Panasonic Factory International projection technology sits at the heart of nearly every large-scale production at Aviva Studios, home of Factory International and the Manchester International Festival, where immersive projection has become one of the organisation’s most important creative tools.
Panasonic Factory International projection: a trusted toolkit for bold artistic visions
Factory International has built a reputation for helping artists realise ambitious creative projects, from immersive installations and large-scale projection environments to experimental live performances. “We started as an organisation called Manchester International Festival, where we essentially take artists from all over the world, bring them to Manchester, make new work, and then take that work and the brand of Manchester around the world,” explains Paul Moore, Technical Director at Factory International.
MIF has featured artists including Laurie Anderson, Björk, David Lynch and Janelle Monáe, and today Factory International operates Aviva Studios, a purpose-built venue designed to support a wide range of artistic disciplines. Projection inventory there includes Panasonic PT-RQ35K and PT-RQ25K 3-Chip DLP laser projectors, used across productions at the venue and throughout MIF — the same PT-RQ series Panasonic also recently brought to Prague’s Signal Festival with the PT-RQ45.
Why projection, not just LED
While LED displays and video walls have become common across live events, Factory International continues to see projection as uniquely valuable for artistic storytelling. “Projection allows video to live in a different world,” Moore says. “It allows it to stop being about what the medium is and about what the art is.” Unlike LED panels, which draw attention to themselves as physical objects, projection can become almost invisible, letting artists integrate moving imagery directly into scenic design.
Acoustic performance mattered too, since projectors often sit close to audiences. The PT-RQ35K is rated at 49 dB in Normal mode and 46 dB in Quiet mode, while the PT-RQ25K runs at 46 dB in Normal/Eco mode and 43 dB in Quiet mode. “We worked with Panasonic on what the noise level would be and what the heat output would be, so that we knew it would fit into the space we’ve got for it,” Moore explains.
From Atmospheric Memory to Laurie Anderson
Among Moore’s personal highlights is Atmospheric Memory, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s immersive installation built from stacked shipping containers for MIF, which surrounded visitors with projected artworks before touring internationally. “It had a wall of pixelated smoke, so you could kind of create imagery within that, and the projection on the ceiling became a projection on the floor,” Moore says.
More recently, Factory International worked with Laurie Anderson on a production combining electronic music, live camera feeds, green screen and early AI-generated content. “It was amazing to see the way an established artist is using technology to keep innovating,” Moore said. “Good art is good art. We shouldn’t fear technology. We should look at how to use it so that it suits our artistic need.”
Reliability and value over the cheapest option
Factory International selected Panasonic’s PT-RQ35K (30,500 lumens, 4K) and the more compact PT-RQ25K (20,000 lumens, 4K) for a projection toolkit that spans very different production scales, with AV integrator Adlib supplying the equipment and supporting the wider video systems. “Panasonic make a very good quality, reliable projector,” Moore says. “It’s not about buying the cheapest thing possible. It’s about value for money. Panasonic delivers very good quality, good light output, low noise and projectors that are very usable.”
Key specifications
- Panasonic PT-RQ35K: 3-Chip DLP laser, 30,500 lumens, 4K imaging, 49 dB (Normal) / 46 dB (Quiet)
- Panasonic PT-RQ25K: 3-Chip DLP laser, 20,000 lumens, 4K imaging, 46 dB (Normal/Eco) / 43 dB (Quiet)
- Deployed across Aviva Studios and Manchester International Festival productions
- AV integration: Adlib
After roughly three decades in the industry, Moore remains a committed Panasonic Factory International projection user. “I’ve used Panasonic projectors for most of my career — so, probably about 30 years now,” he concluded. “I’ve always gone to Panasonic, and they’ve always been really good.” For more on Panasonic’s projection line-up, see Panasonic Connect Europe’s projector range.
