Immersive On Tour

The rapid rise of immersive audio formats - from Dolby Atmos albums to immersive live shows - creates major opportunities but also barriers for the Flemish music sector. Artists, technicians, and venues indicate they will only take the step toward immersive live productions if workflows, costs, and tourability are clearly defined. This has been demonstrated in previous “Immersive Music” projects, such as the VLAIO TETRA project “Virtual Music Experiences,” COOCK+ “Future Music Hubs,” and the “Immersive Art & Entertainment Lab” infrastructure project. These initiatives mapped sector needs and invested in immersive hubs for both live and studio music production.

This Core project explicitly starts from the question: how do you translate an existing stereo or immersive album - or a stereo show - into a tourable immersive live show? It leverages the recently established immersive concert venue (Bootstraat Hall), immersive preproduction space (Bootstraat Zwarte Zaal), and the Immersive Music Lab, all interconnected via fiber optics. At the Flemish level, the project builds on collaborations such as Club Wintercircus (established as a pilot within the broader StageTech Flanders project). Together with Flemish artists and venues, the project develops concrete workflow scenarios, from experimentation and preproduction in the Bootstraat hubs to immersive rehearsals and scalable setups for different venues and festival contexts.

The project delivers a practical playbook including standardized session and routing templates, technical riders, decision trees per scale level, and cost/time estimates, complemented by training modules and demonstration cases. Results are broadly disseminated through the Future Music Hubs network, sector organizations, and PXL-Music education, enabling Flemish stakeholders to develop and deploy immersive live experiences faster, more affordably, and with reduced risk.