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

Brandon Peltz geeks out about all the tech in the taylor swift eras tour while walking through a 3D render of the entire stage and explaining the different lights, line arrays and sections of video used to bring the show to life.

He is using Mad Mapper to map all the LED walls in the software while sending NDI in real time to Depence 2 the visualizer software he used to create the 3D render. Created, Shot and Edited same day.

Key Words:
Taylor Swift, Eras Tour, tech, audio, video, lighting, efficiency, design, setup, behind-the-scenes, immersive, cutting-edge technology, seamless integration, live performance, tech enthusiasts, mesmerizing, spectacle, technology,

[patton]

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.

[chavitavb]

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!

[Bill_N_ATX]

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.

[centexan]

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.

[ByteDelight]

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 ;)

[scottkelley]

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!

[jakeverbeek]

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.

[darincampbell]

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.

[SierraLimaOscar]

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...).

[willandreigonzales]

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.

[CleanCutAudio]

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.

[foreverAmk]

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

[blakethomas]

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.

[davidbilling]

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

[RafaelaNavarro]

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

[MrTkeddo]

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

[terribletito]

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

[lauranalyzing]

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

[theensh]

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!

[jackmattern]

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.