The Circle Room serves as the centrepiece of a $12m Opry House expansion
USA - This summer, Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry unveiled a new daytime backstage tour based around the new, purpose-built Circle Room theatre. Hosted by Opry members Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, a 14-minute long immersive media experience takes fans on a journey through nearly 100 years of Opry history, seen through the eyes of the musicians who played on the famous stage, and features archival footage and concert-like special effects.
The Circle Room serves as the centrepiece of a $12m Opry House expansion and renovation project aimed at enhancing the guest experience. This production marks the opening of the new backstage tour, which continues into the renovated Opry House Lobby, featuring a custom lighting element made with Gibson guitars and a special media presentation.
As the introduction for the new tour, The Circle Room experience is dominated by LED concert and mood lighting from GLP, specified by a consortium headed by design and production agency BRC Imagination Arts. Under the creative direction of Brad Shelton, Edward Hodge, and a team of designers, they conceived and designed the Opry Circle Room, which at night transforms into a VIP upgrade area for Opry show guests. It includes 340 lighting fixtures - many of them from GLP - as well as four projectors and five LED screens.
BRC, in turn, brought in Brian Gale and Manny Treeson of LA-based lighting design company, NYXdesign, while one of GLP’s dealers, Clearwing Systems Integration, handled the installation, with all three companies having collaborated regularly in the past.
In total, GLP fixtures included 63 x X4 atom; 48 x impression FR1; 26 x X4 Bar 10; 26 x KNV Cube; 8 x KNV Arc. For the new KNV modules, this project represents their first high-profile fixed installation.
“For the Circle Room we deployed a very complex array of lighting equipment in order to enhance the AV experience,” Brian Gale explained. “Basically it was a mini concert lighting rig, and we used the atoms as house lights and curtain washes overhead. The KNV’s served as the centre stage backdrop and the FR1’s and X4 Bars as audience effects and blinders.”
(Jim Evans)

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