2UK rental company Capital Sound recently extended its digital audio offering for Emeli Sandé’s Long Live The Angels UK arena tour, deploying Sennheiser’s new Digital 6000 Series microphones, along with a DiGiCo SD5 digital mixing console at the monitor position.
Having made the investment in the latest Sennheiser Digital 6000 series, Capital Sound supplied an 8-channel package for Sande’s vocal microphones on the main and B stage, plus her 3 backing vocalists. “The vocal clarity and range throughout the spectrum was incredible,” said Paul Timmins, Capital’s operations and development director. “The vocal was pure and natural, contributing to the overall high quality audio experience, which was enhanced for her monitor mix by using the SD5.”
Capital chose the DiGiCo SD5 because of its high I/O and buss count, with Sande’s setup including around 18 stereo audio sends to her IEMs, plus a drum fill. “The SD5 works extremely well as a monitor console,” added Timmins. “The larger work surface and 3 screens make for a more pleasant user experience and help with speed of operation around the desk.”
“Investing in Digital 6000 as a 2-channel digital microphone system made complete sense to us as an addition to the Sennheiser 3732/5200-II systems we already own,” explained Robin Conway, head of development for Capital. “The ability to reduce the required frequency spectrum is very useful, particularly as work in the UK and Europe is becoming more and more difficult to manage. The high-quality A/D converter at the capsule and AES/Dante out also allows us to stay digital, in most cases, from capsule to loudspeaker/amplifier.
“Sennheiser has been very helpful. Onsite training with our techs on Emeli’s tour was incredibly useful and we had great support from Kevin Gwyther-Brown and Jack Drury in the lead up to the Steps tour, where we’re using it again. Digital 6000 certainly, has potential to help on the larger shows, too. As we become more familiar with it, we will reduce the frequency spectrum we allocate to tours and shows with it in use.”