LONDON – For Leona Lewis’ second headlining concert tour, The Glassheart Tour, which wrapped up this summer, FOH engineer Dave Wooster credited Sennheiser’s 9000 series digital wireless systems, Neumann AES42 digital wired microphones and K-array loudspeakers for meeting the challenge of ensuring optimized sound within a wide array of venues.
More details from K-array (http://www.k-array.com/en/):
UK — The Glassheart Tour, which wrapped up this summer, was the second headlining concert tour by British recording artist Leona Lewis, launched in support of her third studio album, Glassheart (2012). With an initial run of sixteen dates in the United Kingdom, it’s clear that playing in venues of widely different sizes is always a challenge for sound engineers, but Sennheiser’s 9000 series digital wireless systems, Neumann AES42 digital wired microphones and K-array loudspeakers helped to ensure that the sound was always transparent.
The tour’s venues ranged from regional concert halls like the Ipswich Regent and Newcastle City Hall, through the Brighton Centre and London’s Royal Albert Hall to arenas in Birmingham and Liverpool so the acoustics were obviously very different in the various venues.
Sennheiser UK complemented the tour’s audio system by supplying in-ear monitors and a 9000 Series digital wireless equipment package which comprised 10 SKM 9000 handheld microphones with MD 9235 capsules, seven SK 9000 belt packs for guitars and the show’s string quartet, plus a pair of EM 9046 receivers. Four K-array KR402 lightweight mid-hi line array elements with powered subs, were used for ground stacks and front fills.
“The K-array system really proved its worth throughout the tour, complementing the main PA system and achieving remarkably seamless coverage,” says Lewis’s regular Front of House engineer Dave Wooster who is very familiar with Sennheiser products. “For example, at the smaller venues like Ipswich, Nottingham and Oxford, it is so compact that we were able to keep sight lines as clear as possible while covering the maximum amount of seats.
“In contrast, at the Albert Hall we had two full KR402 systems down the front – one at stage level and one at the top of the choir stalls – and a set of four KK102 elements across the front of the stage. This configuration gave us full coverage for the required 280º horizontally and the massive height requirement, right up to the standing room area in the gallery.
“The stack at the stage edge was about two meters from the nearest seat, but was still required to throw a good 15m to where the coverage transitioned into the main system. The true line array nature of the system meant that there was no complaint about the volume from the closest seat, but the furthest seat could still hear perfectly.”
That’s the beauty of show business…
