July 13, 2024, 8:14 am | Read time: 4 minutes
For seven concerts, 34-year-old pop singer Taylor Swift is bringing her “Eras” tour to Germany in July. The lucky ones who managed to get a ticket will not only enjoy a more than three-hour spectacle but also receive a glowing wristband. This creates a spectacular light show—all on its own. TECHBOOK explains the technology behind it.
More than one billion U.S. dollars—that’s how much the current “Eras Tour” by U.S. pop star Taylor Swift has already grossed, according to the news agency “AP.” And there’s more to come. Starting July 17, the megastar will perform a total of seven concerts in Germany. Attendees can expect not only a show lasting more than three hours but also a spectacular light show. The concert wristbands of the audience play a special role in this.
This doesn’t refer to the numerous colorful friendship bracelets that fans make on their own before the concerts, but to the glowing wristbands distributed to every attendee of the “Eras Tour” before the concert begins. They light up in different colors and rhythms during the songs. Sometimes they even blink in different sections of the stadiums. But how exactly does it work? TECHBOOK sheds light on it.
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Two LEDs per wristband create a special light show
Such glowing wristbands are also distributed to fans at concerts of other artists like Coldplay or Lady Gaga, creating varied light effects. However, not all work on the same principle, as Vincent Leclerc, co-founder and CEO of the Canadian tech company PixMob, explains in an interview with “Wired.”
The company is a market leader in LED concert wristbands and has also produced them for Taylor Swift. “It’s funny—many think that each device contains a GPS transmitter or a lot of AI technology,” says Leclerc. In reality, there are three simple and rather older technologies that create the individual light show during the concerts.
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Radio frequencies, infrared, or Bluetooth—Taylor Swift relies on these
The first is based on classic radio frequencies and is mainly used in sports stadiums. The wristbands are equipped with a signal receiver and a tiny computer that converts the radio signal into light colors. However, this only works reliably if the audience doesn’t change their seats.
The second technology is based on Bluetooth. For the concert wristbands to work, fans must pair them with their smartphones via Bluetooth. This way, the lighting control knows where the wristbands are and can create patterns or words using the LED lights. This method is mainly used by K-pop bands at concerts.
However, Taylor Swift relies on the third principle for her Eras tour wristbands: infrared sensors, similar to a TV remote control. With this method, even moving patterns and shapes can be displayed. Robot transmitters are set up throughout the arena. Using the infrared sensors in the wristband, the lighting control can send lighting data to any location in the arena. This Instagram reel explains how it works briefly and concisely:
This is how moving images like the snakes during Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” songs come to life during the show.
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Here is an overview of all the tour dates for Germany:
The tickets are long sold out. However, some of the lucky ones who first got a presale access code on Eventim and then managed to get tickets had to deal with a nasty hacker attack. Some criminals gained access to Eventim user accounts and resold the digital tickets, as reported by the magazine “Heise.” As a result, the ticket platform temporarily suspended the resale of Eras tour tickets.
At least: A hacker attack on the concertgoers’ glowing wristbands with infrared technology is not to be feared.