
Wigwam Hire has been a leading supplier of sound systems and equipment for touring and dry hire for over 30 years and Alex Hadjigeorgiou, Technical Specialist at Wigwam Hire, explained how one small box has made a significant difference to the weight and subsequent cost of touring in the last couple of years.
Traditionally when using playback on a tour you were limited to 24 channels of playback. The 24 channels from a Tascam or Fostex fed a relay changeover switcher controlled by the presence or not of tone. More recently it became the Radial SW8 stackable 8 channel auto-switcher.
But over time 24 tracks were not enough for playback and the analogue way of doing things became unworkable simply because of the amount of sync required and the sheer size of the systems.
Moving to MADI based systems meant the track count could be greatly increased while drastically reducing the physical size and weight and improving the ability to respond to changes and emergencies. However, there was no obvious way to switch MADI streams without compromise.
One of Wigwams customers, Des Ward of Audiotech Services, thought of an idea to seamlessly switch from one MADI stream to another. DirectOut was already thinking along the same lines and the EXBOX.BLDS (Buffer Loop Detection System) was born after a short period of intensive code writing at DirectOut and, for speed, delivered in their EXBOX.64 format converter box just in time for The Steps Reunion Tour.
The Lord of the Dance Tour asked us to cut the size and weight of their playback system by half a tonne and the EXBOX.BLDS was the lynchpin that made this possible, allowing us to reduce 24U to 10U. We have two Mac minis with RME cards to produce MADI, a video switch and any MIDI we need to run plus the EXBOX.BLDS. We use QLab, the software application for live show control. With QLab tracks are edited instantly as opposed to the two hours it used to take in the old analogue days.
Since its debut as a fix-it box, DirectOut has developed the EXBOX.BLDS into a fully-fledged product with push buttons and GPIs to manually control playback changeover and LEDs and GPOs to confirm MADI and changeover status. It constantly monitors the BLDS channel on the primary input and when theres a lock-up or output buffer loop, EXBOX.BLDS automatically switches the MADI output to the second input. The changeover is within two samples and no one is any the wiser.
EXBOX.BLDS was part of a huge playback system for Massive Attack v Adam Curtis and its been an essential bit of kit for the Edinburgh Tattoo, One Direction World Tour, JLS tours, Westlife Farewell Tour and many others. In my view EXBOX.BLDS is the Rosetta Stone in the evolution of MADI based playback systems
Alex is pictured with Gary Kenyon on the left, FOH and Head of Sound Lord of the Dance, "The little box which finally got us away from analogue. And in the centre Oliver Twiby, Playback Operator Massive Attack, "Extremely simple and clever little box."
DirectOut Technologies MADI equipment is distributed in the UK by Aspen Media.
www.aspen-madi.com www.aspen-media.com
www.aspen-madi.com/news_details.aspx?ni=5
Most recent headlines
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Ricardo Coke-Thomas Named Chair of Theater for Boston Conservatory at Berklee The distinguished theater educator, director, and performer will join the Conser...
19/12/2025
Back to All News
Salvador Arrives to Netflix on February 6
Entertainment
19 December 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT ...
19/12/2025
As the year comes to a close, it's the perfect time to give your WO Automation for Radio system a quick tune up. At the top of your year end checklist is on...
19/12/2025
19 Dec 2025
VEON's Mobilink Microfinance Bank Launches Islamic Banking Oper...
19/12/2025
Wrapping up a year of connection and clarity!
19 Dec Written By Suzanne Costello
As 2025 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to thank our incredib...
19/12/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
19/12/2025
Rohde & Schwarz drives the future of mobility at CES 2026 At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rohde & Schwarz will present a powerful lineup o...
19/12/2025
Back to All News
Salvador arrives to Netflix on February 6
Entertainment
19 December 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT ...
19/12/2025
Back to All News
Last Samurai Standing' Renewed for Season 2 - A Global Se...
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
19/12/2025
Nanoparticle vaccine strategy could protect against Ebola and other deadly filoviruses Scripps Research scientists turn nanoparticles into virus showcases to ...
18/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Kurt Sutton, Director of Broadcast Operations, Clemson ...
18/12/2025
Follow the Money Episode 2: Inside the Sports Media Biz with Sam McCleery and St...
18/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Google Cloud's Anshul Kapoor on the Future of Generative Prod...
18/12/2025
The 2025 SVG Summit Draws Record Crowd for 20th-Annual Sports-Production Industr...
18/12/2025
SBS's sports schedule sizzles in January with Dakar Rally, Kooyong Classic a...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
During November, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.2%, an increase of 0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...