New York, NY (August 12, 2026)—When AIR hit the road for a two-year tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of its debut album, Moon Safari, the group and its audio team were equally ambitious with what they wanted to achieve. For the band, that meant playing 124 shows across five continents; for monitor engineers Julien Vouillon and Florentin Convert, it meant incorporating an in-ear-based system that would provide a binaural experience for the band.
As is often the case with anniversary tours, the album was played in its entirety, followed by crucial tracks from later years, aiming to recreate the feel of the tracks’ original mixes live and going as far as to perform with the same instruments originally used in the studio. Beyond providing authenticity, the move also ensured continuity between programmed elements and live performance.
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Developing the monitor setup led Vouillon and Convert to build a MIDI-controlled infrastructure that automated instruments and outboard processing. As part of that process, Vouillon met with immersive operator Julien Pagnier, who demonstrated the binaural capability of FLUX:: SPAT Revolution to him.
“I was really impressed by the sound of the software’s audio engine,” Vouillon said. “The very low latency and the ability to choose the HRTF made SPAT Revolution appear as the optimal choice for this application.” The decision was made and during rehearsals, once the musical mix approached the album’s character, Vouillon began developing a realistic ambient impression for the performers’ in-ears using SPAT Revolution.
Using the FLUX:: SPAT Revolution real-time immersive audio engine, Vouillon placed ambience and room capture precisely in virtual space within the IEM mixes. Integrated with mobile 5.1 surround microphones adapted for concert use, the system blended musical detail with spatial depth for in the in-ear environment.
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Ultimately, Vouillon created three independent “rooms”—a main room, a stage room and an applause room—that each fed back into the console as stereo-binaural buses for integration with the monitor’s mix. The result was a binaural environment where, he said, “the presence of the in-ear monitors is no longer felt. The brain, instead, experiences the sensation of being on stage, immersed in the venue’s acoustics.”
While the band heard the Vouillon’s IEM mixes on stage, those mixes went on to become the foundation of AIR’s first-ever live album, Moon Safari—The Athens Concert, recorded at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and released earlier this year. “This is literally my live stereo mix, recorded directly from the monitor console and then sent straight for mastering,” Vouillon said. “This release demonstrates what can be achieved in an IEM setup.”