McLaren × Airwallex Grand Prix Activation.
Pan Pacific Melbourne — one of the city's most recognisable five-star venues — turned into a McLaren team environment for the biggest motorsport weekend.
Melbourne event styling and design agency, Ruffles & Bells, engaged Pro Light & Sound to deliver full AV and build production for a McLaren × Airwallex hospitality activation at the Pan Pacific Melbourne, timed to the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
The venue was a five star hotel function room. The ask was to make none of that visible - and to replace it entirely with something that felt unmistakably McLaren.
The Build
Pro Light & Sound took ownership of the complete physical transformation of the space, floor to ceiling, wall to wall.
Guests entered through a custom printed archway and crossed a media wall and carpet built for the moment they'd be photographed on it. From there, custom flooring ran across the entire venue, tying every zone of the room into one continuous world - including a stage finished with its own custom carpet and branding, backed by a stage backdrop featuring a three-dimensional title treatment that anchored the room's focal point.
Lighting was calibrated across the space to bring it all together, including a dedicated design to showcase a McLaren car as a centrepiece.
The Detail
Within that shell, every touchpoint was purpose-built. A neon bar carried the brand's own signage. A branded DJ booth was built to match. An LED screen ran a custom animated X-ray graphic behind the stage.
For media and talent, a second press wall handled celebrity junkets, alongside a fully custom walk-in photobooth with its own branded walls.
The centrepiece build was a pit stop experience - a real-life set dressed with tools, graphics, and detailing true to a McLaren garage, integrated with a VR pit stop game so guests could step from the physical environment straight into the simulation.
Audio was run across the full event, including the press drop, ensuring every part of the night - from ambient sound to the moments built for media - landed the way it was designed to.
The measure of success wasn't just how impressive the production looked, it was how invisible the effort behind it felt. Every decision was made in service of a single outcome: a room that read as a McLaren team environment, not a hotel function space dressed for the night.
The Activation
A single night event. One chance to land it. When the doors opened, the room was ready - fully realised, on brand, and built to the standard of the partnerships it was hosting.
For guests attending the Grand Prix hospitality circuit, environments like this are the norm. The bar is set by the brands themselves. Pro Light & Sound are proud to have delivered a production that held its place in that company.
The team behind it.
- Events Planning
- @lteventsau
- Design Concept
- @rufflesandbells
- Venue
- @panpacificmelbourne
- Styling Photography
- @smokey_oscar
- Furniture
- @danneventhire
- Build, AV & Lighting
- @prolightandsound
- Media
- Sector World