Shure helps welcome back Broadway
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The night included performances from the cast of Jagged Little Pill, American Utopia, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, John Legend and the cast of Ain’t Too Proud, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Freestyle Love Supreme. Each act relied on the digital radio offered by Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System.
“I wouldn't want to do the Tony Awards with any other wireless system than Axient Digital,” said Cameron Stuckey, RF engineer. “The layers of complexity that we exceeded could only be done with Axient Digital. Forty-eight wireless channels were fit into four DTV channels. And those channels were shared with everyone else in Times Square. And we had a live performance that began on the street and finished at centre stage.
“We also rotated entire musicals worth of performers on and off the stage during a live broadcast without a single dropout or failure. That success comes from tools that Shure has developed like ShowLink, Wireless Workbench’s Timeline, and Quadversity.”
This year’s new safety protocols presented the need for innovative audio solutions, and Shure gear helped the Tony’s production team rise to the occasion. Employing an RF count of 72 channels managed by Shure Axient Digital, the hosts and performers were equipped with a mix of Shure AD1 Axient Digital Bodypack Transmitters and ADX1M Micro Bodypack Transmitters, for when a contoured form factor was needed on stage.
For in-ear personal monitoring, the Tony Awards’ production trusted Shure PSM 1000 to manage roughly 40 bodypacks throughout the show’s numerous live performances. Shure Axient Digital Wireless microphones were used throughout the show and performances as well.
“Shure Axient wireless microphones were a perfect match for the 2021 Tony Awards and The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back,” shared Paul Wittman, production sound mixer. “I really like the clear, balanced, and natural sound that the Shure Axient wireless systems bring to the table. It allowed the voices and arrangements of the Tony’s performances to shine, sounding open and clear without sounding unnatural or overly processed.”
