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A practical budgeting guide for anyone planning an immersive installation, exhibition activation, experience centre or dome, what drives the budget, what each budget level realistically delivers, and where the money actually goes.
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This guide is not a price list. Publishing one would be misleading, because the same visible outcome can be built several different ways at several different price points. What this guide does instead is explain what actually determines the number, what AED 50,000, AED 250,000, AED 500,000 and AED 1 million or more realistically deliver in this region, and where budgets tend to be spent well or wasted. If you finish it able to challenge a quotation intelligently, it has done its job.
QUICK ANSWER: An immersive experience has no standard unit of cost because the same brief can be delivered with entirely different technology, content, and engineering. Budget is determined by what the experience has to do, for how many people, for how long, and in what physical conditions, not by the technology name attached to it.
Consider two projects that a client might describe identically as "an immersive room."
The first is a 40 square metre space with a three-wall projection setup, an eight-minute pre-rendered film, and a play button. The second is the same room with fine-pitch LED instead of projection, real-time content that responds to visitor movement, spatial audio, show control tying it together, and a content management system so the client's own team can change what plays. Same room, same description in a brief. The second can cost six to eight times the first.
Neither is the "right" answer. The first is entirely appropriate if the objective is to communicate one story consistently to a visiting audience. The second is appropriate if the objective is repeat visitation, personalisation, or content that changes without calling an integrator back.
This is why any serious conversation about budget starts with the objective, not the technology. A supplier who quotes before understanding what the experience has to achieve is quoting for a room, not for an outcome.
QUICK ANSWER: Immersive experience budgets are driven by fifteen variables: temporary versus permanent, display technology, content production, interactive software, engineering, fabrication, installation, AV infrastructure, venue conditions, manpower, testing and commissioning, logistics, maintenance, project duration, and audience capacity. Most cost surprises come from the last eight, not the first few.
Cost card - Display technology. This is usually the single largest hardware line. In the UAE market, indoor LED runs from roughly AED 2,900 per square metre for standard P2.5–P3.9 panels, AED 7,000–15,000 per square metre for typical commercial-grade fine pitch, and AED 18,000–39,500 per square metre at P1.2–P1.8 for close-viewing applications, with premium MicroLED and COB technologies going considerably higher. Rental for temporary events typically runs AED 250–650 per square metre per day. The practical lesson: pixel pitch should be matched to actual viewing distance. Specifying a tighter pitch than the audience will ever perceive is one of the most common ways to spend money that produces no visible benefit.
Cost card - Content production. Consistently the most underestimated line in the budget. Licensed or template content sits around USD 500–2,000 per minute. Bespoke 3D and real-time content generally runs USD 2,000–10,000 per minute and can go well beyond that for broadcast-quality work. A sophisticated ten-minute show for a large dome can reach several hundred thousand dollars on content alone. The canvas is rarely what fails; the content usually is.
Cost card - The hardware multiplier. A useful planning rule from the regional market: total project cost typically lands at 1.2 to 1.6 times the hardware price once control systems, power distribution and cabling, mounting or steel structure, installation, commissioning, calibration and warranty are included. If a proposal shows hardware at close to the full project value, something has been left out, and it will surface later.
Cost card - Venue conditions. Ceiling height, available power, structural load capacity, ambient light and access routes can change a budget more than any single piece of technology. A venue that cannot supply the required power, or a ceiling that cannot carry the rigging load, introduces engineering and infrastructure costs that were never in the original concept.
QUICK ANSWER: Roughly speaking: AED 50,000 delivers a single well-executed interactive moment or a compact activation with existing content; AED 250,000 delivers a bespoke room-scale experience or a strong exhibition centrepiece; AED 500,000 delivers a multi-zone permanent installation with custom content; AED 1 million and above delivers a full experience centre, a large dome, or a multi-room journey with custom technology and long-term supportability.
Around AED 50,000. A focused, single-interaction piece. This typically means one interactive station or touch table, a compact activation using an existing content template with light customisation, or a short-term event feature using rented display technology. The technology is proven and off-the-shelf, the content is adapted rather than originated, and the installation is straightforward. Done well, this range delivers a genuinely effective single moment. It does not deliver a journey, and it is rarely the right budget for a permanent public-facing installation that must run daily for years.
Around AED 250,000. A bespoke, room-scale experience. This range supports custom-designed interaction, a purpose-built content piece of a few minutes, proper AV infrastructure and show control, and professional installation and commissioning. For exhibitions and brand activations this is the range where a stand or space stops looking like everyone else's and starts producing measurable dwell time. For permanent installations it typically covers a single strong zone rather than a full multi-room experience.
Around AED 500,000. A multi-zone or technically ambitious installation. At this level you can reasonably expect several connected zones, custom content across them, sensor-driven interactivity, integrated show control, and the engineering and commissioning discipline required for permanent daily operation. This is also the range where a content management system becomes worth building, so the client's own team can update content without re-engaging the integrator for every change.
AED 1 million and above. A full experience centre, a large-format dome, or a multi-room visitor journey. Published market data for experience centres in Dubai puts the range from roughly AED 300,000 for a small space to AED 18 million or more for large, technology-heavy destinations, and our own delivery experience is consistent with that spread. At this level the budget is not dominated by any single technology; it is dominated by integration, custom content, engineering, and the requirement that everything remains reliable and serviceable for years. Maintenance, spares and lifecycle planning should be part of the budget conversation from the outset, not added later.
The tiers above are indicative and overlap heavily in practice. A modest budget spent precisely on one strong idea very often outperforms a larger budget spread thinly across several weak ones.
QUICK ANSWER: A temporary installation is engineered to work reliably for days or weeks; a permanent one must work every day for years. That single difference changes decisions on redundancy, cooling, serviceability, durability, monitoring and content management, and it is the reason permanent installations cost materially more than a visually identical event build.
For an event running three days, rented hardware, a straightforward content playback chain and an on-site technician are entirely reasonable. Failure is recoverable, because someone is standing there.
For a permanent installation, every one of those decisions changes. Hardware is purchased rather than rented, and selected for duty cycle rather than lowest cost. Thermal management becomes a design requirement rather than an afterthought, particularly in this region. Redundancy is designed into critical paths so a single failure does not close the experience. Service access has to be planned into the build, because a component that cannot be reached without dismantling a wall will eventually cost far more than it should. Remote monitoring becomes valuable. Content management becomes essential, because content that cannot be updated is the fastest route to a space looking dated. And an annual maintenance contract with defined spares belongs in the plan from day one.
A useful planning figure: annual maintenance and licensing across the market typically runs 5–15% of the initial hardware and software cost. For a permanent installation, this is not an optional extra; it is the difference between an asset that still performs in year five and one that quietly degrades.
QUICK ANSWER: On a typical immersive project, hardware is rarely more than half the budget. Content production, interactive software, engineering, installation, commissioning and infrastructure together usually account for the majority, which is why comparing quotations on hardware price alone is misleading.
Clients often assume the display is the project. In practice, a well-structured immersive budget spreads across several categories that are less visible but no less essential:
When two quotations differ significantly, the difference is usually in these less visible categories rather than in the hardware. Asking a supplier to break the budget down across them is one of the fastest ways to understand what you are actually being offered.
QUICK ANSWER: Across hundreds of delivered projects, the most consistently underestimated costs are content production, venue readiness, commissioning time, logistics, and ongoing maintenance. These rarely appear in early concept budgets and almost always appear in the final one.
Content production. Concept budgets tend to allocate generously to technology and thinly to what plays on it. This is the most common structural error we see in early-stage budgets, and the one that most directly affects whether the finished experience works.
Venue readiness. Power upgrades, structural reinforcement, ambient light control, network provisioning and access arrangements are frequently discovered after design is complete. A site survey early in the process costs almost nothing and routinely saves considerably more.
Commissioning time. Calibration, integration testing and dry runs take longer than most programmes assume, particularly where multiple systems must synchronise. Compressed commissioning is where quality is usually lost.
Logistics and lead times. Specialist AV and show control hardware is largely imported into the region. Freight, customs clearance and stock availability materially affect both cost and programme, and a partner with established regional supply chains genuinely delivers faster than one sourcing fresh for every project.
Operation and maintenance. Manpower to operate the experience, content refreshes, spares holding and annual support are ongoing commitments. Budgeting for the build but not the operation is how impressive installations become dark ones.
QUICK ANSWER: The core cost structure is similar across the GCC, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE differ on programme scale, local content and compliance requirements, mobilisation costs, and available supply chain, all of which affect budget and timeline more than the technology itself.
Saudi Arabia's giga-project pipeline has shifted the baseline of what is being briefed. Experiences designed for tens of thousands of daily visitors carry throughput, durability and redundancy requirements that a corporate showroom does not, and those requirements are budget items, not design preferences.
Projects outside the main city centres carry real mobilisation costs: accommodation, transport and extended on-site duration for specialist teams. On remote or large-site projects in Saudi Arabia, this can be a significant line rather than an incidental one.
Regional fit-out benchmarks give useful context for total project planning. Commercial fit-out in Saudi Arabia spans roughly SAR 800 per square metre for basic interiors up to SAR 5,000 or more per square metre for flagship environments, and mechanical and electrical works are frequently the largest single component. Immersive technology sits on top of that base build, and the two budgets need to be planned together rather than sequentially.
Government and semi-government projects across both markets carry approval cycles, and in Saudi Arabia local content expectations, that affect programme and sometimes procurement structure. These are manageable when planned for and disruptive when discovered late.
Both markets import the majority of specialist hardware. Established regional supply relationships and correctly handled customs documentation shorten programmes measurably, which matters most when an opening date is fixed and immovable.
QUICK ANSWER: Define the objective before the technology, allocate properly to content, survey the venue early, budget for commissioning and maintenance from the start, and prioritise one strong experience over several diluted ones.
Start from the outcome, not the equipment. Decide what the audience should understand, feel, do and remember. The technology specification should follow from that. Briefs that lead with a hardware wish list almost always cost more and achieve less.
Protect the content budget. If a decision has to be made between a slightly better display specification and materially better content, content generally wins. Visitors do not remember pixel pitch.
Survey the venue before you finalise the concept. Power, structure, ceiling height, ambient light and access should inform the design rather than constrain it after the fact.
Budget commissioning and maintenance from day one. Both are predictable. Neither should be a surprise line item in the final invoice or the second year of operation.
Concentrate the spend. One genuinely strong moment that people stop for, talk about and remember will outperform four adequate ones almost every time, at any budget level.
Ask suppliers for a category breakdown. A proposal split across hardware, content, software, infrastructure, engineering, installation, commissioning and support tells you far more than a single figure, and makes comparison between suppliers meaningful.
QUICK ANSWER: Power Interactive designs, engineers, produces content for, integrates and maintains immersive experiences in-house, across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, with more than 800 delivered projects. That end-to-end view is what allows a realistic budget to be built early, rather than discovered late.
The reason budgets move during projects is usually not dishonesty. It is fragmentation. When creative, content, hardware, engineering and installation sit with different parties, each prices its own scope and the gaps between them surface as change orders once work starts.
Because creative direction, content production, software development, engineering, fabrication, AV integration and long-term support sit within one team here, those gaps get priced at the beginning rather than negotiated at the end. It also means we can tell a client early, and directly, when an ambition does not fit a budget, and what the credible alternatives are. That conversation is more useful to both sides than a proposal that quietly omits commissioning.
More than 800 delivered projects across the region, including work for DEWA, the Government of Dubai, Atlantis The Royal, Emaar, Al Jalila Foundation, PwC, VISA, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hugo Boss, is mostly useful here for one reason: it means the estimates we give at concept stage are based on what these projects actually cost to deliver in this region, not on theory.
Author: Fahad Javaid is Founder and CEO of Power Interactive, a Dubai-based immersive technology studio. This article is written from more than 800 experiential technology projects designed, engineered and delivered across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the wider GCC since 2018.
There is no single figure, but as a planning guide: around AED 50,000 delivers a single well-executed interactive station or compact activation; AED 250,000 delivers a bespoke room-scale experience; AED 500,000 delivers a multi-zone installation with custom content; and AED 1 million or more is the range for full experience centres, large domes and multi-room visitor journeys. Published market data puts experience centres in Dubai between roughly AED 300,000 and AED 18 million depending on scale and technology.
Indoor LED in the UAE market runs from roughly AED 2,900 per square metre for standard P2.5–P3.9 panels, AED 7,000–15,000 per square metre for commercial-grade fine pitch, and AED 18,000–39,500 per square metre for P1.2–P1.8 used at close viewing distances. Rental for events typically runs AED 250–650 per square metre per day. Expect total project cost to land at roughly 1.2–1.6 times the hardware figure once structure, control, installation and commissioning are included.
Often, but not always. Projection generally costs less for large coverage areas and irregular surfaces, and suits controlled-light environments. LED performs better in bright ambient conditions, has a longer service life for permanent installations, and needs no throw distance. For a permanent installation running daily, LED's higher upfront cost is frequently offset over its lifecycle.
More than most early budgets assume. Licensed or template content sits around USD 500–2,000 per minute; bespoke 3D and real-time content generally runs USD 2,000–10,000 per minute or more. Content is usually the difference between a technically impressive space and one that people remember, so it deserves protected budget rather than whatever remains after hardware.
Annual maintenance and licensing typically runs 5–15% of the initial hardware and software cost, alongside operational manpower, content refreshes and spares. For permanent installations, budgeting for this from the start is what keeps an experience performing into year five rather than degrading quietly after year one.
Usually because they are not quoting the same scope. Differences generally sit in the less visible categories: content production, interactive software development, AV infrastructure, engineering, commissioning time and post-launch support. Asking each supplier for a breakdown across those categories makes the comparison meaningful.
The core cost structure is comparable, but Saudi projects more frequently involve larger visitor throughput requirements, mobilisation and accommodation costs for remote sites, and approval or local content requirements that affect programme. These factors influence budget more than the technology itself.
Allocating generously to hardware and thinly to content, commissioning and maintenance. It produces a space that looks impressive at opening and disappoints in operation. The reverse allocation almost always produces a better experience for the same money.
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