Sound Stage Services adds Sennheiser Digital 6000
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SSS chose the system for its sub-hire and its rider / specification friendliness as well as its environmental credentials bolstered by its rechargeable battery.
“We've been working with Sennheiser from the very start of the company, starting out with their wired microphones,” says SSS commercial manager, James Lewis. “A large proportion of our business is professional theatre, from small plays to full-scale musicals and, in recent years, our stock of Sennheiser and Neumann wired microphones has increased dramatically to accommodate these shows. Last year we started to add Sennheiser wireless into our rental stock, with the purchase of 32 channels of its SK 5212 system for the Funny Girl UK tour. Sennheiser is on many specs, so it wasn't a hard decision to make.”
“Kevin Gwyther-Brown and Andy Lilywhite from Sennheiser came down to give our guys and the show’s crew an insight into the features of the Digital 6000 system, along with the monitoring and scanning functions that they need to use when on the road with the show,” says James. “Sennheiser’s Tim Sherratt also gave us a very insightful overview session about Digital 6000 and digital radios, which answered lots of questions that we didn't know we had. It was very informative.”
Dan Samson, sound designer for Cilla and Cabaret, had used digital radio microphone systems on a number of previous shows and specified them again for both productions, where SSS’s Digital 6000 systems were immediately put to work.
“The timing of Cilla and Cabaret coincided with Digital 6000 coming on to the market,” James explains. “The system is based on proven technology in the Digital 9000 system, so any questions about reliability, RF performance, or audio quality etc., were quickly answered. Cilla has over 45 channels of RF including IEMs, so the licensing cost of touring that particular show also played a major part in the decision.”
By using Digital 6000, which is intermodulation-free and therefore allows frequencies to be placed in an equidistant grid, SSS is able to get these 45 channels of RF into just three TV channels.
“The shows have only just loaded in, so we haven’t tested them out on an extensive run,” concludes James. “But they are performing well so far and everyone is very pleased with them.”
(Jim Evans)
