"It was an original bit featuring a cameo by Anne Hathaway," noted wireless guru Dave Bellamy of Burbank-based Soundtronics, "With only two people onstage, we used eight wireless mics. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the evening, which was extraordinarily RF dependent from start to finish."
Given the task of developing the wireless blueprint for the stellar event, Bellamy used Soundtronics' Phoenix III antenna system to help tame the confines of the cavernous Kodak Theatre.
Handheld Shure UHF-R wireless transmitters with SM58capsules were seen onstage over the course of the show, but lavalier mics managed a bulk of the input from podium to performances, with a total of 44 wireless channels dedicated to the tiny, roving capsules throughout the evening. Of these 44 channels, more than half were used with Shure bodypack transmitters. Shure UR1 bodypacks were used for all of the stationary applications at the podiums, cutting through a high noise floor onstage with 100mW of power, but for the talent on-the-move, away from the podiums, Shure's diminutive UR1M Micro-Bodypack was used.
"The working theory was to divide the stage and house into as many zones as possible," Bellamy explained. "Using this technique, the goal was to run as little gain as possible. It's a loud stage. The video projection puts out a lot of noise, and so does the lighting. I have to be able to tune that all out. That takes antennas with a lot of gain and directionality, and more power. The more power I have coming off the transmitters, the more I can turn down the gain, and then less noise comes into the system."
See Shure Distribution UK at PLASA Focus - Leeds 2009 (April 28 - 29)
(Jim Evans)
