Technical Details And Long-View Video Of That Giant LED Backdrop For Adele’s Munich Outdoor Concert Series

August 7, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Sixteen:Nine’s German language content partners invidis have dug up more technical details on that massive LED display being used as the backdrop for a series of Adele concerts at a purpose-built temporary stadium in Munich, where invidis is based.

The Adele Arena in Munich was put in by the Montreal-based specialist integrator Solotech, likely using 6mm LED modules from ROE, one of the dominant suppliers of LED for the rental/temporary display market.

From invidis:

The ProAV event specialist Solotech is the responsible AV partner for the Adele Arena. Solotech also supplied the hardware for the approximately 4,000 square meter LED wall. The Canadians are world leaders in the touring business and have already acted as service providers for the “Adele in Residence” concerts in Las Vegas. In addition to Adele, Solotech is currently also supporting Taylor Swift on her two-year Eras world tour.

According to social media posts, 700 employees were needed to set up the oversized LED wall in Munich. It is the centerpiece of the stadium specially planned for Adele, which was built over two months in a parking lot at the Munich Trade Fair.

The LED used is probably a ROE CB5 Mark II – an event SMD with a 5.77mm pixel pitch. Solotech and ROE jointly announced the world’s largest LED order at the beginning of May. As part of this contract, Solotech bought over 5,000 square meters of LED tiles, including 4,500 square meters of identical carbon LED panels. According to Solotech and the Unilumin subsidiary ROE, this was the world’s largest single order of LEDs from one batch. Such a large quantity of LEDs cannot be secretly rented on the market – especially not when the Summer Olympics are taking place in Paris at the same time.

The exact size of the LED wall varies somewhat: the width of the wall is said to be around 220 meters, and the height is given as between 17 and 30 meters. At 222 meters wide and 18 meters high, the area would be 3,996 square meters, which would require 4,625 ROE CB5 Mark II cabinets, which end in convex towers at both ends of the stage. The shape seems to have been chosen so that the screen resembles a gigantic analog film reel.

With such a gigantic LED surface, the power requirement should not be underestimated: With an average consumption of more than 1,100 kilowatts – 240 watts per cabinet – more than a conventional power supply is needed to illuminate the 4,000 square meters of LED.

Here’s a video from what seems to be well back and off to the side a bit. The visuals are nothing like those done for concert stands by U2, Phish and Dead & Company at the Sphere, and you could argue they’re pretty underwhelming give the scale of the canvas. On the other had, unless ticket-holders splurged on seats up front, Adele is just an ant way off on a stage to onlookers, so the live camera shots on the big screen are presumably pretty critical to the concert-going experience.