Beyond pure volume, Latin American Idol also demanded premium quality sound, in the studio and for the broadcast.
“Once Latin American Idol leaves the studio here in Buenos Aires, it has a long way to travel, going into homes in Mexico, Central and South America, and beyond,” Banchik notes. “The sound goes through so many broadcast steps, and is distributed in so many different ways, that the potential for it to get compressed and compromised in any number of ways is great anywhere along the way.
“That’s why if we don’t deliver a great sounding show from the main master, we’re doomed in terms of quality once it goes out to the rest of the world.”
Sharing Banchik’s concern for delivering superior audio, Shure’s Argentinean distributor Todomusica brought 22 channels of UHF-R wireless to the set used with black handheld transmitters sporting KSM9 capsules.
With a pair of diversity antenna arrays deployed to boost performance across the large soundstage, the systems were placed in the hands of the contestants and the show’s hosts.
Latin American Idol is taped in one of the larger studios found within facilities owned in Buenos Aires’ Palermo Hollywood district by local media powerhouse, Channel 9.
“Shure UHF-R wireless gave us what we demanded in terms of sonic quality,” Banchik adds, “and it was instrumental in helping us with RF coordination as well. Within the Channel 9 building alone, we were working alongside nine other active studios. Frequency competition from the outside world was just as great or greater, given the proximity of many other production companies that call the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood home.
“Using the UHF-R systems’ auto frequency selection feature, and with the help of Todomusica and Shure in the U.S., we built a wireless blueprint that has been rock solid all three seasons. We haven’t ever had a dropout and the systems have been 100 percent reliable.”
Shure Wireless Workbench software was used to orchestrate and monitor events, which enabled Banchik to confine all of his wireless frequencies within a band extending from 500-700 MHz. Using H4 and J5 bandwidths on handheld KSM9 microphones to cut through the neighborhood’s jam-packed frequency spectrum, he also deployed helical antennas for use with his PSM 700 wireless systems.
“We didn’t find too many clean, open frequency channels when we started out,” he says, looking back to the show’s first season. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was easy, but once we got it right, everything has worked fine right through the end of this season just past.”
The hosts of Latin American Idol are Venezuela’s Erika de la Vega and Argentina’s Monchi Balestra. Hailing from diverse ends of the Latin community across the southern hemisphere, judges include Puerto Rican Gustavo Sanchez, Cuban-born American Jon Secada, and Mexico’s Irma Angelica Hernandez Ochoa, who is better known simply as “Mimi.”
This year, 17-year-old Margarita Henriquez from Panama emerged victorious among the contestants battling for top honors in the recently completed third season.
Shure Latin American Idol Equipment Manifest:
11 – UHF-R UR4D receivers
12 – UHF-R UR2 handheld transmitters equipped with KSM9 capsules
04 – UHF-R UR1 wireless bodypack transmitters
02 – UA845 wideband UHF (500-900 MHz) 5-way active antenna systems
01 – UA844 wideband UHF (470-900 MHz) 4-way active antenna splitter systems
02 – UA870WB active UHF directional antennas (470-900 MHz)
02 – UA860WB passive omnidirectional antennas (500-1100 MHz)
02 – UA221 passive antenna splitter/combiners
02 – UA830WB in-line antenna amplifiers
01 – PA821 antenna combiners for PSM®; wireless systems
01 – HA8089 helical antennas
06 – P7T PSM 700 wireless transmitters
15 – P7R PSM 700 wireless bodypack receivers
23 – SCL3 sound isolating earphones
01 – SCL5 sound isolating earphones
For more information:
Shure Website