Alive 2007

29 April 2006 Daft Punk changed the electronic music world at the Sahara Tent, Coachella Festival.

The Alive 2006/2007 tour wasn't just a concert, it was an engineering marvel for its time.

Behind the pyramid and the helmets was an incredible technical "dream team."

Here are the key players and technicians who made this show possible:

Creative and Visual Design

Daft Arts (Paul Hahn and Cédric Hervet): The group's in-house production studio. They oversaw all the art direction.

Martin Phillips (Bionic League): The lighting and structure designer. He's the mastermind behind the famous LED pyramid.

Shadow (Chris Holmes): Responsible for visual programming and technological integration.

Sound and Live Performance

To ensure the mix was so impactful every night, sound experts were essential.

Sébastien Leguay: Front of House (FOH) Sound Engineer. He was responsible for what the audience heard.

Peter Brant: Head of sound equipment and technical logistics for the world tour.

The Structure and Effects

XL Video: The company that supplied and managed the high-performance LED screens that made up the pyramid and the backdrop.

Tait Towers: The stage construction giants who physically built the pyramid structure to be both stable and transportable.

The Technological "Brain": The Servers

What was revolutionary was that everything was synchronized via Catalyst servers (for video) and grandMA consoles (for lighting). The team also used Ableton Live software on custom servers to allow Thomas and Guy-Manuel to manipulate the sound in real time, rather than simply pressing "play."

Fun fact: at Coachella, the team was so worried the system would crash due to the desert heat that they set up portable air conditioners just to cool the servers under the pyramid.

MEDIA