Staged by BBC Studios for a live audience of 22,000, and broadcast to over 13 million viewers, DiGiCo consoles played a central role in an intricate audio design by Ben Milton Associates, that managed three discrete stages and complex time alignment.
Audio rental company, Britannia Row Productions, was appointed to realise this huge logistical challenge, which took place in the environs of Buckingham Palace, with the audio system for the landmark show spread across three independent stages in front of the Palace. The first stage, designed as a catwalk in the round, was constructed around the Queen Victoria Monument (QVM), with two further stages erected in front of the palace railings and linked to the circular stage by a walkway, one hosting orchestral-based content and the other rock and pop acts.
Everything was time aligned between each stage, including synchronising when artists were performing from two stages simultaneously, explains sound designer, Ben Milton. For instance, if there was a performer on the QVM stage, complemented with the orchestra on the second stage, we wanted to make sure the sound image would be coming from the right place, and timed to work together. Balancing the sound image and time synchronisation was our highest priority.
DiGiCo consoles were installed throughout FOH and monitor positions, managing the performances of artists such as Queen and Adam Lambert, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra, Duran Duran, Craig David and Andrea Bocelli, with three broadcast trucks, allocated one per stage. The audio system's full console list included five Quantum 7 and three Quantum 338 consoles from DiGiCo's elite range, alongside an SD5, SD10, and the compact SD11i from the industry standard SD range, with 19 supporting SD Racks, five mini racks and several DMI/Orange boxes. Quantum 7 consoles were installed either end of the Orchestral stage, managed by Simon Fox at FOH and Billy Birks on monitors. On the north, Rock and Pop stage, an Q7 was selected for FOH and a Q7 for monitors, manned by Stefano Serpagli and Phil Down, respectively. Finally, on the QVM stage, an SD10 was chosen for FOH, managed by Chris Vass, and a Quantum 338 at monitors for James Neale.
All the FOH boards were fed into a separate Quantum 7 console which acted as a matrix mixer, and from there into a TiMax immersive spatial system for distribution via an L-Acoustics PA system. Each FOH console could send feeds to its own dedicated OB truck for broadcast duties, one of which was installed with an SD7, and mixes could be returned to stage from FOH for monitor mixes. The team utilised gain sharing on the orchestra stage as it had a huge channel count of 192. All monitor consoles across the stages had access to feeds from every other stage, so they could dovetail from the stage before them to the stage after, selecting any inputs and content they needed for their mix.
This design meant I could navigate all the busses through the master Q7 console, so the engineers had the choice of which buss to use, so it would all be time synchronised. Also, if there were any last minute staging changes, we could just reallocate the buss, explains Milton. The matrix Q7, additionally took all guest speaker mic feeds and VT packages which could be placed on top of whatever else was coming through, and the monitor access was managed by bussing everything through the Q7. It played out like a choreographed performance bussing all FOH feeds in that manner, with all three stages mixed independently for the broadcast trucks, and then the celebrity guest speakers could be mixed in around it.
It was DiGiCo's buss structure that made the timeline synchronisation possible. Being able to organise settings in a particular way was a huge advantage, whether the consoles were used for delay for one part of the show, or as the main system on another part as the action rolled from stage to stage, notes Josh Lloyd, Head of Engineering - Event Support at Brit Row. DiGiCo also offered great flexibility and built-in redundancy, as not only was the Q7 master console running Dante, we also had several Orange boxes offering a wealth of network options. For things that were show critical, being able to support multiple formats was a huge advantage, as we needed to connect MADI, Dante, AES and analogue devices.
Following a detailed pre-production period, the onsite set up was swift due to DiGiCo's offline planning and design tools. The event schedule stretched over four days, with Trouping of the Colour and Lighting of the Beacons on Thursday, full dress rehearsal on Friday, pre-show on the Jubilee Concert on Saturday, and the Pageant show and Mall procession on Sunday.
The cable runs for the events were long some up to 300m to the stage - but as DiGiCo operates on Optocore, the team were able to connect all the consoles to the Optocore Festival box and run them back through two fibre optic cables. Some of the DiGiCos were located at a distance from their stage boxes. For example, the Queen monitor consoles and the QVM monitor console were a good 100 - 150 metres from their stage boxes.
The Optocore Festival box and its easy plug n play integration was definitely a highlight for us, says Tom Brown, Brit Row Account Manager. DiGiCo's ability to drop things on to the Optocore network to have I/O locally and also remotely really helped. The ability to move things around the loop was very helpful. For instance, we could have analogue outboard next to the monitor console, yet the in-ear devices local to the performer.
DiGiCo is always my first choice, so I always knew DiGiCo was part and parcel of the event from the outset, says Milton. All the engineers were comfortable with it and all the acts used the concert boards it's a rider pleaser. I didn't have to bring in any other consoles, apart from for
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
Staged by BBC Studios for a live audience of 22,000, and broadcast to over 13 million viewers, DiGiCo consoles played a central role in an intricate audio design by Ben Milton Associates, that managed three discrete stages and complex time alignment.
