designed and built a 360° immersive dining space with projection on all four sides of the room, explains Dom Smith, founder and creative director of NeonBlack.
NeonBlack was commissioned to produce a 7-minute video promoting Wales as an investment opportunity for these projection surfaces. Paul Johnson (PJ), NeonBlack’s Design Director, storyboarded the piece and worked on it with Cardiff-based videographer Paul Nicholls from Bait Studio, using software including Unreal and After Effects. “My idea was to take the audience on a visual journey through every corner of Wales and show them the potential that exists in this remarkable country”, says PJ.
The scope of NeonBlack’s project also included assigning each part of the dinner a distinct, dynamic setting: “When delegates entered the room, they felt as if they were on top of Mount Snowdon”, explains PJ. “We built this environment by mapping 3D photography onto the video projection. Starting from the mountain image, we added a dynamic sky with shooting stars and the northern lights, creating the sensation that the room was slowly evolving around the audience. This setting then transitioned into a 7-minute video, introduced by the event’s compere, Alex Jones, after which Eluned Morgan made her entrance through a projected image of the TARDIS — which had previously been orbiting the room — (as a nod to Doctor Who)”.
After Eluned’s speech, the evening moved into the dinner. At this point, we transformed the space using the recently refurbished dining hall of Caerphilly Castle as the reference: the entire room adopted this new setting, with walls lit by virtual sconces activated by animated characters. During the experience, ‘Dai the Dragon’ flew past the projected ‘windows’ before entering the scene and lighting the fireplace. The character continued to appear intermittently as part of the environment throughout the dinner, becoming one of the most celebrated elements among attendees. After dinner, the setting returned to the northern lights atop the mountain, while the musical show Welsh in the West End brought the evening to a close.
NeonBlack’s elaborate lighting design sat on top of the projected environment, illuminating the dinner and reinforcing the immersive nature of the video.
“It’s not enough to simply have video projection—you need to go much further to create something truly immersive”, says Smith. “Layering lighting cues over the video adds drama and creates the right atmosphere for the dinner. We were looking for fixtures that could help us achieve this, and the natural choice was Ayrton’s Rivale Profile. We used 64 units in the main event rig, plus another 16 in the themed foyer and entrance, as well as for aerial beam effects outside the venue to set the mood as delegates arrived. The IP65 rating was essential to withstand the typical Welsh weather”.
Rivale was the only option for a production of this nature, as it is an अत्य versatile and user-friendly fixture. It allows seamless transitions between key and effects lighting, delivers strong output and a flat field, offers attractive colours and performs excellently on skin tones. It is also compact, which is a major advantage in this type of environment.
NeonBlack has maintained a strong working relationship with the Welsh Government for some time. “We’ve had the honour of working with the Welsh Government before, and they brought us on board for the Summit because they were looking for something a little out of the ordinary, which we believe we delivered”, adds Smith.
According to the Welsh Government website, “in the twelve months prior to the Summit, Wales attracted an impressive £4.6 billion in inward investment, a figure that was surpassed by announcements made during the event, which promised a total of £16 billion towards job creation and capital investment projects in the coming years. Privately, they’ve told us that part of the success was due to how unusual the dinner was—it’s still being talked about”, concludes Smith. “So I guess we did our job”.
