Heavy metal titans Judas Priest are one of Birmingham's highly successful music exports, with over 45 million album sales to date. The band's Redeemer of Souls tour has just drawn to a close after 468 days, having played 130 shows and visited 33 countries. Front of House engineer Martin Walker and monitor man Brad Johnson have toured with DiGiCo consoles throughout.
We ve covered pretty much every venue type there is, from large outdoor American amphitheatres, headlining the major rock festivals in Europe, through stadiums, arenas, casinos, theatres and larger clubs, says Martin, an SD7 user who has been the band's FOH engineer for 16 years and a DiGiCo user since 2006.
Major Tom supplies our sound and it was Lars Brogaard who originally talked me into trying the D5, he says. A natural progression saw me on the SD7 and I love it! It does all I need it to do and much more. I find it simple to use, it has a very intuitive layout and way of working - and of course the main thing is that it sounds great!
As a no-nonsense heavy metal band, what came offstage on this tour was comparatively straightforward, just 29 inputs and a further 22 at FOH, which include all shout lines, playback, outboard inserts and effects. Output-wise I run just five lines - left, right, mono sub, a mono fill and a mono close field monitor that doubles as a shout speaker. Everything else is generated within the system processors, says Martin.
Brad has been the band's monitor engineer since 2014, coming to know the Judas Priest family' through working with bands that had supported them. Like Martin, his first DiGiCo console was the D5.
At the time the D series was the most comfortable and least abrupt move from analogue. I liked the D5 so much that I bought one and used it exclusively for the better part of eight years, he says. I recently purchased an SD10-24 because its frame size is perfect when touring with bands that are playing festivals and flying gear around quite a bit. Mated with the Waves server, this is an extremely versatile and powerful platform in a very small footprint. It is perfect for the types of gigs we have done over the past year, especially when we have had limited space. Plus the sound quality is excellent.
With three of the band using in-ear monitors and two using wedges / sidefills, Brad was using a 48in/24 out MaDiRack I/O, with eight channels of D-Tube, plus the eight outputs on the console.
I use quite a few macros, which are extremely useful. I wouldn't consider using a console that doesn't have that feature, he says. Although I'm not using snapshots for Judas Priest, I do with other acts. On this tour, I had the Waves DiGiGrid MGB interface and a Mac laptop to multitrack the shows and for virtual soundchecking.
Due to the number of countries and festivals played, the full production was only carried in the USA and UK. However, the two DiGiCo consoles and the band's monitor system went with the crew to every show. And wherever they were in the world, DiGiCo's technical support was right there with them.
I have had the best support, those guys really know how to do customer service, says Martin. At one point, in Australia, one of the engines on the desk had an issue, but at the next show a DiGiCo man showed up, replaced the engine and took the old one away - no dramas, no questions, just proper taking care of business.
General niggles or questions are also answered swiftly and expertly either by email or sometimes the old fashioned way of talking to someone on a telephone. DiGiCo's service really is excellent.
Brad concurs, adding, As a console owner, I rely completely on manufacturer support. I have no home office' to call, so quick response and turnaround are paramount. Whether it's a simple software upgrade or replacing parts after an unexpected downpour from a leaky roof at a festival, DiGiCo has always had a quick answer or solution.
Press Contacts:
David Webster at DiGiCo
Tel: +44 1372 845600
Email:webby@digiconsoles.com
Web: www.digico.biz
Sarah James at Gasoline Media
Tel: +44 1372 471472
Email: info@gasolinemedia.com
Web: www.gasolinemedia.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sarah_gasoline
Most recent headlines
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
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...
Heavy metal titans Judas Priest are one of Birmingham's highly successful music exports, with over 45 million album sales to date. The band's Redeemer of Souls tour has just drawn to a close after 468 days, having played 130 shows and visited 33 countries. Front of House engineer Martin Walker and monitor man Brad Johnson have toured with DiGiCo consoles throughout.
