Taylor Swift's Eras Tour: A Deep Dive into the Tech Behind the Show 

One of my old band mates from Nashville plays in her band and I was fortunate to hang out with him before the show. He showed me all the backline gear and monitor world gear and it was just bonkers how many inputs there are. The whole show is driven from a global clock via a Dante engine on a laptop. Basically a click track is driving everything. Which is crazy when you think of the scope of the show.

I work at SoFI with the tech dept and Taylor's stage was out of there in 9 hours. I left midnight came back next day at 9 and the whole arena was cleared. crazy!

One of the truck drivers said there was an A and a B show set up. Two complete and inclusive set ups for the entire show. As show 2 is being set up, the previous location of show 1 is performed and then torn down and transported to the show 3 arena. They hopped across the country that way, always being a show ahead because it took so long to set up. After show 3 was delivered, the trucks would return to show 2 to pick up everything and deliver it to the show 4 location. It took something like 60 flatbeds to handle all this.

I’m an old man now (60+) but I worked and remember the old days of just large stacks of speakers and thousands of par lamps with different gels and a half dozen supertroopers for spots was a big show. Then VariLight came out. The first computer controlled movable head system. This was 1986 or so. First tour I worked with those was Hall and Oats. Down side was that because the computer control was so rudimentary, everything had to be exactly timed. So the show was ran off a tape and much of it was timed to the visual effects. But that’s how it all started. It’s amazing how its evolved.

IMHO the engineers behind this show (and many more shows) deserve our cheers as well as the artists on stage do! Thanks for this video, as a tech-geek I love these! Fortunately not been able to obtain tickets, my daughter is killing me ;)

The delay towers (trees you call them) also have Pixmob transmitters which are very direct bluetooth transmitters that control the wristbands of the crowd. That's how they make lighting designs directed at an area rather than an individual wrist band. The tents FOH have techs but most of the tent area is VIP tents....mom, dad, celebs, etc. I work this tour...I know lots of details and see this go up in every city... but I had to sign an NDA so you would have to waterboard me to get the info. I'll help where I can. Good job BTW Brandon...You have talent!

Well, I have worked in arenas before. It was cleanup, though. I must admit that she has some of the most elaborate sound stages in the business. Very complicated. I would hate to have to build this at every show. Plus, when she does performs, somewhere, she comes with about 10+ eighteen wheeler trucks. Massive. I take my hat off to these people. It is outrageous. She just gave them each a $100,000 bonus. Believe me, they deserve it. Peace.

Awesome video! Hoping she does a doc/movie or something of that style about this. Would love to hear you talk about the interactivity of the stage (trackers of some sort?) like the lines the bikes draw and the video floor effects during "willow" with the glowing balls, where the stage seems to be following them.

The follow spots from the delay towers are remote controlled follow spots with operators hidden backstage. They have built in cameras that provide the operators with individual video feed showing the POV from the follow spot. That is a big improvement from the old days when we used to hang a guy in sort of a camping chair high up on the tower with a classic follow spot in front of him (let's not think about what happened when they had to go to the bathroom during the show...).

She also has wash lights behind the left and right screen panel. It takes up the whole left and right section of the screen. It might just look like a video feed at first but it's actually wash lights passing through the led panels creating different styles and patterns which again ads more wash lighting effect to the stage and whole stadium.

It blew my mind when you said that her lift might scroll down underneath the stage. That is genius

Actually this would make a great video game for Swifty’s organise and produce your own Eras tour from ground up

This is so incredible. I was at the show in Pittsburgh and was blown away by the production. I was so curious what all went into it, and I did walk by at least 12 semis dedicated to just the set on our way out. So wild.

You should do the Renaissance tour as well, the production on that tour is NUTS

At my job, we use a lighting tracking system called BlackTrax and we were told that Taylor is also using it. So yes, the spotlights are tracking her at all times.

Can you look at the new TTPD era and the tech used?? I am completely obsessed.

I would love a video touching up on how the stage screen actually works! Awesome video!

I’ve only watched fan’s recordings of the show but the bass sounds amazing! The show producers should win every award out there 👏

Great job with this video!!! I'm blown away! 🎉

Love this video explaining the tech behind what I’m away to see in Edinburgh next year!!! The addition of the lasers would have been class at certain points. Use them on the line arrays to draw stuff on the main screen is a interesting addition to the show. Use them sparingly through the show, however when it comes to the announcement of the Speak Now and 1989 Taylor’s Version albums would have added some sparkle. The logistics are insane for this tour, 60 trucks, more like 90. There’s two global sets with one carrying the tech. She has 55 truck drivers. There’s two crews, a set up crew and a tear down crew. She has 18 main themed microphones, 9 main microphones and 9 backup. Two for each era. She has 2 basic black backup ones as well. Taylor has. Then she has her two pianos, well, they are linked to a software setup. One got haunted after a rain show and malfunctioned show. She has about 10 guitars too. The audio signal chain is insane. I think she has two axe fx units. Her guitar and bass players have 3 or 4 each. Their patch changes are all done via the master clock. They have a controller and their techs do too, again redundancy. The logistics of the world tour are going to be insane. I heard there’s going to be 7 or 8 747 cargo planes for the tech. The stage from Santa Clara is away to Argentina via sea freight and the SoFi stage is going to Mexico City. When it all comes do to it as a show it’s amazing, I appreciate every single person that it takes to put this show on the road and recognise their effort in making it the amazing spectacle it is!!!

Really appreciate you putting this video together man. Great work.

This is so cool thank you for showing all of the cool lighting and auto and other things 😮

Aah this is so interesting I've been waiting for something like this about this tour!

After diving through the stage she actually pops up in front of the risers… part of the diamond (on the T side) lowers to form a staircase that she walks up to perform Lavender Haze. She probably has a quick change area somewhere underneath the T or the diamond therefore, and wouldn’t need a cart to transport her there!

OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING!! thank you!!!

omg. this rendering is outstanding.

Wow this is amazing!

Phenomenal video.

A cool thing also to mention that the upstage video screen is mesh so you can see through it, and they also have lighting behind it too, to do some cool effects.

amazing video!!!

This is absolutely fascinating and very well explained for the newly curious like me 😄!! Great work.

Awesome job. I was fortunate enough to see the show twice. Was in awe with the tech throughout. I think there’s a few lights behind the screens which are used only a few times, but I could have confused it with video of the same thing.

What an incredible breakdown. That program you are using is amazing, it really helps to visualize what is happening. Awesome job! Subbed :)

Impressive rendering work!

you're insane i love it

Fascinating

Pls do the renaissance tour next. Interested to hear your opinion on her production style. The lights being chrome plated, lasers, the truck rolling down, having lights in stadium seating shining down on her, her flying through the air lol.

I am currently in school for show pro and am also a huge swift. this video was so so cool to watch and I would love if you could cover some old Taylor shows too like reputation tour! (there's a Netflix tour movie about it!) thank you for posting this!!

I saw some videos from her show in Singapore recently, and was immediately impressed by the stage setup. Such a cool design and engineering effort, and you explain it really well!

Impressive video! Excellent work. I’m retired now but still enjoy watching the evolution. I look forward to more content.

Amazing video man

I would kill to see a video like this on Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. Also, interesting about the lasers at the end. She used some amazing effects that I assumed were video and lighting, but when I saw it live was surprised to see it was the “pencil” effect you described. Great video!

Excellent work. You should be proud of yourself ❤❤❤❤❤❤

Wow, the production.

thank you for the insights

This is a great channel, exactly what I was looking for. You guys should do a series similar to Premier Guitar's Rig Rundowns but for A/V and tech for tours of big stadium acts like Taylor Swift. Great work!

wow😮this technology is so cool！you make me want to go the eras tour badly🥵

i think the side (each side) at the very end of the riser at the diamond stage also has a screen wall that probably rolled up just like for the front and the back end, as far as i could remember, but for some part of the performance like the opening on Cruel Summer the riser didn't rise all, only two of the platforms rised up and leave a blank/exposed structure of the hydraulics because there was no screen at all (the screen only covers the end part of each side of the riser)

i need more vids like this

great information, thanks for sharing.

wow what a freaking cool video! i am a regular human, swiftie since '08 and someone with absolutely zero knowledge on the true scope of what it takes to put on a show like The Eras Tour. Randomly came by this video and it blew me away. Kept my interest the entire time. Her and her team are unvelievable! How much do you think all of this costs?

Great explanation of Tayler Swifts staging. 👍🏼

amazing video! production and staging fascinates me! renaissance wold tour next 🤞😌

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I've not had much opportunity to use stage render software but seeing the whole thing where it can be zoomed in to and turned on makes this a great assistant to telling how the system was built. With deployments like this I start wondering how many semis are full of camlock power and distros. Each of those lights is likely 500w minimum, at 3 lights per circuit that's A LOT of copper running everywhere and it all has to work and not trip while also being repeatable. I would guess this is an 1800A 480v 3 phase show.

Thanks for this information - this is great - I love the concerts and it was amazing to see her. As an AV guy - It was in both way amazing. btw nice software.

I know nothing about the tech but even so I was blown away by the skills of techs and their equipment

Great deep-dive on such a niche topic! This is RU-vid at its best!

i would love to see your perspective on the Renaissance Tour and the born this way ball! they had a kind of hologram that im killing to know how it works!

I want to know more about those big fan costume/set pieces at the top of the show, they are SO cool and I desperately want to know what they're made of. Some kind of spring steel, maybe?? I really love the twist on the classic "feather fan girls" entrance.

I heard that the line arrays are D and B from 8 day sound which was bought out by Clair Bros. Another stagehand mentioned that there are 12 Robe Robospots with operators under the stage.

Ok. I haven’t even watched. But, I subbed already. That ur gonna program a model to show us, that’s awesom

Thank you so much for this. I’m going into club life and the concert business

New sub! You have amazing talent.

algorithm : here is the most geeky taylor stuffs

Do the Renaissance World Tour, the screen, visuals, lights and stage design are mind blowing

Wonderful deep dive into the the overall technicals of the show. Agreed on the efficiency on all ground based structures - goodbye hanging points! 😂 Would be nice to know more about the software control they’re using on the Video Content playback… specially the ultra wide LED screens and the LED floor - oh how I wish ATEM Software control can do it by itself matched with our little Streamdeck buttons haha! 😂 Might be Resolume? Can’t be Vmix because of the Imag live video delay. Must be a big media server and all content pre programmed already matched with each song and just cueing pressing play for every start of each song. 🎉 Looking forward to watching more of your deep dive into tech concert videos! 😊🙏

Late in the video he says, "Lasers can shoot very far." I'll say, in 1962, a group from MIT bounced a laser off the moon, and as part of the 1969 moon landing Buzz Aldrin placed what is known as the Lunar Laser Retro-Reflector, which allowed scientists to accurately measure the distance from the earth to the moon by shooting a laser and timing how quickly it was returned to earth. (N.B. NASA was using very powerful lasers.)

Really interesting amount of delays and the side trees. For the pink concert, there was only two delay line array hangs. I was sat in between the main PAs and the delays, you could hear them both. Dont think people noticed, but as a technician, we hear the fine details

now im curious about the setup behind her reputation stadium tour stage, because the main screen literally move horizontally and vertically, just madness enginering

you should definitely do this same thing but for the renaissance world tour

Can you take a dive into britney's cirucs tour? It took place many years ago but i believe it to be one of the most interesting stage setups. She opens the show by coming down from the ceiling and i think that says enough hahaha

More than one source indicated that this tour did not leapfrog because there were several days between each group of multiple shows. There were some 60 production trucks which arrived a day or two before each set of dates and 20 steel arriving in advance usually around Monday or Tuesday.

So interesting. Renaissance next pls!!

20:42 so thankful for this bit. I was thinking how uncomfortable it would be to traverse under the stage quickly having to kneel the whole way!

On the Lift in the center of the Diamond, there is a short video wall facing stage right & left.

damn the effort!! im an aspiring 3d modeler and animator

Great video! I'm pretty sure Nine Inch Nails pioneered a lot of this tech. Ref Fragility, With Teeth, and Lights in the Sky tours.

PLEASE make a video about the video side of the tour!!!

Your video is amazing. Might be some thing that can become a video game for like Nintendo or PlayStation where you put the stay together and have Taylor sing just a thought.

I can only imagine the power needed and used during this show. I used to DJ events and had my own gear. I had 12 moving head lights some being wash, 6 scanners and a few other odd ball lights. Not including smoke machines, fog machines and all the amps, mixer and other equipment. I’ve been to event where my gear would trip up to 3 breaker circuits. Now I know those big productions like that have power conditioners and some even have transformers to up the voltage. But that is a massive setup. It’s been said that there are corridors and different sections under the stage as well as carts to move her around much faster.

i'm the kind of guy that at the stadium or disco i'm looking more at the system audio, video, lights than the actual content. that said i love this video

Amazing Job!!! Rammstein show next ? Would be great

you should do a deep dive into Beyonce's Renaissance World Tour next! That tour had some crazy production

So for these type of shows, visuals would be disguise d3 or similar systems for video. Tracking of lights would be BlackTrax or similar. Lots of $$ for these platforms since they are designed for these type of production

I was wondering who does Taylor go to - to bring her vision to life. So, glad I found this

Nice vid, very interesting . Any thoughts or vids for the led wall stuff?

I would describe the segmented lifting structure like an upside down garage door.

i went to closing night in tampa and towards the middle of the show they were already tearing it down 😂😂 at the end of the show they were already hauling stuff away!

My buddy works as the systems engineer on this tour. Sounds like the PA is all d&b, and specifically 3 high V8s on top of 2 high SL-SUBs. All on SL-SUB cart and travel in the truck as they are. The stack is high enough to give decent coverage in depth and control. A 3-way box and enough surface area (with 3 boxes) and cubic volume to have great sonic match with the flown KSLs. Kind of too much headroom for the usage but the speaker and amount of speakers is based on other parameters than max SPL

Awesome video! It would be amazing to see you make a video like this for Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour!

I've never heard of a real existing Follow Spot system using RFID. What I know of, is an active UWB-Transmitter based system, but that's only one. The most common thing would be something like Robes "RoboSpot" - a Station, on which human follow spot operators can remote-control moving lights with attached cameras. They have the advantage that no-one needs to be on top of the actual lighting tower and you can have way more follow spot positions, since controllers can switch the light they control. Additionally, the moving lights can be fully integrated into the regular light show - Color and Intensity can be controlled from the lighting desk, while position is set manually, or when not needed as follow spot, the unit can take over regular show patterns.

Great video! Would love to see a breakdown of Lady Gaga’s born this way ball tour, stage was crazy

I just saw the Eras Tour live for the first time and had to know how it all works, so thanks for this! Does your planning software there give estimates on power requirements? What’s a typical power draw for a setup like this? It must be immense especially with those displays.

I watched all of this hoping you would talk about how the stage responds to the dancer's feet and also the bike tires...it's clear that it's not pre-programmed by the fact that it exactly follows their tracks even with differences show-to-show. And often Taylor doesn't trigger the stage to light up while her dancers around her do. I'm do intrigued about this. Please let me know if you know how this is done.

You gotta make a guide on how to make the render!

As someone who is hosting a big concert in Kenya this Dec, I found this to be really interesting. I learned a lot. From reading the comments I noticed lots of experts in this field are here. I would love to learn from a pro

They had a lot more covering the back stage when it came to the stage. Btw I did stagehand work for Taylor swift.

Would be nice to do a deep dive of Singapore’s national stadium which had recently held 6 of Taylor Swift’s concerts.

I've literally been trying to ask all my film friends to help me figure out how this works!!!!

LOVE THIS! I showed my tech students this and it was great! Could you Beyoncé next???