Shure recently supported British singer and songwriter Louis Tomlinson on his worldwide debut album campaign with 12 channels of PSM 1000 in ear monitors and two channels of Axient Digital AD2 handheld microphones with KSM9 capsules for live performance.

The tour was rescheduled due to the 2020 pandemic and as a result, some shows were booked into larger venues with more production added. Show designer Tom Taylor/TANCK devised a new concept for the large outdoor European shows that used a 60m-long full-width catwalk in front of the IMAG video screens. This presented the concerns that his IEMs and radio mic wouldn’t have sufficient RF coverage behind the antennas at stage left.

A passive split of the IEM transmitting antennas, helical set-up on stage and a passive omnidirectional antenna on the catwalk provide the required RF coverage. An AD4Q four-channel receiver and extra pair of antennas allowed a Quadversity set-up for radio mics that worked flawlessly.

‘From experience, we knew that they wouldn’t have any trouble covering the main stage area with the usual helical antenna IEM set-up,’ says Shure Product Marketing Manager for Pro Audio, Stuart Stephens. ‘Using a passive splitter, they could place a UA860SWB omnidirectional antenna at the leading edge of the stage left position to capture the RF signal from both left and right catwalks. The directionality of the helical paired with the positioning of the omni antenna meant that the risk of overlapping coverage zones was low.

‘When it came to the wireless mics, Axient Digital’s Quadversity mode was the obvious choice. Quadversity allowed for an additional pair of receiving antennas while still maintaining the true-bit digital diversity. It’s the best way to extend RF coverage or cope with high RF noise environments when using Axient Digital.’

The final leg of the tour took in sold-out shows in Spain and Italy, including the Away From Home festival in Malaga. The largest venue was the 34,0000-capacity Ippodromo San Siro in Milan.

‘A after nearly 100 performances this year, we didn’t once need to even consider using the spare AD2 KSM9 mic or spare duplicated PSM1000 IEM system for Louis thanks to the solid RF performance we have come to expect and rely on from Shure,’ says monitor engineer, Steve Weall.

‘One of the huge appeals of Shure is the Wireless Workbench software and its networking capability. I have a lot of experience with other manufacturers and coordinating RF, and the ability to easily set up, control, coordinate and monitor all your hardware remotely is essential. It’s mission critical and it just has to work, dropouts are not an option and Wireless Workbench, with advanced RF scans on my laptop combined with the Shure AXT600 spectrum analyser, helps us to ensure the shows run flawlessly and can be set up quickly, time after time. It is subjective of course, but Shure delivers the best sound and RF performance in my opinion, and while we do tour our own audio package the majority of the time, we do occasionally have to do a local audio hire and Shure hardware is accessible everywhere in the world.’

Tomlinson had previously purchased Shure radio mics for his touring, including a AD4D Dual receiver, two KSM9 AD2’s plus SBRC rack charger and antennas along with a single PSM1000 system for promo and international dates in case they couldn’t be provided locally. ‘As we were buying kit, it made sense to buy the latest Shure technology which was of course Axient Digital and PSM1000,’ Weall adds. ‘The P10R+ receiver packs are always my preference when it comes to IEMs, and both Shure and Solotech were very helpful in their service and support.’

More: www.shure.com