At St. Louis City SC's Energizer Park, every lighting configuration test meant powering up physical systems, disrupting operations, with no guarantee the result would meet expectations. One mistake during a live broadcast could cost the venue its reputation and sponsor relationships.
St. Louis City SC's leadership needed to validate configurations before committing to them, without bearing the cost of mistakes after deployment.
Sponsors were demanding approval workflows for their content before it hit the LED panels. The venue couldn't show them anything without powering up the entire system.
Meanwhile, the operations team was using up its testing budget three months into the season, with no clear path to validate upcoming configurations.
Leadership needed a way to preview, iterate, and get stakeholder sign-off without touching the physical hardware.
Major League Soccer expansion team with a $458M state-of-the-art stadium
"If the City wants a partner who can translate complex civic infrastructure into an intuitive, constantly up-to-date digital asset and then make that asset genuinely useful to planners, architects, and everyday residents, ARS is the group. They proved it with CITY SC: they listen first, ideate with you, prototype quickly, and leave you with a tool that saves real dollars while inspiring better ideas. I'm excited to see what they can unlock for the City of St. Louis."
The solution had to work with existing infrastructure and integrate into current approval workflows.
Stakeholders needed to interact with scenarios live rather than wait hours for pre-rendered clips.
Lighting behavior and LED color reproduction had to match the physical venue to within measurable tolerance.
ARS built an operational, real-time simulation of Energizer Park, where teams could test, iterate on, and approve lighting scenarios and LED configurations before touching physical systems.
Lighting behavior was modeled to match the venue's physical systems.
Sponsors could see exactly how their content would render on specific panels, in context.
Test 10 configurations in the time it previously took to schedule one physical test.
Non-technical users could navigate, review, and approve without engineering support.
High-fidelity digital twin matching physical lighting systems and LED panel specifications.
Interactive scenario testing with physics-accurate lighting behavior and content rendering.
Stakeholder review and sign-off before any physical deployment or testing.
The digital twin let St. Louis City SC validate lighting and LED configurations before physical tests and plan those tests in advance.
85%
Most configurations validated entirely in simulation before any hardware activation.
10×
What took 48+ hours to schedule now happens in minutes.
Zero
Every lighting configuration and sponsor content validated before going live.
A testing budget that was exhausted by mid-season now covers the full year. Physical tests are reserved for final validation of approved configurations.
Sponsors approve content through the digital twin before physical deployment. The operations team signs off on lighting scenarios using a visual preview.
This approach fits complex physical environments where validation is expensive, risky, or time-constrained.
Testing in the physical environment is expensive or disruptive
Stakeholders need to see outcomes before committing resources
Mistakes at deployment carry significant cost or reputational risk
You need to iterate faster than physical testing allows
Digital twins let teams make decisions before physical deployment, when changes cost less and iteration is faster. The technology should support the decisions teams need to make.
ARS is a technology studio specializing in high-fidelity virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems. We work across healthcare, education, entertainment, and enterprise to build immersive systems that solve real operational problems.
We work as a long-term technical partner. Projects integrate directly into existing workflows, allowing teams to validate decisions, simulate outcomes, and reduce risk before committing real-world resources.
If physical validation requires too much time, money, or operational risk, or stakeholders need to see outcomes before moving forward, we should talk.
This case study is developed and delivered by Another Reality Studio.
