How Laura Pausini’s team used GX 3+ and Notch to conjure an LED castle

With a career spanning over 30 years, Grammy Award-winning Laura Pausini is one of the most popular Italian singers in the world. Given her status as European pop royalty, it’s no surprise that the team behind the singer’s latest Yo Canto tour wanted to create an appropriately grand concert experience for fans. 

They decided to bring the creative vision for the tour to life with Notch content driven by Disguise’s GX 3+ media servers that would turn the stage into a canvas for immersive storytelling, complete with an epic 3D castle made up of LEDs that would work across any venue or screen setup.

The challenge

With different LED configurations at every venue, creating a castle that would consistently deliver magic at every show was no easy feat.

“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 was responsible for managing the studio process, handling pre-programming, creating 3D assets, and preparing the foundation for the tracklist. “At the same time, we needed the castle to adapt quickly, with content that would look good no matter what venue we were at. From the start, we knew that to have it all working effectively was only possible with Disguise.”

The team was also dealing with a huge number of Notch blocks. “I think that during the review process, we reached 100 blocks in 10 days, and had 50 layers in Notch, which was a huge amount to manage,” admits Lorenzo Venturini, Senior Notch Designer on the tour. They needed a system powerful and reliable enough to run these heavy content requirements night after night, without fail.

The team ultimately built a 3D castle model and UV maps so that they could treat each stage floor differently. “We knew that Yoshi Lehouck, the operator on the tour, would face constantly changing conditions, including different stage layouts, missing or repositioned LED wall towers, and local IMAG formats in 16:9 or 4:3” explains Stefano Petroni, Disguise Programmer. “Each configuration required a different programming approach: live content had to be repositioned, the two incoming camera feeds had to be used differently, and the presence or absence of certain Notch effects had to be managed accordingly.” Taking this agile approach ensured the show could remain consistent while being highly adaptable across venues.

Given the number of Notch blocks involved, Carlo decided to use Disguise GX 3+ to effectively execute their vision without compromising the number of effects that could run simultaneously. Handling multiple camera feeds, IMAG effects, 8K particle simulations and background removal, the GX 3+ ran the show with ease.

For programmer Stefano, using Designer Expressions became an integral part of the process in bringing Lorenzo’s Notch visuals to life. Combined with layer-based variables and the flexibility of various mapping features, this allowed him to manipulate content and live feeds in highly creative ways, while reducing rendering time and easing the workload of the creative team. 

Sequencing enabled the team to animate parameters exposed in Notch both for real-time adjustments and for structuring the visual evolution of each track. A number of standout moments from the show, including an atmospheric moon sequence during Hijo de la Luna and a mix of effects during Medley Pop, “would not have been possible with Disguise”, Lorenzo admits. 

The team made use of the previsualisation feature in Designer to unlock the ability to review the entire show in 3D together with Laura Pausini ahead of live performances, helping them to collaboratively finesse the creative approach in time for the first show.

Because they were working in the Disguise ecosystem, the team could rely on Disguise’s X1 solution as a portable backup for the show. “We haven’t currently needed to use any backup, but as we’re traveling with a 3,500 kg cargo load and delivering a complex show with extensive use of Notch blocks and Designer Expressions, a full backup couldn’t be set up on another easily transportable media server,” explains Carlo. “This is where the X1 comes in: it gives us the option of putting on a show even if the material doesn’t reach us for whatever reason. It provides peace of mind, which is essential when you’re touring around the globe.”

The results

With Disguise, Carlo, Lorenzo and Stefano were able to push Notch content to its limits and put on a jaw-dropping, real-time spectacle for fans across the globe. “Working with the GX 3+, I could take the creative further than ever before. We had all the power to do everything directly in the server without having to optimise, which led to incredible end results” admits Lorenzo.

By bridging the gap between massive real-time processing and touring flexibility, Laura Pausini’s team didn’t just put on a show - they built a digital kingdom capable of traveling anywhere the music takes them.