Sennheiser’s Evolution Wireless Digital provided the MC audio for Glastonbury Festival’s Dragonfly Stage, which featured a giant metal insect built from a former navy helicopter and repurposed machinery. Performance art collective Arcadia Spectacular designed the installation for the stage at the UK’s largest music festival, which took place this summer 26 to 30 June. The mics are situated in the middle of the soundfield and also inside the Dragonfly’s head itself.
The stage design included MCs on podiums, requiring a large RF coverage area. Sennheiser based the specifications around this, giving Arcadia full coverage across their area. The MM 445 capsules were chosen because there was a potential that the microphones would be used in front of the main PA.
Working with Arcadia’s rental partner, AF Live, the Sennheiser team provided a total of four channels of EW-DX with MM 445 capsules, and six channels of the 2000 series IEM, which was used for MC foldback and monitoring.
Marcus Blight, technical application engineer at Sennheiser specified and prepared the equipment to be deployed by AF Live, the AV supplier for the event. Blight described EW-DX as offering ease of setup and a small form factor.
He said: “Battery run time was a key factor, given how long Arcadia runs through each day and night of the festival. The high input dynamic range of the handhelds ensured that any loud MC would not overload the transmitters, avoiding the need to set transmitter sensitivity, which would be required with legacy systems.”
He continued: “Additionally, Sennheiser’s MM 445 dynamic capsule allows for the highest sound source inputs whilst providing incredible feedback rejection. It perfectly captures vocal details, making each performance even more enveloping.”
Paul Rose, director, AF Live, commented: “It’s a complex setup with the mics being situated in the middle of the soundfield and inside the Dragonfly’s head itself. We have stocked Sennheiser products for years, and the EW-DX, combined with MM 445 capsules, delivered excellent performance with good vocal clarity across the arena. The EW-DX system was complemented by 2000 Series IEMs, offering clear monitoring for the artists performing within the spectacular structure.”
Jacob Kuenzler-Byrt, deputy technical manager at Arcadia, said: “It’s an incredibly loud environment inside the Dragonfly’s head, and we were all very impressed by EW-DX with the MM 445 capsules. It provided excellent rejection while maintaining high audio quality.”
Founded by creative engineers Bert Cole and Pip Rush, Arcadia debuted at Glastonbury in 2007, and has been given a permanent area since 2014. Supporting music festivals and cultural events around the globe, the collective hosts the world’s biggest DJs to its oldest indigenous communities, and draws talent from across the arts, theatre, and circus disciplines.
Check out further AV contributions to Glastonbury 2024 here and here.
