7 projects made more flexible with X1

Working across productions of different scales - each with unique screen set ups, and in different locations - can be complex. So having full flexibility when it comes to your workflow while keeping portability front of mind matters more than ever before. 

Disguise X1 provides access to the same powerful software engine used by the world’s A-list music artists, but as a portable license you can run on your own laptop or hardware of choice. As an all-in-one tool for real-time visual control, mapping and playback across a single 4K output, it offers Disguise users an alternative deployment solution when working on productions and experiences that can fit onto a smaller 4K DCI canvas size, meaning they can continue leveraging the Designer workflow without reprogramming on other systems. 

From live concerts to corporate events and pop-up festivals, our customers are already using X1 to ease their workflows across a breadth of different industries. Let’s take a look at some of the key project types primed to benefit from X1:

1) Touring concerts

It’s not uncommon for touring artists today to play three or more countries in a week. But complex schedules typically require more logistical planning, including figuring out how to transport heavy equipment and ensuring your system can support venues of different sizes. When moving from a major arena to a smaller venue, it’s a huge benefit to be able to take an existing Designer showfile and quickly update to enable the same show to fit across a smaller canvas size - no complex logistics required.

Alex Loftie, video programmer on Central Cee’s tour, turned to X1 to relieve the real-world pressure of touring. “X1 just made life easy for us. It meant we could pack light, ease the burden of transporting kit, and essentially just open up a laptop and be ready to go as soon as we arrived at the venue.” The team used X1 for the North American legs of Central Cee’s tour, where the shows had a more intimate feel at smaller venues. “When we returned to larger venues in Europe, we were able to easily transition back to Disguise media servers, ultimately giving us the flexibility to use Disguise’s familiar and reliable Designer software across shows of any size. Everything could stay on Disguise and I didn’t have to re-program the show with a different solution, which saved a huge amount of time and budget.”

Glenn Jenkins, Video Engineer on Bullet For My Valentine’s show at Vainstream Rockfest in Germany, also valued the flexibility and control that X1 brought to his production. “Live shows on tour are never carbon copies of each other. Last-minute changes come up every time, and using X1 meant we were able to keep up with the rest of production and make quick, crucial edits on site thanks to Disguise’s timeline workflow.” 

2)Pop-up festivals

It’s not only touring shows that stand to benefit from X1. Small-scale festivals featuring a number of different performers over a short period of time are a prime example where flexible workflow options can make a huge difference.

Festival Napa Valley is an annual summer celebration of music, food, and wine, featuring world-class performances set amongst the Californian vineyards. X1 allowed the team to use Disguise and benefit from the full range of features that the platform offers, including pixel-perfect 3D previsualisation and track section cross-fades, as well as seamless timeline-based playback which proved vital when synchronising video with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra as they performed. 

Kate Freer, projection designer on the festival, revealed that being able to run a festival show with Disguise from a single laptop was a huge bonus. “The flexibility that it gives us is really cool. We can take one machine and put on four shows in three different venues - we show up and plug in and the quality never suffers. Being able to use X1 in a festival scenario like this has been a dream.” 

3)Immersive Installations

Along with the live performances, the team at Festival Napa Valley also used X1 for projection mapping onto a building, taking the 4K canvas and splitting it out into four full HD outputs and feeding the projectors via SDI.

Graymatter Video also chose X1 to run their projection mapping workflow for the installation for the Dunham Massey Christmas light trail, supporting their client Culture Creative in bringing the spectacular festive experience to life for the National Trust. The installation featured incredible creative content produced by NOVAK and formed a key highlight within the wider seasonal trail.

Designed and produced by Culture Creative, the light trail was a long-term seasonal install, so the focus was on building a system that was robust, flexible and sensible on budget. “By pairing X1 with FX4 quad splitters, we were able to drive four projectors cleanly while keeping everything perfectly aligned and manageable remotely across the full run” explains Dan Gray, Director at Graymatter Video.

“One of the real advantages for us was the flexibility to run the system on our own hardware. That allowed us to integrate it seamlessly into our wider projection mapping workflow and refine a setup that we now use across a number of installations.”

The result was a rock-solid system throughout the season, and an immersive experience that guests absolutely loved.

4)Corporate Brand Experiences

Over the past few years, large companies delivering keynotes, product launches and other kick-off presentations and events have looked to LED and projection setups to help them land their message with impact. Often using a large canvas for the main stage with separate break out screens and spaces, these events are looking to integrate impressive visuals that can be amended on the spot, whether it’s speaker titles or branded backdrops. 

Carbon Arc Projects recently helped Digital Extremes streamline their Tennocon 2025 conference using X1. Taking the existing Disguise project from the main lobby space, the team were able to simply update the feed settings to reduce the camera size and recomposite the same file for use in the overflow screens instead of spending valuable time re-programming on a different system. This meant that numerous break out spaces were able to benefit from essentially reusing the same work.

“Corporate clients often want changes to be made at the last moment, and the workflows in Disguise allow us to be nimble” explains Sean Hooper, Partner at Carbon Arc Projects. “Our previous workflow involved rendering out the Disguise project, which would require an additional person. With X1 we can now easily transfer over the same project instantly.”

5)Theatre

Users within our theatre community frequently use Designer to composite directly on the timeline, and in doing so programmers can work with video designers seamlessly to build the look of the show in the room. With X1, teams are still able to follow this workflow, all from their own workstation for ultimate creative collaboration. Plus, removing the need for a full media server rack is a huge advantage for older theatres in particular, where space tends to be limited.

Ido Levran has used X1 to bring two recent productions at the Public Theater to life. Initiative - a play which topically touches on themes of how technology transformed day to day life at the turn of the century - and Public Charge - which follows an American diplomat as she works to deploy humanitarian aid to an earthquake-ravaged Haiti - both benefitted from X1’s flexible yet robust workflow.

“I really appreciated the accessibility of the software and how it empowers designers to be able to come up with inventive solutions” reveals Levran. “Working on theatre projects like ours, software is put through its paces as we’re asking it to do very unique things. X1 didn’t let us down.”

6)Virtual Production

While a full shoot may require multiple 4K outputs, there are still elements of virtual production that can easily run on X1 and benefit from the practicality of the workflow.

Carbon Arc Services used X1 on a recent VP production. Using the single 4K output, they were able to play back VP plates as large files, as well as tap into Disguise’s ACES/OCIO full colour workflow for film production, all with a streamlined setup. Being able to access these colour workflows on set was vital for their creative collaboration, and having X1 meant they could make any changes instantly.

7)Training 

With its portability and power, X1 is fast becoming a go-to solution for Disguise training sessions across the world. Our own Head of Training, Steve Cain, recently ran a two-day OmniCal training course on X1 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane for the video team behind Disney’s Hercules The Musical. And external Disguise trainers are also choosing to run their sessions on X1. 

This list isn’t exhaustive - there are countless projects and industries that can benefit from X1’s portability, accessibility and flexibility while still leveraging the full power of the Disguise ecosystem. From arena tours to laptop-powered pop-ups, X1 gives teams a new deployment option that keeps the familiar Designer workflow intact. We can’t wait to see what our users create next.