During the summer of 2026, Take That embarked on an epic stadium tour of the UK and Ireland with audio supplied by SKAN. Choosing a DiGiCo Quantum 852 at front of house was Steve Carr, whilst Becky Pell at the monitor position used a Quantum 7. Starting in Southampton in May and ending in Dublin in July, The Circus Live tour encompassed 17 Shows rebooting the original 2009 tour. It was a record-breaking extravaganza and the first time that Carr had worked with Take That. He knew he needed a console he could trust implicitly, and for him that console is always the Quantum 852.
“The Quantum 852 is superb,” Carr begins. “It’s a pure workhorse and handled everything I threw at it. Our setup is fairly extensive, the Optocore loop is quite involved, there are plenty of SD-Racks in lots of different positions and there are multiple consoles. It worked a dream without any problems. I didn’t feel at any point that I was even close to using up all of the processing power and I was using Mustard on almost every channel, and almost every output buss, too.”
Pell has worked with the band since 2015, depp’ing for Steve Lutley. When he stepped back in 2023, she was invited to take over the role. Her first show was the King’s Coronation and the first thing she did was swap her trusted SD 7 for the Quantum 7, bringing onboard KLANG’s immersive IEM technology.
“I love the DiGiCo workflow and the accessibility of three fader banks and three screens is critical for a show of this complexity, as are the Macros,” Pell explains. “Moving to Quantum was initially just in the interest of having the most up-to-date technology, but I’ve found the processing excellent. I particularly like the Mustard Source Enhancer and the optical compressor. The Chilli multiband compressor is also excellent and helped me to subtly smooth inputs and manage spill down the vocal mics, especially out on the B-stage. I also love the DMI:KLANG integration because it allows me to create very natural sounding mixes. KLANG really makes listening to IEMs for long periods less fatiguing because it’s how we hear in real life, no brain de-scrambling required.”
Carr has chosen to use DiGiCo for many years and had previously used the Quantum 852 at the Royal Albert Hall, so he knew it would have the bandwidth required to cope with such a huge show. Thanks to the Q852’s Mustard Processing, Carr has also been able to reduce the amount of outboard he tours. He likes to keep his signal path as straightforward as possible, minimising possible points of failure with just a few vocal and instrumental effects that are simply set-up and leave.
“The new Macroders are really useful and I was able to construct a layout that meant that all I had to do was touch faders during the show,” he continues. “I wasn’t flipping through layers and that’s exactly how I wanted to work. There are some lovely new features on the Mustard Dynamics section. The levelling amp added in the last update is a really simple, naturally-behaving compressor, which I like to use on piano and strings.”
The rest of the system includes the Quantum 7 at the monitor position and SD12 handling auxiliary mixes for dancers, programme feeds and comms. Pell mixes monitors from a position where she cannot see the artists, this means that she must be able to react to requests with lightning speed. For her, DiGiCo workflow is a vital component, delivering the flexibility and power she needs to keep up.
“Given the complexity of the show, I really wanted to make sure I had a very structured workflow in place,” Pell continues. “There’s very little margin for error in any department, so my operation had to be exactly the same every time. Even when something else was going on, I had to be absolutely reliable so as not to miss a cue and mess somebody else up.”
When a touring show involves as many moving parts as The Circus Live, workflow, reliability and efficiency become vital. For both engineers, having a console that has the flexibility to be exactly what they need means they can keep coming back. With regular updates, they know the console can grow with them, too. As Pell and Carr finish, part of the joy of a DiGiCo console is finding out that there is yet another feature you had not explored fully.
“I have a lot of cues, and to help me stay on top of it all I use the notes function in Snapshots for reminders, as well as the SMPTE reader window on the main console screen,” Pell closes. “It’s a bit like spinning plates at times, but I love the challenge and I really enjoyed figuring out how to make it as smooth as possible for myself with the versatility that the Q7 offers. I find DiGiCo has the most intuitive, flexible processes and structures. It’s always my choice as I know there’s a DiGiCo that will fit the bill with minimal disruption to my workflow.”
“The Quantum 852 has been so good,” Carr concludes. “It’s not just the brightness of the screens or the accuracy of the touch, or even the size. You can get so much information on the screens, the metering bridge is really good and there are so many options on what you use it for. I really liked the additional screens next to the fader banks, too. I’ve also been using MIDI control on the surface to control plugin tempo and delay, syncing MIDI devices. All round it’s been a very positive experience. The Skan team are great and the support you get is fantastic.”