The Profile Awards 2026 Student Virtual Lighting Design Competition sponsored by CAST Group of Companies.

Lighting Design students and programmers who attend UK colleges full time were invited to create a three-minute animation using the new release of WYSIWYG 2026 visualisation software of a light show to music of your choice within a detailed model of the Royal Albert Hall, they were able to use the embedded orchestra and audience layout or make a staging and performer design of their own.

The RAH model was provided by Durham Marenghi and had a geometric truss structure with ten DMX universes of patched Ayrton lighting fixtures upon it. Though we preferred that entrants used the patched lighting rig within the WYSIWYG model they were allowed to change their preferred fixture type to other manufacturers and add SFX such as lasers, particle generators and atmospherics to suit their music choice.

To help empower emerging talent, all participating institutions received a complimentary copy of WYSIWYG 2026 Perform Lite Educational Edition, providing students with professional grade tools to craft their lighting designs and as part of the competition students gained lighting design experience in a realistic, high-profile environment. Initiatives like this play a critical role in building skills, confidence, and a creative foundation that today’s students will carry into tomorrow.

As we have so many entries this year they were all pre-judged by our panel of Paule Constable, Ed Warren, Jamie Thompson, Durham Marenghi and Ziggy Bornas (a US student who impressed last year and was unable to enter this year as we tightened the UK only rule with so many entries!) The final four chosen shown above will be judged by the professional Profile Awards TV and Theatre nominees. These students have received an invitation to The Profile Awards event with the winner being announced live at the Awards at the Alexandra Palace on the 4th of June 2026. 

Our lighting control sponsors Avolites, ChamSys , ETC and MA Lighting also offered some great support for their platforms if used in the competition details of which were included in the competition files package.

To Enter the competition you had to be a student in further education studying lighting design or programming at a college in the UK.

Check out our previous years’ nominations and Awardees in the 2024 and 2025 Awards sections.