Lighting Design for the Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

The Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 opened with a ceremony at the Vaudoise Arena on 9 January. Young people from the region guided around 8,000 spectators through seven artistic scenes exploring the Olympic spirit, the development of an athlete and the theme of home.

Athletes from 79 National Olympic Committees took part in the flag parade. Swiss culture and traditions shaped the production, which also involved well-known Swiss athletes. The ceremony was broadcast live by the Olympic Channel.

For the lighting design, I had to accommodate not only the seven scenes staged on the ice, but also the ceremonial elements of the Opening Ceremony: the athletes’ entrance, the speeches, the arrival of the torch and the lighting of the Olympic flame. Performance positions could therefore appear throughout the arena – on the ice, among the audience and around the concourses.

For me, the design challenge was to connect all these different situations into one coherent visual experience while creating reliable images for every camera position. The greatest spatial constraint was a permanently installed LED cube suspended at a low height in the centre of the arena.

I therefore developed a multifunctional lighting system using spot and wash lights across several levels. A custom structure beneath the LED cube supported the remote follow systems and made it possible to track the performers across the different playing areas. Additional low-positioned effect lighting created a distinct background for the camera images and incorporated the lower levels of the arena into the lighting design.

For the Opening Ceremony, I was responsible for the Lighting Design and worked as DoP for the international live broadcast. Together with my team, I also managed the show’s Preprogramming and Lighting Operating.