(07/07/2013) From June 6 to 9, the Country Music Association (CMA) held its 42nd Annual Fan Fair, a four-day music festival consisting of dozens of country performances including current, chart-topping Sennheiser users such as Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band to heritage' artists including Kenny Rogers and Oak Ridge Boys.
Each year, the festival gains in popularity around the world and this year was no exception as the total number of attendees exceeded 80,000 over the course of the festival a 13 percent increase in overall attendance compared to 2012. Sennheiser supported the production with wireless equipment consisting of eight channels of EM 3732-II receivers, coupled with SKM 2000-XP handheld wireless transmitters and MMD 935-1 cardioid microphone capsules.
Curt Jenkins was responsible for the audio as project manager for Nashville-based Sound Image. Jenkins made contact with Tim Moore, Sennheiser USA's artist relations manager, several weeks before the event for assistance in coordinating artist and engineer equipment needs. With the complexity of the event in mind, Moore suggested bringing in the Sennheiser Global Relations Team for additional support utilizing their production-ready technical assets.
Sennheiser recognizes the challenges technicians and engineers face during these events to stay efficient, so our pre-configured wireless equipment racks give them one less thing to worry about, commented Kristy Jo Winkler, Global Relations Manager, Americas. The equipment was used extensively over the course of the performances at LP Field Nashville's 68,798 capacity sporting arena that is also home to the Tennessee Titans U.S. football team.
In addition to the wireless racks, Sound Image appreciated the microphone capsules Sennheiser provided. The e 935 microphone and MMD 935-1 capsule have become very popular and are the choice of a large number of Sennheiser users, commented Tim Moore. The MMD 935-1 capsule has a natural response that consistently and accurately reproduces the source. When Curt asked for support from Sennheiser, I knew that the 935-1 capsule would be perfectly suited for the application.
Sennheiser: providing wireless support where it s needed
I was managing audio for the whole event, commented Curt Jenkins, who was asked to provide several additional channels of production wireless to cover the festival's heritage acts as well as ongoing MC activities. Since it was being filmed for TV by a major network, we had to ensure all the audio was rock solid, especially considering we were multi-tracking everything. We asked Sennheiser if they could help and they arranged to have a rack sent over without delay.
In addition to the wireless microphones, Sennheiser also supplied several SR 2050 IEMs and evolution series wired microphones. The equipment was used throughout the duration of the four-day festival, providing clear and predictably flawless performance to the record-setting, sell-out crowd. From the outset, Jenkins had no doubt that the MMD 935-1 capsules would perform well in a stadium environment, especially considering that it has been the go-to' capsule for both Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton: The capsules themselves are well rounded, he says. The MMD 935-1 is totally controllable in a stadium environment and because of its wide frequency response works great on anybody's voice.
No clicks, pops, swishes or dropouts
Jason Glass of Cross Plains, TN-based Clean Wireless Audio was hired by Sound Image to handle RF coordination for the stage microphones, IEMs, television crews as well as touring rigs for guest acts during the festival. Glass was tasked with covering the entire stage performance area as well as a secondary stage in the audience, located approximately seventy-five feet beyond the downstage edge of the main stage.
He put the Sennheiser rack into play from the moment it arrived during load-in on June 3rd. We relied heavily on the Sennheiser wireless receivers and transmitters during each of the four days, and everything worked perfectly, he recalls. Each day, Glass worked alongside each artist's tech team to provide backup frequencies should any trouble arise. Not only were the vast majority of pre-assigned Sennheiser frequencies clean, but Taylor Swift's RF Tech Bill Flugan emailed me afterwards to let me know their show went flawlessly.
Glass, who has toured for over 20 years as a monitor engineer, says that the Sennheiser gear performed as advertised: Everything worked so incredibly well. In four days, we didn't experience a single click, pop, swish or dropout. Glass says in addition to the incredible reliability of the Sennheiser wireless, he also appreciates the cross-compatibility between the 2000 series and 5000 series wireless systems: When you are working with different touring acts, some walk in with Sennheiser 5000 systems if the next act walks on and are carrying the 2000 series, you can push a few buttons on the receiver and be ready to go, he says.
Sennheiser Global Relations making it work
Perhaps most of all, Glass is appreciative of the care that goes into pre-configuring a turnkey system. When you obtain a turnkey system from Sennheiser Global Relations, the rack is absolutely gorgeous. It is well thought out, constructed and functions exactly as you would expect, he says. For instance, each BNC cable is no longer and no shorter than needed when you are trying to squeeze every last decibel out of an RF transmission system, things like cabling become a factor and Sennheiser does it right.
It brings to mind the old catch phrase German precision engineering', concludes Glass. Everything has its purpose, and that's appreciated. When you talk to people at Sennheiser, they know their stuff.
About Sennheiser
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
(07/07/2013) From June 6 to 9, the Country Music Association (CMA) held its 42nd Annual Fan Fair, a four-day music festival consisting of dozens of country performances including current, chart-topping Sennheiser users such as Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band to heritage' artists including Kenny Rogers and Oak Ridge Boys.
