Musicians on the German reality TV talent show “Sing meinen Song” are now performing their own in-ear monitoring independently with a new ME personal mixing system from Allen & Heath implemented by Sascha Kohl, the show’s sound engineer, who notes that the change has made a significant difference because he has to control both the house and monitor mix and simultaneously and via an Allen & Heath dLive surface.
During the production of the show, an 11-piece band accompanies various stars of the German music scene playing together in a living room setting in South Africa. The line-up of the band remains the same, with well-known singers taking turns. The time frame is tight, as two shows are recorded each day, and so the idea was floated that musicians could take care of their own IEM mixes, thus saving time both during rehearsals and performances.
A particular challenge was that flexible monitoring was needed both during rehearsals in Mannheim and on location in South Africa. All signals, including the front-of-house mix, the band’s monitoring and the singers’ in-ear monitoring, had to be controlled from one console.
The choice fell to an ME personal mixing system that’s comprised of 11 ME-1s and two ME hubs were used. The cabling was laid out in a star configuration in order to feed all devices with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE). The system was integrated via a dLive S7000 console in conjunction with a DM64 MixRack and a DX32 Expander from Allen & Heath. Since the introduction of the dLive system, it has been the preferred choice for the production of “Sing meinen Song.”
Kohl explains, “By allowing the musicians to control their own monitoring, the ME system took a lot of pressure off me. We were able to save a lot of time during rehearsals and I was able to concentrate fully on the FOH mix. The musicians also like being able to adjust their own monitoring. This way, everyone can put together their own personal mix, which in turn inspires the musical performance.”
