Behind every great show, concert, performance and installation, there is a visionary. Someone who sees something the rest of us don’t. Someone who wants to do something that’s never been done before. Someone who’s just crazy enough to believe in magic.
And behind that visionary, there is a team of people who know—right down to the algorithm and calibration protocol—how to bring that vision to life. We are those people.
At VYV, we develop video display technologies to serve the purpose of art and entertainment. Our systems, our servers, and our technical innovations are the product of our knowledge and the result of our determination and drive. We speak geek. And we talk tech. But our mother tongue is beauty.
It is the language of light, transforming geometry into art on the stage. It’s the pleasure of harnessing tools that make a brick-and-mortar building ripple with light. It’s taking what’s tangible—projector positions, lens ratios, brightness, resolution—and transforming it into awe-inspiring visions.
We have the chance to work with some of the most inspired visionaries of our time. They come to us for our technical prowess and our agility. They come back to us for our never-say-never approach. And every time, we give them something more. We give them beauty.
Technology is beautiful.
Stéphane
Senior Software Developer
Gilles-Philippe
Researcher | Software Developer
Jocelyn
Senior Software Developer
Nicolas P.
Photon Specialist | UX Designer
Denis
Administrative Assistant
Guillaume
Director, Information Technology
Alexis
Photon Specialist | Technical Director
Nicolas D.
Photon Specialist
Laurent
Photon Specialist
Gabrielle
Photon Specialist
Philippe
Technician - Information Systems
Hao
Graphic Designer
Audrey
Software Developer
Xavier
Photon Specialist
Jacques
Warehouse and Logistics Coordinator
VYV UK
Bez
VYV UK Director
Isla
Project Coordinator
VYV US
Drew
VYV US Director
Our History
Back in 2001, a friendship was forged that would span the next 15+ years and be destined to change what was previously deemed impossible in the video projection industry.
Founders and pioneers Emric Epstein and Martin Granger-Piché met in their first week at Université de Montreal. For the next few years, they collaborated on several projects that resulted in often-cited publications on 3D reconstruction and calibration. The pair realized they were onto something important and they were hooked.
By 2004, Emric and Martin had dedicated themselves full-time to providing flexible and interactive video projections tools, founding VYV. They had a couple of demos to show, but what they needed was their first big break.
By working their contacts (and with more than a little luck), VYV was chosen to produce the VFX for a live performance during a celebration hosted by Cirque du Soleil. The Cirque executives were blown away by what they witnessed: projected flames that seemed to fly from one dancer to another, and that outlined and enveloped one of the musicians during a solo.
VYV was quickly scooped up by Cirque and started working on producing the video projection effects for shows like “Bar du bout du monde” (2004), “Torrida Grand Prix Party” (2005), and “Delirium” (2005-2006). Their original idea was to write applications that were custom-built to spec for each show, but by the time Delirium came along, they knew they had the tool that the industry needed. It was in 2005 that Photon was born.
Before they knew it, they were driving all night to give a presentation in a club in New York. A 25 year-old Justin Timberlake was just about to release his landmark album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” and was looking for the newest talent to produce the special effects for his promotional tour. Once Timberlake saw what VYV had to offer, he was immediately on-board.
Emric and Martin drove back to Montreal, stunned at their victory. They weren’t sure what they had gotten themselves into, but they were confident they could make it work. Once they returned from designing a permanent video installation for the National Museum of Singapore, they started working on Timberlake’s show design and went on tour with them in 2006.
The unbridled success of Timberlake’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds” tour cemented VYV’s place in the industry for providing reliable, adaptive, bleeding-edge solutions for multi-video projections during live shows.
Since then, VYV has been the first choice of show producers world-wide, for both live shows and permanent installations. The passionate and pioneering visionaries at VYV have been at the forefront of such landmark shows like Franco Dragone’s “The House of the Dancing Water” (2010), Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson One” (2013), the World Tours for Alicia Keys (2008), Britney Spears (2009), Miley Cyrus (2014), Singapore’s National Day (2016), Jay Z (2017), Roger Waters (2017), Robert Lepage (2018) and most recently Jennifer Lopez (2019).
The only question that remains is: what astonishing visual tricks will VYV create for your show, bringing it from the astounding to the unimaginable?
Let’s find out together.
Proud to work with
