Key Changes: We Can't Give the Industry Enough Playback Engineers As live shows increasingly incorporate a synchronized audio-visual experience, playback engineers have stepped into the spotlight.
By
Rebecca Beyer
June 5, 2023
Image by Greg Mably
The dry ice Yusuke Sato B.M. '15 ordered never arrived, so he improvised. Using heat reflective blankets and some broken lantern sticks, he created a shelter of sorts to block the sun from the two laptops-one primary, one backup-he was running to power playback for JP Saxe at the Rise Festival, a two-day concert in the Mojave Desert.
The 2021 event was Sato's first major role as a playback engineer, and Saxe was a big draw, with two scheduled performances (Saxe's 2019 hit song If the World Was Ending had taken on a whole new meaning during the global covid pandemic).
Sato wasn't taking any chances.
I've played festivals in hot places, Sato explains. I've had laptops go down.
But a dead laptop isn't an option for a playback engineer, who controls everything from the clicks and cues musicians hear in their earpieces and the prerecorded studio sounds that play behind them to the synchronization of lights and other special effects.
In my opinion, playback is the most stressful job in live entertainment, says Sato, who has also worked as a session guitarist and in other live sound engineering roles. If my laptop dies, there is no show.
Yusuke Sato
Image by George Lindsay
Increasingly, if there's no playback engineer, there is no show. Today, audiences expect live performances to sound like the studio-produced songs on their Spotify playlists. Because playback engineers-and the ever-changing technology they use-make that possible, the role is in high demand.
We can't give the industry enough playback engineers, says Michael Bierylo, chair of Berklee's Electronic Production and Design Department.
Loudon Stearns, director of Berklee NYC's Live Music Production and Design program, which launched in 2021, agrees, adding that playback engineers are integral to the success of live shows.
Today, the language of the studio is really the language of the song, Stearns says. The effects that are used, the sounds that are used are just as important as the lyrics. Once you get to that point, it's incumbent on us to present that in a live event.
Spacebar and Beyond There are many sound engineering roles in music. At a live event, for instance, monitor engineers are responsible for getting the right sound to the right musicians, and front-of-house engineers mix the sounds together for the audience. Playback engineers control all of that sound, and much, much more.
Loudon Stearns
It's the brains of the show, says Jaymz Hardy-Martin III '00, who has done playback for Mary J. Blige and Ne-Yo, among others. It's the membrane. The lighting people are depending on me, the video people are depending on me, and, of course, the band is depending on me. That's job security.
Bierylo says the disconnect between studio sound and concert sound became noticeable as far back as the 1960s. But, until the advent of personal computers, playback wasn't really possible on a broader scale. In the 1990s, Bierylo lugged around a Macintosh SE/30, piping in electronic sounds as part of performances with a band called Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
Hardy-Martin remembers burning tracks to CDs that could then be loaded onto hard disk recorders; any edits to a show required that the whole process be started over.
It was a superlong process, he says. Between shows, I got no sleep.
Technology has driven most of the changes in playback engineering. The rise of digital audio workstations (DAWs) changed the field dramatically. Playback engineers can now use DAWs to curate entire events from start to finish on rigs they often customize for their own-and their musicians'-comfort. One of the most popular DAWs is Ableton Live, first released in 2001. The software has several versions and is now on its 11th edition.
Ableton Live was a game-changer, Bierylo says.
Jaymz Hardy-Marty
Early playback work-and even some playback today for musicians who are just starting out or have a straightforward live show-was pretty simple, usually handled by a drummer or keyboard player.
It used to be you were just the spacebar guy, says Hardy-Martin with a laugh. You hit the spacebar to start the track and to stop the track.
But modern DAWs allow playback engineers to become musicians in the show. They can jump from place to place in a set at an artist's request and make last-minute changes to arrangements. Daniel Vago Galindo B.M. 14 once quickly recorded the name of a couple who was getting engaged and dropped the audio file into the track for the lead singer, who was then able to announce the happy occasion.
That was very stressful, he remembers.
Sato, who has been touring with corook (Corinne Savage B.M. 17) since last year, says playback engineers help translate ideas into reality.
I love being able to take an artist's vision and not just create it but blow them away, he says. There's no limit.
Expanding Opportunities Sato, who had majored in professional music, took a Berklee Online course on synchronization and began teaching himself Ableton Live during the pandemic because he thought playback engineering skills would make him a better music director. Today, he does playback work on his own and for Electronic Creatives, a company founded by Laura Escud , a prominent figure in playback engineering.
The idea of playback engineering as a skill that can be cultivated and taught is a relatively new one, Bierylo says, adding that Escud has been at the leading edge of that trend.
She trains people to go out and do these shows, he says. She has a whole educational pr
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Deepens Partnership with Taiwan's 62nd Golden Hors...
25/11/2025
Tracy Bonareri Onchoke, an investigative journalist from Kenya is the winner of the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2025.
The 26-year-old-sele...
25/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Blayke Scheer, Senior Director, Creative Content, YES NetworkThe Indiana alum has turned storytelling into an artform for more than two decadesBy...
25/11/2025
Op-Ed: With FCC's C-Band Auction on the Horizon, Broadcasters Need Proven, C...
25/11/2025
Analysis: Is Baller League really the future of sport? By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
With KSI on...
25/11/2025
Platinum Whitepaper: The Growth of Broadcast in the World of Major Large Scale E...
25/11/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: SVG Women's Sports WorkshopBy Samantha Gabay
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - 10:27 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlig...
Key Changes: We Can't Give the Industry Enough Playback Engineers As live shows increasingly incorporate a synchronized audio-visual experience, playback engineers have stepped into the spotlight.
