Dierks Bentley's Broken Branches Tour Rolls with PK Sound Robotics

Country superstar Dierks Bentley's Broken Branches tour rolled through 2025 with a PK Sound Trinity Black robotic line source system designed by longtime FOH and systems engineer James “Pugsley” McDermott and supported by PK Alliance member Logic Systems.

Spanning amphitheatres and arenas – including New York's iconic Madison Square Garden – the tour leaned on PK's patented Multi-Axis Robotics to tailor and optimize coverage to each unique venue on the routing, night after night.

“The big ticket for me is the fact I can make both vertical and horizontal coverage adjustments while the system is in the air,” McDermott has said of the technology – a workflow advantage that eliminates compromise between rooms as different as a shed lawn and a Manhattan arena bowl.

The Broken Branches run extends a multi-year partnership. Bentley's 2024 Gravel & Gold tour carried a sizeable T10 robotic system from Logic Systems for all dates, including a memorable stop at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, where the system's soundfield control focused coverage on the audience while precisely avoiding the venue's beautiful – albeit reflective – geological features.

Across the partnership, McDermott has carried up to sixteen Trinity modules per side through more than sixty arenas, sheds and stadiums, reconfiguring coverage daily from .dynamics rather than re-pinning arrays on the floor. “You have the ability to take the room out of the equation,” he says of the approach.

Beyond acoustics, the robotic workflow pays operational dividends on a bus-and-truck schedule: less cabling, less truck space, faster set-ups, and fewer technicians required to be show-ready. On the Bentley runs the crew has banked roughly forty minutes on every load-in and cut cable trunks by more than half – robotics absorbing work that used to mean ladders, angle calls and additional labour.

“It helps me take full advantage of PK's robotic line source technology with everything from prediction to system optimization and monitoring in a single platform. I'm confident driving my system with .dynamics to deliver the best sound for our fans.”

— James “Pugsley” McDermott, FOH engineer

Bentley's history with PK Sound reaches back to his 2018 touring, making him among the longest-tenured arena acts to carry robotic line source technology – and the Broken Branches tour its most refined expression yet.