Sennheiser on tour with George Michael’s Symphonica

Symphonica: The Orchestra Tour is everything one would want from George Michael, but in a very grown-up way. It features many of his best-loved hits, plus a carefully chosen selection of covers, that have all been re-worked for orchestral accompaniment. As a technical production, this would be daunting for even the most experienced of engineers, so both crew and equipment – the latter of which features a substantial amount of Sennheiser in the audio side of the inventory – have been carefully chosen.

Andy ‘Baggy’ Robinson, George’s long-time monitor engineer, not only performs his usual duties, but is also head of sound. His choice of audio

tools, whilst designed to make life as easy as possible, also has to provide the requisite quality of sound, hence his primary choice of microphone and RF equipment is, as usual, Sennheiser.

This tour works in every way. George’s voice, which has always had an impressive tone and clarity, has matured to a level perfectly suited to the

concept of Symphonica. The venues – including historic venues such as the State Opera House in Prague, Arena di Verona in Italy, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House, and arenas such as Rotterdam’s Ahoy and Manchester’s MEN – will all be engendered with the

sense of intimacy that such a show demands.

“This is the first time George has toured with an orchestra,” says Baggy. “Everything came together very quickly and it sounds amazing.” George uses a Sennheiser SKM 5200 microphone with a Neumann KK 105 capsule, straight off the shelf, and EM 3732-II dual receivers. The backing

singers are all using the SKM 5200, but with MD 5235 capsule, specifically chosen because the singers sit in amongst the band and the 5235 has less spill.

“On the 25 Live tour, we used the KK 104 capsule for George,” Baggy recalls, “but we moved to the 105 here because again, we get less spill. This is vitally important as some of the live shows are going to be captured for his new album. I actually haven’t noticed too much difference between the 104 and the 105, but then I don’t get much noise from the stage – George holds the mic close to his mouth and I simply ride the dynamic for him. However, Gary Bradshaw loves it at Front of House.”

Alongside Baggy in monitor world, Simon Hall mans a second position for the band and orchestra, which comprise 10 and 35 members  respectively. The system utilises a considerable amount of wireless equipment, with Baggy carrying two mains and a spare for George for both mic and in ear monitors. Backing vocals are entirely wireless, whilst the band changes to wireless systems when they appear at front of stage at the end of the show. All wireless in-ear monitoring is via Sennheiser’s 2000 Series. Although Simon has around 100 mixes, he says he has the easier of the two monitor duties. “We have a whole shout and talk system, so the band musicians can all talk to me, but Baggy has a lot more pressure,” he smiles, adding,  “Sennheiser equipment would always be my preferred choice and the support from Mark Saunders and the

Sennheiser UK team is fabulous. Since 25 Live they have provided us with a lot of equipment and it’s always been very good.”

This considerable amount of radio equipment brings to the fore the issue of RF management, for which George Hogan, or The Prof as his colleagues affectionately call him, has been retained. Alongside local restrictions on power output, the challenges that George faces at every new venue include fitting round what is an extremely noisy environment, created by the use of LED screen and moving lights. This an issue  that these days is commonplace, but increases in proportion to the amount of equipment used, which here is considerable.

“I fit our RF equipment into the gaps left by the screens,” George explains, living up to his ‘Professor’ moniker by making a complex operation

sound eminently simple. “This means I can’t use any sort of standard pre-sets, so I just look at the environment at every venue and build a plan that fits the gaps, using a piece of software that I wrote some years back. “Once I’ve done that, I input the information into the Sennheiser software package and that sets all the radio equipment up. Then all you have to do is point each individual mic at the unit, press a button and it transfers information across. On average, it takes me about five hours to build everything and tune it.”

In addition to ‘fitting into the gaps’, George also has to account for the implications of the Digital Dividend. “It’s a pain, because everything is closer together in practical terms,” he says. “The manufacturers are keeping up, but for big shows it does make things more difficult. “It used to be possible to put a load of equipment one end of a venue, a load of equipment another end and effectively you could ignore them merging with each other. But now all of the equipment is capable of ‘breaking’ its neighbours, because it’s all packed much tighter together. On a small stage that’s quite a big problem. For example, in a theatre you may have twice as much radio and only about a third of the physical area. In larger venues, it’s fine because we can use various bits of spectrum that are reasonably well isolated from each other. This is done mechanically by putting antennas some distance away from each other, so it requires a bit of three-dimensional thinking.

“The best thing – and this is my honest opinion – is that Sennheiser equipment always works. When I use the SKM 5200 with a 105 and a 5235 capsule, I don’t get any stress. As a piece of RF engineering, it doesn’t suffer from things like stopping working if you hold the aerial, where as some other brands do. And it syncs with everything at the push of a button. “The in ears are great, too. The newer ones run on slightly higher power, so as a factory item you don’t have to do much to them or use special amplifiers. Here, everyone is using them straight out of the box.”

Tour director Ken Watts concludes, “It’s one thing to be given an endorsement from a company such as Sennheiser, they could have dumped a bundle of mics and in ears in our lap and we would, of course, have been most grateful. But, it’s quite another to find a major audio provider who wants to take part in the dedicated process of doing everything possible to deliver the ultimate quality in multiple performing environments for an artist known for his dedication to sound quality production. Sennheiser have worked with us continuously since 2006, every tour we raise the bar and every tour they readily respond. More part of the team than just a supplier, my thanks to Mark and all at Sennheiser.”