VYV Corporation, maker of the PHOTON media server, and Drop The Spoon, the Belgian content creation studio behind some of the world's most technically demanding live productions, have joined forces on Bruno Mars' The Romantic Tour to build a video experience designed to quickly bring the artist's ideas to the stage.
VYV and Drop the Spoon have been the technology and content teams behind intricate permanent installations in live entertainment, such as Franco Dragone's The House of Dancing Water in Macau and La Perle in Dubai. These productions advanced the integration of synchronised video, water effects, and live performance.
This extensive experience laid the groundwork for a new challenge: swiftly translating Bruno's creative vision onto the stage.
Quality content, fast
The Romantic Tour aimed to do more than just provide high-quality content. It intended to create a space where visual media, lighting, and musical elements blended with Bruno Mars' performance style within a limited creation timeframe.
The teams collaborated closely with Bruno Mars and lighting designer Whitney Hoversten on developing show concepts. VYV coordinated with video director Steve Fatone to integrate IMAG effects and enable him to trigger effects from his console as needed.
The teams required a workflow capable of keeping up with the iterative nature of the creative process: "try an idea, see it, judge it, try the next one."
For Drop the Spoon, the Romantic Tour served as an opportunity to adapt its visual storytelling approach to a dynamic touring setting. The studio combines artistic vision with technical accuracy, turning narrative ideas into video content that competes with live performance, lighting, and the arena's energy.
The teams created a unique stained glass effect for the backdrop during the Bruno Mars Romantic Tour
What makes Drop the Spoon unique is not only the quality of its work but also how quickly it can be reimagined. The studio emphasises rapid iteration: a visual concept can be proposed, created as a prototype, tested on stage, refined, and finalised within a single day.
This ability to present a director with a tangible version, rather than just an idea, made Drop the Spoon the ideal creative partner for a production where the show was continuously evolving.
Drop the Spoon's in-depth knowledge of PHOTON's architecture and capabilities was crucial to achieving this.
The team developed a flexible video workflow from the start, capable of handling varying show timings, switching between pre-rendered and live video, or combining both, all while enabling quick updates and reprogramming of looks without upsetting the overall production.
The outcome was a pipeline that prioritised rapid idea testing as a key part of the process.
"The right people in the room"
"I have been working with Bruno and the team since the 24K Magic World Tour, and we built out a system and team that could deliver on the initial requests, but also any other curveball that would be thrown at us from past experiences," says Drew Atienza, VYV Corporation.
"I was really happy to have Drop the Spoon on the team as we share several of the same core values and responsiveness to creative challenges."
"Coming from theatrical production, where directors want to see things before they commit, we developed with VYV a way to react live and iterate very quickly," adds Jean-Luc Gason, Drop the Spoon.
"The idea was simple: show the director the idea on stage, for real, not on paper. If it doesn't work, we change it there and then. That ability to participate in the creative process in real time, to be in the room and shape the show as it happens, is everything to us."
VYV's embedded software developers were onsite during rehearsals, serving not only as support but as active creative contributors.
Their presence guaranteed that new AI-driven features tailored for the show were ready for performance, and that any custom tools required by the creative team could be developed promptly as needs arose.
In a production setting where cue directions can shift from morning to afternoon, having developers physically present rather than on a call proved crucial.
"I felt we had all the right people there in the room," says Hoversten.
"Whether it was a concept from Bruno, myself, or anyone else on the creative team, VYV and Drop the Spoon were able to make it happen, often in a matter of minutes."
