54 CONCERTS AND TOURING
Naturally, all of that put extraordinary pressure on the systems behind the scenes – especially when those systems needed to survive the unpredictable realities that come as part and parcel of an international tour. PREPARING FOR ANYTHING With dates spanning various different continents and formats (including fly- in shows, television appearances and full-scale stadium productions), the From Zero tour demanded an audio and broadcast infrastructure that was both powerful and adaptable. One night might involve a locally supplied PA system running Dante at 48kHz. The next could require AES, AVB or Madi. Fibre formats, clocking requirements and broadcast specs change depending on country, venue and crew. Throw in real-time failover and redundancy expectations, and suddenly the job is no longer just about sound quality, but resilience. That responsibility fell to touring systems architect and engineer Ricki Cook, whose background reads like a roadmap of modern audio itself. He began in systems integration, moved into live and touring sound and later
So, when the opportunity arose to engineer Linkin Park’s front-of-house and broadcast systems, Cook didn’t hesitate. It was a chance to combine large-scale touring with broadcast- grade expectation, two worlds that often clash unless carefully managed. “From the very beginning, the production manager said ‘be prepared for anything’. And I know there’s only one box that can literally do everything: the PRODIGY.MX,” he explains. That philosophy of being prepared for anything became the guiding principle of the entire system design. SETTING THE STAGE Rather than building a single, idealised set-up that only works under perfect conditions, Cook approached the tour as an exercise in controlled unpredictability. The goal wasn’t to lock everything into one protocol or workflow but to create a system that could flex and adapt. “There are very few devices on the market that can actually reach the same level of detail in a box that’s packaged to tour and has a usable interface,” he says. “We use globcon for all of our system monitoring with a Stream Deck interface for tactile control.” That usability matters hugely. Touring environments are loud and often under- resourced. Gear that’s technically capable but difficult to manage under pressure is a liability. Cook’s solution was modular and transparent, letting engineers see what is happening at every point of the signal chain. The From Zero tour show deployed six PRODIGY Series devices with different roles throughout the audio and video ecosystem – each addressing a specific need without overcomplicating the bigger picture. When it came to the staging itself, there was one simple priority: nothing can stop the show. Seems straightforward enough, right? No is usually the answer. But with the assistance of two PRODIGY.MP units dedicated to the keyboard and playback rigs (where they handled failover, Dante
transitioned into broadcast work, a move that shaped how he thinks about signal flow, redundancy and interoperability. It was during his broadcast work that he first encountered DirectOut products, tools that can navigate multiple formats and clock domains without fuss. He has been using them for over a decade, long before Linkin Park entered the picture.
After a seven-year hiatus, Linkin Park (left) made a comeback with their 2024 album From Zero
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