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Clair Global supports audio and comms engineers on Benson Boone tour

Singer Benson Boone’s 2025 “American Heart” tour, which comprised 49 arena shows around the world, has been supported by Clair Global, providing audio reinforcement, comms and production IT services. Production Manager Paul English, the man who oversaw Adele’s record-breaking Munich residency, replicated much of his team and supplier relationships for Boone’s tour that travelled across every continent bar Africa.

“It has been a challenging production to execute at times, but we’ve got there and it’s really paid off”, says English. “Benson is great to work with, and he absolutely owns the stage.” FOH Engineer Joey Diehl adds: “He’s hungry to tour, and to keep up with his workload, we needed a company that could handle our needs. It’s pretty astounding actually - at one point we had four full rigs in different places. Having a vendor that you can trust is very important and there’s no other company logistically that can really handle what we’ve done on this tour.” The account is looked after by Clair Global’s Brady Bessinger, out of the Nashville location.

At FOH, Diehl mixes on a DiGiCo Quantum 852 console, employing Third Ear and L-Acoustics Syva reference monitors and a Direct Out Prodigy for system processing. Outboard consists of a multitude of units including the Rupert Neve 5057, 5035 and 5045, an SSL Fusion, an Overstayer, a Wes Audio Tube Compressor and a Sonic Farm Creamliner III stereo line signal conditioner.

The tour’s PA system was designed by Johnny Keirle, the engineer behind Adele’s Munich show. Here, he was tasked with creating a big sound with a small box that would fill arenas: L-Acoustics L2 for the main and side hangs, K3 on rear hangs, KS28s for subs and A15 for fills. “The show designers were very keen on having a PA that could stay out of the way, visually”, says Keirle. “There’s not a single cable hanging anywhere, so the length of the line was really our choke hold. The question was: ‘How can we cover the back of these arenas that are 300 ft long?’. It really came down to using the L2, and after some trial and error, I’d say it’s changed my workflow. It’s sailed the same principles, but the box is so different that it has changed a lot of our methods.”

Monitor world lived under the stage during this tour, where lifts and trap doors added to the showmanship of the performance. Monitor Engineer Carter Luckett, who was aided by Monitor Tech Joe McCarthy, also mixed on a DiGiCo Quantum 852. He had a combination of Rupert Neve RMP preamps and DiGiCo 32-Bit Stage Rack handling all inputs, outputs, RF, and networking. “We spent a week in prep at Clair Nashville getting the rack just the way we wanted it”, he says. There was also a DiGiCo Mini Rack and for outboard FX, a Rupert Neve 5045 Primary Source Enhancer, 5035 Shelford Channel and a Bricasti M7 Reverb were the chosen tool kit, with Neve RMP-D8 preamps for inputs.

“The most interesting thing I had to figure out was the chandelier moment: Benson jumped on it and glided above the crowd, right into the throw of the PA, and flew over the audience for about 80-90 ft”, says Luckett. “To cover that, an intense wireless set-up was necessary to ensure we had rock solid coverage for our artist. There was such a lot of movement in the show - he did back flips and was a constant bundle of energy, so having consistent wireless coverage on the long stage was paramount.”

Keeping track of where the artist was on the stage in relation to the PA was another challenge: “Performing directly in front of the L2 hangs, there’s a lot of riding on the Primary Source Enhancer thresholds to keep the slap back of the PA and the double image of his voice out of his mix. There was a different mix process when he was out on the B stage, which was just more timing references, more click in his mix, and more drums as he moved around the stage. It changed based on where he was, what I was hearing in his mix through his vocal mic and how far away he was from the PA.”

RF Engineer Thomas “Chip” Valentino adds: “It was a little tricky figuring out the antenna deployment for this stage, to not only cover above the stage, but below it, where all our techs lived. We couldn’t infringe upon the creative elements of the show so with a little thoughtful execution, it worked flawlessly.” The team utilized a 10-gig network in a star configuration to manage multiple VLAN networks, including Soundgrid, OSC, Dante, RF, MIDI, and Video. This infrastructure was deployed over fiber throughout the audio and backline systems. The team also opted for Wisycom due to its analog mode ability. Boone used FIR IEMs and a Wisycom MTK982 IEM dual transmitter and sang through a Shure Axient RF mic and DPA capsule.

Comms Tech Mars McGurl managed sixty people’s needs during the show, using a Motorola radio package and a Riedel Communications Bolero wireless intercom system. “I listened to twenty channels at once”, she says. “Everybody needed very specific things, so this system was like having a festival gig inside of an arena. We integrated radios into everything, the idea being to turn the radios into a duplex system. Systems Engineer Alex McKenna came up with a plan to make my life easier and placed some switches inside of the steering and drive racks to alleviate extra cabling. I’ve never integrated myself so aggressively into other people’s workflows before this tour - we didn’t turn the sound system on until all the comms were working. They were crucial because of all the moving parts.”

The wider Clair crew was completed by USA PA Techs Owen Nagel, Keith Porter and Sierra Raia, and EU PA Techs Adrian Roche and Juan Beilin Antuna. Post tour, Benson Boone played one-offs for audiences in the UAE and KSA in December, supported by Clair Global’s Middle East locations.

Pictured (left to right): Thomas “Chip” Valentino, Juan Beilin Antuna, Adrian Roche, Mars McGurl, Joey Diehl, Carter Luckett, Alex McKenna, Joe McCarthy. (Photo: Clair Global)

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