Panasonic Connect and Cercle Odyssey Redefine the Future of Immersive Concert Experiences
Panasonic Connect and Cercle Odyssey Redefine the Future of Immersive Concert Experiences
Panasonic’s 4K DLP projectors have enabled Cercle Odyssey to reimagine immersive entertainment with the world’s first nomadic concert tour – blending live music and 360° cinematic storytelling to create an emotional, multi-sensory experience.
Client: Cercle Odyssey
Location: Mexico City; Los Angeles; Paris
Product(s) supplied: PT-RQ50K PT-RQ35K ET-D3QW200 ET-D3LEW600
Challenge
Create an immersive concert experience that fuses music, storytelling, and art – reimagining Homer’s Odyssey as a transformative artistic journey, whilst pioneering accessibility, sustainability, and inclusivity at live events.
Solution
Panasonic projectors delivered 360° visuals across 2,300m² of projection space – synchronised with live music – surrounding up to 5,000 visitors per concert in Mexico City; Los Angeles; and Paris with brilliant, vivid and vibrant images.
Technology providers:
- ETC Onlyview (lead video implementation)
- Smode Tech (media server and real-time compositing platform that synchronised projections with live music)
- L’Acoustics (audio system, providing immersive sound solutions, designed and deployed by DUSHOW and NOVELTY)
- Ircam Amplify (audio technology, converting stereo mixes into real-time 3D audio)
- Synology (data management)
- MANE (olfactory experience)
"The 360° projections delivered by Panasonic – synchronised with live music – enable spectators to experience live entertainment and visual storytelling like never before."
Founder and Artistic Director
Cercle
A World-First in Immersive Storytelling
Today, audiences seek engagement beyond passive entertainment. They want experiences that offer a deeper connection, which traditional concerts sometimes fail to provide. Conceived by Derek Barbolla as the first large-scale touring concert of its kind, Cercle Odyssey was designed to meet this cultural shift.
The brainchild of Cercle, a multidisciplinary artistic movement that creates concerts, festivals, and immersive experiences, Cercle Odyssey is an unparalleled immersive artistic journey that explores the intimate bond between humans and nature.
Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, Cercle Odyssey reimagines the concert format as the world’s first immersive nomadic concert tour. Fusing the creativity of globally-renowned musicians – including Moby and Empire of the Sun – and visual artists, the experience is built around a specially commissioned film by Neels Castillon. Cercle Odyssey combines live music, 360° projection mapping, and cinematic storytelling to create a truly multisensory experience.
"What makes this project truly unique is its ability to foster a profound connection between artists and audience. This is achieved through an immersive stage design that dissolves spatial boundaries and encourages pure visual contemplation."
Video Director
ETC Onlyview
State-of-the-Art Native 4K Projection
To bring this ambitious, large-scale immersive experience to life, Cercle Odyssey engaged immersive event production specialists, ETC Onlyview, to utilise the 2,300m² of projection space across the walls and ceiling of each venue.
It selected 20 Panasonic RQ50K 50,000lm 3-Chip DLP™ 4K laser projectors, equipped with Panasonic’s wide-angle, short-throw ET-D3QW200 lens for projecting 360° visuals onto the walls through rear projection. Two RQ50Ks were stacked together in each panel, surrounding up to 5,000 spectators per concert with 100,000lm of brightness and stunning visuals.
The RQ50K delivers unmatched brightness and native 4K resolution (4096 x 2160), offering unrivalled cinematic image quality, and rich and vivid colours, without any distortion.
ETC Onlyview also chose six compact RQ35K projectors, offering 30,000lm of brightness, which were discreetly positioned by the stage to project 4K images onto the ceiling. Both the RQ50K and RQ35K are easy to install, transport, and adjust when compared to LED screens – perfect for large-scale, live immersive events.
Each projector would be required to run for approximately 16 consecutive hours on each concert date, necessitating a projector that offered absolute reliability – especially during the hot late spring and early summer months in which the concerts take place.
Given the unique nature of what the Cercle Odyssey team were trying to achieve, they quickly realised that projectors – instead of LED screens – would provide the desired visual effect
"Projection and LED screens have fundamentally different visual qualities. Projection delivers smoother, more consistent imagery and a natural sense of immersion, especially in 360° projection environments. Logistically, transporting 3,000 m² of LED screens for a touring setup is impractical due to their weight, size, power consumption, and setup time. For Cercle Odyssey, projection was always the clear choice; projectors are lighter, faster to deploy, more energy-efficient, and aligned with the project’s sustainability goals."
Video Director
ETC Onlyview
A Model of Sustainable Immersive Entertainment
Every aspect of the Cercle Odyssey tour was designed to minimise its overall environmental impact. This includes:
- Local sourcing: All sound, lighting, projection, and production equipment is rented locally in each city, significantly reducing transportation emissions.
- Lightweight materials: Canvas projection screens were used instead of heavy LED panels, lowering the carbon footprint and simplifying logistics.
- Minimalist design: The stage and set were intentionally streamlined to reduce material use and waste.
- Lifecycle analysis: Cercle evaluated the full lifecycle of the project, from supplier selection to post-event teardown. This ensures sustainability at every level.
This commitment reflects a broader cultural shift; audiences want experiences that are not only awe-inspiring but also ethically and environmentally responsible.
Designing a touring installation that could adapt to fixed venue dimensions while maintaining both visual excellence and sustainability was a significant challenge. To address this, the Cercle Odyssey team reduced the number of Panasonic projectors used. However, by selecting models that delivered the highest available brightness per unit, projection quality remained uncompromised. This also minimised transportation emissions.
Panasonic’s RQ50K and RQ35K projectors, as the smallest projectors in their class, enhance sustainability in installations through exceptional reliability, energy efficiency, and a low-maintenance design. Both automatically shut down after a period of no signal being detected, whilst each projector reduces brightness where required. This extends the projector’s lifespan and lowers power consumption.
Panasonic’s RQ50K and RQ35K projectors both offer up to 20,000 hours of maintenance-free operation – perfect for a touring format that demands reliability, portability, and ease-of-setup. This minimises downtime and reduces the need for frequent servicing or replacement parts. This longevity not only lowers operational costs but also reduces waste and resource consumption, supporting more sustainable, long-term installations.
"With Cercle Odyssey’s 360-degree projections, the sense of connection is heightened. The audience simultaneously sees the artist and each other, enabling them to feel increasingly engaged and immersed in what they are experiencing. This sense of cohesion is powerful."
Founder and Artistic Director
Cercle
A Radical Approach Towards Unifying Audiences
From the outset, Cercle Odyssey wanted to connect artists, audiences, and the natural world. To best do this, it implemented a strict no-phone policy at its concerts, aligning with its vision to enhance emotional engagement and audience unity.
As a result, Cercle Odyssey concerts offer a rare space for audiences to truly connect with the content and their fellow concert-goers. This approach provides a digital detox, whilst the footage from each concert is shared with attendees within 24 hours, allowing them to relive and share the event freely.
"We wanted to preserve the purity of the musical experience. Phones act as barriers, pulling people out of the moment. We all know the temptation to film, even when we don’t intend to. Therefore, we banned phones – and attendees thank us for it. It’s often the first thing they mention: 'It was amazing to experience a concert without phones’."
Director of Photography and Visual Curator
Cercle Odyssey
A Blueprint for the Future of Live Entertainment
Between April and June 2025, Cercle Odyssey played to over 150,000 spectators during 30 shows across 15 dates, in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Paris. It has delivered a transformative, multi-sensory journey to concertgoers, blending music, storytelling, and visual art into an emotionally engaging experience like no other.
Panasonic’s 4K projection technology was instrumental in bringing Cercle Odyssey’s vision to life. This enabled a level of visual storytelling previously unattainable in traditional live touring formats. It also reinforced Panasonic’s position as a leader in delivering exceptional visual experiences in complex, live environments.
"As a strategic and technical partner since 2016, ETC Onlyview has built a strong relationship with Panasonic’s team, based on absolute trust. Panasonic’s projectors consistently deliver native 4K resolution, rich cinematic colours, and rock-solid reliability – all of which are essential in live performances. We know we can always rely on Panasonic when it matters; its commitment to continuous improvement, shaped by real-world feedback, has only strengthened our partnership."
Video Director
ETC Onlyview
Cercle Odyssey @Work
"Cercle Odyssey’s partnership with Panasonic showcases our shared ambitions: to push technological boundaries and reinvent immersive experiences that emotionally resonate with, and unite audiences – whilst making them as accessible as possible to global audiences. The 360° projections delivered by Panasonic – synchronised with live music – enable spectators to experience live entertainment and visual storytelling like never before."
Founder and Artistic Director
Cercle
Cercle Odyssey’s visionary approach and strong partnerships with technology and service providers has created a blueprint for live entertainment – one that resonates with audiences on an emotional level, is technologically advanced, and environmentally conscious.
Photography credit : @CERCLE ODYSSEY, @Eureka media.
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