Press release
22.08.2006 - Wedemark
Madonnas Confesses It All for Sennheiser
Longtime Sennheiser endorser, Madonna has the hottest concert ticket of the season in the theatrically spectacular Confessions Tour 2006. The show abounds with channel upon channel of Sennheiser wireless vocal, instrument and personal monitor systems, including Madonna´s much-favored
SKM 3072 super-cardioid handheld transmitter.
On this tour, Madonna´s four SKM 3072 handhelds are run through a passive switcher to quickly reassign them to both front-of-house
and monitors simultaneously. Additionally, six Sennheiser
evolution EW 500 G2 series handheld RF microphones, equipped with supercardioid 865 condenser capsules, are available for the two backing vocalists and the guest vocalist, according to monitor engineer, Matt Napier.
"In one of the songs, the guest vocalist appears in three different places onstage with the mics rising out of the stage," explains Napier. "These go through another switching unit, so, depending where the performer is onstage in that song, we just switch and it changes for me and for Tim Colvard, FOH engineer, simultaneously."
Napier continues, "On the guitar side, we´re using eight units of
EM 550 G2 dual-channel receivers for Madonna´s electric and acoustic guitars and a couple of spares. They all go through passive switching as well. The guitar player uses one of the wireless systems as he walks around the stage playing acoustic guitar in `La Isla Bonita´."
Decked out in equestrian gear and her ever-present Sennheiser
SKM 3072 wireless microphone, Madonna is the quintessential drama queen in her chart-topping Confessions Tour.
(c) Debbie VanStory 2006
On the output side for Napier, everyone onstage is on Sennheiser evolution wireless G2 300 personal monitoring systems, apart from the drummer and the keyboard player, who are on wired setups. "The
G2 ears work really well. That´s why I like using them," shares Napier. "We´ve got eight units for Madonna, the backing singers, the guest vocalists, the guitar player and Stuart Price, the music director, who is on the same mix as Madonna, as he needs to hear exactly what she hears."
The disco-themed set for the Confessions Tour presented a challenge to the wireless systems. "The stage set is probably the worst design for RF - it´s coated in mirrors," says Napier. "And Madonna starts the show about 80 feet away on a walkway inside a glass mirror ball." Part of the solution, he says, was a customized design made by Sennheiser specifically for the Madonna tour to overcome difficulties within a harsh RF environment.
The Confessions Tour 2006 began in Los Angeles in late May and is currently in Europe with the tour ending in Japan in late September. Already sold-out at nearly every stop along the way, the tour is playing a string of shows in several major cities, including five nights at New York´s Madison Square Garden and eight nights at Wembley Arena in London.
As one of the world´s leading manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems, the Sennheiser Group with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, had total sales of about €300 million in 2005. The export share is 82.5%. Sennheiser has a total workforce of more than 1,650 employees, of whom about 60% are employed in Germany. Sennheiser is active worldwide and, in addition to other partnerships, has its own sales subsidiaries in France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, China, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and the USA.
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For further information about Sennheiser please visit us on the Internet at www.sennheiser.com or contact:
Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG
Press and PR - Edelgard Marquardt
Am Labor 1 - 30900 Wedemark - Germany
Phone: +49 (5130) 600-329
Fax: +49 (5130) 600-295
E-mail: marquare@sennheiser.com
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Phone: +49 (40) 899 699-976
Fax: +49 (40) 899 699-30
E-mail: sah@fischerappelt.de
