Two of country music’s premier acts have incorporated Sennheiser’s Spectera wideband bidirectional wireless system into high-profile Las Vegas residencies at Caesar’s Palace and Sphere, Blake Shelton and the Zac Brown Band – ‘proving that the future of wireless audio has arrived’.
The challenge of a Las Vegas residency lies in the density of the RF environment. In a city where every square inch of the spectrum is contested, and venues like Sphere introduce unprecedented layers of electronic complexity, traditional narrowband systems are often pushed to their limits. For Andy Hill, the veteran monitor manager for Zac Brown Band, the move to Spectera was a strategic necessity to reclaim ‘breathing room’ in a crowded airwave landscape.
‘We have been trying to get as many mixes as we can in as small of an RF space as possible,’ he says. ‘With Spectera, we fit everything – all of the in-ears – within just two RF channels. That let us have a lot more space for all the narrowband RF coordination required for a show of this scale.’
Brad Baisley, monitor engineer for Blake Shelton’s residency at Caesar’s Palace, oversaw the deployment of the system here: ‘I’ve been in Nashville since the late 1990s and have seen significant change in how we handle audio. Progress like this is unheard of,’ he says. ‘The installation worked perfectly in Vegas recently for the residency at Caesar’s Palace with Blake Shelton. There were no sound issues, no technical issues, just happy performers and happy audience members.’
The physical infrastructure of these residencies also saw a significant transformation thanks to Spectera’s streamlined design. By replacing BNC cables with standard Cat5 cabling, the system has simplified the logistical burden of the load-in and installation process. At Sphere, Hill and his team used a sophisticated multi-antenna network to ensure total coverage, placing antennas on either side of the stage and even behind the massive video walls to maintain connectivity during the band’s quick-change sequences.
‘The RF performance is generally much better because there are no whisps and pops, which can be annoying to most performers,’ he notes, regarding the switch from traditional set-ups. ‘It’s substantially faster to deploy on a daily basis once the system is set up – and being able to see if people’s belt packs are on and connected from the software is incredibly handy at the beginning of a show.’
Both artists’ engineering teams highlighted how the system manages to simplify the complex. By providing a stable, high-fidelity audio link that resists the interference common in major metropolitan areas, Spectera allows the technical crew to focus on the nuances of the mix rather than the limitations of the hardware.
‘We just finished up the residency, and we all want to shout from the rooftops how smooth it went due to Spectera,’ Baisley adds. ‘It’s about making sure the artist has exactly what they need to perform at their best, and this system delivered that throughout our entire time at Caesar’s.’
Ultimately, the success of these residencies marks a pivotal moment for live sound technology. As two of the first major productions to commit to and deploy Spectera on this scale, Zac Brown Band and Blake Shelton teams have paved the way for other engineers to embrace wideband technology.
As Sennheiser continues to refine the Spectera ecosystem with real-world feedback from elite engineers, the system promises to become the backbone of the next generation of global concert tours and residencies. In a city where the house usually wins, Sennheiser Spectera has tipped the scales back in favor of the artists. By cutting through the digital noise of the Las Vegas Strip with the soul of Nashville, Zac Brown Band and Blake Shelton prove that Spectera isn’t just a new piece of gear – it’s the new standard for the world’s most iconic stages.
More: www.sennheiser.com