Disguise showcases cutting-edge visual experiences at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival
Company
The Fast Company Innovation Festival brings together industry leaders in business, the media, technology and entertainment to celebrate innovation and creativity. This year’s festival, held in New York City, saw Disguise showcasing how it is pioneering a new era of visual experiences across the globe.
Disguise’s main presence at this year’s festival included a keynote from Alex Wills, Disguise’s Chief Experience Officer. Wills shared Disguise’s 20-year innovation journey from being a leader in live events, to becoming a state-of-the-art visual experience platform powering the world’s largest productions across film, television, broadcast, location-based experience and more.
A 20-year culture of pioneering live experiences
Disguise has been at the forefront of innovation for 20 years. The Disguise platform, which is an integrated ecosystem of hardware, software and cloud services, was originally focused on delivering live experiences. “About 90% of A-listers use Disguise to power their concerts,” explained Wills. “That’s because live events have become cultural moments.” Disguise has powered some of the largest concerts in the world, from Beyonce’s ‘Formation World Tour’ in 2016 to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Mathematics World Tour’ in 2022.
With more than 150 integrations, Disguise offers simple plug and play options to replicate similar concert experiences across the globe. This means that concert-goers and local tech teams will always benefit from a similar, state-of-the-art concert experience regardless of where they take place.
Discover Disguise live entertainment solutions
Wills detailed Disguise’s history with U2, which culminated in the brand’s 2017 and 2019 Joshua Tree tours. This was the largest LED-lead performance at the time, handled by Disguise’s gx 2 servers.This achievement has only recently been beaten, again by Disguise, for powering Adele’s live shows in Munich in September 2024, picking up the GUINESS WORLD RECORD® for the Largest Outdoor LED Screen (temporary).
A move to location-based experiences
As Disguise has grown, the company has taken bolder steps in the name of creativity and innovation. “Disguise likes to take the biggest and craziest shows and opportunities—and learn on the way,” adds Wills.
One example was in 2019, when SACO Technologies were given the task of creating a permanent exoskeleton on the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa. SACO worked with Disguise to create a system that could deliver high-resolution video on the surface of the structure. “We didn’t know how to do it,” said Wills. "We worked hand-in-hands with creatives to pull it off.” Through trial and error, they used the Disguise 2x4 Pro to drive the complex media display.
Disguise has become known for creating bespoke solutions for its partners – such as the opening ceremony of Dubai’s Al Wasl Dome, which was powered by 16 Disguise media servers. The complex 360-degree installation involved more than 100 projectors pieced together on one seamless canvas, and an epic opening show featuring a performance by Coldplay.
Disguise likes to take the biggest and craziest shows and opportunities—and learn on the way.
Chief Experience Officer at Disguise
Pivoting to virtual production for film and broadcast
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic gave Disguise the opportunity to reconsider its innovative technology for other sectors and industries. The team realised that the technology behind its high-quality virtual production (VP) stages could also be enormously beneficial for filmmakers and broadcasters. As a consequence, the number of Disguise-powered VP stages grew from two in 2020, to more than 400 by 2024. This exponential growth was also due to Disguise’s 2020 introduction of its VP workflow, which has since become a standard across film and television productions.
“Traditionally, film has lagged behind in the virtual production space, because of longer lead times and the need to construct stages and sets,” explained Wills. “ However, filmmakers are now dreaming of ever-more spectacular visions and harnessing the power of the VP toolset”.
He continued: “It seems basic but instead of having car on a low loader and having it drive around New York or LA, now what’s happening is you’ll get the exterior of the car, you’ll get the wires, you’ll shoot some plates, and then you’ll bring that back into a virtual studio. [The advantage is] it will look brilliant and you’ll get better performances.”
Discover Disguise's virtual production solutions
Disguise’s ability to push the envelope and make the impossible possible has paid dividends – Disguise's xR workflow won an Emmy for Engineering, Science and Technology in 2022.
Looking towards an immersive virtual future
As technology rapidly progresses, Disguise continues to push boundaries and consider future digital innovations. Wills discussed the rise of new disruptive technologies, such as generative AI for content creation, and the projected dominance of spatial computing. With more and more mainstream investment, spatial computing lets people physically enter digital environments, such as through headsets.
As people expect more always-on, engaging content and technology, there is a need for creative industries and technology to work closer together. This includes ride and queue systems at theme parks, which will need to be tied together for a more immersive visual experience.
This also includes traditional professions such as architecture. "Architects will need to understand much more about technology once their building becomes LED.", explained Wills. "It's no longer an afterthought at the end of construction. You have to get new people coming together to have those discussions."
Bringing it all together
To end the keynote speech, Matthew Michaud, Technical Solutions Specialist, demoed key features of the Disguise platform. This walkthrough included an introduction to virtual production sequences, teleportation, different element and plate backgrounds, as well as an explanation of the underlying technology.