A night tourism upgrade at the Yangshan Scenic Area in Wuxi has turned an entire mountainside into a large-scale projection installation, with Appotronics Professional Display handling system design and full deployment for the project.
The installation, completed in May 2026, was built as a professional projection system rather than a conventional landscape lighting scheme, reflecting a broader shift in how scenic destinations are approaching nighttime visitor experiences. According to project details released by Appotronics, the system was designed around five core requirements: ultra-long-distance projection, large-area image fusion, outdoor system stability, centralised multi-channel control, and scalable content operation.
The headline figure is distance. The projection throw exceeds 700m, a scale that Appotronics says shifts optical design from a component-level consideration to a defining constraint of the overall system. At that range, brightness efficiency, atmospheric light attenuation and image sharpness all have to be addressed as a single engineering problem rather than tackled individually.
The resulting image, after edge blending across multiple projectors, measures 350m wide by 56m high. That places the total display area at roughly 19,600 sq m, effectively a panoramic screen wrapped across the contours of the mountain itself.
Because the projection surface is natural terrain rather than a flat architectural facade, the project team had to apply precise geometric correction, multi-channel edge blending, and terrain-adaptive mapping calibration, with image processing synchronised across every channel. Appotronics says the system was also engineered for long-term outdoor operation, with attention paid to controlling calibration drift and simplifying maintenance over years of continuous use.
The primary installation uses 15 units from Appotronics’ AL-T series of large-venue laser projectors, each rated at 34,000 lumens and built on a 3DLP platform with RB laser phosphor light sources. The units are arranged in a long-throw, front-projection configuration with horizontal multi-channel edge blending.
Appotronics says the design deliberately avoided a brightness-stacking approach, in which additional projectors are layered to compensate for light loss over distance. Instead, the system uses what the company describes as a full-channel fusion architecture, which it says improves brightness utilisation, image consistency across the terrain, long-term calibration stability and overall maintainability.
Long-throw optics were central to the approach, according to Appotronics, helping to concentrate effective brightness over distance, improve image penetration through outdoor atmospheric conditions, and reduce dispersion across the mountain's irregular surfaces. The company says this was essential to maintaining a consistent image across the full 350-metre width of the display.
Beyond the main mountain projection, the project includes several smaller projection systems positioned around the scenic area to broaden the immersive experience for visitors.
Near the water’s edge, an upper mesh screen system uses two AL-S series projectors at 15,000 lumens each, producing a blended image of approximately 15m by 5m that layers projected content over the water surface and surrounding architecture.
Along the main pedestrian routes, a lower wall projection system comprising four AL-D series high-brightness units at 7,500 lumens each delivers a blended coverage of around 32m by 3m, intended to provide visual transitions and atmosphere as visitors move through the site.
A rear-projection gauze stage system, built around a single 10,000-lumen Appotronics laser projector, provides an additional 8 by 5 metre screen for live performances and cultural events held within the scenic area.
All of the projection systems are tied together through a centralised architecture that handles multi-channel synchronisation, unified playback management and edge-blending control, with signal carried over fibre to support the long distances involved across the site.
The installation also includes an operational management layer covering real-time equipment monitoring, scheduled power management, fault detection and alerts, and ongoing diagnostics. Appotronics says this layer is intended to improve long-term reliability and reduce the maintenance burden typically associated with large outdoor projection deployments.
The project was carried out in stages, beginning with platform and structural construction, followed by system installation and optical alignment. Geometric correction and multi-channel fusion calibration were then carried out, before integrated testing alongside the site's lighting and audio systems. A trial operation period followed, allowing the project team to optimise the system ahead of full rollout.
With the system now operational, the mountain has become the primary nighttime visual landmark of the Yangshan Scenic Area. Appotronics frames the project as more than a single installation, positioning it as an example of how large-scale projection systems can serve as long-term visual infrastructure for tourism destinations, offering operators a scalable platform for content that can be updated and expanded over time.
The company says the combination of long-throw optical design, large-scale multi-channel fusion, centralised system architecture and outdoor engineering used at Yangshan provides a repeatable approach for other large-scale outdoor projection projects looking to convert natural landscapes into nighttime visitor attractions.
Source: https://appotronicsglobal.com/blog-52