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.
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.
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.