This year’s NBA All Star Game brought some 108,000 basketball fans to the “Texas-sized” Dallas Cowboys Stadium, a record-breaking number for the sport.
Consistent with the high-profile event, which included several days of games and skills contests, the big game’s halftime show rivaled that of the Super Bowl, being broadcast to 215 countries in 44 languages.
Columbian pop sensation Shakira and R&B superstar Alicia Keys delivered their stellar performances utilizing over thirty channels of Sennheiser 5000 and 2000 Series wireless microphones and G2 and G3 monitoring systems.
The Sennheiser gear stood the test of the RF space, which, like the stadium itself, was filled to capacity. In addition, a range of Sennheiser wired microphones handled the backline.
Kevin Sanford, president of Wireless First which provided the gear and RF coordination for the show arrived nine days before the game itself to pave the way for hiccup-free wireless performance.
“The sheer size of the place and the distances we had to cover made this a very challenging job,” remarked Sanford. “In addition to the frequencies I was dealing with, there were something like three hundred other wireless channels in use! CNN, TNN, you name it, everyone was consuming wireless channels.”
In addition to bringing his arsenal of Sennheiser gear that was used for both Alicia Keys and Shakira’s performances, Sanford relied on often easily-forgotten textbook advice: careful antenna placement that maintains height and line of sight between transmitter and receiver.
Alicia Keys sang into a Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld transmitter with MD 5235 capsule while Shakira sang into a Neumann KK 105 condenser capsule, again using a Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld transmitter.
“In a challenging situation like this, I want as many ‘constants’ as possible,” said Sanford. “Unlike some of the other big names in wireless, Sennheiser never leaves me guessing. It always works the way it is supposed to. When there are so many things to worry about, as there were at the NBA All Star Game, it’s nice to have Sennheiser technology to rely on.”
