How to build live shows at any scale

Does venue size matter? Not anymore. Whether you’re working on a private DJ set or a string of stadium dates for a global pop star, today’s video technology makes it easy to create live event visuals that fans won’t forget, at any scale.

Small-scale shows 

Growing audience expectations mean that even the smallest shows need to deliver visual impact. But thanks to portable solutions that pack a punch, video teams can put on a show to remember, even if venue size is restricted.

If you simply need to map and playback video from a single 4K output, your laptop or workstation could be powerful enough to design and control your entire show. By using solutions like Disguise X1, you can simply plug a USB licence key into your laptop to access, edit, and play back all your live show video files, without the need for a high-performance server. 

You’ll be able to integrate real-time content from Notch or TouchDesigner, trigger effects from MIDI, DMX, or OSC devices, busk live shows with Disguise’s Sockpuppet workflow for lighting consoles, and keep everything locked to the beat - all while putting on an intimate show.

In practice: Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness Tour

Off the back of a string of arena dates in Europe, video programmer Alex Loftie used Disguise X1 to programme and power a run of smaller North American shows on Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness tour, scaling the visuals down to fit onto a single 4K canvas. For Alex, prioritising portability and keeping costs down for these smaller shows was key. 

“Using X1 for these shows made life easy,” he explains. “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.”

Using Disguise X1 gave the team more flexibility, allowing them to scale shows down for smaller gigs and back up again for server-powered arenas. If any changes were made to song visuals at the smaller venues, these could easily be used again on larger arena shows without having to re-programme, allowing the team to stay within the Disguise ecosystem throughout the tour. 

Mid-range shows

Mid-scale shows often struggle with the 'middle-child' problem: needing to output more than a laptop can handle, but potentially lacking the budget for a top-spec server rack. A powerful solution is to cluster servers to create a tactical advantage.

By grouping mid-range media servers like Disguise’s EX machines together in a single session, show teams can seamlessly increase their outputs to support larger canvases that fully immerse audiences, taking on venue capacities ranging anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000+ with ease. 

Coupled with the ability to support more complex visual effects than lightweight portable solutions, a clustering approach allows teams to scale their processing power to the specific needs of the venue, ensuring high-tier production values without stadium-sized overheads.

In practice: Brand New’s US tour

Brooklyn design studio Eye Garden used two of Disguise’s EX 3+ media servers to power the concert visuals behind Brand New’s US tour. 

“The biggest technical challenge was creating the pipeline for our video content to work on a 40ft wall and a 12ft wall,” Eye Garden’s Austion Woolfolk reveals. “With EX 3+, we resolved this by having the power to create a pixel map that was significantly larger than what we needed, which gave us the extra flexibility to select what we displayed during the shows.”

This flexibility empowered the team to capture and display live footage of Brand New’s performance, with the EX 3+’s multiple inputs providing plenty of different feeds to choose from. They could also create more complex designs with up to eight different video and effects layers - all at an accessible price point. 

Large-scale shows

At a stadium level, the stage transforms into a complex, architectural environment. When you are dealing with wraparound LED geometries, towering canvases, and massive ‘data weight’, the primary challenge shifts from simple playback to system stability under extreme loads.

This is where high-performance solutions like the Disguise GX range become essential, with the ability to support complex screen setups, minimise IMAG latency, and render real-time content to ensure headline acts can put on a jaw-dropping show without a hitch. With a secure system in place to handle the heavy lifting of 8K particle simulations, interactive tracking data, and generative content, teams can move beyond pre-rendered loops and explore next-generation show visuals at scale, facilitating the creation of truly reactive environments: visuals like smoke that swirls as a performer moves or water that ripples in sync with live tracking, all while maintaining the frame-accurate synchronisation required for global broadcasts.

In practice: Laura Pausini’s Yo Canto tour

The team behind Grammy Award-winning artist Laura Pausini’s current world tour used Disguise’s GX 3+ and Notch to create an epic 3D castle made up of LEDs on stage. “We wanted the castle stage to be set across multiple levels, with several columns and a central door through which to enter and exit,” begins Disguise Team Lead Carlo Barbero, who worked with Senior Notch Designer, Lorenzo Venturini, and Disguise Programmer, Stefano Petroni, on the project. 

“At the same time, we needed the castle to adapt quickly, with content that would look good no matter what venue we were at.” With the GX 3+, the team could handle multiple camera feeds, IMAG effects, 8K particle simulations, background removal, and upwards of 50 Notch layers for the ultimate large-scale, real-time spectacle.

Whatever the size of the production, the goal remains the same: creating memorable experiences that audiences will remember. With today's scalable workflows, teams can deliver the right solution for every venue, without compromising on creativity or performance.

This article was originally published in LIVE magazine.