Her 140-date 2013 The Truth About Love tour sees Pink dancing between two stages and diving into water in a game-show theme involving an aerial acrobatic wire system that takes her to every corner of the arenas she visits.

‘The biggest challenge is that she is so much in the air,’ says monitor assistant and sound engineer, Ben Byford. ‘This show takes it further than anything I have ever done just because of the distances she can fly over the audience, the height, the movement, including spinning on her own axis. It’s definitely pushing it to a new level – technically and physically for her as well. It was vital to plan for this and get equipment that worked for the job.’

The production relies on systems from Sennheiser, including custom prototypes developed specially for the tour: ‘The whole show is essentially all Sennheiser,’ Byford confirms. ‘Every microphone, every in-ear system, every radio system – it’s all Sennheiser.

‘The in-ears we use are Sennheiser 2000 series IEM systems. Pink uses an SKM 2000 microphone, but with an MD 9235 head. The in-ear piece that she uses is a special prototype that we’re helping to test – a custom-made in-ear with an integrated microphone.’

The custom solution was developed by monitor engineer Horst Hartmann, who worked closely with Sennheiser: ‘As well as the challenge of the range of motion, we also needed to provide Pink with a headset that could also work in front of the PA because she is often flying above the audience and through the whole room,’ he explains. ‘Additionally, the microphone had to sound as good as a hand-held one and had to be extremely resistant to feedback, like a hand-held would be.’

A headset with a neckband was ruled out because it conflicted with costume changes. On past tours, the team had used an earset mic taped in position on Pink’s face but this time they wanted to take things further: ‘We came up with the idea of an in-ear with an integrated microphone,’ says Hartmann. ‘I’d seen referees, pilots, and firefighters wearing this but that’s about communication – walkie-talkie rather than the hi-fi quality we demanded. The capsule was already there – the HSP 4, an incredible microphone. Working with Sennheiser, we then developed the hardware around this capsule.’

Sennheiser developed a mic that could be attached to the IEM mould. With the in-ear fixed and securely in position: ‘Being integrated means that it’s very much set at the right position because it’s custom-made to the curve of her face, so there’s no movement,’ monitor engineer Jon Lewis explains. ‘There’s nothing to tighten or loosen. This was perfect, as any movement would have made things impossible.

‘It’s now also one solution from one company, a simple solution that means everything is carried to the transmitter via the same cable,’ he contines. ‘Much better for costume changes – you can take it off very quickly with one click, put a blind cover on it, so the connection is protected and that’s it. Sennheiser developed this just for Pink’s current tour. No other company offers this kind of product at the moment. And while it’s a prototype, it’s proved reliable – we don’t have any drop-outs when she is flying through the hall. It works perfectly.’

Miking the band

For miking the band, Chris Madden (at FOH) and Horst Hartmann drew on Sennheiser’s wired mics. The kick drum is miked with an e 901 and an e 902, while the hi-hat and ride cymbal use e 914s. Two MKH 80s were used as overheads. The guitar cabs were captured with a total of three e 906s. The Leslie speaker iss miked with three MK 4s – two at the top of the speaker, and one at the bottom.

In order to capture the audience reactions for the artists’ IEM receivers, Madden and Hartmann used two cardioid MKH 8040 for outside left and right, two MKH 8060 short gun mics for inside left and right as well as two MKH 8070 long gun microphones for far left and right.

With a switching bandwidth of 184MHz, Sennheiser EM 3732-II wireless receiver can be used worldwide. ‘We use receivers that can be used in America, Europe and Asia,’ Hartmann explains. ‘We do need to occasionally change the hand-held transmitters, but have two versions to cover both 600MHz and 700MHz. We also love that the EM 3732-II is compatible with the 2000 series as well as the 5000s series transmitters.’

‘It’s a great pleasure for Sennheiser to be able to support high flying touring artists such as Pink,’ says Pierre Morant, Global Relations Manager for EMEA at Sennheiser, ‘Taking a hands-on and collaborative approach is the key to making these relationships successful and to delivering the best service and products. In this case, working closely with Horst Hartmann was the key to innovating a new solution that has taken our ability to deliver flawless sound to new heights.’

More: www.sennheiser.com