Audio-Technica Microphones Featured At Historic 5.1/HDTV Broadcast of the 45th Annual Grammy Awards
(Audio-Technica | Posted 2003-02-26)
For the sixth year in a row, Audio-Technica microphones dominated the annual GRAMMY® Awards ceremony, held this year on February 23rd at Madison Square Garden. Back in New York City after four years in Los Angeles, the 45th Annual GRAMMYs broke new ground by being the first major awards show to be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound. Audio-Technica supplied more than 230 microphones, including a broad selection of hard-wired mics as well as several of the new Artist Elite® 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems, which were launched less than four months ago. The team responsible for this historic broadcast read like a Who’s Who in professional audio: ATK/Audiotek provided the sound system with FOH (front-of-house) Ron Reeves, while the broadcast audio was supervised by the Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Chairman Phil Ramone, advisory council member Hank Neuberger, and Murray Allen for Cossette Productions. New York-based 5.1 Sound Designer Randy Ezratty and his Effanel Music mobile remote trucks, with music mixers John Harris and Jay Vicari, provided the 5.1 and stereo feeds. Additionally, All Mobile’s “Resolution” high-definition production truck with production mixer Ed Greene provided the fiber-optic cable feed for broadcast.
Because CBS wanted to deliver the highest form of HDTV — with 1,080 lines of picture resolution and 5.1 channels of CD-quality surround sound — in a number of major markets on its High Definition Television Network, the engineers involved in the musical portion of the broadcast agreed that the microphone selection was critical to the success of the event’s sound. A wide range of Audio-Technica microphones was employed for the GRAMMYs, including AE3000 (rack and floor toms), AT4033 (hi hat), AE2500 (kick), AT4050 (overheads and guitar amps), AE5100 and ATM35 (orchestra), AE5400 (back-up vocals), and AT4053 (acoustic guitars, cellos, and bass). The new A-T Artist Elite® 5000 Series UHF Wireless System was used for front-line vocals on Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, No Doubt, John Mayer, James Taylor, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, and Steven Van Zandt.
Co-Music Mixer for the GRAMMYs Jay Vicari, whose clients include Saturday Night Live, Last Call with Carson Daly, the MTV Video Movie Awards, and HBO, explains the factors that influenced his decision to use Audio-Technica mics. Vicari asserts, “I chose Audio-Technica because I think their microphones have superior sound quality, as well as being more versatile than other mics I’ve used in the past. Of course there are a lot of other microphones that sound great, but they don’t work in almost every application — Audio-Technica does. I use AE3000 on toms, AT4033 on hi-hat, and I’ve been using the new AE2500 dual-element kick drum mic religiously on all the shows I’ve recently mixed. I know I can depend on Audio-Technica and they will sound great.”
John Harris, co-Music Mixer for the GRAMMYs with such credits as classic MTV “Unplugged” segments, numerous VH1 “Storytellers,” and the A&E “Live By Request” series, echoes Vicari’s sentiments: “This year’s show is largely wireless by design. Five years ago I started using A-T hard-wired microphones for vocals instead of the old standbys — I had remarkable success with those mics and since then I’ve used them in every application I could. This year many of the acts are using the new Artist Elite® 5000 Series UHF Wireless System, which has the same capsule as the AE5400 hard-wired mic, so now I’m able to have the capsule that I like on a truly stable RF system. I complement the wireless with the AE5400 hard-wired mics for back-up vocals. That’s one way I can achieve consistency in the audio and make my life easier. I think the 5000 Series is a big leap forward in wireless technology — it’s better sounding, has a higher confidence level throughout the audio community, and even higher dependability.”
Harris continues, “I’ve also been using the AE2500 since it came out, and it was in every kick drum on the GRAMMYs stage. Since you can split the signal from the AE2500, I had it come into the Neve Capricorn Digital console as two separate inputs, which allowed me to copy and link equalizers. I brought the AE2500 in as two separate inputs, balanced them so that the volume and level were about the same and then I linked everything to them. Using this technique, the result is great coherence. The AE2500 is rapidly becoming my new favorite kick drum mic.”
