As Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet World Tour returns to Europe this July the audio quality and RF stability of the many microphones involved show no signs of deteriorating. As the tour nears its one-year anniversary one constant has been the performance of the Sennheiser equipment at the heart of the production.
The superstar and her backing vocalists are all using Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless mics with ME 5005 super-cardioid heads, all linked through the new Sennheiser EM 3732 receiver, and ew 300 IEM G2 in-ear monitors. In addition, her guitarists and musical director and keyboard player are all employing evolution radio systems and ew 300 IEM G2 in-ear monitors.
“I chose the evolution systems for backline, as their RF is rock-solid, the transmitter units are small and reliable and they are very competitively priced,” explained monitor engineer Matt Napier. “And I couldn’t imagine giving Madonna another monitor system, she has become so accustomed and comfortable with the IEM G2. And of course, Kristy Jo Winkler in the USA and Mark Saunders and Dave Hawker at Sennheiser UK are always great to work with. The whole Sennheiser team offer unrivalled support.”
Jason Kirschnick from Eighth Day Sound Systems is Project Manager on the tour. He explains just how much RF equipment the tour requires.
“Like the last time Madonna toured, the Confessions tour, I do all the advance coordination for the Sticky and Sweet for each city and Chris Messina is the day to day on site coordinator and RF tech. I developed the band plan for the whole RF package with frequencies ranging from 400 mHz to 2.4 GHz totalling over 100 channels of wireless. This included production intercoms and production radios as well.”
Radio technician Chris Messina is glowing in his praise of the EM 3732 receiver.
“The 3732 is probably the best receiver I’ve used, aside from the Sennheiser EM 1046,” he explained. “I’ve found the learning curve to be practically non-existent. The unit contains all of the standard Sennheiser features which have become necessity such as a reliable frequency scan for consumers as well as professionals, superior RF makeup gain and the ability to link units, eliminating the need for a combiner. The audio quality sets the bar for all other RF equipment. As for features exclusive to the 3732? The list goes on and on – the AES output has become invaluable to the Madonna tour, the increased gain and clarity is like no other available. Also, the native Ethernet linking to the WSM software without the need for a NET 1 is fantastic and cost effective. The internal word clock eliminates yet another piece of external kit. Overall? I’m all for it.”
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