Europe - Songwriter, producer, and Grammy-nominated spatial audio mixer Steven Wilson is currently circling the globe with The Overview Tour 2025, an ambitious live multimedia and concert production featuring ‘mesmerizing visuals and an immersive L-Acoustics sound system’.
While the first half of the show is centred on the two long pieces that comprise The Overview - Wilson’s latest album that explores the relationship between humans and the universe - the second half features songs from his prolific solo career, performed with a tight backup band of deft prog musicians. Having recently wrapped up two months on the road in Europe, Wilson has now set his sights on shows in North, Central, and South America, India, and Australia through the remainder of this year.
On the European leg, the tour visited a mix of theatres, amphitheatres and arenas carrying an L-Acoustics rig provided by Britannia Row Productions. The standard setup comprised up to three L2 over one L2D flown per side with KS28 subwoofers on the floor and an assortment of A15 and A10 enclosures deployed for various out-fill and front-fill. Wilson, recognised for his 5.1 and Dolby Atmos mixing prowess on both his own music and catalogue releases from other artists, is presenting his live music in surround on the tour via eight Syva speakers, which are connected wirelessly.
“I find that L-Acoustics loudspeakers are extremely musical, the most musical boxes out there, and sound right for the way I mix,” says front-of-house engineer Alessandro Melchior, who is also a consultant for the manufacturer’s L-ISA technology. He has been mixing on the immersive platform since 2017 and met Wilson during an L-ISA demo. “I wanted something that was easy to rig and offered consistency. Steven’s fans are audio fanatics and very demanding, and Steven also knows exactly what he wants,” he continues.
Melchior modelled some of the tour’s venues for L2/L2D using L-Acoustics Soundvision software. “I discovered it was not only going to work, it was going to make our life a lot easier in terms of tour logistics and deployment,” he reports.
But, while Melchior was familiar with the L Series system, he hadn’t yet worked with it much. “I needed a system engineer that really got the idea of the L2 and what it’s all about, and how you should deploy it,” he says. Dan Fathers, who toured with Rag’n’Bone Man with an L Series rig similar in size to Wilson’s, was the choice. He had also worked with the system at the Eurovision Song Contest and on multiple BRIT Awards shows, including the world’s first L Series deployment with Brit Row when it was an L-Acoustics pilot partner for the new product.
“L2 goes up super quick,” notes Fathers, who has also worked with You Me At Six, The Killers, Pearl Jam, Royal Blood, and Foo Fighters in the past few years. “I’m quite used to flying PAs on my own and hanging L Series is pretty much a one-man job, especially if you’re flying from two points. On a single point, depending on how much up-tilt you’ve got, it can be more of a challenge,” but monitor engineer Luca Romani would help in those situations, he says.
With the tour visiting venues of all shapes and sizes, it was decided that the most efficient method for feeding signals to the amplifiers powering the Syva surrounds, typically stand-mounted or flown, would be over a Milan-AVB signal path and via RF.
“It was Brit Row’s idea to do it over RF, just in case we couldn’t run the cable, and it became the norm quite quickly,” Fathers says. “It was a lot easier than running 150m of cable all the way upstairs.” Wireless signal distribution, using Shure transmitters and receivers, was not only more efficient but also offered flexibility when Fathers and Melchior were faced with having to modify their planned surround speaker layout on the fly at any given venue.
“The system sounds absolutely incredible in the middle,” Melchior comments, “but I also want to provide a positive experience for people that are right next to it. We want to make the sweet spot as big as we possibly can. We do some of the tricks that we use when we have a full L-ISA configuration as well, like virtually pushing it back an extra 15 or 20 milliseconds, to make it coherent for a lot more people. You’re not aligning to anything; it just needs to be musical, and it is.”