This article originally appeared on directout.eu
Linkin Park’s Audio Setup: Ready for Anything with DirectOut PRODIGY Series
When it comes to high-end, flexible audio solutions, DirectOut has become a go-to choice for touring professionals.
For Linkin Park’s systems architect Ricki Cook, the DirectOut PRODIGY and EXBOX Series have been essential in ensuring the band’s audio system is compatible with any setup, anywhere in the world.
From fly-in gigs in South America to U.S. TV shows and European stadium performances, the band’s audio system is fully redundant and ready for any scenario.
From Systems Integration to Touring Expertise
Cook began his career in systems integration before moving into live and touring sound, eventually branching into broadcast. It was here that he discovered the unmatched flexibility of DirectOut products, which he has been using for over a decade.
When the opportunity arose to engineer Linkin Park’s FOH and broadcast systems, Cook eagerly returned to the road. The band is now midway through their worldwide From Zero Tour, with upcoming dates in 2026 across the UAE, Australia and Europe.
“From the very beginning, the production manager said ‘Be prepared for anything’,” Cook explains. “And I knew there’s only one box that can do literally everything – the PRODIGY.MX!”
“There are very few devices on the market that can actually go to the same level of detail in a box that’s packaged to tour and has a very usable interface. We use globcon (DirectOut’s software controller) for all of our system monitoring with a Stream Deck interface for tactile control.”
How Linkin Park Uses PRODIGY Series on Tour
In total, the band’s audio and video engineers rely on six PRODIGY Series devices across multiple roles in their systems:
- Stage Rigs: Two PRODIGY.MP units handle the keyboard and playback rigs, providing failover, Dante conversion, and up-sampling from 48k to 96k, to interface seamlessly with the broader audio system. These rigs were designed by Fred Carlton of Nerdmatics.
- Main PA: A third PRODIGY.MP drives the main PA system.
- Front of House: The PRODIGY.MX in the FOH effects rack manages audio-feed changeovers and redundancy for a DiGiCo Quantum 852, supplied by Sound Image (a Clair Global Company), alongside a PRODIGY.MC handling analogue inserts. Audio is then sent to Pro Tools for virtual sound checks and archiving, and to Fourier transform.engines for processing and plug-in management.
“The PRODIGY.MX seamlessly manages the change-over between the DiGiCo engines and the rest of the rig. This ensures that, regardless of where the switch happens in the chain of devices, it is guaranteed to be glitch free,” Cook explains.
Failover and Redundancy Simplified
Cook describes the failover system in detail:
“We’re using BLDS to do fail-over between the Fourier engines. So, if one fails, BLDS loses tone and instantly switches to the back-up. This way, the Fouriers can failover without having to fail the engines on the console over, too, which would be more disruptive.
“Or we can switch the engines over on the console without having to force the Fourier to fail over as well. Either way, Pro Tools never loses the feed, so we never lose a record or various feeds to downstream systems. It’s seamless.”
Broadcast-Ready Audio Anywhere
The sixth PRODIGY.MX supports the band’s in-house broadcast team, providing content for YouTube channels and major events like the League of Legends e-sports tournament at London’s O2 Arena.
“The Broadcast PRODIGY.MX does a 96k to 48k conversion for broadcasters, and then isolates the clock domain for them, so they can be floating on their own clock and it doesn’t affect us,” Cook explains. “I use the high density MADI SRC & Dante SRC cards. The MADI cards are loaded with a pair of multimode SFPs, Singlemode SFPs and coax SFPs.
“This means it doesn’t matter what the external crews are running, I can just plug it in and the same output appears on all of them. We used that in London last year for League of Legends where the local team could just hand me a pair of Singlemode fibers & no additional conversion was needed, it was as simple that.”
Modular Design for Maximum Flexibility
Cook also utilizes BiDi SFPs in the HD MADI SRC cards, enabling up to four MADI circuits down a single opticalCON Quad fiber to EXBOX.MD remote nodes. This delivers audio to broadcast consoles at stadium shows while maintaining compatibility with SM, MM, coax, or Dante at the remote end.
The modularity of the PRODIGY Series allows engineers to handle virtually any combination of output requirements. Whether it’s multi-mode fiber in Brazil or coaxial connections in North Hollywood, the team can supply exactly what’s needed—reducing setup time and stress.
“When we were touring through South America and Asia the PAs were locally provided. One day we’d show up and we’d have to feed the PA with Dante, the next day it would be AVB, the next, AES. I’ve got all of those cards loaded into my PRODIGY.MP at FOH and it’s just easy,” Cook concludes. “It doesn’t matter what they’re running, I can just plug them into the PRODIGY and it makes life easier.”
Find out more about the DirectOut Prodigy Series
FOH crew with their setup: Ricki Cook and Bill Chase