The opening ceremony of the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai brought together stagecraft, multimedia technology and live performance, with audience-screen technology playing a key role in extending the visual experience beyond the stage. Held on September 22 at the Shanghai World Expo Cultural Center, the ceremony featured performances, moving structures, multimedia elements and humanoid robots.
A key technology used to transform the audience area was EnjoyGalaxy, the wireless pixel-lighting system developed by ENJOY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (Enjoy Tech). The system is designed to synchronise individual wireless lights across large audience areas, allowing the stands to function as a giant digital canvas. Enjoy Tech lists WorldSkills among the major events where its technology has been deployed, including the 2019 WorldSkills Opening Ceremony in Kazan.
For the Shanghai ceremony, more than 13,000 EnjoyGalaxy audience units, according to Enjoy Tech’s project material, were used across the stands. Instead of treating the audience as spectators alone, the technology enabled the seating area to become part of the visual production, with synchronised lights creating large-scale graphics and moving visual patterns.
The concept reflects a broader shift in live-event technology, where screens are no longer restricted to LED walls, projection surfaces or stage structures. EnjoyGalaxy is designed to transmit video and animations across large numbers of wireless pixel units, with the company’s system supporting frame rates of up to 30 FPS and real-time wireless synchronisation.
The technology has been used across major ceremonies and sporting events, including the Beijing Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony, Hangzhou Asian Games, Harbin Asian Winter Games, Super Bowl Halftime Show and the 2025 World Games. Enjoy Tech also cites the 2019 WorldSkills Opening Ceremony in Kazan as an earlier WorldSkills deployment, making the Shanghai appearance a continuation of its work on the platform.
The audience-screen element was part of a wider technology-led production in Shanghai. The ceremony’s central stage featured a 200-tonne mortise-and-tenon installation that assembled into the WorldSkills emblem, while a computer-controlled canopy measuring around 39 metres changed form during the performance. An inflatable 5.5-metre sphere also incorporated 360-degree projection. AI simulation was used during development of the canopy to coordinate its movement with cameras, lighting, performers and stage machinery.
Humanoid robots also appeared alongside more than 100 human dancers, reinforcing the ceremony’s focus on the relationship between traditional skills, technology and future-facing capabilities.
For Enjoy Tech, the WorldSkills Shanghai project adds another large-scale ceremony to its growing portfolio of audience-interaction applications. More importantly for live production, it demonstrates how wireless pixel systems can turn thousands of spectators into an active visual layer — effectively making the audience another screen within the show.
