The World of Hans Zimmer concert not only captivated audiences with music from the renowned film composer but also served as a test run for Sennheiser’s Spectera system
German audio company Sennheiser supplied its Spectera wireless system for The world of Hans Zimmer – An immersive symphony. The Theatre Experience, ensuring high-quality sound at the Metronom Theatre in Oberhausen, Germany. The system played a key role in delivering in-ear and line/mic signals to musicians, enhancing the experience for over 22,000 fans attendees across the 15 sold-out concerts.
The Spectera Base Station and bidirectional 1.4 GHz bodypacks were introduced to the concert’s team during rehearsals in January. Monitor engineer Thorben Ströhlein and RF manager Werner Schmidl then used the premiere as an opportunity to evaluate Sennheiser’s equipment as part of the Spectera Pioneer Program.
Despite limited preparation time, the engineers praised the system for its user-friendly configuration. “You could say, perhaps, that we were thrown in at the deep end because we didn’t have all that much time to prepare,” laughed Ströhlein. “But actually, it wasn’t a problem at all, because the system was relatively easy to set up.”
Initially intending to use Spectera solely for in-ear monitoring, Ströhlein and Schmidl instead decided to take advantage of its bidirectional capabilities. Schmidl equipped several musicians with Spectera beltpacks for both in-ear monitoring and signals, while others used the IEM-only function. In total, Ströhlein managed 22 monitor mixes.
The Spectera team used this event to gather feedback for further development of the system. Schmidl commented, saying, “I really like the fact that I can change the in-ear volume of the packs in the software. I’ve had a few cases where I noticed that the volume was too high and I was able to change it.”
Ströhlein also highlighted the performance of the bidirectional beltpacks. “With analogue systems, I have a lot more dropouts, but Spectera made the production much easier.”
The system’s compact design was also a standout feature. Schmidl stated, “it’s great for the performers, too, as they now only need a single beltpack.”
“Feedback like this is hugely important for us and enables us to further perfect the system – which works really well via firmware updates,” Per Witte from Sennheiser explained. “This is precisely what the Pioneer Program was created for, and we are very grateful to the team for their honest feedback.”
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