FRANCE – Located 30km North of Lyon in France, the Parc des Oiseaux welcomes 280,000 visitors every year between April and October, when birds migrate back to this region which boasts over 1,300 ponds. To extend its appeal into the winter months, the largest bird park in Europe has taken on a new technical and artistic challenge with Les Nuits du Parc: an immersive night-time trail which ran from November 2024 to March 2025.

The idea was to make people discover the park from a new perspective, as Park Director Emmanuel Visentin explains: “We wanted to bring some winter magic, an experience that would extend the link between the public and the park, without having a negative impact on our environment and its living creatures”. Whilst a majority of birds migrate South in the Winter months, some birds are permanent residents of the park.

Involved in this ambitious project from the outset, local technical service provider Novelty AURA, with the help of sister companies Alabama Média and Teamagine, mobilised Groupe Novelty’s technical expertise to design an audiovisual and lighting show tailored to the many challenges presented by the site: complex topography, rigorous climatic conditions and strict respect for local wildlife.

Accompanying the visitors along the specially created circuit were more than a hundred spotlights (PAR LED F1, SGM P5 and P6, Martin MAC Aura XIP, Starway ZoomKolor) as well as interactive light objects created by Lyon-based designers Pitaya and Drôme-based lighting designer Tilt, all controlled by DMX512.

“From the outset, we structured this project by mobilising project managers specialised in each core business and drawn from the various Groupe Novelty entities. This organisation enabled us to deliver precise and appropriate technical solutions at every stage of the project”, explains Arnaud Douchet, Director of Novelty AURA and the overall technical coordinator for this project.

Over forty discreet, IP65 JBL ‘mushroom’ speakers were scattered throughout the park to ensure continuity in the audiovisual experience between the 14 show areas. Video projectors installation was handled by Paul-Louis Blouin, Video Project Manager at Alabama Média, with the help of Kelvin Quintois.

“This project was incredibly exciting, because it allowed us to push back the boundaries of outdoor mapping, with various projections onto a wide variety of natural surfaces and the possibility of smashing a world record for the largest surface area ever projected onto the ground,” says Blouin. Created by Les Allumeurs de Rêves, the entire scenography and video content is managed by Modulo Pi servers, with the support of Sowarp for calibration and mapping management.

The night-time path was designed as an immersive stroll, with each animation using audiovisual devices adapted to the specificities of the site. At the beginning of their peregrination, spectators were introduced to the main characters, a fish (Juliet) and a bird (Romeo), and their seemingly impossible love story in the animation Encounter in a Cascade: There, a large 18m x 8m blended image on the ground used two 12,000-lumen Panasonic projectors facing each other on 7-metre-high totem poles.

Further on, a similar albeit non-overlapping 11m x 6.25m projection entitled Impossible Love offered two separate sand projections using two 7,000-lumen Panasonic projectors.

The route then led to the Park’s penguin cove and the Fire Under the Ice spectacle, were two Barco 27K lumens projectors hosted in a technical cabin finished with natural wood panelling, projecting the ice and fire animations of Les Allumeurs de Rêves onto a 30m x 20m surface area with content on the ground and wooden panels. Completing the scene were PAR LED F1 spotlights and Chauvet Geyser RGB smoke machines discreetly integrated into the background.

Designed by Novelty Toulouse , the modular, stackable wood-clad technical cabins were ideal for discreetly integrating audiovisual equipment, and have become the preferred choice for a large number of outdoor events thanks to their natural appearance and blend in the surrounding landscape.

Visitors were then invited to discover the piece de resistance of the show, with three major sequences set around the semi-dried out lake: Love Nest, a monumental projection covering two sides of the Park’s panoramic tower using a couple of 20K lumen projectors rigged on their side; The Bottom of the Lake, a real technical feat featuring eight double stacked Barco 20K lumen video projectors installed at the top of the 30m high observation tower, giving life to an unprecedented 17,000 m² projection area; and finally, The Great Ball, a bird view 30m x 30m projection in the lake using three Barco 27K projectors coupled to a d&b E12 audio system rigged above a stage from which spectators could enjoy the show. Groupe Novelty used the same stage used by artists for the Musicales du Parc music festival which takes place every Summer.

At the end of the night walk, an interactive area allowed young visitors to interact in real time with fish projected on the ground using three 7,000-lumen Panasonic projectors and an Augmenta tracking system.

Gilbert Coudène, Founder of Les Allumeurs de Rêves, points out that “the tremendous success of this project was only made possible thanks to the close cooperation between the various creative and technical professions, right from the design phase. We had a very clear roadmap: respect the wildlife, enhance the natural beauty of the park and work within its constraints to offer a truly unique experience.”

For the first time, Les Nuits du Parc made it possible to open the site in Winter, turning a traditionally slack period into a tremendous economic opportunity. “We proved that it was possible to bring visitors to the park in winter, without altering its identity or disturbing the peace and quiet of its residents,” enthuses Visentin.

In view of its success, a new edition is already being considered. “This project illustrates our ability to design and deploy complex technical systems in constrained natural environments. By combining the specific expertise of Groupe Novelty companies, we were able to guarantee performance, reliability and quality of immersion, all essential conditions for the success of Les Nuits du Parc”, concludes Arnaud Douchet.