International – Ghost’s acclaimed 2025-26 ‘Skeletour’ world tour – their largest to date – concluded last month with the final dramatic shows in the US. The innovative Grammy Award-winning Swedish rock band combines eye-popping aesthetics, great music, anthemic songs, and epic theatrical performance in their high-octane live shows, which are consistently high on production values.
The Skeletour lighting design was created by Tobias Rylander and lighting directed / operated on the road for most of the tour by Ishai Mika of Stockholm-based Green Wall Designs. Precision spotlighting was central to this exciting and energetic show, so a zactrack PRO was specified to run this aspect of the production.
The zactrack PRO system was supplied with live and backup servers by Berlin-based tracking specialist, Tracking Pro, led by the tour’s global lighting and video contractor, PRG.
The zactrack system was tech’d on tour by lighting crew chief Dom McClory and was running in 3D mode due to the multi-level stage risers. Dom also programmed the zactrack system with all the positional information that was then input, stored, and played back via Ishai’s grandMA3 full-size lighting console.
Both Tobias and Dom had used zactrack before, and Tobias thought it would be the best system to help facilitate the design, which needed very accurate follow spotting operation complete with many blackout / pickup and cut-to-black effects with no margin for error.
A total of 19 lighting fixtures – all Vari-Lite VL3600s – were utilised by the zactrack system. This enabled Ishai and the team to be very flexible with which units were denoted as follow spots and on whom they were focused.
It also meant that any of the designated fixtures could be repurposed at any time from follow spotting duties and be used as part of the general lighting rig.
A total of 17 zactrack Anchors were deployed around the performance space and triangulated to denote the trackable field, measuring approximately 21 metres wide by 20 metres deep.
Each mobile band member – five in total – wore two zactrack Trackers on the front and back of their stage costumes. This was for full redundancy and to ensure that full line-of-sight between zactrack Trackers and Anchors was maintained wherever they moved around the stage.
It was the first time Ishai had used zactrack, and he was impressed with the flexibility, commenting, “It proved reliable and a good option to deal with the level of precision required for this show.”
The positioning of the Trackers in the costumes was critical, and Ishai and Dom collaborated closely with Ghost’s wardrobe team to choose the right locations, with both noting that it was great to be able to have these practical technical conversations early in the production process.
Each of the five mobile musicians was followed by three moving lights most of the time they were being spotted, with up to seven fixtures sometimes cutting to Ghost’s enigmatic frontman, Papa V Perpetua.
All fixture parameters – intensities, colours, iris, gobos, etc. – were controlled from the console, with the positional information from the zactrack servers integrated into the grandMA3 and stored in the relevant lighting cues, which were then timecoded, ensuring everything was completely accurate EVERY time, every gig.
The ability to accurately and reliably track multiple people simultaneously without also having to concentrate on calling spots is another huge asset when running an already busy and demanding light show.
Ishai utilised some powerful zactrack features like Height Offset, which ensures that the light will always be on the tracked person’s face, and Smart Beam which shrinks or expands the beam size as the performer moves around the stage, so it always stays proportionate.
Dom highlights that once the zactrack setup is initially completed, the day-to-day calibrations are swift and straightforward. As lighting crew chief, he already had an action-packed daily schedule, but once the tour was rolling, could comfortably also accommodate this with his other duties.
The zactrack system was set up during production rehearsals in Production Park at Wakefield in the UK with the help of two Tracking Pro technicians, Jaro Brinkmann, and Raphael Doelle. Raphael also worked on the first two shows as a backup tech.
PRG UK co-ordinated lighting and video for all the UK and European legs of the tour, with their US counterparts doing the same in North and South America. Lighting director / operator for the last leg was Vada Briceño, and lighting crew chief for the first two legs was Tom Bider.
Photos @ Ryan Chang
