AR and LED graphics in Strictly Come Dancing 2024
Posted on Mar 17, 2025 by Admin
Dance the night away
For 22 years, reality ballroom show Strictly Come Dancing has dominated the BBC’s Saturday evening slot. Its latest series was all the more magical thanks to LED and AR graphics by JP Motion and TetraVP
Words Katie Kasperson
One of Britain’s most successful reality shows, BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing pairs celebrities with professional dancers who perform for a panel of judges as well as a national audience. Fresh off its 22nd series, the programme blends live dancing with bold backgrounds and VFX, elevating each performance for everyone who tunes in.
This year, Strictly added virtual and augmented reality and floor projections, which matched to each dance number, whether a spicy salsa or a slow ballroom waltz. These graphics – provided by JP Motion and TetraVP – were essential in maintaining Strictly’s status as a hit show.
Sticking to the schedule
The team included JP Motion’s Joe Phillips (whose credits include The X Factor and The Masked Singer), TetraVP co-founder Oleks Skrypnyk and lighting director David Bishop (Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor), so Strictly was in good hands. Together, they populated the stage’s LED screens and dance floor with images while delivering additional AR graphics, rendered in real time via Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and DVS-supplied servers.
As Strictly airs twice weekly – with Saturday evening seeing the contestants perform – the graphics team faced tight turnaround times and heavy workloads. They worked roughly a week in advance, creating, refining and loading graphics for three or four dance routines per show.
In a typical week, the producers would send a brief on Sunday or Monday, review graphics on Wednesday, load them on Thursday, rehearse on Friday and air on Saturday – then do it all over again the following week. Before loading each week’s graphics, the team would first optimise them for live production. On the AR side, this involved programming animation and lighting cues in Unreal Engine. They revised the graphics on an iterative basis, refining them on review day and then again during dress rehearsal after seeing them in camera. They would often reprogramme graphics on the spot based on in-house feedback.
Dance-floor dynamite
Rather than simply lighting the dance floor Saturday Night Fever-style, Strictly went above and beyond, turning the surface into a virtual background. To display these graphics successfully, the team mounted a camera on a 30ft Technocrane, using Mo-Sys’ StarTracker solution to pinpoint its exact location.
During Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystał’s semifinal performance, the couple danced an Argentine tango to Bittersweet Symphony. Behind them, the LED screens displayed earthy images of running water, rocks and clouds, while the floor projection made them appear elevated, dancing atop a rock formation that fell away at the sides. The team had to get these graphics just right, otherwise the 3D illusion would fall flat.
Week three, which was all about movies, also featured impressive displays, from an AR chocolate factory (Wonka) to a jungle scene (George of the Jungle) and a giant octopus (The Little Mermaid). This episode saw 13 dance performances in total, with several using AR graphics, floor projections or both. Some dancers even managed to work the graphics into their routines – like Przystał staggering back from an AR lion’s roar.
Strictly Come Dancing 2024 arguably brought more creative displays than ever before, emphasising each theme and visually enhancing every performance. The secret to its success isn’t a secret at all: JP Motion and TetraVP brought their A game. Thanks to their combined expertise and strong track record of on-set virtual graphics, Strictly continues to raise the bar for reality TV.
It’s a-live
Broadley studios brings strictly’s live tour 2025 title sequence to life
Strictly Come Dancing recently wrapped its 2025 live tour, which saw dancers from the 2024 series reunite on stages across the UK. Broadley Studios delivered the tour’s title sequence for its client Creative Nuts, filming in its green-screen space.
Filming the title sequence was a unique challenge; Broadley had to create appealing visuals with a vibrant identity that matched Strictly’s branding. The studio also needed to accommodate multiple talents on two separate shoot days. Broadley’s Studio One space, which houses a green-screen set-up, allowed the team to design and implement bespoke virtual backdrops while providing additional coloured lighting.
Montell Douglas and Kai Widdrington performed during the first filming session, while JB Gill, Amy Dowden and Lauren Oakley made an appearance in the second. Studio One’s seamless production environment allowed Broadley to help bring the Strictly vision to life by supplying all the tools for success. Working closely with the creative team, Broadley ensured the lighting, cameras and studio all aligned with their proposed production plan.
The resulting title sequence for the 2025 Strictly Come Dancing Live! tour ultimately captures the core essence of the show, while maintaining its iconography. By providing exceptional studio services and support, Broadley Studios helped make it happen.
For more information about Broadley’s virtual production capabilities, and to find out how it can help you and your production, call on +44 2077255858 or email at [email protected] today.
Find out more about the technology used in Strictly Come Dancing in this article.
This story appears in the February 2025 issue of Definition
