Sennheiser mics and IEMs used for RedFest
Published: MEA
UAE: Sennheiser wireless mics and IEMs were called into action for the recent RedFest two-day music festival at Dubai’s Media City amphitheatre promoted by Done Events. Sennheiser equipment was put to use by acts such as Jessie J, Rita Ora, Tinie Tempah, Connor Maynard, and the Lumineers.
The primary microphones used by the performers were a combination of Sennheiser SKM 5200-II transmitters with MD 5235 capsules, and evolution G3 500 Series with e935 capsule, some of which included aesthetic customisations requested by the performers. Sennheiser EM 3732-II receivers and an ASA 3000 active wideband antenna splitter were also deployed and monitoring was enabled via Sennheiser 2000 Series in ears.
‘The fact that our equipment was the first choice of the top performers in each of the many music genres featured at RedFest speaks volumes of its versatility and capabilities,’ said Sennheiser Middle East director of sales and marketing Mig Cardamone. ‘Sennheiser systems regularly feature on the technical riders for many of the most famous artists in the world. With so many international acts now regularly performing in the Middle East, we are now seeing regular utilisation our very latest systems in the region.’
The equipment was provided by local rental house Delta Sound. Delta’s team including Mark Elis Cope, Dan Mosley, Liam McGrath, Rob Eatock and Al Woods managed the entire audio system setup in just one day and successfully completed all tuning and testing before the arrival of the performers.
‘We have more than one brand within our rental stock, but Sennheiser is starting to be the most requested mic and in-ear monitor provider on riders,’ added Delta Sound technical manager, Liam McGrath who looked after all the RF and comms requirements for RedFest. ‘It’s also a big benefit to us that most of this equipment is pretty much self-explanatory meaning we can easily get up-to-speed with new systems and face little or no trouble in installing and utilising them. A good example of such ease of use is the wide tunable range of the Sennheiser EM 3732-II wireless receivers which helped us overcome the challenges typically associated with fitting sufficient intermodulation free channels into a small frequency range.’
Away from the microphones, Delta put to use its L-Acoustics K1 system for the main PA. The rental house used 12 K1 per side with four K1 Subs and three Kara downfills. Added to this, 16 dV-Dosc were used in pairs set 5m apart across the stage. Power for the system came from the manufacturer’s LA8 amplifiers.
Control came from a variety of desks. To cope with the artists various needs, Delta supplied DiGiCo SD7, SD5 and SD8 consoles, as well as Avid Profile and Venue boards. ‘We didn’t have any issues, but technically it was quite challenging, most of the bands, especially on the second day, had large inputs which involved two stage racks in some cases – 36 inputs, some of them 48 or 52 inputs,’ noted Delta’s Al Woods who looked after FOH and system duties for the main stage. ‘It was quite technically challenging generally, but we had two clean shows the people who were coming in were happy and the production was happy.’