Gearhouse Has Talent when it comes to live audio broadcast

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With audiences regularly topping 10 million, the annual Britain’s Got Talent show has become something of a national institution.

Presented by the nation’s favourite hosts Ant and Dec, the show has made household names of the likes of judge Simon Cowell and contestants such as Diversity, Susan Boyle and this years winner Spellbound.

With the acts and judges performing live in front of an audience it is essential that the audio broadcast technology and solutions within the studio are of the highest possible quality.

For the fourth year running Gearhouse Broadcast were awarded the contract to supply radio microphone equipment for the judges, hosts and contestants for the ITV live studio show of Britain’s Got Talent.

Gearhouse also provide Radio Frequency (RF) solutions for ITV’s other huge talent show hit, ‘X Factor’ as well as the Britain’s Got Talent spin off, ‘Britain’s Got More Talent’.

Jakki Hewitt, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Rental Manager, said: “With our history of successfully undertaking RF projects such as Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, we have consistently proven that we can provide our clients flexible and reliable solutions to the very highest standards.”

Planning of the show began with a detailed frequency blueprint produced by Gearhouse Broadcast’s audio specialists, and in the end no fewer than 50 channels of radio microphones were in operation.

Dawn Gray, Britain’s Got Talent, Line Producer for talkbackTHAMES said, We have worked with Gearhouse Broadcast on many projects before. Highly recommended, Gearhouse proved that their audio department could tailor their service to suit any needs and any schedule that we could throw at them.”

Gearhouse Broadcast audio also managed all stages from planning, kit preparation and delivery to onsite installation. Continual on-site and off-site support is also vital to provide seamless integration of wireless radio microphones given the size of the studio and the unpredictable and spontaneous nature of the programme.

Among the very latest state-of-the-art equipment supplied to meet the very specific needs of the programme were:

  • 40 Sennheiser SK5012s
  • a new SK5212 bodypack transmitter
  • Six SKM 5200 handheld transmitters
  • Two SKP 30 plug on transmitters, which when plugged into the microphone connector instantly converts to wireless operation
  • Sennheiser’s MKE Platinum clip-on lavalier microphones were used for all presenters and contestants
  • A purpose built Titan ProSplit antenna combiner/splitter which fed multiple zones of RF coverage to seven racks of Sennheiser EM1046 receiver cards