The Requirement

Adlib’s long-standing relationship with Courteeners spans nearly two decades, having first partnered with the band in 2007. That journey has taken them from intimate venues to festival stages, and in 2024, to the biggest arenas across the UK. This arena tour marked a milestone for the band, not least with a landmark hometown headline at the newly opened Co-op Live arena in Manchester.

The production team came to Adlib with a clear goal: deliver a scalable, high-impact touring package that maintained the band's signature raw energy while supporting their ambitions for a more cinematic, technically advanced show. The solution needed to cover all technical departments — audio, video, lighting, rigging, and communications — and be engineered for efficiency across a multi-date arena schedule.

Audio fidelity and coverage were crucial for reaching the back rows of venues like Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and London’s O2 Arena. Visually, the band wanted an immersive lighting and video environment that enhanced the music without distracting from it — a modern production feel rooted in the gritty authenticity of indie rock.

Video

For video, Adlib delivered a robust 4K broadcast and content system. The live camera package included two Panasonic AW-UE160 PTZ cameras and four Panasonic UC4000 channels fitted with Canon UJ90x and CJ25 lenses, providing cinematic visuals for IMAG and recordings. All feeds were run through a Ross Carbonite and Ultrix-based 4K PPU, with an AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G rack used for multitrack recording of each night’s performance.

The LED setup featured over 100 square metres of ROE BQ4 product — one 6m x 8m wall and two 4m x 8m walls, processed via a Helios 8K rack. Visual content was played back through Disguise GX3 media servers, allowing the creative team to deliver tightly-synced visuals across the LED surfaces and live cameras.

Lighting

The lighting designer's vision was to complement the band’s energetic performance with bold textures, saturated colours, and clean, dramatic moments of contrast. The rig featured a powerful mix of fixtures, including Ayrton Perseo, Cobra, Bora, and Diablo units, Robe Fortes, and over 140 Chauvet Strike 2s for classic rock-and-roll punch.

GLP X4 Bar 20s and Martin Sceptron 1000s brought in linear and pixel-mapped elements, while SGM Q8s and Acme Pixel Line IPs helped fill in the gaps with strobe and colour effects. Control was handled via two GrandMA3 Light desks, with a custom-built Resolume and Martin P3 drive system used to bridge video and lighting cues. Two Robe RoboSpot systems enabled dynamic follow-spotting of the band throughout the set.

Atmospherics were delivered via two MDG TheONE Touring hazers, ensuring consistent, even haze for beam clarity throughout the arenas.