One Direction were one of the UKs biggest pop exports in over 50 years. They even broke The Beatles record, notching no less than five top 10 debuts on Americas Hot 100 chart. Now, more than two years into the bands hiatus, 1D member Niall Horans solo career has also gone global: he signed with Capitol Records in 2016, and his 2017 debut album, Flicker, hit the number one spot in the US and Ireland, and made the top three in Australia and the UK. Now, he is in the midst of a major US tour, where live engineers, Joe Harling and Daniel Kent, are using DiGiCo consoles, provided by UK rental company Wigwam Hire, to create their mixes.
I have always favoured front of house mixing, says FOH engineer, Joe Harling. I don't have the technical chops, or strength of character, to do monitors... I'd probably end up crying if I did!
As with any engineer at this level, the working relationship with the artist is crucial and Harling cites Horan as fantastic to work with.
He does take an interest in the sound, he has very good ears, and is able to express himself very well, says Harling. He expects things to be right, but also sees the bigger picture, and is totally calm around technical problems.
Harling and monitor engineer, Daniel Kent, both work from DiGiCo SD10s, running at 48kHz, and sharing stage racks.
It was agreed with production that this was an acceptable price point and weight allowance for freighting control around the world; and the SD10 does absolutely everything we need, Harling explains. I have mainly worked with DiGiCo over the last few years, as I have mostly been mixing pop music, and DiGiCo is pretty ubiquitous in this genre.
Harling is quite hands-on with his mixing, and while he does use Snapshots, very few parameters are in the scope for most channels.
This gig isn't very channel intensive, he confirms. I think we have about 56 inputs from stage, spread across mono and stereo channels; and, of course, there are some FX returns on top of that.
I use a couple of reverbs, and a delay; and I am running Waves externally on a Mac Mini via a DiGiGrid MGB, and Im using quite a lot of plugins for some different flavours of compression, some dynamic EQ for problem fixing, and a few FX.
Monitor engineer, Daniel Kent, says it has been a pleasure to work with an artist as talented and focused as Horan.
For a young artist, he has played to more people than most bands might do over a long career; he understands why rooms sound different day to day, and is very good at articulating what he needs, says Kent. He is not overly technical in his description, but interpreting his requests is my job. When he first said there are some haunting frequencies in here', I was a little taken aback!
Kent has been a DiGiCo user since 2010, and has been very satisfied so far with both the quality of product, and the manufacturers technical support.
For this tour, due to weight constraints, we are both running SD10s, and they sound great. Also, knowing that I can pick up the phone and get an honest answer from technical support at any time is the icing on the cake, and why I will stick with DiGiCo for the foreseeable future. On the seldom occasions I have had issues with my desk, the support has been fantastic.
Like Harling, Kent is also hands-on with his mixing.
No two gigs are the same; I run a Snapshot or two for each song, but I'm not utilising timecode for this tour, he says. I mix Niall from the master buss and have my hands on the VCAs for him for the whole show, so the band's needs are mostly taken care of via the Snapshots. I have a couple of Macros to help me out and I also use the notes feature on the desk. The channel count soon adds up when you take into account talkback mics, FX returns, etc, so I am probably running around 96 input paths.
It is a pretty serious sized tour, but is all working out very well, Kent concludes:
Seven months is a long stint, especially for a UK-based solo artist, and we're playing a wide variety of venues, which keeps me on my toes - especially as we have a daily battle with a very enthusiastic audience. But it's always great when a plan comes together, and everyone walks off stage with a smile on their face!
Press Contacts:
Maria Fiorellino at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email: maria@digiconsoles.com
Web: www.digico.biz
Sarah James at Gasoline Media
Tel: +44 1483 223333
Email: sarahj@gasolinemedia.com
Knowing that I can pick up the phone and get an honest answer from technical support at any time is the icing on the cake, and why I will stick with DiGiCo for the foreseeable future. On the seldom occasions I have had issues with my desk, the support has been fantastic.
Monitor engineer, Daniel Kent
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
One Direction were one of the UKs biggest pop exports in over 50 years. They even broke The Beatles record, notching no less than five top 10 debuts on Americas Hot 100 chart. Now, more than two years into the bands hiatus, 1D member Niall Horans solo career has also gone global: he signed with Capitol Records in 2016, and his 2017 debut album, Flicker, hit the number one spot in the US and Ireland, and made the top three in Australia and the UK. Now, he is in the midst of a major US tour, where live engineers, Joe Harling and Daniel Kent, are using DiGiCo consoles, provided by UK rental company Wigwam Hire, to create their mixes. 
