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Smode enables video control and live management on recent Theodora tour

When French-Congolese singer Theodora took her “Free Kitty” tour to twelve arenas across France and Belgium in spring 2026, it marked her first large-scale production. The tour sold out multiple dates and drew on a highly theatrical visual concept built around a pink house set in which video screens formed the walls, surfaces and centrepiece of every scene.

Managing the video system for the entire run was Célestin Soum, founder of Saturn Studio, who operated Smode in a dual capacity that had him running media server output and live directing the show simultaneously. Soum was brought into the project by Jordan Magnée, the Belgian stage, video and light designer responsible for the overall visual concept of the tour; the two had worked together on a production for French rapper Ninho.

Content for the “Free Kitty” show was created by Mathematic Studio, with Laetitia Le Gall coordinating between Soum and the graphic artists producing the visual assets. The rig centred on a cohesive suite of LED panels (courtesy of Alabama Média), designed to ensure visual uniformity across the set. “Since all the elements were placed directly adjacent to one another, it was essential to minimise any variation between surfaces”, states Soum.

At the centre of the stage, the LED tower comprised a single back LED screen measuring 6.5 m high x 3.5 m wide, which was motorised to allow set dressing to pass through. The tower was flanked by four curved LED screens, each measuring 2.5 m x 2.5 m. The assembly was topped by a 10 m long by 1 m high half-ring LED screen. To either side of the central tower stood two further LED structures recreating shops, each made of a 5 m x 2.5 m front screen with two further side LED screens topped by 5 m long x 1 m high LED strips.

Completing the visual setup was an IMAG LED screen (5.5 x 3.5 m), positioned to the rear left of the stage, visually echoing the look of an urban advertising billboard. All LED panels, together with two X-Real media server bays running Smode, were supplied by Alabama Média (Groupe Novelty). Smode handled the primary output to all LED screens and simultaneously served as a show viewer for Soum’s live direction role. Two confidence feeds, which were distributed across approximately ten screens positioned around the stage and in backstage areas, gave Soum real-time information on the state of the show as it unfolded.

“This proved invaluable for keeping track of real-time information during shows that ran over two hours, including the next track, the positions of the various performers, the timecode, and the return feeds from the nine cameras available in the video mixer”, notes Soum. A source switch built into Smode managed what information appeared on each screen. An NDI feed was also distributed across the network to the lighting department, allowing them to pixel-map the media content into their lighting rig in real time.

Rather than importing pre-finished content, Soum assembled and edited all media within Smode itself. “This approach offers complete flexibility, as it’s common for the music, structure and musical sequences to evolve throughout the residency and tour”, he says. “As a result, I value being able to rework the media build at any point.” When one song was performed a cappella, Soum was able to simplify the corresponding video edit on the fly without requesting new content from Mathematic Studio.

BPM synchronisation across the show was handled using Smode’s tempo tool, which locked the video loops to the tempo of each track. “I make frequent use of that tool to sync the various media elements, typically video loops, to the BPM of each track”, says Soum. Working to a shared methodology with Mathematic Studio, all video content was produced in durations of four, eight or sixteen seconds. At the correct BPM, each second aligned with one musical beat, allowing the visual structure to follow the arrangement of every track precisely. Soum spent significant time during the tour refining the colour treatment applied to the live camera feeds, working with a set of cinematic LUTs developed in collaboration with a cinema colourist.

One of the most technically involved elements of the production was the creation of the house scenography visuals. To ensure the set appeared as realistically lit and spatially coherent as possible in the video content, Soum built a full 3D model of the scenography from the manufacturer’s technical drawings. After, Mathematic Studio’s graphic artists rendered the content from each of the camera positions placed in the scene, producing four separate render files per pass. Then, a dedicated Smode project was developed to recompose those renders as 2D video via a content map and 3D mapper. The process, coordinated by Le Gall, allowed the house to take on a distinct visual identity for each song in the show.

“Given that the set is built around video screens, video was essential to making this whole production pop”, says Soum. “Although the shape of the scenography and screens takes the form of a house, a great deal of work went into the media to translate that house into a distinct visual for each song. It was hugely important, so much so that there isn’t a single track on the show where the screens are off.” The entire rig was driven by a single Smode instance running on a machine fitted with an Nvidia RTX A6000 ADA graphics card with 48 GB of VRAM, backed by a spare instance, handling the full show from LED output to confidence feeds to NDI distribution.

With the tour dates complete, Theodora and Smode continue to bring the production’s energy elsewhere. Theodora opened the 2026 Cannes Film Festival alongside Oklou, performing a Beatles cover with Smode used as the media server for the ceremony. Now, with the festival circuit just around the corner, Soum concludes: “I’m looking forward to hitting festivals with this project. It’ll be a great adventure to face those new challenges with the new setup.”

The “Free Kitty” tour was produced by AEG Presents, with Thibaut Jamin being the Technical Director. Alongside Célestin Soum, the Video & LED team comprised Gaspard Jacquin (Media Server Operator in rehearsal), Simon Tanner (LED Chief Technician), Sofiane Mezine (Camera Chief Equipment), Loris Cudey (LED Technician), Antonin Briand and Isabel Cortes (Video Technicians).

(Photos: Carmen Cartier/Liesel/Célestin Soum)

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