Features
‘Everything From An Audio Perspective Is Tailored Specifically To This Show’: Q’s With ‘Adele In Munich’ Systems Engineer Johnny Keirle
Much has been said and written about Adele’s Munich residency last month, and rightly so, as it took large-scale show production to another level in every respect. It was also a reminder that, no matter how big or small the gig, what ultimately matters most when it comes to music, is the sound.
As we wrote in our initial review of “Adele in Munich”, the sound was opulent, and punchy – surprisingly so, given the venue’s vast outdoor setting, sounding much closer to what one would expect inside a soundproofed club or similar.
To find out how exactly this feat was accomplished, Pollstar reached out to the show’s front of house system engineer Johnny Keirle, who has worked on many major shows in his career, including Superbowl Halftime Shows by Rhianna (2023), Usher (2024), and also Kendrick Lamar next year; as well as tours by P!nk, Maroon 5, and Billie Eilish. He was also responsible for the audio setup at Adele’s two-year, 100-plus date Las Vegas residency, and has worked for David Gilmour, Foo Fighters, Royal Blood, and many more in various capacities.
Keirle took us through his team’s unique setup in Munich in detail.
See: How Adele’s Stadium Pop-Up Paradigm Changes The Game
Pollstar: Did you use more (delay) towers than usual?
Johnny Keirle: Compared to most shows, yes, I did request more delay towers than what is typically deployed in a setup of this size. In total, we had 14 delay towers – six custom-fabricated mini ‘lamppost’ towers, and eight traditional large delay towers.
Each of these delay positions was equipped with one [L-Acoustics] L2, and one L2D, with the traditional towers also having three KS21 subs. The eight hangs of KS21 were flown in a cardioid configuration behind the L2 to increase low-frequency resource, and offer improved directivity control. The use of L2/L2D was particularly important for maintaining a small footprint – while not sounding like a small footprint.
This venue in Munich is a bespoke design, built specifically for this show, and the creative team wanted it to feel somewhat like an expansion or enlargement of the venue we’ve been performing in during the Las Vegas residency. The unique layout – more on that later – necessitated this more distributed approach, for lack of a better term. We had excellent cooperation from both the production and creative teams, and I was able to dictate the positions of all towers as needed. Of course, there are always slight compromises and pushback, but all-in-all the creative team, production, management, inter-departmental cooperation was fantastic. The creative team requested certain fly paths for the spider cam, which had to be factored into the positioning and height of the lamppost towers – but we were able to find positioning solutions that would work for all departments.
What else was different compared to a similar-sized stadium show?
Put simply, the sheer scale of the show and the creative demands of the production. The Munich venue is roughly 200 meters deep at its deepest, and 400 meters wide at its widest. The central thrust is close to 100 meters long, with a B stage at the end, and a looping passarelle from far stage right to far stage left. The width and shape of the venue necessitated the higher delay position count, with a huge effort to manage/maximize temporal integrity and imagery in as much of the audience area as possible.
Another key challenge was the creative team’s request to work around the screen trim, which came over 21 meters high from the ground. This required some unconventional design considerations, such as implementing adjacent K2 down hangs separate from the main K1SB/K1 hangs. The need to maintain clean sightlines also influenced the design of the custom mini lamppost delay towers. These mini towers are practically invisible and have created very few seat kills. We designed the delay systems to each be powered from a single LA-RAK which lives under the delay platform – giving a clean and tidy footprint.
Did you use any new speakers for this setup?
Yes, L-Acoustics L2 and L2D loudspeakers are used extensively throughout the delay system. As stated earlier, the choice of L2/L2D was particularly advantageous due to their small footprint, making them ideal for the custom-fabricated mini towers, which are single-point deployments attached directly to the tower itself. The L2 and L2D were chosen for their ability to deliver consistent sound over long distances, ensuring that every part of the audience, even those furthest from the stage, received the same level of clarity and impact – a common point of feedback from people in the nosebleeds is about audio immediacy and clarity, something that is important to Adele’s live show. Another big reason for choosing L2 / L2D was the directivity control and polar stability – particularly important with a highly distributed system. Of course, the full design includes familiar loudspeakers from the K and A system ranges as well.
Is it fair to say that the setup you did in Munich was never done anywhere else before?
I would say that the setup here is definitely unique. Everything from an audio perspective is tailored specifically to this show. As mentioned above, we incorporated several bespoke elements, including specially designed delay towers and custom-engineered wind bracing, as well as targeting unique design criteria that were specific to both the venue and the creative/performance requirements.
There’s a lot happening behind the scenes with the PA setup that isn’t immediately visible to the average punter. For instance, integrated amplified controllers in the delay towers builds – which not only streamlined and weatherproofed the setup but also helps to minimize visual clutter and maintain clean sightlines. Another example – production-wise, all cable infrastructure was installed underground in specially made troughs, ensuring that the setup remained as unobtrusive as possible. No yellow jacket anywhere!
As well as the unique and unorthodox system design approaches mentioned, another example of innovative approach with setup is the hybrid physical/electronic subwoofer array. While the primary sub source in the system is the flown KS28s behind the main hang, this array was specifically designed to manage sub coverage in the pit area, delivering consistent – and powerful – low-end in the golden circle, while simultaneously minimizing noise pollution on stage. During our first show run-through with the band I had both the monitor engineer and the playback engineer asking when the PA was going to be turned on!
Could bad weather have messed with the setup?
Changes in weather and atmospheric conditions can, of course, impact any sound system, and this was a significant consideration for the run of shows in Munich. To mitigate challenges associated with wind, we worked closely with the team at Britannia Row to custom-engineer and manufacture wind bracing solutions specifically designed for this setup. These bracing systems were tailored to the size, weight, and sail area of each array in the system, factoring in all mechanical adjustments – inter-element angles, weight distributions, etc. The main goal here was to ensure that each PA hang was rated for the same maximum wind speeds as the main steel stage structure, eliminating the need to drop the PA in adverse conditions. While this added time to the load-in and load-out, it has been well worth the extra effort.
Additionally, during the design phase, I conducted detailed studies on local atmospheric condition trends and thoroughly modeled extreme potential variations in Soundvision, as well as with other custom calculators I have built. This preparation gives me confidence to manage these changes electronically as they occur, using tools in both Soundvision and Network Manager, rather than the need for any mechanical adjustment or change to source definition itself. This also informs my approach to determining if a system will have suitable headroom under any expected condition – ensuring the response over the audience areas remains consistent, even under changing and challenging conditions.
These considerations are key in my process for calculating suitable source definitions – a process I go through for every design. While time-consuming, it has proven particularly effective in this environment. The system has been robust enough to handle the challenges posed by the weather, most of which have been fairly mild, thankfully! We’ve encountered one significant atmospheric shift during a show, which I was able to manage without issue.
Of course, no system is completely insusceptible to the elements, but between the research and the wind bracing in place, this is the most robust setup I’ve experienced. It’s been fascinating to hear exactly how the changing conditions affect sound propagation when the movement of the PA itself is eliminated: usually, a lot of what you hear in an outdoor system with wind is the small movements of the PA itself creating a phasing, or swishing effect due to minor changes in path length to the listener. In our system, this is completely eliminated. Instead, I’ve been able to clearly hear how changes in atmospheric pressure and different pockets of differing densities affect the high-frequency propagation.