Music Cube is a giant soundproof glass box, in which a range of artists performed over the weekend of 24-26 October at the Westfield London shopping centre, and 31 October - 2 November at Westfield Stratford City.
Kicking off at midday, performances by between three and six up-and-coming artists were followed by a set from a Kiss FM DJ and then two headline slots by more recognised performers.
Each session was witnessed by an audience of up to 300, all using Sennheiser's Urbanite headphones to enjoy the music.
Sennheiser UK provided equipment including evolution 2000 series wireless microphones for the artists, plus 300 sets of Urbanite headphones and 300 evolution wireless receivers for the headphones.
Westfield promoted the events as 'a completely new way to experience live music', as Sennheiser UK's Nick Pemberton explains. "When you put the Urbanites on, you felt as though you were transported into the box with the band, which made for a very exciting experience. It was weird when you took the headphones off and were transported back to reality."
Nick and the Sennheiser UK team were a key part of the events. They created an L/R mix for the 300 pairs of Urbanites, with the headphone mix slightly delayed to align with the vibrations from 'butt kicker' subs, which were installed into the decking that guests walked over to enhance the physical feeling of the music.
"Transmitting the mix to 300 people was straightforward, due to the our usual forward planning and the use of evolution series wireless IEM receivers and a 2000 series transmitter," says Nick.
"Having scanned the environments with Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) and working with Arquiva to establish which frequencies would provide bulletproof reliability, we programmed the system accordingly. The stereo system was split into two transmit frequencies for further reliability. In the event minimal RF power was required, due to the choice of frequency and best practice applied to cabling and antenna deployment."
(Jim Evan)
