Olympics boosted by sustainable mics On using rechargeables, Willsallen says: “We would
have used around 26,000 AA batteries otherwise” By David Stewart
SHURE’S NEW Axient wireless microphones were widely used by headline stars at the opening and closing ceremonies during London’s 2012 Olympics. Working together with UK- based company Delta Sound, audio systems supply specialist Norwest favoured Shure from early on in the systems design process for the event. The games this summer marked Axient’s debut at an Olympic ceremony. Norwest’s Chief RF Specialist
Steve Caldwell heard about the new product line directly from connections at Shure’s engineering team in the US, early in the product development process. The Axient systems were then written into the final draft of the London plan by Scott Willsallen, audio systems designer London 2012 Ceremonies and Bobby Aitken, sound designer London 2012 Ceremonies.
KSM9; it just sounds great. That’s how it should be, of course, but it’s quite a step!” comments Willsallen.
“With the Axient handhelds,”
explains Caldwell, “we can transmit on two frequencies at the same time, should we need
Axient wireless microphones were widely used by headline stars at the opening ceremony during the London 2012 Olympics
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Scott Willsallen: “We used Shure KSM9s as the default standard mics on these systems, swapping to Beta 58s if the artists involved were a bit more… noisy!”
Willsallen had to ensure that the Axient systems, which only became commercially available in the spring, would be suitable for use during summer 2012, given the intense media focus on the Games. “I wasn’t going to take any chances,” he explains. “You don’t get a second chance at an event like this one.” Caldwell’s case for Axient
centred on several features of the new systems, including audio quality, Frequency Diversity, and the unique rechargeable battery technology developed for Axient (also used in Shure’s ULX-D digital wireless systems and PSM900/1000). “We used Shure KSM9s as the default standard mics on these systems, swapping to Beta 58s if the artists involved were a little bit more… shall we say… noisy! An Axient transmitter with a KSM9 sounds like you’re using a wired
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