“In order to support the world’s biggest shows and installations, we have high-performance media servers powerful enough to seamlessly run visuals on LED walls over 4,000 square meters in size,” explains Chief Product and Technology Officer at Disguise, Raed Al Tikriti. “But not everyone needs all that power — or has the space or budget for it. That’s why we decided to create X1. With X1, for the first time, anyone can harness the same powerful Designer tools used on the world’s biggest productions, all in a portable format that’s easier and more cost-effective to bring on tour or support smaller productions.”

X1 users will be able to plug their license key into their laptop to instantly access the latest version of Designer. Show visuals can then be imported into Designer from any real-time graphics tool, including Notch, Unreal Engine, TouchDesigner, Unity and more, thanks to Disguise’s RenderStream protocol.

To help users hit the ground running, X1 includes a ready-to-use and ever-expanding content pack, featuring high-impact Notch and TouchDesigner effects — from pulsing DJ-style visuals to beautifully crafted motion looks, all created in-house by Disguise’s Creative Services team. Each look will also be rendered as a high-quality video ready for seamless playback and looping, giving users maximum flexibility to elevate every show — however they choose to deliver their content.

X1 also enables users to preview the content on a 3D mini-replica of their stage or environment. Users will also benefit from the Designer timeline, a beloved feature that enables users to schedule and edit all the visuals needed to run their show or experience live. They’ll also be able to rely on Disguise’s critical redundancy features, with built-in 1:1 failover for added security.

Alex Loftie, Video Programmer for Central Cee’s tour comments: “With Central Cee’s shows in Canada and the USA generally having a more intimate feel at smaller venues, it made perfect sense for us to use X1 on a laptop. It allowed us to pack light, easing the burden of transporting kit between multiple venues — but it also meant everything could stay on Disguise and I didn’t have to re-program the show with a different solution, which saved a huge amount of time and budget. Being able to stay within the Disguise ecosystem is so key. When we returned to larger venues in Europe, we were able to easily transition back to Disguise media servers, ultimately giving us the flexibility to use Disguise’s familiar and reliable Designer software across shows of any size.”

Glenn Jenkins, Video Engineer on Bullet For My Valentine’s tour, valued the flexibility and control that X1 brought to the production. “Live shows on tour are never carbon copies of each other. Last-minute changes come up every time, and using X1 meant we were able to keep up with the rest of production and make quick, crucial edits on site thanks to Disguise’s timeline workflow.”

Jackson Cobb, Video Programmer on Festival Napa Valley adds that the travel-ready status of X1 is a game-changer. “Being able to shut my laptop after the show, put it in my bag and just walk away without transporting a server with me was incredibly freeing.” Kate Freer, projection designer on Festival Napa Valley, adds: “Having this new solution doesn’t totally eliminate the need for server-run shows. There will always be larger productions that require more power. But it makes show control so much more accessible, and being able to use X1 in a festival scenario like this has been a dream.”

Key features of Disguise X1 include:

• Access to the latest version of Designer — With X1, you’ll always have access to the very latest version of the same software used to power visuals on 95% of the world’s Tier 1 live shows, without needing to download new updates.

• Live events and experiences you can plan with confidence — X1 offers 1:1 redundancy and auto failover to ensure users always have uninterrupted playback in critical live environments.

• Portable hardware — Each X1 license instance enables 1x 4K DCI video output. This is issued to a Codemeter USB license key to be attached to the node used for video playback. That means you can easily put it in your pocket and take it with you on tour to use with a laptop, so there’s no need to ship larger hardware solutions.

• Flexible show continuity — If you need more powerful hardware for a larger show, you can easily transfer your show file from X1 to a Disguise server. The same works if you’re going from a larger show to a smaller one: you can just drag your show file from a Disguise server to X1, without needing to rebuild it.

• Pre-loaded content — To help users experiment with content straight away, X1 comes pre-loaded with exclusive real-time Notch and TouchDesigner visuals as well as pre-rendered clips, all created in-house by the Disguise Creative Services team.

• Open integrations — X1 supports all major tracking and automation systems, including Kinesys, Tait Navigator and PSN. It also supports graphics tools, including Notch, TouchDesigner, Unreal Engine 5.5 and Unity. Designer APIs are available for building even more integrations.

• Disguise support — X1 users will gain access to the same level of expert 24/7 support as other Disguise users.

To learn more, please visit the Disguise website at disguise.one/x1

Pricing and availability

X1 is now available for a $6,000 annual fee, with special prices for bundles and educational licenses.