Carlos Vives' Tour Lighting Design: Powered by zactrack SMART
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
With over 20 million albums sold, Colombian pop star Carlos Vives has been filling arena-level concerts worldwide. In an interview, his lighting designer William Gallo elaborates on his decision to use zactrack SMART and shares his experience with the system while on tour.
William Gallo, Lighting Designer for Carlos Vives, first got in touch with zactrack in 2023. Since then, he has been using zactrack SMART with Carlos Vives on three different tours: El Tour de los 30 (2023), El Rock de Mi Pueblo Vive (2025), and soon, Tour al Sol (2026). The team first got in touch with zactrack via Wholestage, zactrack’s local distributor in Colombia, who made sure to provide top-notch technical support throughout all tours.
In 2023, when first using zactrack on El Tour de los 30 at the first tour stop, the team received the system at 3 p.m. in Chicago. Despite not having any prior experience, they had it running by 7 p.m. William emphasises that there is something truly different about its performance: "After having tested almost all the tracking systems in the industry, zactrack has something I haven’t found in others: how easy it is to use. The integration with the console is very fluid, and having full control from a tablet is impressive. During a show, that translates into speed and peace of mind. Even at festivals, we can arrive, unpack, and have the system 100% running in less than 40 minutes – that’s key when I’m on tour."
Designing Light in Motion with zactrack SMART
William’s setup consists of one zactrack SMART server with 8 Anchors and 5 Pucks, later used for calibration. Five trackers were used, with the performers lit by front light and selected fixtures on one of the counter bridges. This configuration allows effects to be built directly in sync with the music, following accordion and guitar solos as well as other key moments in the show. The result is a visual language fully consistent with the lighting design.
William highlights how zactrack has transformed his approach to lighting design in general: "I no longer have to worry about fixed positions for the solos or rely on constant manual operation of the followers. zactrack frees me from those limitations and allows me to create much more organic, musical moments, fully aligned with what is happening on stage.” By centralising all creative control directly on the console with consistent and predictable information, the system significantly reduces the typical margins of error associated with manual operation and human interpretation in real time.
Carlos Vives Lighting Design: Live and Broadcast Performance
“Something very important for me is the direct impact this has on the CCTV broadcast camera,” explains William. “By working with zactrack, I achieve a consistent amount of light on the artist, without dark areas or sudden changes, which means the cameras always receive the same quality of light. The result is a clean, stable, and very solid television image".
This is especially important in today’s medialized world, where concert content circulates more widely than ever through social media. “Carlos is one of the most important and influential artists, bringing Colombian music to audiences around the world, and for me it is key that every musician, every solo, and every moment is always seen in the best possible way – both for the live audience and on the screens,” so William on Carlos Vives' lighting design.
Not just lighting: Integration with DiGiCo Quantum 338 and L-ISA
In the most recent tour, Vives’ team integrated zactrack SMART with the DiGiCo Quantum 338 and L-Acoustics’ L-ISA system also. William explains: “That's where I feel everything just clicked – movement, lighting and audio begin to interact with each other in a very natural way, creating an immersive and coherent experience within the show!”
Strong support from local zactrack experts
As William reports, the deployment of zactrack on that scale has been made possible through the close collaboration with Wholestage. “Involved from the earliest stages, Wholestage provided essential equipment and consistent technical and operational support, ensuring continuity and reliability throughout every show.”
Celebrating Three Years of zactrack on Tour with Carlos Vives
William is very satisfied with the zactrack SMART system and, as an experienced user, has been able to create holistic and efficient workflows for its use on tour: “zactrack has become one of my most important allies when it comes to lighting the show. From theatres to arenas and stadiums, the scalability of the system has been a great added value. Sometimes, with only five antennas mounted on the floor, I already have a fully functional system with perfect alignment and a fast response time.”
CREDITS
Artist: Carlos Vives
Project Director: Claudia Elena Vasquez @claudiaelena
Production Manager: Wilson Mora @nastystage
Road Manager: Santiago Granados @santiagograna2
Stage Manager: Felipe Barón @danielfelipe_baron
Set Design/ Lighting Programming: William Gallo @william_gadu; Design Studio: Aurora Studio @auroralx
zactrack: Juan Daniel Ozuna Espinal @juandozuna (Wholestage), William Gallo
Camera Director: Melisa Gordillo @vjm3l1, Sergio Rodríguez @sergioirodriguez.
Vendor USA: @3gproductions; Vendor Colombia: @genesisproducciones, SFX: @elvaquerosfx
Lasers: @lightingstageco
Technical Support: @wholestage @juandozuna @moy.agm
Special Thanks to WholeStage (supplied zactrack and other brands): Luis Duque @ldwholestage, Jonathan del Vilar @JDwholestage, @juandozuna
Photos 3-5 (below paragraph "Designing Light in Motion with zactrack SMART"): © @mava.villamizar
Photos 6-8 (below paragraph "Carlos Vives Lighting Design: Live and Broadcast Performance"): © @william_gadu
TEAM VIVES:
@alejandroduquerestrepo @chonpr @ekamargo01 @fredy.ardila.s @jfronter23 @andresfelipe.munoz.1690671 @ger7415 @leonardo_rincon_
