Virtual K-Pop act PLAVE sold out Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome for its 2025 Asia Tour Encore. Here's how VLAST used AJA kit to keep 35,000 fans, and a global live stream, in perfect sync.
For anyone whose main exposure to the world of K-Pop is via K-Pop Demon Hunters, what you have to understand is that real life is often far weirder than even Netflix' smash hit animation manages to be. AJA sent us in a case study about the use of its technology in a high-profile PLAVE gig in Seoul last year, and that sent us down a wild and very entertaining rabbit hole.
First off, PLAVE is a virtual band; a five-member group whose members exist only as animated avatars, their performances generated through a combination of motion capture, real-time rendering, and AI.
Second, that doesn't stop PLAVE being hugely popular, with a fanbase that rivals the size and intensity of conventional K-Pop acts. They are the first virtual idol group to reach million-seller status with a single release, and the gigs in question, the 2025 PLAVE Asia Tour [DASH: Quantum Leap] Encore concerts drew more than 35,000 in-person fans to Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.
VLAST is the Korean entertainment company producing content for the various PLAVE platforms, and it turned to AJA kit to help reliably produce the show. That's because third, rather than taking place in Caelum, the fictional virtual space where characters created by humans live and breathe, it took place like all gigs do in Asterum. This is the in-between realm connecting Caelum and Terra, the world where flesh-and blood humans (ie, us) live.
As a virtual group, PLAVE have perhaps leaned into this a bit more than others, but this is a real thing even for the conventional bands with human personnel. BTS spent years building an alternate universe storyline about their own psychological traumas and a fictional town called Youth. LOONA's pre-debut lore involved each member being a different mythological creature from a different part of the world, all connected by an elaborate multiverse.
It's all hugely entertaining and worth a dig into if you have a few spare hours. But what's important with the PLAVE Encore gigs is that the stakes were even higher than normal. The VLAST team had to juggle expansive in-arena LED walls and a global live stream fed to online and cinema audiences, meaning that there were multiple different signal paths at play where even the tiniest delay could break the experience.
VLAST initially incorporated BRIDGE LIVE for scalable, high-quality SRT-based 4K video transmission with minimal delay as the tour grew to include domestic cinema screenings and future international broadcasts.
Deploying 16 BRIDGE LIVE units, VLAST maintained uninterrupted real-time transmission, delivering a natural, immersive experience to both arena and cinema audiences. BRIDGE LIVE ensured precise synchronization between stage visuals and performers on site, including extended stage sections that demanded exact alignment.
“Signal delivery was flawless with the help of our AJA gear, which significantly enhanced audience presence and immersion,” noted Han Kyu-hyun, VLAST’s Video Operation Engineer. “We minimized delay between dancers and the band, essential for real-time interaction."
BRIDGE LIVE also stood out for its continuous operation and compatibility with multiple formats, including H.264, H.265, and NDI. Once configured, it ran reliably throughout long performances, freeing the technical team to focus on delivering an unforgettable show.
More than 20 audio-focused openGear units including OG-DANTE-12GAM and OG-12G-AM, processed multiple audio channels in real time. “Minimizing latency between channels allowed accurate synchronization between musicians and virtual performers,” Han explained. “This ensured that every beat and cue aligned perfectly across live and streamed experiences.”
AJA KUMO 3232-12G and 1616-12G SDI routers provided immediate signal routing. For multi-view online production, real-time graphics sources were routed through the openGear converters into KUMO, then distributed to monitors and a Panasonic KAIROS system. Backup graphics systems provided redundancy, allowing the team to maintain uninterrupted multi-view feeds even under complex routing demands.
The project demonstrated how the right low-latency, flexible infrastructure, performers – virtual or otherwise – can connect with global audiences in real time, elevating production possibilities and expanding audience engagement. Think of it as ABBA Voyage on K-Pop steroids.
And the success of the Encore gigs helped PLAVE kick onto the next stage of their careers. Commercially, Caligo Pt.2 sold 1.25 million copies in its first week and cracked the Billboard 200. In Asterum, meanwhile, they've had to pick themselves up, dust themselves down, and take the fight to Caligo once more.
Here are the performance video and the music video of their biggest single to date, Born Savage, which helps close the Caligo chapter of the narrative. A concert film of the Gocheok Sky Dome encore shows is set to be released next month, while K-POP juggernaut management companies HYBE and YG Plus have both invested in VLAST recently with a likely ever-more international roll out for PLAVE later in the year. And AJA will have played a part in making that happen.