Van Damme Cabling Keeps Coldplay's Record-Breaking Word Tour Connected

Van Damme Cabling Solutions continues to play a critical role in the global production of Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour, one of the most ambitious and highest-attended live music tours in history.

Since launching in 2022, the tour has delivered sustainability-focused stadium spectaculars across multiple continents, with further dates already confirmed into 2026 and 2027. Behind the scenes, an international audio team manages a complex and constantly moving technical ecosystem, ensuring the same emotional impact is delivered to millions of fans each night, regardless of location or climate.

At the core of that system is Van Damme cabling, integrated throughout the tour's audio signal paths, from front of house to monitors and backline. Designed for durability and consistency, the cabling forms a vital — if unseen — backbone of the production, ensuring nightly reliability as the show moves rapidly between cities and venues.

Coldplay's long-time front of house engineer Dan Green, who has worked with the band since 1998, said the groundwork for the tour began almost immediately after the album was completed. "We started planning around five years ago, just after we’d finished making the record," he said. "Now we're wrapping up this leg before taking a short break at Wembley, where we’ll play ten shows."

Head of Audio and system designer Tony Smith, who has been with the band for more than 23 years, said the audio system has evolved significantly over the course of the tour. "The main system has been refined as new technology becomes available, and we've worked hard to keep the footprint as small as possible while still covering three stages," he explained. The A, B and C stages each require extensive and resilient cabling infrastructure to withstand fast load-ins, load-outs and nightly transportation.

Sustainability is also central to the production’s design. “"In audio, we've tried to downscale our racks by using fewer plugins and more onboard processing," Green said. "The three-stage setup includes a full band rig on A, a near-full rig on B and a more acoustic-focused setup on C."

The tour's recording operation has expanded in parallel with its live ambitions. "We now run two Pro Tools systems and have increased the channel count to 256," Smith said. "With three stages and 32 ambient microphones, it’s the only way to capture everything," Green added that while not all channels are broadcast live, the system allows for exceptional sonic detail.

Despite the scale and technical complexity, the team remains focused on the fan experience. "It's a massive tour with a lot of people to entertain," Smith said. "My job is to make sure everyone can hear it — that everyone's throwing their hands in the air," Green added: "We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved with the sound. Wherever you are in the stadium, it's a great experience."

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