ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada – Sennheiser played a role at the televised Juno Awards show, billed as "Canada's biggest night in music." Every featured vocal performer, as well as hosts and presenters, used the company's new 2000 Series and evolution G2 wireless microphones.
Quebec's Solotech supplied production for the 39th-annual event, which was broadcast by CTV with wireless coordination and calibration provided by Christian Pageau of Quebec City-based Transmission Squelch and RF Wireless Systems Inc. of Nepean, Ontario.
This year, for the first time, the two-hour music awards special included a street party from an outdoor stage in the George Street entertainment district in the City of Legends, with local hosts Damhnait Doyle and Kim Stockwood.
The telecast opened from the remote stage with rapper Classified performing his rendition of "Oh Canada" before moving indoors to the Mile One Centre stadium.
"For the show inside Mile One Centre we had 37 channels of wireless microphones – two body-packs and 35 'sticks' – and approximately 17 IEM channels, which were all the new 2000 Series," said Scott Nickerson, RF technician with RF Wireless Systems. "All the frontline was wireless. The total number of RF channels being used at all locations, including George Street and the Red Carpet, was 155 channels – 75 of those channels were Sennheiser."
All of the vocal mics and PMs in use at the Junos on George segment of the event were Sennheiser evolution wireless series, Nickerson added. Communications systems accounted for the majority of the remaining RF channels. Additionally, CTV/MTV supplied eight channels of SKM 5200 microphones and EK 3241 camera-mount receivers to cover the red carpet arrivals.
This was Nickerson's first experience with the new 2000 Series systems. "I really like the fact the systems are capable of up to 75 MHz tunable bandwidth, depending on the frequency range. You never can have too much room to move around in the spectrum when you need it," he said. "Another key feature is the fact that the antenna inputs can be daisy-chained up to eight EM 2050 receivers, thus eliminating the need for multiple antenna dividers in larger systems.
"I also like the variable power output settings," he added. "Although I tend to set my transmitters to maximum power for a show like this, I only set my nine presenter/intro mics to 50 mW – they were on the satellite stage in the middle of the arena – and left my performance mics at the 30 mW setting. I never had a range issue or worried about enough level getting to my receivers even with the fully packed house during the show. Impressive!"
Michael Bublé got the indoor show off to a start with his single, "Haven't Met You Yet," which picked up the "Single of the Year" award. Bublé took home three additional honors, including Juno Fan Choice, Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year. Rapper Drake was also a winner for New Artist of the Year and Rap Recording of the Year. He appeared as a guest with Justin Bieber before performing his own new single, "Over."
"We had to bring a special mic in for Drake," said Nickerson. Sennheiser Canada handled the last-minute request, delivering a custom white SKM 2000 in time for the show, with Nickerson noting, "We had to paint a microphone stand all white for him, too."
The grand finale featured K'naan, honored for Songwriter of the Year and Artist of the Year, performing "Wavin' Flag" with Drake, Fefe Dobson, Justin Bieber, and members of the Arkells, Barenaked Ladies, Faber Drive, Hedley, and Metric and Stereos.
"For that one performance we had 18 Sennheiser wireless mics onstage," Nickerson said. "The band used 2000 Series mics and we used 12 evolution G2s for the guests."
The show also included performances by a host of Canada's top recording artists, including Blue Rodeo, Great Lake Swimmers, Billy Talent and Johnny Reid.
For more information, please visit www.sennheiser.ca .
