France - The city of Lyon (France) recently hosted the 47th edition of WorldSkills, an international competition that brought together nearly 1,400 young competitors from 66 countries, aiming to inspire youth through excellence in vocational skills. Held across several sites in the city, this global event welcomed 140,000 visitors and featured opening and closing ceremonies worthy of the largest sporting events, planned and executed by Groupe Novelty.
The WorldSkills opening ceremony kicked off in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron at a sold-out LDLC Arena, in front of 12,000 spectators.
Two Groupe Novelty companies, Novelty Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Novelty AURA) and Alabama Média, handled all technical requirements for the event under the direction of Stéphane Simmat, technical director for the opening ceremony, and Étienne Loiseau, production director for WorldSkills.
For the opening night, Novelty AURA managed all staging requirements, including audio and lighting equipment. At the centre of the LDLC Arena, Novelty AURA's technical teams set up three stages for the delegations and deployed nearly 100 speakers for sound reinforcement.
To complement the arena’s existing AV system, Novelty AURA chose L-Acoustics for the ceremony and d&b for the subsequent evening in the venue’s event space. On the lighting front, over 330 fixtures (from Chauvet, Claypaky, Minuit Une and Robe) enhanced the existing system.
For video requirements, about 30 technicians from Alabama Média handled the installation, broadcast and recording. Their work was aided by the company's intimate familiarity with the venue, having previously integrated the LDLC Arena's entire video equipment set-up, including the central LED cube, existing LED strips and side scoring panels, which were utilised for content created by Magic Bird.
This meant the Alabama techs could focus on additional video needs, including the installation of a semi-transparent 6m × 3.5m LED screen as a backdrop for the main stage, as well as a 12-camera recording set-up. Production was handled by Roman Fortune.
Outside the arena, in the fan zone, Alabama deployed a 63m² LED container screen and an auxiliary 3.5m × 2m LED screen (Absen Polaris with a 3.9mm pitch) to broadcast the ceremony live.
The challenges were significant for both companies, as Arnaud Douchet, director of Novelty AURA, explains: “Beyond the scale of such an event, whose logistical demands were huge, we faced exceptionally tight time constraints. A Justin Timberlake concert was held at the LDLC Arena the night before, meaning we only had access to the venue the following morning after the dismantling.”
The coordination between the teams was facilitated by Groupe Novelty’s corporate structure, Douchet adds: “As companies within Groupe Novelty, we know each other well, which made planning and set-up remarkably smooth, with a rare sense of camaraderie on site. We capitalised on this synergy to ensure everything was ready for the first rehearsals that same evening.”
The closing ceremony, at the huge Groupama Stadium, presented its own technical and logistical challenges, worthy of a stadium-scale event. Located near LDLC Arena, Groupama Stadium welcomed 25,000 spectators for the medal presentation to hundreds of competitors followed by a four-hour show produced by La Franco European Image, with Concept K overseeing both artistic (scenography, set design, sequence coordination) and technical direction.
Frédéric ‘Aldo’ Fayard, founder and artistic director of Concept K, explains his choice of Novelty AURA and Alabama Média for the closing ceremony: “While we’ve collaborated for years and have a relationship based on trust, our choice was determined by the strength of the proposal by Novelty AURA and Alabama.”
Novelty AURA and Alabama relied once more on the strength of other Groupe Novelty companies, together managing all sound, video and lighting equipment, trusses, motors, and rigging, supported by teams from sister companies Dushow and Magnum.
For the audio, Concept K collaborated with bureau FLEiK to precisely determine sound requirements. More than 70 L-Acoustics speakers (30 SB18, KARA II and K2) were required in the seating areas, and over 40 L- SYVA, X8 and X15HiQ were deployed on the field. The lighting rig was equally impressive, featuring 72 Robe iForte LTX fixtures mounted on six trusses surrounding the site, 150 MegaPointe fixtures positioned in upper stands and around the field, over 140 Chauvet ColorStrike, 40 SGM P6, a dozen Cameo ZENIT and 18 Kolo Laser ICUBE units.
Novelty AURA installed all sound and lighting equipment, including six 20m+ trusses, while Alabama set up four Absen Polaris 3.9 LED screens (10m × 3m) around the stadium.
“We were thrilled to bring our teams together for this shared project, demonstrating that Groupe Novelty’s local companies are more than capable of hosting international delegations,” says Douchet. “While Paris was buzzing with the Olympics, Lyon also shone on the international stage with the ‘Skills Olympics’.”
