The jazz festival has been held in Montreux for 47 consecutive years, but the 2013 event celebrated another anniversary; it was the 20th consecutive year that Shure has been the Festival's Official Technical Partner for Microphones & Wireless Systems.
As in recent years, Shure EMEA supplied almost the complete range of current Shure microphones to Montreux's many venues, including the jazz clubs, bars, theatre stages, the so-called 'rock caves', and the floating stages on boats on the lake. Even the press office and internal broadcast crew used Shure products this year.
In total, over 1500 individual items of Shure kit were used at Montreux, from wired vocal mic 'classics' like the SM57 & SM58, the bread and butter of live musicians everywhere, to advanced digital wireless microphone systems like the ULX-D and the analogue/digital hybrid Axient, Shure's flagship wireless system. PSM900 and PSM1000 in-ear monitoring systems were also widely in use.
Following the close of the 2013 festival, Michael Wolf, technical support manager at Shure Europe, commented, "The total Shure wireless count was quite considerable this year. During the three nights with Prince, we used 18 channels of Axient and 10 channels of PSM1000 in-ear monitoring. All mics on stage were Shure. There were several additional evenings where all the mics and wireless gear was Shure, including Bobby Womack, Wyclef Jean, and Randy Crawford."
(Jim Evans)
