The 150th Dublin Horse Show

This year also delivered the most complex production in the show’s history. With the Anglesea Stand mid-way through a major redevelopment, the event took place within a live construction environment. Our role was to transform that space into a fully functioning, world-class competition and entertainment venue, while protecting the visitor experience, broadcast standards, and the reputation of one of Ireland’s most iconic events.

Delivering a show of this scale under these conditions relied on our long-standing site knowledge, established relationships, and a delivery team that understands the rhythm, pressures, and expectations of the Dublin Horse Show inside out.

The Main Arena

With half of the grandstand missing, the arena’s technical infrastructure was reimagined from the ground up. Over 100 square metres of LED were installed as a large central screen, supported by two angled side screens, all positioned in front of the newly developed stand. This configuration ensured clear, uninterrupted coverage of live competition for spectators across the arena.

Audio coverage was designed to flex around the temporary environment. Point source speakers were deployed in the remaining Grandstand, with line array systems installed in the temporary seating, delivering consistent sound coverage to crowds of up to 15,000. Additional audio feeds covered the Pocket Bar and key viewing zones throughout the venue.

For spectators, this meant access to live scoring, commentary, and replays regardless of seating location. For sponsors, it ensured consistent, high-quality content visibility across all LED deployments, even in a significantly altered arena layout.

Broadcast & Control

Located beside the Main Arena, our OB van operated as the technical control centre for the entire event. This is where live camera feeds from across the grounds were brought together with real-time scoring, graphics, LED content control, multi-channel recording, and archiving. From here, signals were distributed to RTÉ for national live television coverage.

Site-wide audio distribution was delivered via a DANTE network, combining existing RDS IT infrastructure with a temporary fibre and switching installation provided by our team. This approach allowed announcements, commentary, and broadcast audio to be distributed reliably across the entire campus, including the temporary main arena PA system.

This level of integration, particularly within a temporary and partially redeveloped site, is only achievable through detailed planning and long-term familiarity with both the venue and the event itself.

The Experience across the grounds.

The Dublin Horse Show extends far beyond a single arena. It is a campus-wide experience, and a core part of our role was ensuring that every corner of the RDS stayed connected to the action.

In total, over 200 square metres of LED were deployed across high-footfall locations including the Food Village, Band Lawn, Industries Hall, and Simmonscourt. Each screen was paired with an audio solution tailored to its environment, from discreet systems in hospitality areas to full-range coverage for larger outdoor spaces.

This allowed families, exhibitors, and casual visitors to move freely around the grounds without losing connection to the competition, reinforcing the sense that the Horse Show is a shared, live experience wherever you are on site.

“For 10 plus years, CT Ireland have been tasked with suppling and running all matters of Audio and Visual pertaining to the Dublin Horseshow.  This is a RDS sitewide event from a two-speaker PA systems to the main arena which is broadcast Live on Irelands national broadcaster RTE.

Over the years CT Ireland has grown into the Horseshow and developed great relationships with commentators, Judges, various other key staff of the Horseshow and the RDS staff and thus, we know what they need and want, which make us well prepared in ample time to achieve a successful show.  We continuously use the same key members of staff who have garnered the knowledge to fulfill the needs of this show.

This year’s show posed us some particular new obstacles and for lack of a better description we had to set-up a lot of our equipment and main operations area on a building site.

Despite the hurdles we faced, through clever technical ingenuity, and a tremendous amount of teamwork across all disciplines, we successfully delivered the Horse Show from day one of rigging to the final day of derigging — a near six-week operation.” – Shane O’Brien, Live Systems Engineer & key member of the Horse Show delivery team.