UK sound reinforcement and production specialist Stage Sound Services has added 40 channels of Shure ULX-D wireless microphones to its rental/hire inventory. 
The additional channel capacity was prompted by the London musical production Close To You, presenting the songs of Burt Bacharach.
The show began with a summer run at the fringe Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark in 2015, meeting with sufficient success to see it transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, in the heart of London’s West End. An ambitious production featuring multi-instrumentalist musicians and singers, the show uses a rotating riser, with the audience partially seated on the stage surrounding the performers. Cabled mics could not be used with this kind of staging, so everything from kick drum to vocalists had to be furnished with RF channels.
‘We reckon there’s a radio mic per square metre of performance area when the show’s in full swing and everyone’s playing,’ explains Stage Sound Services’ owner and MD, Phil Hurley. ‘It was about double the RF channel count the Chocolate Factory had ever used on stage.’
‘We were concerned about the RF channel density, which is a problem in central London anyway, even without the specific demands of this show,’ continues Sales & Facilities Manager at Stage Sound Services James Lewis. ‘We decided our solution would revolve around ULX-D, as Shure has been a brand we rely on for projects in very crowded RF environments. We invested in 44 channels of ULX-D a couple of years ago for our corporate and theatre work, we’d road-tested it on other shows and we’ve been very happy with it.
‘This production was so ambitious in RF terms that we needed another 40 channels of ULX-D,’ Lewis adds. ‘Fortunately, there’s such a demand for those kind of systems in our business anyway that we were able to make the purchase of the additional channels work financially. After the current run of Close To You ends, the new ULX-Ds are all booked up already.’
‘We suggested ULX-D to Richard Brooker, the show’s Sound Designer, who has used many other brands of mics and wireless equipment over the years,’ says Hurley. ‘In the end, the system’s performance under intense RF conditions convinced him – and with this many wireless channels, Shure’s Wireless Workbench was a good real-time monitoring solution.
‘I think we all made the right choice as the production was able to transfer right into the West End without any changes to the wireless side of things,’ he concludes, ‘The RF stuff all just worked, and is still working – which is exactly what you want.’
More: http://stagesoundservices.co.uk
More: www.shuredistribution.co.uk
