For live sound engineer and touring technician Kris Samos, reliability isn’t a luxury; it’s essential. Working across multiple Australian touring acts, including Sunk Loto, I Built The Sky and Keyan Houshmand Live, Kris is responsible for delivering consistent, dependable performance night after night in demanding live environments.
Alongside his Front of House, monitor and playback responsibilities, Kris is currently designing and standardising touring systems for both Sunk Loto and I Built The Sky. The objective is straightforward: create clean, repeatable touring rigs that simplify deployment while delivering maximum reliability across festivals, theatres and live venues.
To achieve this, Kris selected the Radial JX42 V2, HotShot DM-1 and JR-5 as core components of the new systems.
“Reliability, signal integrity and roadworthiness are non-negotiable,” explains Kris. “These rigs need to work every night, travel well, and be easy for crew to understand quickly. That’s why Radial was the obvious choice.”
The Radial JX42 V2 forms the backbone of the guitar switching system, providing streamlined management of multiple instruments and signal paths while reducing unnecessary patching and potential failure points. Meanwhile, the HotShot DM-1 delivers simple, momentary talkback control, improving communication between performers, crew and monitor engineers during rehearsals, line checks, hang-overs and live performances. The JR-5 remote footswitch further enhances operational flexibility by providing practical remote control of the switching system.
For Kris, standardisation is key to improving efficiency. By implementing consistent workflows across multiple touring productions, setup times are reduced, troubleshooting becomes faster, and crews can work with greater confidence knowing the core infrastructure is dependable.
“Ultimately, the best touring gear is the gear you never have to think about once it’s installed; it simply works every night,” says Kris. “That’s exactly what Radial delivers.”
Designed for professional touring and production environments, Radial’s rugged construction, intuitive operation and proven reliability continue to make it a trusted choice for engineers building mission-critical live systems.
