LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA -
Shortly after completing his mandatory eighteen-month conscription for military service, South Korean star Kim Seok-jin, better known as Jin of the supernova K-pop group BTS, embarked on a three-continent solo tour. The eighteen-stop journey, called the “Run Seokjin Ep. Tour,” visited nine cities in 2025 and was backed by a Cohesion PA.
“Run Seokjin Ep.” was a showcase for Jin’s first two albums, Happy and Echo, which were released in November 2024 and May 2025 respectively, as well as a continuation of the superstar’s 32-episode reality show Run Jin, itself a spinoff of Run BTS. Cohesion was selected as the audio system for this ambitious global tour to ensure vocal clarity and an unimpeded field of view of the stage performance.
Jung-Jae Ha, Show Director from production company HYBE Corporation, explained: “The cabinet size and the coverage it accomplished allowed for better sightlines for the large video walls without compromising sound quality and coverage.”
The PA consisted of sixteen Cohesion CO12 left-right on the main hangs and sixteen more CO12 on either side hang. FOH Engineer Junghwan Ock described the benefits of the CO12 as having a “wide frequency range and powerful low end.”
Ock added, “The CO12 had good curvature. The side hangs [with 120° horn inserts] covered well on each side and top to bottom. They were excellent.”
Six Cohesion CP218 II+ subwoofers per side were flown and nine more per side were stacked on the ground in cardioid configuration. Ock described the subwoofers as “loud enough—but not hurting!”
System Engineer Kenny Hottenstein elaborated: “The Korean production team [HYBE Corporation] did not want ultra-low frequencies, like EDM, but they did want impact everywhere it was possible.”
Eight Cohesion CO10 were deployed as fill. “It’s not often we use the CO10 as a front fill speaker,” said Hottenstein. “It blended extremely well with the flown arrays.”
Clair Global deployed the audio system throughout the tour.
The massive video walls from Jin’s production created a specific challenge of flying the PA “up and out of the way of other departments” while “having enough cable to load in and load out the entire system,” as Kenny Hottenstein explained. “Longer runs of Hi-D cabling allowed us to work independently of other departments with minimal loss to sonic quality.” Hi-D is Cohesion’s proprietary cabling system that substantially mitigates frequency-dependent output loss and preserves amplifier signal integrity to deliver concert-level audio.
The tour’s run in America included four stops: Anaheim, Dallas, Tampa, and Newark. The production then moved to Europe with two nights in London and two more in Amsterdam.
Due to extreme demand, two encore performances were added in Incheon, Korea, in October and November. The PA subsequently increased by two more CO12 on each main and side hang, and two delay towers of fourteen CO12 were required. The front fill was boosted to a dozen CO10 in six stacks of two, and 44 CP 218II+ subs were deployed in 22 ground stacks. Audio for these two performances was provided by Tri-Star Audio, official partner of Cohesion within Korea, and Seoung-Chul Kwon was the SE for those shows.
The nightly set included Jin’s hit songs “Super Tuna,” “The Astronaut,” “Don’t Say You Love Me,” and “Running Wild,” as well as nods to BTS staples like “No More Dream,” “Butter,” and “Spring Day.”
“K-pop has a tradition of bringing the studio engineer on tour as a sound director as somewhat of a form of quality control and to give guidance,” said Hottenstein. “He was seeing positive, consistent results from Cohesion. It’s an accomplishment for the entire team to have the studio engineer verify that their hard work is translating as expected in a live environment every day.”
Super-fans from “ARMY,” as BTS’ larger fandom calls itself, flooded arenas across the globe in bespoke costumes (many dressed as fish or fisherman as a reference to Jin’s professed love of fishing), offering handmade crafts like bracelets and stickers, all cheering on the 32-year old star from top to bottom in each packed house.
“You could hear the impeccable vocal clarity in the very last rows,” relayed Hottenstein. “The high-frequency response of this system is incredible. Everyone was impressed and pleased with the coverage.”
Within the spectacle of lasers, confetti cannons, light shows, dazzling screens content, and game show-style stunts for the audience with Jin serving as jovial ringleader, the dynamic audio fully captivated the adoring crowds.
Summarized Hottenstein, “We got to bring the mix to life in ways that can’t be captured in the studio.”
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