38 CONCERTS AND TOURING
Three distinct areas were created: Video World (back of house), front of house and the stage itself
continues, “where it creates cancellation – so on stage, there’s no pocket of noise.” Radiohead’s discography is sometimes quiet (like the softer Fake Plastic Trees ), sometimes loud (like the swells in Creep or Let Down ). “When they do perform the quieter songs,” says Lloyd, “the level difference at the very back of the venue is very small in relation to the floor.” Building on the experience gained on Thom Yorke's solo tour, Hodge continued to use a fully Dante-based system for Radiohead, connecting “14 Rupert Neve Designs RMP-D8s and a PM10 surface at both ends,” he shares. “I can’t stress how important live sound is to them. With Radiohead, audio is their number one priority – and a wonderful luxury for us. Everyone loved the sound.” Scheiman mixed the show on the Yamaha Rivage PM10 with the DSP-RX. “We went with Yamaha on this for the sonic quality and onboard effects, and the DSP-RX was essential for the channel count we were running,” he describes, also adding Wisycom IEMs and M4 wedges. “It was a pretty incredible show to mix. From the first day of rehearsals up until the last song of the last show was performed, there was never a dull moment,” Scheiman admits. Being in the round also meant, for Scheiman, being backstage – a first for him. “Not being at the side of the stage provided some challenges for sure – not being able to feel the energy of the room and not having a direct line of sight with the band for quick, easy adjustments. Fortunately, we had such a great system of talkbacks and camera feeds, it all helped to keep me clued in.” Britannia Row provided comms and data services – including solutions from Riedel and Motorola – via its brand, Surfhire. Radiohead’s 2025 tour was a success, impressing music critics, satisfying fans and even breaking the O2 Arena’s attendance record during the band’s final night of their four-day residency. Beyond the numbers, the lighting, video and audio teams’ hard work paid off too. “They’re energetic and their set takes many forms,” Hodge says. Touring in the round was a radical move but Radiohead has never been one to fit the norm.
In-the-round audio comes with obstacles. When sound is firing in all directions, it can create reflections and bounce back to the source
case, the stage). “The geometry at the bottom and top of the array can be tricky, where one hang meets another,” Lloyd explains. The audio team opted for the L-Acoustics L2 as the PA, which helped ‘minimise the amount of spill’. Together, they designed a custom central rigging frame, suspending four hangs of L-Acoustics KS21 subs to free up floor space. Known as the TM Array, after the engineer Thomas Mundorf, the design created consistent tonal balance across the audience as well as in the round. As Lloyd explains, “When you’re at the bottom of the array, you experience cancellation. However, as you move further away from it onto the area floor and up into the seats, you benefit from the summation of the sources. The band is situated directly below the cluster,” he
and this was the heaviest show – from a video standpoint.” AUDIO FROM EVERY ANGLE Simon Hodge, FOH engineer, agrees. “Doing an in-the-round tour is bold and creative, and the sound design had to match that,” he says. “We tried our best to make it sound as intimate as possible despite the large areas we’re covering.” Hodge joined technical projects manager Josh Lloyd, systems engineer Giacomo Gasparini and monitor engineer Daniel Scheiman for the band’s European outing, with audio equipment supplied by Britannia Row, a Clair Global company. In-the-round audio, like video, comes with its obstacles – when sound is firing in all directions, it can create reflections and bounce back to the source (in this
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