Sennheiser Kicks Off With The NFL In Times Square

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: An unprecedented mid-week late-afternoon concert event in New York City's Times Square kicking off the NFL's 83rd season had RF guru Kevin Sanford of Wireless First reaching for his Sennheiser equipment. The challenges posed by operating in close proximity to broadcast facilities, Broadway shows and other RF users demanded the power, reliability and frequency agility that only Sennheiser's RF systems could provide, said Sanford.

Kevin Sanford of Wireless First, NYC and Boston, sits in front of the trusted Sennheiser rack at the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. for the taping of "Concert for America" which aired on NBC on 9/11. At "Concert for America," Sanford used 22 wireless systems with sixteen of the new Neumann KK 105-S capsules. Sanford recently completed NFL Kickoff in Times Square, MTV's VMA Show and Divas Las Vegas using Sennheiser and Neumann Wireless microphones.

"I wanted to make sure I used all Sennheiser stuff to give me that 50 milliwatts," confirmed Sanford. Wireless First supplied two dozen Sennheiser wireless handheld and lavalier microphones, as well as wireless in-ear monitoring and intercom systems, to the nationally televised "NFL Kickoff Live from Times Square" show. Featuring headliners Bon Jovi plus Enrique Iglesias, Eve, Alicia Keys, and the cast of "Rent" with Joey Fatone ('NSYNC), portions of the three and a half hour event, which attracted an estimated crowd of 500,000 to Times Square, were televised live or tape-delayed on VH-1, MTV, CBS and ESPN. The show culminated in a "Countdown to Kickoff" of the season's first game at Meadowland Giants Stadium, just across the river in New Jersey, where Bon Jovi also played at halftime.

"The stage in Times Square was on the island where Seventh and Broadway meet," Sanford explained, "so we were smack-dab in the middle of everything. My frequency list for just what exists in that area was nine pages long. You've got Broadway shows like "42nd Street," "Lion King" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie," then there's CBS, ABC, MTV, ESPN, WWF, all with wireless stuff that was going to be cooking, because this was mid-week. It's a big parabolic dish in there - you're totally enclosed by big, tall buildings, all of them full of RF and electronics."

Charged with coordinating 32 channels of wireless microphones and providing uninterrupted coverage of the artists and presenters, Sanford had a simple solution. "I only used Sennheiser mics for my portion," he said. All handheld mics comprised Sennheiser SKM 5000 transmitters and ME 5005 capsules with SK 50s on MKE 2 lavaliers. "Out of the 32, the other eight were mics that some artists brought with them. Presenters for the special NFL event included host Dion Sanders plus Phil Simms, Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason all using Sennheiser wireless systems.

"The one thing I had no control over was the ENG camera crews," continued Sanford. "Every five minutes I changed frequencies. My main concern was not with handhelds but the lavaliers for the "Rent" cast. They're much more susceptible to interference. With handhelds, the antenna is out there and the antenna at the transmitter is always looking right at the receiver antenna. Even though they were only 50 feet away, even handhelds were dancing pretty heavy on the meters."

Sanford additionally coordinated the wireless in-ear monitoring systems for the artists and presenters, as well as the wireless production intercom. In addition to the mic and monitoring rigs, he said, "I had 10 RF PL systems, so that's 70 drops of wireless intercom to make work. Because I was doing production elements that weren't necessarily on-stage, their home base was across the street, on a remote scaffold, where the hosts would stand and 'throw' to the stage. I was a busy boy!"

Established in 1945 in Wedemark, Germany, Sennheiser is the acknowledged world leader in microphone technology, RF-wireless and infrared sound transmission, headphone transducer technology, and most recently, in the development of active noise-cancellation. Sennheiser Electronic Corporation is the U.S. wholly-owned subsidiary, with headquarters in Old Lyme, Connecticut.