As its name suggests, C2C is an international multi-day festival of country music, the result of a collaboration between live music promoters SJM Concerts, entertainment group AEG Europe (developer and operator of London's O2) and the USA's Country Music Association (CMA). From its beginnings in 2012 as a two day-event at London's O2 only, C2C was held in London and Dublin in 2015, featuring appearances by eight artists over the weekend, with the performers swapping between the two venues on the different days. Extra dates were also played this year in Norway and Sweden.
Audio equipment supply and RF management for the London concert at the O2 was handled by UK hire and concert services specialists SSE, who used a total of 14 channels of Shure UHF-R wireless, coupled with SM58 or KSM9 handheld mics. Of these, two were permanently used by the show's two BBC presenters - 'Whispering' Bob Harris was joined by Alex Lester on the first day and Jo Whiley on the second - while another pair were permanently set up in the festival's press room.
The remaining 12 channels of UHF-R were dedicated to the artists, for whom SSE also provided 12 channels of PSM1000 in-ear monitoring. In addition, the AXT600 frequency analyser from Shure's flagship Axient wireless microphone system was used by SSE's RF engineer for the festival, Baz Macleod, to check RF spectrum usage around the O2 throughout the concerts.
SSE's project manager Dan Bennett explains their choice of equipment. "We have now invested heavily in Axient, but we bought the AXT600 frequency analyser well before we did that, as it's so good for keeping an eye on the frequency usage around venues. In a very crowded RF environment, it's indispensable." Baz Macleod agrees: "I have various tools for frequency planning - I carry an old Hewlett-Packard scanner with me everywhere I go - but in a busy London venue like the O2, the Axient spectrum manager is brilliant for giving me the overall RF picture at any one time."
The choice of in-ear systems was also no surprise. "We first used the PSM1000s on the Arctic Monkeys tour in Autumn 2013, and they've been in heavy demand from our larger clients ever since," explains Dan Bennett. "They're now part of our standard touring kit for high-profile artists or events, and exactly as we've come to expect from the industry standard in in-ear monitoring, they behaved flawlessly over the weekend."
(Jim Evans)
