BLINK Cincinnati Festival of Light & Art

BLINK Cincinnati is North America’s largest light, art, and projection-mapping festival — transforming the city’s skyline into a vibrant illuminated gallery.

For its latest edition, Show Sage, the official Hive USA Distributor, partnered with 4Wall Entertainment to deliver a seamless, multi-site experience powered by Hive Beebox media servers over several locations.

– Celestial Serenade by Spotted Yeti Media
– Energy and Grace by Kim Krause
– Coming of Age by Gee Horton
– The Writing on The Wall by Hank Willis Thomas & Dr. Baz Dreisinger
– Utopia by Brandon “xodus” Ellis

Four Beebox units were purchased by 4Wall, with an additional four donated by Hive and Show Sage to support the festival’s creative community.

Technology and Deployment

4Wall deployed a combination of Hive Beebox Osmia and Hive Beebox Pluto servers — bringing 4K playback and Hive’s signature low-power, browser-based control system to the heart of Cincinnati’s creative district.

This configuration allowed artists and technicians to manage warping, mapping, and live programming directly within a web browser — eliminating the need for traditional control stations or proprietary interfaces.

“The Hive players were workhouses during the festival. The fact that all of the control just lives in your web browser was a dream for warping and program changes on site.”

Chet Miller, Senior Project Technology Specialist at 4Wall

Performance and Reliability

Even across multiple sites and long operating hours, Hive systems delivered rock-solid playback and instant responsiveness. Each installation utilised Hive’s built-in Beesync engine for frame-accurate synchronisation, ensuring every display stayed perfectly aligned across BLINK’s expansive footprint.

“The fact we could drop NotchLC files for flawless playback on a box smaller than the power supply on some laptops was fantastic”

Chet Miller, Senior Project Technology Specialist at 4Wall

Collaboration and Support

Hive’s USA Distributor, Show Sage, played a pivotal role in coordinating logistics, setup, and on-site support with 4Wall’s technical teams.

Miller added:

“Hive also delivered when it came to support. Their team showed up willing to help however we needed, but the boxes were so easy to use we did it all before they arrived — and got to show them how it was all implemented.”

Chet Miller, Senior Project Technology Specialist at 4Wall

Ben Nicholson summed it up simply:

“They worked great”

Ben Nicholson, formerly of 4Wall

Outcome

The collaboration between 4Wall, Show Sage, and Hive resulted in one of BLINK’s most reliable and efficient multi-site deployments to date.

Artists enjoyed intuitive tools, low-footprint hardware, and real-time creative flexibility — all while reducing setup complexity and environmental impact.

BLINK takes place every two years, with the next edition scheduled for October 8–11, 2026.

Image credits: