At just 23 years old, Benson Boone's career has seen some incredible highs. His debut album 'Fireworks & Rollerblades' has been Platinum-certified, and viral break out single 'Beautiful Things' - the most-streamed song in the world in 2024! – has 5x Platinum status. His undeniable entry into global stardom also earned him a 'Best New Artist' nomination at the 2025 Grammy Awards, he’s been an opening act on the Eras tour and took the No.1 spot on the Billboard Global 200 for a cool 7 weeks. In short, the industry and the public is paying attention.
2025's follow up album 'American Heart' spawned a sold-out world tour of the same name, a 49-date thunderbolt of faultless vocal led pop rock energy. The arena tour has been supported by Clair Global, providing audio reinforcement, comms and production IT services to a technically determined and innovative touring crew.
Production Manager Paul English, the man who oversaw Adele’s record-breaking Munich residency, has followed that winning formula, and replicated much of his team and supplier relationships for ‘American Heart’.
“I’ve put together a really good crew, and we’re using really good suppliers,” he begins. “It just works. When you use Clair, a lot of support is only ever a phone call away. It’s the same across the board, but I think that's because my suppliers are global and they can help us out anywhere that we go.”
Benson’s live shows are in-demand: the tour has travelled across every continent bar Africa, requiring tight turn arounds across oceans that have only been made possible through global assistance.
Paul continues: “It has been a challenging production to execute at times, but we’ve got there and it's really paid off. Benson is great to work with, and he absolutely owns the stage. He's incredibly sure-footed, fit and strong, so if anybody could own this production, it’s him!”
Backstage, his hard-working crew are also appreciated: “He's the easiest artist to work with in the sense that he is very understanding,” comments Monitor Engineer Carter Luckett. “He’s very talented. On my side it can be challenging to mix because of how much he moves around; he’s an athlete up there! But he’s so good that he makes all our jobs easier.”
A service like no other
“He's hungry to tour, and to keep up with his workload, we need a company that can handle our needs,” adds FOH Engineer Joey Diehl. “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 and done it so well.”
The account is looked after by Clair Global’s Brady Bessinger, out of the Nashville location. Joey notes that Clair’s global presence has been a stable element of moving around so many countries so quickly. “Brady’s been great, and you know the person in each Clair shop is going to take care of you. It’s as though you're being handed off from one friend to another and given something identical.”
Systems Engineer Alex McKenna adds: “And it’s all handled with the utmost care and communication between operations managers and us. Realistically, no other company has that consistency worldwide.”
RF Engineer Thomas ‘Chip’ Valentino agrees: “For example, we can walk into BBM Clair in Berlin and have the gear ready to prep, even when it’s a complicated rig. To know that people know how to set it up to the point where you can just load files, and go, is amazing.”
The FOH Mix
At FOH, Joey 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.
Joey continues: “The musical director and the musicians are incredible. The transparency in Benson's vocal and his style of music - the sing along ability of his songs - means our biggest thing is to make sure the crowds are having a good time and can hear what the band is doing from every seat. I don't like to stray too far from how they’d hear his songs in their cars, with that big, clear pop sound.”
The tour’s PA system was designed by Johnny Keirle, the renowned engineer behind Adele’s mammoth 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 & side hangs, K3 on rear hangs, KS28’s for subs and A15 for fills.
“The show designers were very keen on having a PA that could stay out of the way, visually. 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 300ft 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.”
The box also lent itself to the audience demographic, as Alex explains: “The L2 is already highly optimized out of the box, so we had a good baseline. We’re responsible for having an SPL that's reasonable for young people to listen to and the L2 has been a complement to that. We’ve found the sweet spot where we're getting the coverage we want, and it’s extremely consistent, alongside the conscientious decision to not be too loud.”
Hidden Monitors, Flawless Execution
Monitor world lives under the intricate stage for this tour, where lifts and trap doors add to the showmanship of the performance.
Carter, who is aided by Monitor Tech Joe McCarthy, also mixes on a DiGiCo Quantum 852. He has 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’s also a DiGiCo Mini Rack and for outboard FX, a Rupert Neve 5045 Primary Source Enhancer, 5035 Shelford Channel and a Bricasti M7 Reverb are the chosen tool kit, with Neve RMP-D8 preamps for inputs.
Carter continues: “The most interesting thing I had to figure out was the chandelier moment; Benson jumps on it & glides above the crowd, right into the throw of the PA, and flies over the audience for about 80-90 ft. To cover that, an intense wireless set-up was necessary to ensure we had rock solid coverage for our artist. There’s such a lot of movement in the show, he does back flips and is a constant bundle of energy, so having consistent wireless coverage on the long stage was paramount.”
Keeping track of where he is on the stage in relation to the PA is 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's a different mix process when he's out on the B stage, which is just more timing references, more click in his mix, and more drums as he moves around the stage. It changes based on where he is, what I'm hearing in his mix through his vocal mic and how far away he is from the PA, but his pitch is impeccable, so he doesn't get lost tonally.”
Chip furthers: “It was a little tricky figuring out the antenna deployment for this stage too, to not only cover above the stage, but below it, where all our techs live. We couldn’t infringe upon the creative elements of the show so with a little thoughtful execution, it works 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 is deployed over fiber throughout the audio and backline systems, providing maximum flexibility for data movement across the arena.
The team has also opted for Wisycom due to its analog mode ability. “With the SoundBase RF management tools, and its new coordination software, Wisycom’s been wonderful,” adds Chip.
Benson uses FIR IEMs and a Wisycom MTK982 IEM dual transmitter and sings through a Shure Axient RF mic and DPA capsule to deliver his note-perfect hits such as ‘In the Stars’ and ‘Slow it Down’.
Comms and Community
Comms Tech Mars McGurl manages 60 people's needs during the show, using a Motorola radio package and a Riedel Communications Bolero wireless intercom system.
"I listen to 20 channels at once," they begin. "It's so integrated - everybody needs very specific things, so this system is like having a festival gig inside of an arena. We integrate radios into everything, the idea being to turn the radios into a duplex system.
"Alex 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 don't turn the sound system on until all the comms are working. They're crucial because of all the moving parts.”
"There's a standard of excellence on this tour," adds Carter. "It's incredible to be around, it's inspiring. It's sometimes a little daunting doing what we're doing, and the schedule has been intense, but to do it so consistently well has been amazing and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this team!"
The wider Clair crew is completed by USA PA Techs Owen Nagel, Keith Porter & Sierra Raia and EU PA Techs Adrian Roche & Juan Antuna.
Chip, who is also the Clair Global Crew Chief reflects on the teamwork it’s taken: "Everybody has each other's back here. We all work together as our community, and across all departments. Within our crew, whether it's a minor or a major adjustment, we pull together to make it better- Joe McCarthy's paperwork on this has been unreal. I couldn't ask to be with a better team."
Post tour, Benson Boone played one-offs for audiences in the UAE and KSA in December, supported by Clair Global's Middle East locations.
