This is what the GX 2c is built for. Not clubs — stadiums, arenas, broadcast stages where a single failure is not an option.
Disguise — formerly d3 Technologies — makes media servers. The GX 2c is their mid-range touring workhorse. It has been inside more stadium tours, arena shows and broadcast events than any other single product in the professional AV world. Understanding what it does and why it exists changes how you think about the entire category of “live video”.
What it actually is
The GX 2c is a 2U rackmount server running Disguise Designer software on a custom hardware platform. Two DVI/HDMI outputs per unit — hence the “2c” (two channels). It is designed to be used in pairs: a primary and a backup, locked together over a dedicated 10GbE link, with automatic failover in under a frame. It costs roughly €25,000 new per unit, meaning a redundant touring pair is a €50,000 investment before you add the server rack, cabling, and peripherals.
It is not for beginners. It is not trying to be. It is a professional tool for professional productions where the cost of a 30-second failure during a sold-out show is measured in tens of thousands of euros in brand damage, not just a bad memory.
A touring GX 2c pair lives in a purpose-built road case. Everything is labelled, everything is redundant, nothing is improvised.
The key differentiator: the timeline
Resolume is a live instrument. You play it. Disguise is a show controller. You programme it. The core of Disguise Designer is a frame-accurate timeline — a complete script of everything that happens during a show, from the first second of the intro video to the final blackout of the encore. Every video cue, every brightness change, every LED processor command, every DMX trigger: locked to timecode and reproducible perfectly every single night of a 200-date world tour.
This distinction matters more than it first appears. A timeline-based show can be rehearsed in pre-production without a stage. Every person on the production — lighting designer, audio engineer, director, artist — can reference the same document and know exactly what the show looks like at any given moment. Changes are tracked, versioned, and distributed. On show day, the operator’s job is primarily to ensure the system is healthy, the timecode is locked, and the show runs as designed. There is relatively little real-time decision-making.
A stadium show runs on a millisecond-accurate timecode. Every element — audio, light, video — is scripted to the frame.
Redundancy by design
A single GX 2c can run a show. On a real tour you run two, locked together in a Primary/Backup configuration over a dedicated 10GbE link. Both machines are running the show simultaneously. The Primary’s output goes to the displays. The Backup’s output goes to a hot-spare input on the video switching system. If the Primary fails — power loss, software crash, hardware fault — the Backup takes over in under a frame. The audience sees nothing. The tour does not stop.
This architecture is not unique to Disguise but Disguise has made it more accessible and more reliable than any competitor at their price point. The Backup is not a cold spare that needs to be configured after a failure — it is a live mirror that is ready to take over at any moment, automatically, without operator intervention. This is what “production-grade” actually means, as opposed to “this has been working for six months so it should be fine”.
3D mapping and pre-visualisation
Disguise Designer includes a full 3D pre-visualisation environment. You build a virtual model of the stage — LED walls, screens, projection surfaces, anything — and the software renders your show in 3D before you ever get to the venue. Content is mapped to surfaces in 3D space, not just stretched to fill a rectangle. This means a curved LED wall, an irregular geometric screen, a floor LED surface, and a front-projection screen can all be driven from a single Disguise machine with the geometry handled in software.
The pre-vis workflow also means that a production designer can sign off on the visual look of a show months before the tour starts, using nothing more than Disguise and a good 3D model. Changes that would require a full tech rehearsal on a real stage can be made and reviewed at a desk. This has compressed production timelines enormously for large-scale tours.
Who should learn it
Anyone who wants to work on touring productions, broadcast events, or large-scale permanent installations. The skill set is different from Resolume: more pre-production, more collaboration with lighting and show control teams, less real-time improvisation. The role is closer to a film editor or a systems engineer than a DJ or a live performer.
But the jobs it opens are a different tier entirely. A touring Disguise operator on a major artist’s world tour earns significantly more than a club VJ, works on productions with budgets that can support proper pre-production time, and builds a body of work that transfers across the industry. The skills are also increasingly relevant to broadcast — live TV, award shows, and major broadcast events have converged almost completely with touring production technology over the last ten years.
The GX 2c is not the right tool for a club night. It is the right tool for everything that comes after — and learning it changes the ceiling on what you can do.
OSC turns two separate tools into one instrument. Here is how to wire them together.
MIDI works. OSC works better for video — it carries floating-point values, meaningful addresses, and you can send anything to anywhere without a physical cable. This tutorial uses Ableton Live as the DAW but the OSC side is identical for any host. If your DAW cannot send OSC natively, there are bridging tools for every platform covered below.
The goal is not just synchronisation — it is integration. Your visuals should not follow the music. They should be the music, translated into light. Every parameter change in your DAW, every automation curve, every send level becomes a potential visual control. OSC makes that mapping explicit and precise in a way MIDI’s 7-bit resolution never can.
Step 1 — Enable OSC in Resolume
Open Resolume Arena or Avenue. Go to Preferences → OSC. Enable Input and set the port to 7000. Note the IP address shown — you will need it in a moment. Leave everything else at defaults for now. If you are running both applications on the same machine, the IP will be 127.0.0.1. If Resolume is on a separate machine, use that machine’s local network IP (typically 192.168.x.x).
OSC runs over UDP — fast, lightweight, and perfect for real-time parameter control.
Step 2 — Install an OSC bridge in Ableton
Ableton does not send OSC natively. You need a Max for Live device or a standalone bridge. The simplest option is OSCII-bot (free, cross-platform) or the Connection Kit M4L device from Cycling ’74. Install it, point the output destination to 127.0.0.1:7000 (same machine) or the Resolume machine’s IP on port 7000.
If you are using a DAW other than Ableton: TouchOSC Bridge works as a relay between any MIDI-capable software and any OSC receiver. You send MIDI from your DAW to TouchOSC Bridge, which translates and forwards it as OSC. Less elegant, but universally compatible.
For Max for Live users: the udpsend object gives you raw OSC control. Build a simple patch: a live.dial mapped to a track parameter → a prepend /composition/layers/1/video/opacity message → udpsend 127.0.0.1 7000. This is the full signal path in three objects.
Step 3 — Map an OSC address to a Resolume parameter
In Resolume, right-click any parameter — for example the Opacity of a layer. Choose OSC — Learn. Now send an OSC message from your bridge. Resolume will lock that address to the parameter automatically. You do not need to type the address manually for most things.
If you want to address parameters directly without Learn mode, the Resolume address format is structured and predictable: /composition/layers/[n]/video/opacity, /composition/layers/[n]/clips/[m]/connect, /composition/tempo/bpm. The full address map is in the Resolume documentation under OSC API — it covers every parameter in the application.
Once OSC is running, every fader, knob and clip trigger in your DAW becomes a visual control surface.
Step 4 — Test and debug the connection
Trigger something in Ableton — a clip launch, a macro knob, a beat marker. Watch Resolume’s parameter move in real time. If nothing happens, diagnose in this order:
Firewall. Windows Defender blocks UDP by default. Open Windows Firewall → Advanced Settings → Inbound Rules → add a UDP rule for port 7000. On macOS you will get a prompt the first time — allow it.
IP address. Confirm the destination IP in your bridge matches the machine running Resolume. If both are on the same machine, it must be 127.0.0.1, not the LAN IP.
Port conflict. Another application may already be using port 7000. Try 8000 or 9000 — change it in both Resolume preferences and your bridge simultaneously.
Monitor incoming OSC. Download Protokol (free, Hexler) and open it on the Resolume machine. It will show every OSC message arriving at every port. If you see messages in Protokol but Resolume is not responding, the issue is inside Resolume (check OSC is enabled and the port matches). If Protokol shows nothing, the issue is in the bridge or network.
Step 5 — Map to something musical
Now map something meaningful. Here are three starting points that immediately make the visual-music relationship obvious:
Scene launch: In Ableton, use a MIDI note or a clip launch in a MIDI track to trigger /composition/columns/[n]/connect in Resolume. Each scene in Ableton activates a corresponding column in Resolume. Your visual sets change with your music sets, automatically, every time.
Filter sweep: Map a filter cutoff automation lane to /composition/layers/1/video/opacity or a blur effect parameter. As the music opens up, the visuals reveal themselves. As it closes down, they retreat. The audience feels the relationship even if they cannot articulate it.
Reverb send as space: A reverb return level mapped to a glow or diffusion effect creates a direct perceptual link — more space in the sound, more space in the image. This is the kind of mapping that makes a visual set feel composed rather than improvised, even when it partly is.
Start with one mapping. Test it in a rehearsal, not a show. Once you trust it, add another. The goal is not to automate everything — it is to build a vocabulary of connections that you can rely on, and then improvise around them.
The hour before doors open is the most important hour of the night. Use it.
Most show failures are not hardware failures. They are skipped steps. A cable that was not tested. A gain setting from soundcheck that never got updated. A backup drive that was charged two weeks ago and has been sitting in a bag since. Here are five checks that take ten minutes combined and prevent ninety percent of on-night emergencies.
None of these are complicated. All of them have been skipped by experienced operators under time pressure. Make them a ritual, not a decision — something you do automatically before every show regardless of how familiar you are with the venue or the setup.
01 — Test your output path end-to-end
Plug in exactly as you will on the night. Laptop → interface → cable → wall. Not just “laptop works”. The full chain. HDMI cables die. Adapters fail at the worst moment. USB-C hubs develop intermittent faults that only show up under load. A Thunderbolt dock that has been working for six months can decide tonight is the night it stops.
Specifically: play a video clip with full-white frames. Look at the output. Look at the output. Not the preview on your laptop — the actual output surface. Confirm the signal is clean, the resolution is correct, and there is no overscan cutting off the edges. Overscan is silent and invisible on your laptop and will cut off titles, logos and carefully composed edges on the display.
Test the cable. Every cable. Every show.
02 — Check your resolution and frame rate
Ask the venue: what resolution does the wall or projector want? What frame rate? 1080p50 and 1080p60 look identical in Resolume and produce very different results on some LED processors. Match the output to the spec. If no one knows the spec, default to 1080p50 in Europe, 1080p60 in the US.
Frame rate mismatches often go unnoticed until there is motion — a fast-moving clip will judder at a 20% frame rate mismatch because the display is trying to show 50 frames that were built for 60. On a static or slow-moving clip, nobody notices. On a strobe or beat-sync effect, it looks broken. Check before the show, not after.
If the venue is running an LED processor (Novastar, Brompton, Linsn etc.), ask the LED tech what the processor’s input spec is — this overrides the wall’s native resolution and can be set to anything. A 4K wall being fed 1080p through a processor is not uncommon and is perfectly fine as long as Resolume is outputting 1080p, not trying to output 4K.
03 — Set your audio input gain
Audio-reactive visuals built at soundcheck gain will behave completely differently at show volume. Either use a fixed BPM/MIDI trigger approach, or go back to the audio source at full volume before doors open and re-set your input gain. The difference between soundcheck and show levels can be 20 dB.
The practical technique: ask the DJ or sound engineer to hit the system hard for 30 seconds — a known reference track at show level. Watch your audio input meter in Resolume. You want peaks hitting 80–90% of the meter, not clipping, not sitting in the bottom 20%. Dial the gain until you have that, then lock it and do not touch it again unless the whole system gain changes.
Soundcheck level ≠ show level. Always re-calibrate your audio input before doors open.
04 — Check your backup
Where is your backup? Is it on? Is it charged? Is it loaded with the same content? A backup drive that takes three minutes to mount is not a backup — it is theatre. If you cannot switch to it in under 30 seconds, it does not count.
The definition of a real backup: a second machine with Resolume open, the same composition loaded, the same output resolution set, and a cable ready to swap into the output chain. Not “my other laptop is in the bag”. Not “I can rebuild it from the drive in about five minutes”. A live backup is one that is already running and requires a cable swap and a key press to take over — nothing else.
If you are doing shows that do not justify a second laptop, at minimum: carry your composition on two separate drives. Know which clips are essential — the opener, the headliner sync points, any branded content — and keep those on a USB drive in your pocket. A phone playing a single fullscreen video via HDMI adapter is a worse show than your main rig. It is still a show.
05 — Dimmer check
Confirm with lighting that they will not accidentally patch your video signal through a dimmer. It has happened. It produces a very memorable flicker effect that nobody wanted. A two-sentence conversation with the LD before the show takes care of it permanently.
The broader point behind this check: know who else is touching the signal path. The video wall is probably controlled by a separate LED tech. The projector might go through a matrix switcher managed by house AV. The cabling between your output and the surface passes through hands that are not yours. Introduce yourself to each of those people before the show. Know their name. Know their number. If something goes wrong mid-show, you need to reach them in ten seconds, not spend two minutes finding out who controls what.
A calibrated reference monitor is not a luxury — it is the foundation of every visual decision you make.
You spend hours colour-grading your loops. They look perfect on your MacBook. You push them out to a 12-metre LED wall and everything shifts — magenta cast, crushed blacks, blown highlights. This is not the wall’s fault. It is yours, and it is fixable. But first you need to understand why it happens.
The three-screen problem
Most VJs are looking at three different colour spaces simultaneously and pretending they are one: the laptop display (sRGB or P3), the HDMI preview monitor (uncalibrated), and the output surface (LED, projection, OLED — each with its own white point and gamma curve). None of these agree by default. You are essentially making colour decisions based on a lie, then being surprised when the truth appears in front of two thousand people.
The laptop problem is particularly bad on modern Apple hardware. A MacBook Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR display covers nearly 100% of the P3 colour space. Most LED walls and projectors are calibrated to sRGB or Rec.709. When you grade on a P3 screen and output to Rec.709, every saturated colour you see is a prediction — and the prediction is often wrong.
The wall sees what it sees — not what your laptop shows you.
Black levels are the first casualty
Projection throws light. LED panels emit light. Both sit in a room full of ambient light. The darkest black you can achieve is “the absence of added light in the context of everything else happening” — which in a club is never zero. If you are crushing your blacks to pure RGB 0,0,0 they will look grey on the wall. Leave room: keep your darkest values around 8–12 on an 8-bit scale.
This is not a new problem. Broadcast engineers solved it decades ago with legal range (16–235 on 8-bit) versus full range (0–255). The idea was the same: protect the bottom of your luminance range for the display environment you are targeting. Live performance is not broadcast, but the principle holds. Know your floor before you build your image on top of it.
White point — the invisible variable
Every display has a native white point — the colour of “white” when all LEDs are at maximum. The industry standard is D65 (6500K — a neutral daylight white). Many cheaper LED walls are closer to 7000–8000K, which reads as blue-white. Many projectors are slightly warm at 5500–6000K. If you designed your content against a D65 reference and the wall is 7500K, your whites will look cold and your warm skin tones will look off.
The fix is simple but requires a conversation before the show. Ask the LED tech or projectionist: what is the native white point of this display? What is it calibrated to tonight? Good techs will know. Some will not. If they do not, your safest move is to design content with slightly warm highlights (around 6000K) — it will read as more neutral on a cool wall than true-white content will.
Scopes do not lie. Your eyes do. Use both.
Gamma and transfer functions
Gamma is the relationship between the numeric value of a pixel and the amount of light the display emits for that value. Standard display gamma is 2.2. Some professional displays use 2.4. Some HDR panels use PQ (Perceptual Quantizer) — an entirely different system. If your output chain has mismatched gamma at any point, your midtones will shift and you will never quite put your finger on why everything looks slightly wrong.
In practice: Resolume outputs at whatever gamma your OS and display driver agree on. On macOS with a calibrated display this is usually fine. On Windows it depends heavily on the GPU driver settings. Check: on Windows, open the NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Radeon Software and confirm your output colour format is set to RGB Full Range, not YCbCr or Limited Range — which is the default for HDMI and causes crushed blacks that look fine on the display but are not what you intended.
The practical workflow
You do not need to become a colour scientist. You need to establish a consistent reference chain. Here is the minimum viable version:
Buy a reference monitor. A used Sony PVM or BVM will cost less than a weekend gig fee and last a decade. Set it to Rec.709 D65. Make every creative decision in front of it.
Use scopes. Resolve, After Effects, even DaVinci’s free version has a waveform monitor. Trust numbers over eyes when building for output.
Test on the real wall. If you can get 20 minutes of venue time before doors, use it to run your reel on the actual surface and adjust your brightest and darkest clips accordingly.
Build a “wall LUT”. After testing on a specific venue’s wall, export the adjustment as a LUT and apply it to everything in that show. Resolume supports LUT loading on the master output.
Keep a grey card in your bag. A physical reference grey lets you eyeball-calibrate against any display in under a minute.
The wall does not lie. Your monitor does. Calibrate accordingly — once, properly, and your creative work will translate from the screen to the stage every time.
