Job Role: Project Lead / Lead Disguise Programmer
Client: National Lottery/BBC
Lead Disguise Programmer: Toby McManus (QED Productions)
Technical Team: Toby McManus, Harry Richardo, Ben Shepherd
Production: Motion House, 4Wall
Venue: St George’s Hall, Liverpool - 2025
“A dazzling projection spectacular for 25,000 live in Liverpool and broadcast worldwide.”
To open Eurovision 2023, Liverpool staged one of its largest ever free outdoor shows outside the iconic St George’s Hall - a spectacular welcome party for 25,000 people, broadcast on BBC and streamed globally to millions.
As Projection Project Lead and Lead Disguise Programmer with Motionhouse, 4Wall & TBI, Toby oversaw the design and delivery of 36 projector installations and LED walls, transforming the hall and surrounding area with light, music, and dance.
Workflow & Technical Direction:
Pre-production focused on creating a workflow capable of bringing out the features of the architect for a live, broadcast event. I developed 3D and 2D templates for the animators, delivering cleaned 3D models and UV templates, and designed a perspective camera workflow to navigate the unique challenges of St George’s Hall architecture. The content needed to work from both the hero shot and the audience's viewpoint. The system design required careful planning and flexibility to integrate with each department and to accommodate 18 feeds from the Disguise servers, with additional room to scale if needed.
Live Event:
Toby project-managed the installation, leading the overnight line-ups to map the 100m building. For the live event, I handled disguise programming and show operation, building a dynamic, time-coded system that allowed the freedom to adapt running order on the fly.