Recognising the achievements of five country music artists with an evening of live music, the Country Music Television (CMT) Artists of the Year was staged at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena recently.

Before the actual awards show, the CMA Red Carpet Special offered comments from some of the artists.This lead-in provided considerable insight into the events that were about to unfold and the interviews – from an audio perspective – ran through a new Lawo mc²66 MkII production console inside MTV Networks’ newest truck, Nereus.

CMT engineer Keith Durham was at the helm of the Lawo console. He was assisted by engineers Browning McCollum and Marc Repp – who was closely involved in the selection of the truck’s Lawo console.

‘While this truck was designed primarily for projects where the use of a separate audio mix truck is just not feasible, its maiden voyage involved the interviews that took place during the pre-show,’ Repp explains. ‘There was very little music on this show – other than the bumpers that lead in and out of commercials. The real challenge was the interview locations, each location having five wired and five wireless microphones. This created not only a lot of microphone inputs, but numerous microphone groups that had to be managed. Moving quickly from one microphone group to another and to seamlessly switch from a wireless to a hard wired mic – should the wireless system drop out or otherwise fail – were the most pressing tasks on this job.’

‘In addition to the various microphones and microphone groups there was also a considerable amount of IFB [interruptible foldback] traffic for communication between the production staff and the various interviewers,’ Repp continues. ‘All of these audio signals were handled by the mc²66 MkII. While there may not have been much music, there was a lot of audio moving through the board.’

Configured with 40 main faders, eight Extra Faders, eight centre-section faders, plus five DSP cards, the console offers advanced redundancy for failsafe operation, Lawo’s mc² bay server technology, a new control system on the MkII router, real-time DSP data transfer within the system’s HD core, and extended frame modularity.

‘The mc²66 MKII’s ability to quickly and easily recall snapshots and switch between the various microphone groups was a huge factor in the success of this project,’ Repp says. ‘The console’s Extra Faders feature, which includes a Short Fader Control panel in the central control section, was equally important, as it provided greater control over crucial elements assigned to this area.’

The CMA Red Carpet Special was not only an important precursor to the CMT Music Awards, it was an important start for Nereus and all who may come to use the truck: ‘Everything went exceptionally well,’ Repp reports. ‘The lead engineer found the mc²66 MkII very intuitive and everyone involved in the show’s production was pleased with the way the audio feeds were handled. This was also an important event in terms of showcasing the new truck to the engineers and other broadcast professionals who were in attendance at this year’s show. Nereus is a vitally important audio production vehicle and the fact that the Lawo mc²66 MkII resides at the center of all the technology onboard the truck is no small consideration.

Sound for the Awards...

With Rob Lowe hosting the proceedings, the five recipients put in live performances calling on Wireless First to simultaneously provide live sound reinforcement and broadcast sound, along with RF equipment and expertise. In addition to the Clair i3 line array system, Clair Global brought two new products to the event – a custom-built portable RF microphone podium and the CF 1090 Fractal Antenna.

This year’s honoured artists were Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, and Kenny Chesney.

‘It was an interesting mix of music and performances,’ says Monty Curry, who served as Clair Global crew chief and production A1. ‘There were a lot of guest musicians and a lot of creative sets. For example, Lady Antebellum gave its backing band the night off and performed an acoustic set – just the three of them.’

Effectively, this left Wireless First/Clair Global with five big-name live shows to handle, along with the demands of a high-profile television production. In addition to Curry, Rick Schimer was on hand to mix FOH music., while Jason Spence handled the mix at monitors. Josh Macinerny managed the evening’s RF signal space. Paul Cervanansky oversaw the construction and interconnection of Wireless First/Clair Global’s infrastructure in his role as chief system engineer.

‘One of the main challenges at a show like this is striking a balance between the live vibe and the broadcast quality that doesn’t feel like a compromise on either end, otherwise everything suffers,’ says Curry. ‘If the people in the audience don’t get the volume they expect, they don’t react with the same excitement that they would at a normal concert. That feeds back to the performers, who sense that lack of excitement. Even though these are the most professional musicians in the industry, they’re also humans. They’re bound to put on a better show when they feel the excitement of the crowd.’

Wireless First and Clair Global’ success in this regard was two-fold. First, the performance of its proprietary line array system delivers significant SPL to the crowd but, via tight pattern control, low SPL to any on-stage production mics, while simultaneously keeping a low, camera-friendly profile. Second, the use of elegant technologies maintains high broadcast quality both visually and aurally. The Clair Broadcast custom-built portable RF microphone podium is the latest example of the company’s engineering spirit.

‘On CMT’s Artists of the Year celebration and other high-profile awards shows, stage management and logistics is a complicated affair,’ says Kevin Sanford, principal of Wireless First. ‘All the podium rigs that we had encountered were time-consuming to assemble, awkward to move around on stage, and of less than professional sound quality and reliability.’

Clair Broadcasting’s solution is to place two Schoeps condensers at the top of the stand with their cables running internally to a base that conceals battery power and a wireless transmitter. At this event, Curry used the hypercardioid microphone when only one speaker was addressing the mic and the cardioid mic otherwise. Its sleek design and robust RF transmitter base (which is held on magnetically to allow for speedy troubleshooting or adjustments) made it easy to move it wherever it was needed on stage.

The RF component of the show involved 24 microphone channels, including Shure, Sennheiser, and Audio-Technica live performance mics. Macinerny gave the presenters Sennheiser 5200 Series handheld and body-pack transmitters, some fitted with Neumann KK 105 capsules. Spence delivered his mixes to the performers using 12 stereo Sennheiser G2 Series wireless personal monitors delivered to the receivers using a pair of Clair Global’s new CF 1090 Fractal Antennas.

‘We started designing the CF 1090 many years ago and recently finished a year-and-a-half of prototyping and beta tests,’ Sanford says. ‘The goal from the beginning was to design a rock-solid, reliably-consistent antenna that we could count on in high stakes situations like the CMT show. It’s gratifying to see all of that hard work pay off. The goal has definitely been achieved.’

For the house PA, Clair Global brought in its i3 line array. A relatively new advance, however, is its power and processing source. The modular Clair StakRak houses three Lab.gruppen PLM Series amplifiers and a Dolby Lake signal processor. Control and audio passes on convenient Cat5 cable (along with other standard formats) and each StakRak integrates seamlessly with other units, along with Clair’s loudspeakers and subwoofers. ‘It’s very easy to set up and use,’ said Curry. ‘Configuring our system is fast and reliable, which allows us to focus our attention on the million other things that are demanded of us.’

More: www.clairglobal.com