Robert Scovill Mixes Kenny Chesney Live with the New VENUE | S6L Engine
Robert Scovill, FOH for Kenny Chesney
Front of House (FOH) engineer Robert Scovill has spent more than four decades shaping the sound of some of the biggest names in music, from Def Leppard and Rush to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Today, he’s bringing that same level of precision and artistry to Kenny Chesney’s shows, and most recently at Las Vegas’ groundbreaking venue, Sphere. With a background in both live and studio environments, Scovill’s deep expertise and long-standing connection to Avid's VENUE platform make him uniquely equipped for the challenges of one of the most ambitious productions in live entertainment.
For Scovill, the energy of live sound has always been the draw. “Even in the studio days, I was leaning toward bands that could play as an ensemble,” he says. “I was always about performance and capturing things as a unit.” That mindset, paired with a love for in-the-moment decision making, led him to focus his career on live sound. “When I was a kid, we judged bands by how well they could perform live—not how good their records sounded. The live part has always been part of my DNA.”
His path started early. At 14, after a Supertramp concert from their Crime of the Century Tour, Scovill had a chance encounter with their front of house engineer, Russell Pope. “He saw something in my eyes and invited me up on the riser,” Scovill recalls. “That was the moment that set the hook. From that point forward, I didn’t see anything else—I wanted to do that guy’s job.” Now, decades later, he’s doing just that on one of the world’s most iconic stages, powered by the Avid VENUE | S6L.
The CMA Award-Winning Tour with Kenny Chesney
These days, Scovill’s workflow is calibrated to match the scale and rhythm of Chesney’s stadium runs. “We’ll typically have a load-in on Friday, with a long day of virtual soundcheck and PA optimization, and then the stadium shows on Saturday,” he explains. “We’ll also do a shed-style show earlier in the week, usually on Thursday, somewhere within reach of the stadium. I really love working at that scale—it’s fun, and with the PA capabilities we have today, you can create some incredible experiences.”
The touring schedule may be lighter than it was in his early days with just two shows a week, but the size and sonic ambition of the shows remain massive. “It’s not like grinding four or five shows a week anymore, which is great at this point in my life,” says Scovill. “I love going on the road. I don’t mind being on a bus. Airports? Not so much. But the bus? I’m in.”
Scovill initially wasn’t sure he’d be returning to the road after the passing of Tom Petty in 2017, but a call from Kenny Chesney’s production manager changed that. “They’d postponed a whole year of shows due to the pandemic,” he recalls. “Their production manager, Ed Wannebo, told me, ‘Every time we talk about who’s going to mix front of house, your name comes up.’ So, I went to Vegas to meet with them.” After a quick check-in with Chris Rabold, who had mixed previous Chesney tours, Scovill was sold. “Chris said, ‘Don’t even think twice about it. Just take this gig—you’ll never regret it.’ And he was right. It’s a fantastic gig. Great music, great vibe, great people.”
Technology, S6L, and the New Engine
Mixing a fully immersive, object-based live show in a venue like the Las Vegas Sphere is unlike any other live sound experience, and it demands a console that can handle extreme scale, complexity, and control. For Scovill, VENUE | S6L paired with the VENUE | E6LX-256 engine was the only system capable of pulling it off. “The venue and PA system demand a lot of outputs from the console,” Scovill explains. “We had 64 subgroups routing into 64 matrixes feeding 48 PA destinations, plus 32 sends and returns from the panner. That alone would’ve overwhelmed the older engine, but the expanded bus count in the E6LX-256 made it possible.”
His immersive mixing workflow required precise routing and surgical control. “All the object-based audio lived in the subgroup structure,” he says. “Reverb and room return couldn’t be routed to groups due to stereo channel limitations, so we routed them directly into matrixes, where we could split and assign them independently. We used Meyer SpaceMap Go to create movement of audio through the venue and triggered their trajectories via S6L’s Events system based on input meter levels. Once the input hit a threshold, the trajectory started automatically. We had maybe 20 cues throughout the night like that. Once it was programmed, it just happened, allowing you to completely focus on mixing the show.”
S6L’s powerful snapshot and layout architecture proved essential for show management. “I spec the VENUE | S6L-48D control surface for every show now,” says Scovill. “It lets me always have inputs and outputs—especially the multiple PA arrays up on the top layer of the console—laid out exactly how I want. Add to that snapshot-able layouts, and I’ve got the flexibility to build a workflow that’s intuitive and fast, even in a venue as complex as the Sphere.”
One of the unsung heroes of the production is Virtual Soundcheck. “Without it, I can’t even imagine doing this kind of show,” he says. “You're not going to have the band play the same thing again while you program object movement. Virtual Soundcheck lets me refine every cue, every movement, before a single person walks into the venue. For anyone doing immersive work: if you're not using Virtual Soundcheck, you're missing the boat.”
Scovill also points to S6L’s pristine sound quality, ergonomic design, and channel-level features as major differentiators. “Parallel compression on a per-channel and per-object basis was a big asset here. We recorded every show using VENUE Link into Pro Tools with markers for archiving. I’ve probably recorded hundreds of Kenny’s shows this way. I can also do two-track mixes via USB, automatically labeled and segmented into songs, and upload them for the band to review nightly—it’s seamless.”
Scovill’s enthusiasm hasn’t waned since first choosing S6L. “There’s just so many small features that add up. The Events system. The metering. The surface design... it just works, especially when you’re pushing the limits.