Morgan Wallen’s “One Night at a Time” tour pushes visual boundaries with Disguise

American singer and rising star Morgan Wallen brought country music to the international stage for his “One Night at a Time” world tour in 2023-2024. Playing in stadiums across North America, Australia, and Europe, the tour became known for its impressive visuals, innovative lighting, and groundbreaking stage design. 

The concept

Creative production company Raw Cereal was responsible for the show design and direction, as well as video content creation, programming, and technical execution. However, to deliver such an ambitious production, the company needed to use a workflow that could effectively manage complex visual set-ups. 

Disguise brought Raw Cereal’s vision to life, delivering a polished, high-quality experience for concertgoers at every venue. Disguise technology captured, displayed, and synchronised content across 4,000 LED video tiles, 10 terabytes of media content, and 21 video cameras to ensure a seamless experience, every time.

The challenge

Raw Cereal’s creative vision centred on building a visually immersive concert experience that would enhance Wallen’s performance, without overshadowing it. 

To realise this ambition, the team needed to integrate multiple video surfaces onto the stage. This included one of the largest-ever video headers used for a touring show, as well as a video floor, an automated video wall, and video on the band riser. 21 video cameras were used to capture content – half robotic, half manually-operated – which added further complexity to the process.

The team needed to ensure that all video elements blended seamlessly and in perfect sync with the live performance and audio - this included 4K IMAG feeds from HDR-capable cameras, as well as 12K real-time Notch content and IMAG effects. Working in 4K and adding effects and layers to the visuals also added extra complexity to ensure consistently high definition across the stage. Every frame per second mattered – and they needed hardware that could handle the high horsepower.

Disguise was a central part of Raw Cereal’s workflow. The real-time content integration and live camera treatment within Disguise’s Designer software handled the multi-layered visuals across the tour. The advanced screen management, paired with Notch, also helped to maintain consistency between live issues, media content, and the audio.   

The solution

Disguise technology played a vital role in the tour – from conceptualisation to live show. Designer’s native visualiser allowed the team to set up show files prior to rehearsals, allowing for more creative flexibility and peace of mind. 

Meanwhile, its integration with Notch enabled them to render generative graphics quickly and seamlessly. A standout moment of the show occurred during the song “Sunrise” when the live IMAG feed of Wallen dissolved into particles using Notch – an idea introduced in rehearsals.

Six Disguise GX 3 media servers powered all the different LED surfaces of the tour, keeping video and audio in sync. The server’s GPU power capabilities enabled real-time rendering in the majority of Morgan’s show, ensuring that even last-minute creative changes could be implemented without compromising performance.

The scale and complexity of the production meant that Raw Cereal relied on Disguise’s ability to synchronise content across multiple servers and screens. “Not only was Disguise’s d3Net protocol crucial in maintaining server sync, we also were able to genlock all the servers together to help drive the massive 12K screen using multiple GX 3 servers,” explained Jonathan Laosy, Disguise Programmer & Operator.

Results

One of the key successes was the seamless integration of visuals across all video surfaces, which enhanced the show while keeping Morgan’s performance at the forefront.

“I’m proud of how the stage turned into something iconic. It was an amazing feeling to see it come to life. For me, success is about having a show that works well and looks great, and we hit both marks. It’s a great feeling knowing we delivered something special for Morgan and his fans,” says Show Designer and Director, Cort Lawrence.

“When working on the biggest shows, it’s difficult to find another integrated software/hardware solution that can perform as seamlessly and efficiently as Disguise. When efficiency, extensive workflows, and support are needed on large shows, this is the right tool for the job,” Screens Producer, Aron Altmark adds.