Glastonbury Festival 2025 saw the return of Arcadia’s large-scale Dragonfly installation – a 13-metre-wide kinetic sculpture constructed around a decommissioned military helicopter and equipped with projection, LED and lighting elements.
This year marked the first full deployment of HIVE’s media system on the Dragonfly. Developed through a collaboration involving Arcadia, Cucumber Productions, Video Illusions and content studio Astral Projekt, the installation integrated projection mapping and LED playback, supported by HIVE’s Beeblade Nexus media engines and associated software tools.
The sculpture’s core – a Sea King helicopter – presented a technically demanding projection surface. The irregular geometry and tight form factor required tailored mapping solutions, particularly where LED features such as the “eyes” and facial lighting elements demanded precise synchronisation between projection, lighting and live visuals.
Replacing a legacy rack-based system, HIVE deployed six Beeblade Nexus media players housed within three compact Nucleus enclosures. These units were installed in projection towers flanking the Dragonfly and within the structure itself. According to HIVE, the new system offered a reduced physical footprint, lower power consumption, and cost savings.
“The shift to Beeblade Nexus allowed us to maintain performance while significantly reducing energy requirements and hardware costs,” noted Dave Green, Chief Technology Officer at HIVE. The system’s efficiency was in line with Arcadia’s sustainability efforts, which included full reliance on renewable power provided by Grid Faeries.
Each Nexus board supported dual 4K NDI inputs with alpha channels, enabling real-time compositing and transparency effects. This functionality was used to combine live content generated in Unity and TouchDesigner with a time-coded, pre-rendered 10-minute sequence referred to as the ‘Arcadia Dragonfly Show’.
HIVE’s software tools supported a range of requirements for the installation. The Obj Map feature was used to map content onto the LED “eyes”, using UV geometry files created in Blender. Meanwhile, the Warp Grid tool handled projection warping for the helicopter fuselage and tail, and the Pixel Map interface controlled Art-Net LED fixtures responsible for facial illumination.
Timecode synchronisation enabled consistent playback across all elements of the show, including LED displays and projection surfaces. HIVE’s mapping tools were used to align over 200 hexagonal LED panels that formed the Dragonfly’s headpiece and DJ booth.
The deployment involved coordination between HIVE and long-time Arcadia partners including Cucumber Productions and Video Illusions. The media system managed both pre-programmed and live content across the festival weekend, operating continuously with a minimal equipment footprint.
Ben Vaughan, Director at Cucumber Productions, commented: “I specced the HIVE media players for the Arcadia stage this year and was pleased with the outcome. The system performed reliably and the support from the HIVE team was appreciated.”
Cyrus Bozorgmehr, Head of Creative Communications at Arcadia, added: “The lightweight design of the HIVE system helped reduce the logistical impact of the build. It ran dual 4K NDI feeds to the projectors and LED displays smoothly, which was critical in such a complex 360-degree environment.”
HIVE has confirmed that it intends to continue its collaboration with Arcadia for future iterations of the Dragonfly project, including a potential return in 2027.
