The Americana Trade Fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany, is Europe’s largest trade fair for Western riding and equestrian sports. At the heart of the event is the Show Arena, a 36m x 72m space hosting horse shows, competitions, demonstrations, and broadcasts to both live and online audiences.
For the 2025 edition, held from September 3 to 7, light quality played a decisive role. As the official service partner of Messe Friedrichshafen, Organissimo worked with Elation to upgrade the arena’s lighting, illuminating it with seventy KL PANEL XL LED soft lights to ensure reliable, flexible, broadcast-quality performance.
Unique Challenges
Lighting the Americana Show Arena presented several unique challenges. Activities began as early as six in the morning and ran until midnight, with rehearsals often stretching into the early hours. This meant the lighting system had to perform under near-constant use. The arena was also captured on eight to nine cameras for both broadcast and livestream, requiring lighting that would look natural and flicker-free on screen.
At the same time, the welfare of the horses was paramount. Traditional halogen fixtures had not only failed frequently, requiring constant bulb changes, but they also projected blinding light that could distract riders and animals. With fixtures mounted high on trusses above sensitive arena sand, there was no opportunity for quick maintenance if something went wrong, so reliability and performance were essential.
KL PANEL XL
The venue knew they wanted to upgrade to LED, and the solution was Elation’s KL PANEL XL, a powerful LED soft light known for its even light distribution, high output, and excellent color rendering. Organissimo mounted seventy units across three long trusses running the length of the hall, along with additional trusses at each end to achieve full coverage. Organissimo’s Martin Knauer chose the KL PANELs for the arena lighting and created the overall lighting design.
The KL PANEL XL adapts easily to the needs of live events, camera productions, and large-scale shows, and its features proved decisive for Americana: its 544W RGBWLC LED array produces up to 44,000 lumens with a CRI of 95, ensuring natural, high-quality color reproduction. With a color temperature range from 2,000 to 10,000K and flexible DMX control, the lights could quickly adapt from the bright white wash required for horse competitions to smooth pastels and softer tones for demonstrations and shows. The fixtures also include barndoors, which allowed the team to direct light precisely while avoiding unwanted spill.
“For an arena of this size, homogeneous and reliable lighting is crucial,” says Daniel Geiger, Managing Director of Organissimo. “The KL PANEL XL provided us with the perfect combination of performance, flexibility, and energy efficiency. It was an ideal light for this type of show.” The KL lights were integrated into the overall production by Organissimo, which not only managed lighting, sound, and video but also oversaw some construction and provided behind-the-scenes support.
On-camera Quality
Organissimo collaborated with camera teams, who specifically requested LED panel softlights, something that would not project blinding light but could cover the entire arena in a uniform wash. The LED panels enhanced video capture without distracting riders or animals, while the RGBWLC engine provided the softer color tones requested by the client. Engineered for both live and broadcast environments, the KL Panel XL ensures flicker-free performance through a 900–25,000 Hz LED refresh rate and maintains near-silent operation.
The KL PANEL XL units worked in conjunction with moving head fixtures, enabling Organissimo to combine uniform soft washes with dynamic spotlighting for specific scenes and performances.
Exceeding Expectations
The results exceeded expectations. For the first time, the Americana arena could transition seamlessly between crisp competition lighting and immersive colored scenes, something previously impossible with the halogen system. Riders, audiences, and online viewers alike benefited from improved visibility, natural colors, and dynamic effects. The system performed reliably under heavy use, even with near round-the-clock operation, and no failures were reported. “We were very excited but also a bit nervous as we had not used these types of lights for a horse show before,” Geiger commented, “but they performed excellently.”
By all accounts, Americana 2025 was a resounding success, drawing more visitors than ever before and raising production quality to new heights. The collaboration between Organissimo and Elation underlined their shared ability to deliver tailored event technology at the highest level, while the KL PANEL XL proved to be an effective solution for equestrian event lighting.
Photos courtesy of Organissimo
About Organissimo
For over 30 years, Organissimo has been a leader in delivering first-class events, innovative event technology, and professional trade fair services. Based in Markdorf near Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, Organissimo has supported customers locally, nationally, and internationally—from the initial idea to the perfect implementation. As a partner of Messe Friedrichshafen, we offer customized solutions for trade fairs, conferences, and corporate events, providing personal contact, technical expertise, creative conception, and precise implementation.
+49 7544 9592-0
info@organissimo.de
About Elation
At Elation, we collaborate with leading professionals in the lighting industry to help bring extraordinary experiences to life. As a designer and manufacturer of a wide range of high-performance entertainment lighting products, we’re proud to be a trusted partner to top lighting professionals and rental houses around the world. Our commitment to quality, innovation, and creative solutions has made us a go-to resource in the industry. We also offer an advanced line of lighting control products through Obsidian Control Systems, and a full range of dependable specialty effects called Magmatic. We invite you to take a closer look at www.elationlighting.com.
