American country singer Scotty McCreery’s Cab in a Solo Tour made its way through the US with a versatile setlist that transitioned between upbeat anthems and touching ballads, backed by three upstage LED screens driven by tvONE’s Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.

Landing at Boston’s new MGM Musical Hall at Fenway at the beginning of March 2024, the North Carolina native’s production was ramped up as fans flocked to see McCreery. He performed hits from across his five albums, including new single and tour title namesake, “Cab in a Solo” – the first from forthcoming album Rise & Fall, out on May 10. Striking graphics, animations and imagery from McCreery’s music videos were displayed on the three portrait LED walls, which were made up of Roe’s ultra-fine 8.33mm pixel pitch CB8 LED panels. The content was delivered by two Green Hippo Hippotizer Karst+ MK2 Media Servers sourced from 4Wall Entertainment, and controlled using a grandMA3 console.

Production designer Drew Hornback of DH Production Designs created the concept for the 2024 tour in collaboration with McCreery and his production team. It marked the first time in a while that Scotty is carrying an LED wall on tour and Hornback chose Hippotizer Karst+ because, as he says, “it is quite the workhorse.” Scotty and his band are playing many different types of venues this year, including festivals and varying-sized spaces, and I knew that this server could handle the amount of different content and output at each gig.

Alec Takahashi from BKD Creative served as lighting and video programmer for the tour. “I have been friends with Adam Duncan, Scotty’s former PM, for quite a few years and he hit me up a couple years ago as they were looking around for a new programmer.” he explains. “My approach to any project is collaborative. It’s my job to create visual story alongside the artist for the artist and the whole show focuses mainly on the LED walls with supporting production around it.

I’ve always loved Hippotizer’s easy integration with a lighting console and I programmed everything through the grandMA2 – the workflow between Hippotizer and MA is fantastic.

“I’m very meticulous to blend lighting and video with purpose and intention and there were lots of moments where the video shined. I find Hippotizer to be very reliable, easy to use, and a powerful tool for driving media on any scale production.”

McCreery’s tour is visiting a range of venues and festivals, with some only requiring a 16×9 output for a center LED wall, others only house side screens. Using the Karst+ system, Horback says he knew the team would be able to pull off each of these different setups and the smaller formfactor allows for it to fit nicely into the rack but also offer the power needed to do these different shows. Green Hippo designed the Karst+ MK2 to offer tour–proof hardware and a tour-ready, robust case, while packing in two 4K outputs and fast processing within its slim, single 2U chassis.

McCreery himself commented on the video elements for his tour: “Everything feels bigger this year. The music has always been there, but the new visuals are taking our show to the next level. I can tell that our audiences around the country are really enjoying the new production as well!”

The Cab in a Solo Tour kicked off for 2024 in January and visited San Diego, Port Charlotte in Florida and more before breaking in April.