NEW YORK — The 2011 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, held Nov. 30, was a full-scale production with performances by Justin Bieber, Tony Bennett, Cee Lo Green, Michael Bublé, Neil Diamond, Carole King, Katharine McPhee, Javier Colon (NBC’s “The Voice”) and Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush. Production Resource Group (PRG) once again provided the audio system. It included JBL VerTec VT4887 compact line array elements and VT4881 compact arrayable subwoofers. NBC also hired Wireless First, a Clair Global Company, for 86 channels of wireless RF that spanned a full city block and featured the company’s new CF 1090 Fractal Antenna.
The 86 wireless channels included intercom, microphones, IFBs and personal monitors. The live performers played on two stages, one on either side of the ice rink in front of the tree. “The trick was to zone out the receive antennas so that we had consistent coverage around the plaza without allowing the antennas to interfere with each other,” said Wireless First chief engineer Josh Flower. “We set up three zones – one on 49th Street, one on 50th Street, and one in the Channel Gardens directly across from the tree – also using the same receive antenna system to feed both the intercom and the host microphones. That way, we knew anyone who had to transmit would do so to the same antenna system, ensuring the same range no matter what the device.”
Flower used Shure UA870 UHF active directional antennas for the receive side, and, on the transmit side, flooded the area using the Clair Global CF 1090 Fractal Antennas. “The CF 1090 is very consistent throughout its coverage pattern,” he said. “I was able to place them in more TV camera transparent locations and still guarantee perfect coverage. Even though we were in the heart of New York City, every aspect of the system ended up being tremendously robust.” In total, three CF 1090s transmitted to 32 drops of wireless intercom, six IFBs, and 16 channels of wireless personal monitors.
The show’s receiver and transmitter hardware was a mix of Sennheiser and Shure products. The show hosts used Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld wireless microphones. Flower gave them Sennheiser SK 5212 lavaliers for backup and added a redundant receiver rack across from the tree (the CF 1090s acted as the receive antenna for these 12 channels). Neither safeguard proved to be necessary. The musicians switched between the two stages as needed to facilitate the show’s complicated logistics, and a collection of Shure UHF-R wireless microphones delivered the critical vocal inputs. On stage, Sennheiser 2000 and G2 Series wireless personal monitors inspired wonderful performances.
The ceremony, which also included New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Radio City Rockettes, lit up the 74-foot spruce with 30,000 LED lights powered via 5 miles of cabling and a six-sided, 9.5-foot-diameter, 550-lb. star made with 25,000 Swarovski crystals, itself lit with 720 LEDs. The tree will stay lit through Jan. 7, 2012, and the use of LED lighting is reducing the tree’s energy demands from an estimated 3,510 kwH per day to 1,297 kwH per day.
For more information, please visit www.prg.com, www.harman.com and www.clairglobal.com.
