Backstage At The GRAMMYs 2025

Last week, I had the honor of going backstage at the GRAMMYs®, thanks to our friends at the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, who arranged the tour for us at Live Design Magazine.

This year’s 67th GRAMMY Awards show was held on Sunday, February 2 at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, where security was understandably tight. Transforming a sports arena into a flexible broadcast theater is a testament to the production team's imagination and problem-solving skills. Much of the sound mixing for the music took place in Music Mix Mobile (M3) remote recording trucks Eclipse and Voyager, where GRAMMY co-broadcast music mixers Eric Schilling and John Harris prepare the 5.1-channel music mix for the broadcast audience using identical state-of-the-art, Lawo MC56² 48 Fader Surface mixing consoles. All of the audio is coordinated by GRAMMY Audio Producer Michael Abbott who Live Design had the pleasure of interviewing last year.

How does all this high-definition sound travel through this enormous building?  A complex network of fiber optic cables connected the sound from the microphones to the broadcast outputs, converting everything to Dolby 5.1.

To fully appreciate the organization and design of the technical support team, we ventured into the tunnel network surrounding the arena. For those who watched the show, the last production number featuring Charli XCX was shot in this tunnel. We passed numerous rolling set pieces and arrived at the fiber optic network panels, known as “Split World.” Before fiber optics, this area was four times larger with traditional analog audio cables. Further down the tunnel, we found the wireless microphone station, where audio technicians from Soundtronics tested the frequencies and batteries of the 204 microphones & RF IEM’s used in the show. Frequency Coordination is a huge undertaking, especially in a downtown location with multiple events taking place. Cryto.Com Arena applied RF EMF shielding paint during the 2024 renovation at Crypto.com which has shielded RF in the Arena from outside interference.

We also saw countless moving light road cases, rolling light towers, and stage platforms holding instruments and microphones for the numerous musical acts. These set pieces were designed to be quickly moved on and off the stages in the arena.

Further down the tunnel was the Denali Summit video production truck where broadcast mixer Tom Holmes works on his Calrec console to combine the 5.1 music mix from M3, along with other audio production elements (announce/audience reaction microphones, walk on/off music, etc…) before the audio is married to the video and then sent off to New York for distribution. The show director’s video control room, filled with monitors displaying the cameras’ video feeds, was also located here.

We passed by the LA Lakers’ and LA Kings’ locker rooms, which were being converted into artists’ dressing rooms, and offices were being retrofitted with new carpeting and furniture for GRAMMY VIPs.

The scale of this year’s GRAMMY Awards Show was impressive. As we entered the floor of the arena, we were awed by the huge flying LED walls that framed the three different stages, along with PA, Clair Global's Cohesion audio system. We also saw the Agito robotic camera, silently moving up and down the aisles.

The artists' table area featured soft light centerpieces that beautifully lit the artists’ faces, perfect for Trevor Noah’s interaction with the artists, and of course, Chappell Rone’s fabulous eye makeup.

Lighting trusses filled with LED wash lights hung over the floor and audience areas, while LED movers hung above the stages for camera eye-candy and lighting effects. In addition, high powered automated spot fixtures were in the top row of the arena to backlight the audience and create immersive lighting effects. A raised platform at the rear of the floor housed cameras and large teleprompters.

On the second floor, we met lighting designer Noah Mitz’s team, where six programmers were working on grandMA3’s. Above this location was the followspot truss with three spotlights hung at the appropriate lower angles for video.

As expected, everything in the show was triggered by time-code-striped Avid Pro Tools playback rigs to sync & automate lighting, laser, video wall content, and stage automation. Time-code has become an essential element for large scale production such as the GRAMMY Awards.

One of the most impressive technological features were the two uninterruptable power supply trucks parked just outside of the arena. In case of a major power failure, these trucks, filled with generators and batteries, could immediately take over the power of the entire arena, including all production and broadcast needs. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and we enjoyed one of the best Grammy productions in recent history.

I was thrilled to tour the backstage of this massive show, gaining a heightened appreciation for the teamwork required to produce it. In fact, it’s amazing that this show happened at all considering that it occurred shortly after the devastating fires in the Los Angeles area. Watching the show on Sunday, I noticed no technical errors. It looked and sounded amazing on my 5.1 video system! Kudos to all the designers, engineers, and technicians involved for making this show happen, and for supporting a community in need.

Photographs courtesy of The Recording Academy®/Getty Images. ©2025 Photographs by Kevin Winter.

Live Design will have more coverage on this year’s GRAMMYs, so please stay tuned.

Sound crew credits: