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Panasonic and Solotech Deliver Captivating, Cinematic Visual Experiences to The Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn Tour”

  • Case Studies
August 20, 2025

Section Title

  • Challenges

    With 60+ sold-out stadium dates and over 3 million tickets sold globally, The Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn Tour” is among the top ten highest-grossing tours of the decade. The Canadian singer-songwriter known as The Weeknd is not only attracting massive crowds through his light-lyric tenor vocals and emotive songs, but also through the creative production behind the tour.

    Solotech, an audiovisual technology company supporting live events and installations, provided the technical know-how behind the video production for the tour. Having worked with the artist leading up to and during the 2017 “Starboy – Legend of the Fall Tour,” Solotech wanted to deliver an even more spectacular experience to fans during the “After Hours Til Dawn Tour,” which kicked off in 2023. To pull this off, the production crew needed advanced switcher and camera technology to enable more creative freedom.

  • Solutions

    Three weeks before the tour kicked off, the tour’s production manager Rob DeCeglio approved the switch to KAIROS. “We took a chance on KAIROS because we needed a system that gives operators the creative freedom to make live changes during a show,” said Richard Parkin, Show Director of the “After Hours Til Dawn Tour.” “KAIROS does that and more. Following the installation, Panasonic’s Frank Yost spent time teaching me the ins and outs of the KAIROS, helping me fully harness its power and flexibility.”

    The team added Panasonic’s KAIROS Live Studio Production Platform, seven AW-UE150 PTZ Cameras, two AK-PLV100 4K CINELIVE Cameras, and five AK-UC4000 Studio Cameras to the third leg of the tour. These solutions empowered the crew to evolve the existing city scape backdrop on a larger 124-foot x 63-foot-tall LED screen, seamlessly aligning the vivid, scenic visuals with the mood of each song to tell a cohesive story.

    “During the rehearsal period, it was clear that KAIROS would enable greater creative freedom during the tour,” said Tim Jones, Director of Video Engineering, US/APAC, Solotech. “KAIROS starts off as a blank canvas, allowing us to quickly build complex scenes and launch them to the live audience at the touch of a button.”

  • Results

    During the song Reflections, the camera director and KAIROS operator, Richard Parkin, created stunning 4K images with reflections of The Weeknd that were displayed on the large LED wall. Richard simultaneously communicated with the camera team to direct live shots he envisioned on the fly, allowing the production crew to truly immerse the audience in real time creative experiences.

    “KAIROS is instantaneous, allowing us to deliver 4K video to the LED wall with no lag and maintain the low light settings to visually represent the mood and tone of Reflections,” said Richard Parkin.

    KAIROS also allowed the team to tap into unlimited video layering to create looks that weren’t achievable with traditional switchers. With KAIROS’ built-in effects, like real time layering, dynamic keying, and scene transition, the operator could easily compliment the show’s lighting and match different moods of each song by programming visual designs across all cameras. “KAIROS is easy to program, which enhances our workflows and allows us to focus on crafting more in-the-moment experiences that incorporate the audience into the show.”

     

Conclusion

Camera feeds are received by KAIROS via SDI. By connecting over a unified IP network, KAIROS communicates with Panasonic’s suite of cameras to manage pan, tilt, zoom, and preset functions on each camera. The cameras are assigned to different areas of the arena based on where they’re most useful. The AW-UE150 PTZ Cameras were placed on a PanaPod, an elevation unit specifically designed for Panasonic PTZ cameras that allow them to ped up and down, at the end of the runway. Using the AW-RP150 camera controller, the camera operators can make the elevation units go up and down to pop-up on-stage level when needed and disappear to prevent obscuring audience view of the show. KAIROS can also send commands directly to the PTZ cameras to adjust the height of the PanaPod. These PTZ cameras deliver high-quality, 4K visuals and feature a 20x optical zoom and optical image stabilization for clear, steady shots of The Weeknd, giving audience members around the stadium a front row view. With the AW-UE150, color correction is managed through KAIROS and can be toggled on or off for each camera input or output within the switcher. This allows the camera crew to stack color corrections and adjust tonal balance to create warm or cool looks that complement the mood of each song.

The AK-UC4000 Studio Cameras are also positioned on stage. Equipped with long lenses, they are ideal for a stadium environment, capturing tight shots from a distance without compromising image quality. The AK-PLV100 4K CINELIVE Cameras are positioned in the pit, between the barrier and stage, equipped with a lens designed to deliver a shallow depth field, capturing intimate, cinematic shots.