π Space, Jing’an

The film 05:20

Film language

Sector: Audiovisual
Chinese name: 视听静界·π空间
Programme: Day 2 · 12 Oct 2026 · Shanghai

π Space (视听静界·π空间) is the showcase of the cluster for ultra-HD imaging, XR and AI content that Shanghai has been building in Jing'an district since late 2024. A single building of about 7,400 m² in the Daning area houses a showroom for picture and sound technology, 150 places for one-person companies making video and animation with AI, offices for those who grow, and a research floor shared with universities. It is a government project, and that is exactly why it offers a good view of how China organises a new content industry.

What is π Space?

The name is a pun. 视听 means audiovisual. 静界 sounds like 境界, 'realm' or 'level', but starts with the 静 of Jing'an: the audiovisual realm of Jing'an. In Chinese, π is pronounced pài, like the character 派 for a school or a 'crew', and the community of one-person companies is called 派客家, the home of the pài people. We found no official explanation of the π.

The developer is Daning Group, the state-owned company building out the Daning area. It lies in the former Zhabei district, a working-class and industrial area that merged with Jing'an in 2015. Since then the north has supplied the district's makers: film and TV companies around Shanghai University, game studios and Riot Games' only development centre outside the US, reports Shanghai Daily. π Space was on day 2 of the China Business Mission 2026, in a week when the delegation also had Model Space in Xuhui on the programme.

A cluster in barely two years

On 11 December 2024 the city and the district launched the Shanghai Ultra-HD Audiovisual Industrial Cluster. The target according to Invest Shanghai: a 200-billion-yuan market in Jing'an by 2030, within a Shanghai-wide ambition of 600 billion yuan for ultra-HD. Things moved quickly from there.

From launch to full house

Dec 2024Shanghai picks Jing'an for its ultra-HD cluster
Oct 2025Sister site 元空间 opens in Shibei, focused on hardware
Dec 2025First one-person companies move in, AI platform opens
Feb 2026All 150 places in 派客家 taken
Jun 2026International UWA event during the Shanghai TV Festival
Sep 2026Fourteen companies at the audiovisual arts carnival

In under two years Jing'an went from a policy decision to a fully occupied building with its own international programme. Source: Invest Shanghai (dec. 2024); Jing'an (Feb 2026); Tencent News (Sep 2026)

The cluster has two core sites. π Space focuses on content and young makers. Its much larger sister site 元空间 (Yuan Space) in Shibei opened on 16 October 2025 and targets hardware: chips, new displays and VR.

One cluster, two core sites

π Space · Daning

Content: AI video, micro-dramas, animation, XR
About 7,400 m²
Showroom, one-person companies, offices, research
Developed by Daning Group

Yuan Space · Shibei

Hardware: chips, new displays, VR
170,000 m² floor area
Opened on 16 October 2025
200+ companies and institutions in its first year

π Space is small and aimed at content creators; its sister site is more than twenty times larger and aimed at devices and chips. Source: Shanghai.gov.cn (Jun 2026); Jing'an (Oct 2025); Sina Finance (Sep 2026)

According to Shanghai Daily, Jing'an has attracted more than 200 ultra-HD companies since 2025, with sector revenue of more than 90 billion yuan. Other district reports give different counts, depending on what is included. Here too the figures come from the government itself and have not been independently checked.

Four floors, one growth path

The building puts the life cycle of a small creative tech company under one roof, as the trade title tvoao described it in January 2026. Anyone starting out as a sole trader can literally take the stairs up.

From sole trader to own office

01Ground floor · showroomGlasses-free 8K 3D screen, test centre for HDR and Audio Vivid
02First floor · 派客家150 places for one-person companies
03Second floor · growthOwn offices for growing firms, almost fully let
04Third floor · researchPlatform with universities for chips, devices and AI content

Each floor is a stage: look, start, grow and develop with universities. Floors follow British numbering. Source: tvoao (Jan 2026)

The draw is the support for one-person companies, or OPCs. According to the district, they get their own workstation, a starter package of up to 100,000 yuan for computing power, models and tools, up to 1 million yuan for original IP and new applications, and prize money in a creators' competition. The first residents moved in on 22 December 2025, and a week later a public platform for AI and audiovisual production opened, with computing power from an alliance of Alibaba Cloud, China Mobile and Infinigence. In February 2026 Wenhui Daily reported that all 150 places were taken.

What the makers make

The most popular genre is the micro-drama: series with episodes of one to two minutes, shot vertically for smartphones. With AI, a single creator can produce a whole series. At the International Audiovisual Arts Carnival, which opened on 24 September 2026, π Space showed fourteen companies on a stand of about 130 m², including these:

Naohai AI (闹海AI) has made more than fifty short dramas through its platform.
Yijian Xingqiong (屿见星穹) launched an AI series of 140 episodes.
Shengshi Wanhe (盛世万和) showed a VR experience about Napoleon on its XR platform SkyRoam.
Qingtong Vision (青瞳视觉) used motion capture to make Unitree robots move along live.
Jiuba Culture (久吧文化) worked on an AI gala for China's state broadcaster.

Anyone looking to work together here needs to know the rules. AI-generated images and video in China have had to be labelled as such since 1 September 2025, and micro-dramas face ever stricter rules from the media regulator.

Europe and a Belgian thread

π Space has no European branch. The link runs through standards. The building houses the Shanghai ecosystem centre of the World UHD Video Industry Alliance (UWA), which tests and promotes the Chinese formats HDR Vivid for picture and Audio Vivid for sound. They compete with Western formats such as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. On 22 June 2026 the alliance held an international exchange at π Space during the Shanghai TV Festival, with participants including Olivier Chiabodo, European vice-president of UWA and founder of the French production company TheExplorers. In July the cluster also appointed three international advisers, among them strategist Klaus Wehage.

For Belgians there is a striking thread. The 3D sound format Auro-3D was developed by Wilfried Van Baelen, founder of Galaxy Studios in Mol. At the end of 2024 the technology and team moved to the Danish Goerdyna group, which combines Dynaudio and Goertek Europe; the new subsidiary Goer Dynamics is headquartered in Brussels, audioXpress reported. In late September 2026 its CTO Bert Van Daele spoke at the cluster's salon during the arts carnival, alongside the Norwegian Grammy winner Morten Lindberg. With Audio Vivid China is building its own 3D sound, while inviting European pioneers to join the conversation. For the opposite movement, Chinese companies taking the step to Europe, see to Europe.

Full is not yet a business model

π Space is small, quickly filled and generously supported. Workstations, vouchers and up to a million yuan per project make entry easy; how many of the one-person companies will stand on their own once the support ends will only become clear in a few years. For European companies the real question lies elsewhere. China is developing its own standards for picture and sound and its own tools to create content for them, and is actively seeking foreign partners to do so. Anyone working in picture, sound or content can join that table now. Those who stay away will later be handed the standard ready-made.