Austin, TX (June 1, 2017)—The annual iHeartCountry Festival recently took over Austin’s Frank Erwin Center to bring fans a dozen top names in country music, including Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, Rascal Flatts and Kelsea Ballerini. Providing audio for the occasion was Firehouse Productions (Las Vegas, NV/Red Hook, NY).
Most artists brought their own touring backline, said Vinny Siniscal of Firehouse, who was coordinating wireless and communications for the festival, working with on-site RF curator Luis Espinal and audio coordinator Simon Welch of Firehouse.
“We’ve been helping out on the iHeartRadio concert series since its inception, and one thing that was noticeable at this show is how dominant Shure wireless has become,” said Siniscal. “That’s always great news for us, because for major live events and award shows, Shure UHF-R and PSM 1000 RF models have never let us down.” In all, more than 85 percent of the wireless microphone and in-ear systems in use were Shure.
According to Siniscal, the key to success is advance preparation. “We contact all the bands to find out what everyone is bringing, especially for wireless,” he says. “We also do an RF site survey in advance. That allows us to do almost all the frequency coordination in the office. We assign frequencies to all the bands and send them out in advance. That way, all we have to do on site is to confirm that our frequency plan is solid, make any needed adjustments, and make sure everyone is properly tuned up. With the round-robin staging, we have limited time to get the next band ready. So in some ways, the performance is actually the easy part once it’s all rehearsed.”
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