Powering Lorde’s Ultrasound world tour

Lorde launched the Ultrasound World tour in late 2025 to promote her latest album, Virgin.

The ambitious run of arena concerts across North America, Europe, and Oceania has seen the artist performing to some of the largest venues and crowds of her career thus far. To meet the extensive RF challenges presented by this global run of dates, Lorde’s audio team adopted an end-to-end wireless setup of Sound Devices Astral equipment to ensure flexibility and flawless performance in FOH, monitoring and backstage communications.

Setting the stage

The origins of the tour’s comprehensive wireless setup came about during rehearsals in May of 2025. Veteran live audio engineer Kevin Glendinning and tour production manager Robin Scott sought to develop an RF plan that would provide them with the adaptability, scalability, and reliability required. In addition to Glendinning on Monitors, the team consisted of RF engineer Stacey Handley, front of house engineer Philip Harvey, and systems engineer Chris Demonbreun.

“We knew that we had to go beyond what would be considered a ‘standard’ deployment to provide ourselves with the most flexible RF toolbox,” Glendinning explains. “We had to prepare for large and diversely-configured venues, a very active and mobile on-stage performer in Ella [Lorde], and the ability to deal with a larger-than-normal amount of signal congestion all while providing pristine audio quality with the least amount of latency.”

“We tested Sound Devices Astral at her Glastonbury set and were immediately impressed with the fact that we could get the sound of a wired mic out of a wireless system,” he continues. “All the stars aligned and we recognised that Astral could provide us with everything we needed in all areas that required RF.”

The ultimate end-to-end RF toolbox

Handley approaches RF system design from an experienced, problem-solving mindset — looking to adopt a flexible set of tools that can quickly and reliably tackle any challenges that may arise. Building the tour’s system around Sound Devices Astral and its SpectraBand technology gave her the ability to easily adapt to every venue on the Ultrasound World Tour without compromise in sound or frequency strength.

“Looking at the size and scope of the venues and the fact that our initial run took us through some of the most heavily RF congested areas of the United States, my top priority was having maximum control, flexibility, and signal quality within the available frequencies,” she says. “With Astral this is easily achievable. SpectraBand’s tuning range of 169 – 1525 Mhz gives us ample frequency room to work within, and because it works globally, we can take advantage of this as the tour continues to other regions of the world without changing equipment.”

Handley also cites the ease of use of Astral in providing critical information she needs quickly and easily, something that is not only useful to her own workflow but also to that of her colleagues and the performers who are not as well-versed in RF.

“I find that my workflow tends to revolve around gathering evidence and troubleshooting – I like to know exactly how things work and why things happen,” she explains. “Astral’s easily accessible displays and controls create an added layer of trust and reassurance that is invaluable on big productions like this and makes it very easy to explain all of this to the people I work for in straight-forward terms.”

Astral out front

For the show’s primary RF needs, Handley utilises the Sound Devices ARX32 Wireless Receiver with Astral HH wireless microphone for Lorde’s vocals. The team customised her Astral HH to ensure a comfortable weight and straight-forward control. “I run all of Ella’s frequencies in the first tuning band, making the most of the quad diversity,” Handley says. “I then place all of our auxiliary frequencies, such as talk-backs, in tuning band 3, giving me the flexibility to move them independently from day to day without any difficulty.”

“Sound-wise, Astral HH is transparent, clear, and makes minimal noise,” states Glendinning. “It has been a complete no-brainer for us to use because of that and everyone has been super happy with the results both out front and backstage. We customised Ella’s Astral HH with a nickel-plated shell from Rebel and a control ring switch to dial it exactly to what we needed cosmetically and control-wise.”

“There is a part of the show where Ella sits down for a quieter, more relaxed segment using a cable microphone with the exact same capsule,” he continues. “Believe it or not, she and I prefer the HH RF to that of the wired mic. The clarity, high frequency detail, and overall detail sound signature of the Astral HH beat out the cable mic that we all reference as the basis of true, direct vocal input – something I have never, nor heard anyone, ever say when A-Bing RF to hardwired inputs!”

Behind the scenes

In addition to handling all of the production’s performance needs, Astral Wireless also was utilised for crew communications and testing and measurement for each venue. Astral TX Bodypacks are deployed for talkback amongst the crew and between the band members.

“We recognised that having it all in one system was a winning strategy once we’d been educated on all of the tools available in the Astral ecosystem,” shares Glendinning. “We’re all on in-ears and we have the Astral TX hooked up to our DPA Lav Mics with a momentary switch so we can easily talk to each other, the band, or Ella without any issue. On a production of this scale it saves an incredible amount of time and allows us to be anywhere we need to be without having to be tied to the console.”

On the testing and measurement side, Clair Global systems engineer Demonbreun uses an Astral ARX8 Wireless Receiver and Astral TX transmitters. “The Sound Devices Astral system is the best unit on the market I’ve used for system measurement,” he states. “The frequency response is super flat, and the phase response is ideal for measurements. I love having the capability of remotely controlling the transmitters from the ARX8 or my phone with the Astral Remote.”

“I’m taking anywhere from 20 to 30 measurements in arenas and sheds and upwards of 50 plus in stadiums, so battery life is also very important,” he continues. “The Astral transmitters have great battery life with the Sound Devices rechargeable batteries. Also, if I need to stop taking measurements for a while, I can remotely turn off the transmitters to save battery. The Astral devices are some of the best pieces of gear in my arsenal at FOH and making sure the system is properly tuned.”

Visit sounddevices.com/astral/ for more information.