Broadcast from Azerbaijan, the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is bound to captivate well over 100 million viewers on 26 May. The 57th edition of the contest will be the 25th Song Contest to use Sennheiser’s wireless microphones and monitoring systems. Brainpool TV, which worked with the German host broadcaster NDR to produce last year’s Song Contest, will be producing and directing this year’s event too. Similarly, as in Dusseldorf, Markus Müller of MM Communications will be supplying the wireless equipment. He will work with a team of six to look after the microphone and monitoring requirements in Baku, supporting the Head of Sound, Florian Kessler. Dr. Heinrich Esser, president of the Professional Systems Division at Sennheiser, said: “We are proud that the organisers of the ESC have placed their trust in our microphone technology once again this year, and we are glad to be working with Brainpool and Markus Müller.” For the Eurovision Song Contest – with its semi-finals on 22 and 24 May and the grand final on 26 May – more than 150 wireless microphone and monitoring links will be operating in the newly built Baku Crystal Hall. As well as the microphones for the artists and presenters, this includes the microphones for the opening act and the interval show, production microphones, microphones for the rehearsal room and press conferences, and wireless monitoring systems for the artists, presenters and technical crew. The planning for the microphone and monitoring systems will be in the hands of Markus Müller and his team; two Sennheiser RF experts, Klaus Willemsen and Gerhard Spyra, will assist them. Markus Müller said: “A live broadcast with 125 million viewers is an immense challenge: it counts on the reliability both of the equipment and of the people behind the scenes.” www.sennheiser.co.uk
