Ayrton EagleStrike proves the ultimate multipurpose fixture for Harry Styles’ Together, Together Tour

Harry Styles’ 2026 Together, Together tour takes a different approach to the conventional tour pattern: the English singer/songwriter’s third outing, this time in support of his fourth studio album Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally, plays extended residencies at stadium venues across four continents. Its 68-dates include a 30-night stay at New York’s Madison Square Garden and a record-breaking 12-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium, where Styles officially set a Guinness World Record for the longest single-run residency by a musician at the iconic London venue.

Lighting designer Eric Marchwinski, worked with long-time collaborator and Silent House founder and CEO, Baz Halpin to realise their vision for the tour on an expansive set by Silent House Studios, led by creative producer Vincent Richards.

The set comprises a 45m wide mainstage extended by a grid work of midfield catwalks that define four square ‘audience pits’ and put Styles, at times, 65m from the main stage, with throw distances of up to 90m from four front-of-house delay towers, and three audience bowl positions. Huge video screens outlined by Ayrton EagleStrike fixtures flank a large curved-top central structure upstage, all of which define the outline of the enormous performance space.

“Part of what makes the tour unique is just how much area there is to cover lighting performers” says Marchwinski. “The scale at which we are working, with stadium dimensions and the sheer length of deck, were a major challenge.

“One of the big puzzles to solve was how to keep the artist lit consistently, evenly and efficiently, across such a large expanse with so many variations in distance and angle from each fixture.

“The first thing we focused on, therefore, was choosing a tool that could operate at this scale, not just as our main profile fixture for effect/key light, but also as a consistent follow spot. We needed a big paintbrush, a big light that was reliable, had a feature set that we knew and could trust, yet also function as a very high-quality key light.”

EagleStrike had recently been developed by Ayrton as an ultra-powerful follow spot with maximum output, speed and precision for stadium use. 160 of them were purchased for the tour by Solotech, via Ayrton’s exclusive distributors in the UK and North America, Ambersphere Solutions and ACT Entertainment.

“We knew through Solotech (the tour’s lighting vendor) that the Ayrton EagleStrike was being developed and we found that it answered all of our requirements, largely because it was developed to be a follow spot in spirit,” says Marchwinski. “The largest format light in its class on the market right now, it prioritises high CRI, high output and, most importantly, consistency in colour whilst dimming – all qualities that Ayrton products are known for.”

Marchwinski and Halpin arrayed 28 EagleStrike units along the tops of each onstage video wall, with 24 more floor-mounted along the front edge of the main-stage, 8 on each of the delay towers and 6 on each audience platform/riser. “EagleStrike’s big front lens is really pretty and makes for a very nice look to outline the system, and they are our primary workhorse for lighting people and as aerial texture,” he says.

The EagleStrike screen header units are tipped forward at a 45° angle to maximise the tilt range of each fixture and give greater reach down into the performance area. “This solved the problem of how to provide a rear follow-spot without introducing alternative fixtures or positions to interrupt the cleanness of the design,” continues Marchwinski. “For Harry we allocated six strategic upstage EagleStrikes as dedicated backlight (and reverse keylight when far downstage), which we can change dynamically to achieve the best angle, depending on which area of the stage he is in.  These fixtures help create some very dramatic, striking looks, and if he isn’t on stage, we can grab all of those and include them with their neighbours along the top of the LED wall as an effect light or an aerial light. The ability to grab other fixtures at any point, and assign them to other performers like dancers or musicians, as well as the artist, creates a whole new tool kit for lighting a show of this scale. 

“EagleStrike is a very impressive fixture – has great gobos, shutters, an animation wheel, IP65 rating – all that you expect, but the ground-breaking part of the light is that it has all those features, plus great colour, incredible consistency, and a super high output. One of its most impressive features, we found, is that we can set a colour at a level of 80%, run the dimmer down to, say, 50%, and that colour remains incredibly consistent. This matters a lot, especially when lighting people for camera, and is where it came out top in our research.

“The ultimate ‘dream’ when it comes to stadium followspots would be that the artist could walk around and be continuously and evenly lit using a tracking system that is aware of location. This system would automatically manage fixture level, colour, and allocation based on the most ideal combination of fixtures for a given location. On this project we decided to embark on the realization of this dream, utilizing zactrack as the backbone of the lighting system. This tracking system not only achieved the automated followspot balance mentioned above, but it also gave us the ability to assign any light to any artist – including beam lights, wash lights, and profile lights – bringing a whole new layer of visual tools to the table.

“We created zones, where the zactrack system automatically fades follow spots up or down to maintain consistent angles and consistent level. There are 13 positions that each have EagleStrike fixtures dedicated to the artist as followspots. When the audience watches the show, they would not visually be aware that the spot lights are turning on and off, because Harry’s lit evenly all the way around – the same intensity, same colour, across the entirety of the stage. There’s also a uniformity in the spill around him, managed via the iris, which is maintained in every location that Harry is in, which would just not be possible with 13 human operators. The cleanliness of how that looks is really aesthetically pleasing, and part of the magic in realizing this vision.

 “It’s a great marriage of two technologies – a really great fixture on the end of a very powerful system results in a uniquely amazing experience that is somewhat transparent to the concert goer. It was really great to have the EagleStrike on one end of the equation and zactrack on the other.”

 Marchwinski is full of praise for the support he received from Solotech, zactrack, and Ayrton’s distributors, Ambersphere Solutions and ACT Entertainment. “160 units of a new fixture is a tall order and we certainly value the relationship with Solotech and the distributors’ relationships with Ayrton that they were able to provide this as a solution. There was a fair amount of risk involved in taking a brand new light that we’ve never really seen, along with the integration of zactrack at this scale. Yet the support of each partner was pivotal to the overall success of the project.

“We try to be considerate of any vendor’s long term investment on a project of this size. With EagleStrike we recognised its super high power engine, throw distance and reliability is a really desirable tool for a stadium workflow, and a valuable long-term asset for a vendor. This is a light we certainly will reach for when working at this scale in the future.”

Brian Dowd, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at ACT Entertainment added: « Supporting this unique project across multiple technology partners, products, and continents with ACT has been an exciting opportunity to say the least.  Eric and his collaborators bring us the most interesting challenges and dreams, which feeds directly back into why ACT Entertainment exists in the first place. »

“Working with Ayrton and ACT/Ambersphere on this was a pleasure,” concludes Oliver James, UK Director of Lighting at Solotech. “They were very accommodating when we needed to adapt elements of the fixtures, and their support whenever we called on it was first-class. What stood out most was the speed — once the order was placed, both Ayrton and ACT were quick to get everything moving and keep us on track on our tight schedule.”

Harry Styles’ Together, Together Tour commenced on 16 May 2026 at Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam and will continue through 2027, concluding on 28 August 2027 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. 

Credits:
Creative Director: Molly Hawkins
Producer: Baz Halpin
Creative Producer: Vincent Richards
Design: Silent House Studios
Production Manager: Andrew Thornton
Stage Managers: Duncan Ladkin, Jack Dunnett, Rosie Lines
Lighting Design: Eric Marchwinski & Silent House Studios
Lighting Programmer: Tyler Santangelo
Lighting Director: Travis Maynard
Lighting Crew Chief: Craig Hancock
Lighting Vendor: Solotech; Oli James, Ian ‘Woody’ Woodall,
Video Vendor: Solotech; Paul ‘Macca’ McCauley, Steve-0 Grinceri
Video Content: Silent Partners Studio; Gabriel Coutu-Dumont, Heath Saunders, Meghan Reinhardt
Media Server Programmer: Steve Foster
Media Server Operator: Josh Key
Media Server Engineer: Ismael ‘Ish’ Alicea
Technical Director: Kirk J Miller
zactrack integration: Jamie Burke, Ambersphere; Dustin Barnes, ACT
Lighting Vendor: Solotech
zactrack Factory: Werner Petricek, Paul Roch, Christoph Rosenberg
Photography: © Julian Bajsel