Audio provider for the event was Delta Sound, who supplied a comprehensive array of Sennheiser products. However, such were the demands of the show that Sennheiser UK was happy to loan further equipment, providing additional support in the form of Mark Saunders and Andy Lillywhite.
Project manager for Delta was Steve Lutley who, together with Simon Hodge, had spent the summer manning the monitor consoles on Take That's Progress tour and was doing the same for this event.
"Sennheiser had provided such great support for the Take That tour, and for the 2009 Children in Need concert at the Albert Hall, that it made perfect sense to ask then to help with this year's event," he says. "We had 23 artists performing 25 songs, along with four presenters, a 10-piece house band, and 24-piece orchestra. The entire show was virtually live to air, there was only a 10 minute delay from the start of the show to the start of transmission."
"When the brief came in about the content of the show, Steve and I knew that we would need to be well insured in terms of RF gear and management," adds Hodge. "I'm sure that Mark was both expecting and dreading the call to talk about it. Luckily he still said yes and offered us a great deal of equipment and support."
Working closely with Steve and Simon, Andy Lillywhite played a key role in what turned out to be one of the year's biggest RF challenges.
"The frequency planning ended up being something of a team effort," he says. "Preliminary work was done by Simon but, as he had to concentrate on the operational matters once the production rehearsals got under way, the frequency planning baton was handed over to Paul Carter and I at quite an early stage."
"We were also helped out by Ali Viles who was looking after RF for Coldplay," adds Lutley. "They, Lady Gaga and Snow Patrol all came with full production, so careful planning had to be agreed in order that they could all slide into the RF spectrum that we had available."
"With Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Snow Patrol all having their own substantial RF requirements, in addition to the needs of the 'house' band, BBC orchestra, presenters and all the guest artists, the final list of radio microphones and in-ear monitors topped out at 113 separate UHF frequencies," continues Lillywhite. "We somehow managed to accommodate everybody's needs, with extensive use being made of frequencies in the soon-to-be-auctioned upper and lower cleared UHF bands, so we might not be able to do it quite the same way in a year or so!"
The Sennheiser radio mics used on the show included an SKM 5200 with MD 5235 head for Gary Barlow and Lady Gaga, SKM 5200 with KK 105 head for Snow Patrol and the presenters, plus SKM 2000s with 935 heads for various members of The Collective. This included Ed Sheeran, Tinchy Stryder, Labrinth, Wretch 32 and also Tulisa using her custom CrystalRoc SKM 500-935.
All in-ear monitors for the 'house' band were Sennheiser 2000 series, with some of the visiting artists using G3 systems.
(Jim Evans)
