Development
The tour was titled Best of Both Worlds Tour after the song of the same name, which was the theme to Hannah Montana and was released on the series' first soundtrack. The title was chosen because of how the concert alternates between Cyrus performing as Hannah Montana and herself. She described the tour to differentiate the two according to their respective styles and depict how one girl was able to have two sides to her. She said the most notable difference between the two characters was the style of music, rather than physical appearance. According to her, Hannah Montana was direct pop music, while her own style was more rock music-oriented and included real-life scenarios set to tunes. Cyrus rehearsed for the tour simultaneous to filming the final episodes for the second season of Hannah Montana from September to October 2007.
Kenny Ortega, a common collaborator with The Walt Disney Company at the time, was hired as the tour's director and main choreographer. Ortega, along with set designer Michael Cotten, assembled an experienced personnel and developed the show, which was made fairly simple because Cyrus did not feel confident enough as a vocalist to perform stunts and use props while singing. Therefore, fixation was turned to video. Cotten envisioned the set to be "an interactive mobile kaleidoscope of flash and style", a conceptualization that involved a massive amount of video. Nineteen individual LED video screens were located throughout the stage. Four high definition V9 LED video screens served as walls surrounding the main stage. Five Barco MiTrix cubes, which consisted of three LED panels that faced towards the audience and one supporting panel that faced the stage, were suspended by rigs throughout the stage. Nocturne Productions partnered with equipment supplier Video Equipment Rentals (VER) to accomplish the design. The lightweight and adaptability of the V9 LED screens allowed for designers to add more lighting elements than in most shows at the time.
Video content director George Elizando and video engineer Steven Davis controlled the video surfaces using a Pinnacle i9000 switcher and an expanded Vista Systems Spyder system. Graphics on the LED walls were fed from a custom video playback system that incorporated three Green Hippo media servers; some of the video content was filmed during rehearsals and were meant for Cyrus to interact with onstage. Visual magnification was executed through the usage of Ikegami Tsushinki HL-45 cameras and multiple strategically located point-of-view cameras, in order to cover the show from every angle. Extensive amounts of teamwork was necessitated to set up the complex video system at each venue, particularly for weekend daytime performances, as they had less time. Mark Woody, Steve "Bone" Gray, Justin McLean, and Dane Mustola set up the video structures, while Evan Huff and crew chief Eric Geiger built the video thrust into the audience and installed the live cameras. "Thanks to these talented designers a show commensurate with Hannah's popularity has been created", said Paul Becher, co-CEO of Nocturne Productions. For audio, Cyrus used Sennheiser's MD 5235 dynamic capsule atop the SKM 5200 wireless handheld transmitter nightly. Sixteen channels of Sennheiser G2 wireless monitors were programmed to ensure that performers could hear what was being played amidst massive, and fervid screams from the audience. Sennheiser 500 series wireless guitar and bass systems were also used.
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