Rock Band Uses Musically-Synced Pyrotechnic "Fire Snake" on Tour
The pyrotechnic effects on the Disturbed “Take Back Your Life” tour was precisely controlled for safety as well as a spectacular presentation.
Terry Persun
Stage Events
Jan 6, 2026
Image Engineering, based in Curtis Bay, Maryland, designs spectacular pyrotechnic effects for top bands. Music, lighting, lasers, and fire combine to fully immerse the audience in the concert experience. The fully integrated system must synchronize the special effects in real time and stop at the touch of a button for band and audience safety.
Image Engineering has been behind some of the most outrageous concert productions of the past few years. The most notable of which were Disturbed’s “Take Back Your Life” rock concert tour of 2023 and Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s 2024 winter tour, "The Lost Christmas Eve." The Image Engineering team often pushes the boundaries of special effects technology by integrating advanced automation and controls into their projects. “The company’s owners are all engineers, and since the beginning, engineering has been central to who we are,” says Ian Bottiglieri, Vice President of Operations, Image Engineering. “That sets us apart from our competitors in the live event space.”
The Fire Snake concept developed from the need for never-before-seen, jaw-dropping pyrotechnic effects by top-billed band Disturbed. Where most other bands installed video screens, Disturbed decided to have fire as the only visuals for the entire show. Image Engineering worked with the Disturbed production team to ensure that the Fire Snake operated safely and reliably in numerous environments, temperatures, and orientations – within a deadline of less than four months.
A trial by fire for engineers
The Fire Snake required a lot of R&D work that included how to safely feed the appropriate amount of propane at a pressure of up to 22 psi and maintain a steady pilot light no matter what orientation the Fire Snake is in. The design required replacing traditional burn bars with advanced, responsive burners that could provide more dynamic fire effects. The resulting linear burn system is capable of creating a 3.35 meter (11-foot) wall of fire with proportional control for variable height and shape up to 1.20 to 1.80 meters (4- to 6-foot). In addition, two large burst valves can produce rolling fireballs.
The Fire Snake had to be compact and modular to make it easy to transport, assemble, and integrate with existing stage structures from show to show. It was crucial for the automation and safety systems to manage complex fire effects and provide safety assurances to local officials. After various meetings with the Beckhoff entertainment industry team, Image Engineering decided to work with the automation experts to bring the Fire Snake to life. They idea was to leverage advanced PC-based control technology with the integrated safety technology TwinSAFE backed by the EtherCAT industrial Ethernet system.
Fire Snake comes to life
On the Disturbed tour, the Fire Snake had to actively move and change shape according to routines that synced up with the flow of the setlist. When the band first started playing, the Fire Snake rig would slowly come to life and build into more dynamic movement. For that purpose, five segmented Fire Snake units are bolted to a custom truss structure with five winches to change the degree of angle for each unit. A little bit more than a centimeter of clearance between each unit allows free movement yet maintains a continuous, unbroken look to the linear fire effects.
Image Engineering’s Touring Accumulator System (TAS) manages the propane from liquid to vapor and feeds it to the effect heads. When adjusting Fire Snake units by 45 or 50 degrees, fuel and fire behave differently and the control system has to maintain the effects and safety. “The Beckhoff system provides the flexibility to not only meet the baseline standards for flame effect systems such as those outlined in the NFPA 160 standard for fire effects but exceed them in many local jurisdictions across the U.S.,” says Nick Hock, Director of R&D and Installation/Integrations, Image Engineering.
The Fire Snake features numerous safety measures to ensure trouble-free performances, which are integrated into the control platform via TwinSAFE I/O terminals. One e-stop can halt the entire rig, and the operator can see all safety-relevant status information with a glance at the control console. “It was extremely reassuring to local fire marshals to see a safety system demo and witness the entire Fire Snake shut down to a controlled stop at the push of a button,” Hock says.
Installed in the Fire Snake’s shippable case control boxes are CX5140 and CX8190 Embedded PCs with directly attached EtherCAT I/O as primary and backup controllers respectively. EtherCAT and Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) establish real-time communication and synchronization throughout the entire system including safety devices, and equipment used for lighting and other stage effects. “We have to keep perfect time with the band’s music and lighting,” Hock says. “If we were out of sync even a couple milliseconds, audiences would notice.” The various EtherCAT I/O modules are supported by TwinCAT software to connect flexibly with devices from other networks such as DMX and OSC. For example, Image Engineering uses the EL6851 single channel DMX interface to trigger the Fire Snake’s flame effects.
Since its completion, the Fire Snake met the requirements for rapid setup and dismantle during multiple tours for Disturbed and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. For example, Image Engineering was responsible for bringing multiple Fire Snakes on the road to 56 Trans-Siberian Orchestra concerts in just 40 days on both the East and West Coasts of the U.S. – at the same time.
The Beckhoff system's ability to operate reliably in extremely high ambient temperatures became another critical benefit on the road, especially for concerts in the summertime. “The heat resiliency of the embedded PC hardware is impressive,” Claire Bowman, Associate Director of Engineering, Image Engineering, says. “We've used other embedded systems before that had performance issues on rooftops in Las Vegas when the temperatures reach as high as 49° C (120°F). However, the Beckhoff system always performs without fail.”
*Lead image courtesy of Steve Jennings.
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