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48 l February 2013


www.psneurope.com


livereport Good times EUROPE


FOLLOWING A successful launch in September of last year, Sennheiser’s Digital 9000 Series wireless system made its stage debut at the Antwerp


Sportpaleis on 15 November at the annual Night of the Proms event. Combined with the use of wired systems, it was the biggest production to date with


For the flautists, Sennheiser designed an adaptor for the digital headset consisting of a HSP4 headset, MZD 8000 digital module and a custom-made connector element


Night of the Proms embarks on a European tour with the latest digital Sennheiser microphone system, notes Marc Maes


at the Proms


so many Sennheiser digital microphones – 59 channels’ worth in fact (100 in total with the analogue systems). Five 9000 packages came


directly from the manufacturer to the venue – on stage, the new systems were used by Jermaine Jackson, John Miles and presenter Carl Huybrechts. According to Christophe Van den Berghe, sales and marketing director at Sennheiser Pro Benelux, the system’s high- definition transmission without audio compression is a key advantage. “Digital transmission results in less intermodulation. The combination of the 9000 series with smart antenna allows the use of fewer wireless frequencies, and spectrum efficiency is becoming an important issue,” he says,


“especially for big productions like the Night of the Proms.” Van den Berghe says the Night of the Proms concept is perfect to take the use of digital microphones to a new level – from pure classical music to ‘classics meets pop’. “We went to see sound engineer Patrick Demoustier [of EML/PRG] to see what could be done and what the possible challenges would be. We were happy that Patrick and the Proms organisers were open to the plan,” he says. Over the past few years, the


live music business has been gradually looking to digital technology for consoles, amplification and effects. “The only analogue element left was the microphone,” explains Van den Berghe. “Neumann was the first to launch digital wired


microphones following the AES 42 standard; Sennheiser immediately followed with the MKH 8000 series. Neumann/ Sennheiser digital microphones were first used in recording studios and with broadcasters – from there onwards, the way to classical concerts opened up. The big advantage of digital microphones is the wide dynamic range combined with a low signal/noise ratio.” Planning for Night of the


Proms took over two years. There were several challenges to overcome because of the size of the production, the extremely tight load-in/load-out schedules and the requirement for rapid change-overs. “Digital microphones bring


you a lot of detailed control, a huge dynamic range and can save you a lot of A-D converters, but amplifying a big orchestra with digital microphones is not obvious,” says Demoustier. “We gradually introduced digital microphones in the Proms orchestra – after testing the system during the pre-Proms in Sweden, we talked to musicians and our sound


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