How The Rolling Stones “No Filter Tour” Had Zero Visible Technical Components

Legendary rockers The Rolling Stones recently brought their “No Filter Tour” to a close in Paris, where disguise made the show’s sleek visuals possible with four huge, vertical LED walls. One 4x2pro and two 4×4 media servers supported the four monoliths, which kept stage setup streamlined by hiding all electrical components inside the towers. The tour’s vision was to be unique and modern, integrating lighting into the stage structures as much as possible, which culminated in a nearly wireless presentation that wowed audiences around the world.

Creative directors and designers had little lead time after the tour was confirmed, so the priority became bringing elegance and practicality together. That meant that while the band rocked underneath a custom-designed and built roof, lighting and trussing equipment was made a part of the structure itself, keeping the equipment both mobile and striking in appearance. Disguise worked with Solotech video solutions and Neg Earth on meeting lighting demands to execute on a challenging project in minimal time. The results speak for themselves.

On the programming end, limited rehearsal time pushed disguise to bring in Notch’s previsualization solution while also programming as much as possible ahead of time. Even with these preparations, much of the show was operated entirely manually, pushing creative directors to rely on Sock Puppet in addition to Notch, using a grandMA2 full-size console to both program and cue the show start to finish. Once put together, the disguise system was, in the words of Roland Greil who was screens director and disguise programmer, “really reliable as well as easy to work with… [the disguise system] performed flawlessly without any glitches.”

All world tours can be counted on to be a massive team effort, but finding a unified vision and the proper tools to execute that vision can’t be counted on so readily. As the Rolling Stones say goodbye to the “No Filter Tour,” they and their team can rest easy knowing they have a proven reliable production team ready.