Sennheiser pulls out the stops for BRIT Awards
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Britannia Row Productions provided all requirements for the show’s audio system, which was designed by BRITs’ head of sound Colin Pink, with a combination of Sennheiser Digital 6000 and 9000 series microphones proving the majority choice for both artists and presenters.
As well as winning both British Album Of The Year and British Male Solo Artist, Stormzy gave an epic performance beneath an indoor waterfall effect which soaked both him and his SKM 6000 as he sang his hit singles Blinded by Your Grace, Pt.2 and Big for Your Boots.
“When I was told about Stormzy’s production idea for the BRIT Awards, I thought, wow! How are we going to do this and which Sennheiser mic would be the best choice?” says Raphael A. Williams, Stormzy’s sound engineer. “We decided to use D 6000 along with a 9235 dynamic capsule.”
To ensure the microphone was fully waterproof, Raphael completely covered the mic head with cling film during rehearsals. “But that took the clarity away,” he recalls. “So we tried putting cling film under the foam closer to the capsule and that worked really well. Our original plan was to swap the mic out straight after the waterfall section of the show, but we didn’t need to as it worked so perfectly. After the rehearsal, we opened up the capsule and, even though the cling film wrap and the capsule were soaking wet, the microphone still worked. We dried it off in rice overnight and it worked great the next day, too.”
Providing support in the run-up to the show was Sennheiser artist relations manager Jack Drury, with customer development & application engineer Andrew Lillywhite on hand throughout the show, both working hard behind the scenes to make sure every request was met. One major task was providing Rita Ora with a fully customised white SKM 6000.
(Jim Evans)
