Sennheiser Digital 6000 accompanied 'Lazarus' to Amsterdam

The sights are set on opening the stage so that David Bowie's musical legacy, 'Lazarus', continue your journey, and do it with the same sound quality that accompanied you in Amsterdam with Sennheiser Digital 6000.

The Dutch rental company Events Light worked with stage entertainment company Nederland (Sen) to deliver state-of-the-art audio equipment for the show that captivated Dutch audiences at the DeLaMar Theatre of Amsterdam before the pandemic. At this event, which had Ivo van Hove as conductor and Henry Hey as music director and arranger/composer, were used 20 channels of wireless microphone systems Sennheiser Digital 6000 with mini-pouch transmitters Sk 6212, products distributed in Spain Magnetron.

When Stage Entertainment Nederland contacted the owner of Events Light, Jeroen Frijters, to prepare an offer to supply the audio system for the show, Frijters knew the choice was Sennheiser's technology.

Frijters contacted Vincent Tilgenkamp, Sennheiser's RF Specialist, to help you set up a high-end system that they could present to the SEN sound design team.

"Events Light has been running for more than 20 years and all this time we have been using Sennheiser", frijters says. "After meeting vincent, we felt it was time to upgrade our stock with Digital wireless microphone systems 6000, including SK mini pouch digital wireless microphone transmitters 6212, to meet the demands of such an acclaimed theatrical production".

Uncompromising RF reliability, transparent digital sound, ease of use with a fast and intuitive interface, the compact size of the SK pouch 6212 and more than 12 hours of operation were the main points that convinced the sound designers Dennis Slot and Erwin Sterk to opt for the recommendation of the Digital 6000.

"We worked in collaboration with Henry Hey to recreate the original feel of the production and adapt it to DeLaMar's acoustically challenging room., which was much larger than the New York Theatre Workshop in Manhattan where Lazarus originally premiered.", remember Sterk.

The wireless system operator and specialist, JoHaLee Glastra, was also satisfied with Digital 6000 for multiple reasons.

"The biggest advantage for me was the battery life of the pouch.. This meant that the batteries could be changed in the morning before the start of the tests., last all day, including live performance in the evening, and there was still cargo”.

Wireless Systems Manager

The professional software solution Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) Of Sennheiser was another useful feature for Glastra. "It's really intuitive.. All the most important parameters, such as battery charge levels, RF status and LQI (link quality indicator) are displayed on a single screen. This makes setting up and coordinating frequencies much easier.".

In addition to the challenging acoustics of the room, further aggravated by the glass surfaces that were part of the stage design, the team had to consider certain scenes, like several of the cast slipping and sliding into a puddle of milk at the end of the show. "A great discovery for me was how clean the sound of the Digital is. 6000 compared to other systems, even after the pouches have been bathed in liquid.", clarifies Glastra.

Tilgenkamp explains that what Glastra calls "much cleaner sound" is due, among other things, to the combination of AD converters, sophisticated signal processing and patented codec. This ensures a high dynamic range of system audio and the excellent audio quality of the Digital system 6000, where the voice captured by the microphone is heard and not by the wireless system.

According to Slot, the main job of the sound designer is to create a sound that fits the narrative vision of the director or producer. "But another important point is the need to create an overall solution that is viable from many different perspectives.. An actor can use a, or sometimes several pouches, so size and weight become vitally important; an RF expert will work frequently to ensure the system runs smoothly; the room engineer needs all the right tools to control the sound the audience hears.".

"All these elements are like a puzzle.. When all the pieces fit together perfectly, we can offer a great show. A system like Digital 6000 Sennheiser not only fulfills its primary goal of reliably transmitting audio from place to place and delivering crisp sound, it also helps to get to that point.. Support the cast by remaining as invisible as possible with its battery of 12 hours of duration and its miniature size, and its intuitive interface saves precious time and provides a stress-free experience for technicians.", add Slot.

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