Why was now the right time to double down on your presence in the Middle East?
Disguise has been part of the Middle East’s immersive landscape for years. Partners and customers across the region have been choosing the platform for their most ambitious projects, from landmark permanent installations to some of the world’s largest live events. Throughout that time we’ve supported customers through our global 24/7 services and remote teams, but as the scale and complexity of what the region is delivering has grown, we recognised that remote support simply isn’t enough. For a market that is building at this level of ambition, you need people on the ground who understand the projects, the partners, and the cultural context. That realisation has been central to our decision to formalise our presence here.
While expanding in the Middle East was always part of our 2026 roadmap, when the geopolitical situation escalated, we made a conscious decision to redirect some of that energy toward supporting our partners and customers directly. That meant running training sessions, webinars, and knowledge-sharing resources, and simply being more available – through calls and meetings – for teams navigating a very uncertain environment.
How impressed have you been with the way that projects and partners in the region have used Disguise technology so far, and why do you think that Disguise has been so well received in the region?
Some of the most ambitious uses of Disguise technology in the region happened organically. Projects like the Burj Khalifa and Al Wasl Dome at Expo 2020 were delivered by regional partners working at an extraordinary level – we were proud to be part of those stories.
TERHAL by Dragone in Saudi Arabia is a good example of a partner taking the technology somewhere we hadn’t necessarily anticipated – using it to give a deeply cultural performance a new life through a tech-driven lens which takes real creativity.
Phygital Games of the Future is something we’re also very excited about. The event deployed 25 Disguise media servers across both the GX and EX range, which speaks to something we find really encouraging: partners in the region are working with the full Disguise ecosystem to push what’s possible. That level of investment and technical ambition, for an event that’s redefining what sports and entertainment can look like together, is pretty extraordinary.
Then there’s MDLBEAST Soundstorm. The scale of the visual experience, the ambition of what the production team set out to achieve, the sheer complexity of what was delivered in real time were on another level. Soundstorm has become one of the most important live events in the world, and the standard it sets for immersive visual production is remarkable.
As for why Disguise has been well received, I think it’s less about us and more about the fact that the region’s partners are exceptionally talented, and they gravitate toward tools that don’t get in the way of their ambition. If Disguise has earned its place here, it’s because those teams have trusted it to deliver under real pressure, and it has.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth for Disguise?
Saudi Arabia represents an extraordinary growth opportunity. The scale of Vision 2030 investment, giga-projects like Qiddiya, represents an unprecedented pipeline of destination-scale experiences being built from the ground up. They are entirely new cities and entertainment districts where immersive technology is being designed in from day one.
The UAE is equally important to us. Dubai has been the foundation of our regional story. The Burth Khalifa, One&Only Za’abeel and the Al Wasl Dome are UAE projects, and the country continues to set the benchmark for what large-scale immersive experiences can look like. It remains one of the most dynamic markets in the world for live events, hospitality destinations and landmark installations, and we see significant runway for growth there.
Sports and venue infrastructure is a major opportunity across the region, too – particularly with the FIFA World Cup 2034 on the horizon. The appetite for technology that can flex across football, esports, concerts and cultural events, often in the same venue, is very real.
Cultural institutions and museums are another area we’re watching closely. There’s a genuine ambition across the region to tell national stories through contemporary immersive means – not to replicate what’s been done elsewhere, but to create something entirely of this place. That requires long-term, permanent infrastructure, which is exactly what Disguise is built for.
Across all of these sectors, one conversation comes up again and again: audience and fan engagement. In Saudi Arabia, 63% of the population is under 30 – they are a young, digitally native audience with exceptionally high expectations for live experiences. Clients want to know how immersive technology translates into real, measurable outcomes: longer dwell times, stronger social moments, more reasons for audiences to return. The evidence is compelling: venues delivering immersive visual experiences are seeing uplifts of up to 15% in social engagement and 40% growth in third-party event bookings. The shift from one-off spectacle to permanent immersive infrastructure is well underway, and that’s the conversation we’re most excited to be part of.
Tell us more about your planned new business entities…
The establishment of formal business entities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is a natural extension of what we’ve been building toward. We have team members based in the region covering the commercial, creative and technical functions, and I personally make regular visits alongside other members of the Disguise leadership team. That direct presence has already changed the quality of the conversations we’re able to have – being in the room during the design phase, understanding the specific dynamics of a project, and being available in the way that complex productions demand makes a real difference.
The formal entities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are about giving that presence a proper foundation, so our regional team has the structure and resources to operate effectively long-term, and so clients and partners have the confidence that Disguise is genuinely committed to the region. The intention is to have teams across both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reflecting the fact that these are two distinct markets that each deserve dedicated focus.
You’ve already appointed Issa Al Azry… what will your approach be to building out your Middle East team as your presence grows?
Issa is a great example of the kind of hire we’re making: someone with deep roots in the region, strong technical expertise, and strong relationships within the creative and production community. We’re building deliberately rather than rapidly, and we’re currently recruiting for a Sales Manager role based in the region, so the team is actively growing.
At a leadership level, we’re also investing significant time on the ground. Our VP of Marketing, Alexandra Coulson, is present in the region focussed on building and strengthening relationships across our partner and customer ecosystem. Presence at that level matters because it signals that this isn’t a market we’re managing from a distance.
Our approach to building presence in the Middle East isn’t only about headcount. A significant part of it is about deepening our work with the partners who are already here. Companies like A LOUD MINORITY (ALM), mediaPro International, Vita Events, Creative Technology and other partners have been delivering extraordinary projects in this region for years, and our role is to work alongside them more closely, bring projects to them, and make sure that the full weight of Disguise’s technical and creative capability is accessible to them on the ground.
Training and community are also central to the strategy. We’re expanding our regional training roadshow programme and investing in our ambassadors’ programme here, the Creators Circle, bringing operators, users, and creative technologists together to learn, share, and push the platform further. We’ll also be increasing our event presence across the region, which we see as an important way to stay embedded in the conversations that matter.
Ultimately, we’ll scale the team in line with demand, but the foundations we’re putting in place now, through people, partnerships, training, and events, are designed to make sure we’re ready for what’s coming.
What do your partnerships with both Tanmiya and ALM bring to the party?
Tanmiya brings us closer to the client landscape in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf – helping us navigate a market where relationships and local knowledge matter enormously. There are significant projects and opportunities in the region that we simply might not have visibility of without partners who are deeply embedded in those networks.
A Loud Minority operates at the other end of the project lifecycle, in the creative and technical delivery of complex productions. ALM has built a remarkable reputation in the region, delivering some of the most ambitious shows and experiences around the world, and they bring a depth of local expertise and creative capability that complements what we do. Disguise has always specialised in the biggest, most complex projects with a lot of moving parts, and having partners like ALM who can work closely with us across every stage of execution means we can be confident that nothing gets lost between concept and delivery.
It’s also important to say that Tanmiya and ALM are two partnerships we’re announcing publicly. We also work with a wide range of partners and consultants across the region who are doing incredible things: rental houses with significant Disguise fleets, system integrators, technical production companies, and creative studios who have been delivering landmark projects here for years. Companies like mediaPro, Vita Events, Pixel Artworks and Creative Technology have been central to some of the region’s most defining experiences, and those relationships are just as important to us. Our expanded presence is as much about deepening those existing partnerships as it is about forming new ones. The goal is to be a better, more available, more useful partner to everyone in the ecosystem.
What are your long-term ambitions for Disguise in the Middle East?
At the most straightforward level, we want to build on what’s already been achieved here and support even more of the region’s most ambitious immersive experiences. The projects that have been delivered across the Middle East over the past few years have been genuinely world-class – and what’s coming next, as Vision 2030 accelerates and the region continues to invest in destination-scale entertainment, cultural infrastructure, and sports, is going to be extraordinary. We want Disguise to be at the heart of that.
Our ambitions go beyond being a technology provider. One of the things we feel strongly about is helping to develop the local talent ecosystem. The Middle East has incredible creative and technical energy, and we want to invest in that, through training, through the Creators Circle, through knowledge-sharing programmes that give local operators, designers, and technologists the skills to own and lead these projects themselves. The goal is to help build the capability so that the region can deliver the next generation of experiences on its own terms, with Disguise as a long-term partner in that journey.
We also see a real opportunity to contribute to the broader ambitions that Vision 2030 represents. The region has set out an incredibly clear vision for what it wants to become: a global hub for culture, entertainment, sport, and tourism. We believe immersive technology has a meaningful role to play in achieving that. If we can help bring the best and most innovative experiences to audiences here, and in doing so help cement the Middle East’s position as one of the world’s leading destinations for live and immersive entertainment, that’s an ambition we’re genuinely excited to be part of.
Photos: Dragone, MDLBEAST
