Illuminating Binghamton: How Panasonic and LUMA Bring Art, Technology, and Community Together
- Case Studies
Overview
Each year since 2015, the City of Binghamton, New York, transforms into a luminous work of art during the LUMA Projection Arts Festival, where historic buildings become story-driven canvases for digital creativity. It’s become the nation’s premier projection mapping event, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to experience world-class artistry, cutting-edge technology, and a shared sense of wonder that lights up the community. Panasonic has helped power that transformation as LUMA’s longtime exclusive projection technology partner. Equipped with Panasonic’s advanced 4K RQ, RZ, and FRQ60 Series projectors, the 2025 festival showcased both large-scale international installations and community-driven works—demonstrating how art, innovation, and partnership can turn an entire city into a canvas for imagination.-
Challenges
Scaling Creativity While Supporting a Citywide Vision
As LUMA has grown, so have the ambitions behind it. Each year brings new venues, larger projection surfaces, and more complex creative concepts—all while maintaining the festival’s commitment to accessibility and community engagement.
For organizers, that growth presents a balancing act: deliver brighter, more intricate visuals across an expanding city footprint while ensuring the event continues to serve as a source of local pride and economic vitality. “LUMA is more than just an art festival,” says Jared Kraham, Mayor of Binghamton. “It’s an economic driver, a cultural anchor, and a showcase of how cutting-edge technology can inspire and engage a community.”
That civic significance adds another layer of pressure. As the event that puts Binghamton on the global map each year, LUMA must perform flawlessly, regardless of weather, environment, or scale. To succeed, they needed projectors capable of delivering exceptional color accuracy, brightness, and reliability—across both outdoor façades and indoor environments—while running for hours in unpredictable conditions. With installations led by local volunteers and artists, setup also had to be simple, stable, and repeatable without sacrificing image fidelity.
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Solutions
Trusted Technology. Limitless Imagination.
To bring their artistic visions to life, LUMA partnered with Panasonic’s Projector & Display Americas team, deploying a powerful mix of PT-RQ35KU, PT-RQ25K, PT-RQ22KU, PTRZ21KU, PT-RZ120, and PT-FRQ60 projectors—paired with ET-D75LE10, ET-D75LE20, and ET-DLE060 lenses—to achieve stunning color fidelity, uniform brightness, and precise coverage across a range of venues and throw distances.
These projectors were supported by ShowSage media servers running Dataton Watchout, which provided reliable show control and synchronization across multiple sites. Panavid and Nationwide Video also contributed additional Panasonic gear to help deliver LUMA’s most technically ambitious production to date. Across the festival’s downtown footprint, Panasonic’s projectors delivered consistent brightness and sharp color reproduction, even when spanning irregular building façades or operating in unpredictable lighting conditions. Geometric correction tools and flexible lens options enabled artists to map complex architectural details with precision, while edge-blending capabilities ensured seamless image transitions across wide surfaces. Their compact size and quiet operation also made them ideal for mixed indoor and outdoor environments, maintaining image quality without disrupting the audience’s experience.
Panasonic’s reliability was equally critical. Each system ran for hours over two nights without sacrificing performance, even during periods of heavy rain when outdoor projections continued without interruption. On the ground, Panasonic provided technical guidance and support to ensure seamless calibration, while the projectors’ intuitive design and straightforward setup simplified installation and alignment. Together, these factors gave LUMA’s teams confidence that the technology would perform without fail, allowing artists to focus on the creative storytelling that defines the festival.
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Results
Growth, Creativity, and Connection
The 2025 festival once again brought downtown Binghamton to life with light, color, and storytelling, strengthening the city’s reputation as a creative hub. Beyond the visual spectacle, the event highlighted how technology and artistry can come together to inspire bold new forms of expression and community engagement.
For LUMA’s artists, Panasonic’s evolving technology continues to open new creative possibilities. “Over the years, we’ve had all different Panasonic models that have evolved over time,” says Tice Lerner, Co-Founder of LUMA. “And what’s interesting is, as the technology improves, the artists become bolder and bolder in what they’re willing to try.”
That evolution extends beyond the creative process—it’s felt in the streets of Binghamton each year. As light transforms familiar buildings into living canvases, the festival becomes more than an art event; it’s a shared experience that brings people together. The energy, emotion, and connection it creates can only truly be felt in person.
“LUMA has become this experiential arts event where you have to be here to experience it,” says Kraham. “You have to be present to really fully understand the scale of what’s being done, where you’re having this collective experience of art with other people in the community.”
Conclusion
For nearly a decade, Panasonic and LUMA have worked side by side to bring that collective experience to life, continually proving how technology and artistry can strengthen one another. Each new generation of Panasonic projection technology empowers LUMA to expand its creative reach, while LUMA’s vision challenges Panasonic to keep pushing the limits of what’s possible.
Together, they’ve built more than a festival. They’ve built a partnership that celebrates imagination, fosters innovation, and continues to illuminate what can happen when creativity meets cutting-edge technology.
"There’s a unique, almost magical experience that only projection mapping can create. As our exclusive projection technology sponsor, Panasonic gives us complete confidence—not only in the quality of their projectors but in the expertise of their engineering team—ensuring every artist’s work is presented at its best."
Joshua Bernard
Co-Founder of LUMA