TV personalities Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly hosted the night and regular Sennheiser users Ed Sheeran (Mastercard British Album and British Male Solo Artist) and Sam Smith (British Breakthrough Act and British Global Success Award) bagged two awards each.
For the second year, and helping to address the RF challenges with its steep filters allowing an extremely narrow set-up of radio frequencies within the available range, Sennheiser's flagship Digital 9000 Series microphones were utilised for the hosts, awards presenters and winners.
Ed Sheeran used his usual SKM 2000 with MD 9235 capsule combination, Sam Smith an SKM 2000 with MMk 965 capsule, Kanye West an SKM 5200 with MD 5235 capsule, Madonna an SKM 5200 with MD 5005 capsule and Take That all used SKM 5200 with MD 5235 capsules.
Madonna and Take That also made use of Sennheiser 2000 Series in-ear monitors, with all 'house' in-ear monitors also being Sennheiser.
This year, the sound team was headed up by Colin Pink for the first time, following the very sad passing of Derrick Zieba, who had been doing BRITs for the past 20 years.
"There was no point in re-inventing the wheel," says Colin. "The team from Brit Row know the particulars of the show very well and there was no reason to change the 'normal' set up. It was more a case of making the nine acts fit the template and change things as necessary.
"Part of that 'normal' setup is Sennheiser's involvement. Being my first BRITs, it was very interesting to find out how that involvement works and I'm very happy to say they make an invaluable contribution.
"They supply an amount of additional equipment and, on top of this, both Mark Saunders and Andy Lillywhite are on site for rehearsals and the show, working alongside Sapna Patel, Brit Row's RF tech for the event, to add their logistical and technical expertise.
"The main issue we have with the show is integrating a huge amount of RF of various types.Some of this is provided by Sennheiser,some by Brit Row,but some of the artist's bring their own (often set up for American use) and this can create many issues. Having Mark and Andy there means we can solve these quickly and easily.
"The show itself went very smoothly with no RF issues at all. For me, it was great having Sennheiser on board. It meant that I knew all the RF issues would be dealt with, allowing me more time to sort out the other things that come up on a show of that size."
"This is our 13th time at the BRIT Awards," says Sennheiser's Mark Saunders. "It's always a challenging show in terms of RF requirements and being able to help Colin and Brit Row for the duration is a task we relish each year. With the continuing restrictions on spectrum availability, having a product like our 9000 Series available for the show is a big advantage."
(Jim Evans)
