As the Robbie Williams production gets set to load into Knebworth Park it seems a long time since early May when production manager Wob Roberts asked Hand Held Audio to once again look after the wireless requirements for an RW tour. As rehearsals got under way Hand Held director Nick Bruce-Smith worked closely with monitor engineer Martin Waring (pictured), fielding the changing production requirements in quick fashion.

Nine members of the band were fitted for Ultimate Ears UE-5 pro custom monitors. This covered the lead vocalist (who had 3 sets), backing vocals, guitars keyboards and percussion. The drummer, Chris Sharrock, preferred Hand Held audio's own custom acrylic moulds.

In Ear systems were Shure, mainly PSM700's but with some 600's and two hardwire set-ups. HHA configured these into a tight frequency plan, utilising antenna combiners and directional antenna to ensure maximum coverage on the sometimes huge stages. Robbie himself decides on the night whether to use his ears monitors or not, based on personal feelings about the stage size, the mood of the crowd and presumably what he fancies at the time!

Radio mics for vocals are 4 x Shure Premier Series with Beta58A capsules, specified by F.O.H. engineer Dave Bracey and purchased outright by the production. A large Samson Synth 5 UHF guitar system was added early in the rehearsal stage to cover a variety of guitar scenarios that occur in the show. This was chosen by guitar tech Adam Birch who preferred the easier frequency switching of the Samson over the Shure system.

There are 3 Knebworth shows over this Weekend of Mass Distraction, where Robbie will be supported by Kelly Osbourne. This follows a hugely successful string of European dates that were preceeded by Robbie's only other UK show at Murrayfield Stadium

It was the biggest book reading anyone who was involved could remember. In fact it was an afternoon of magic as the Royal Albert Hall was transformed into Hogwarts and four and a half thousand kids got to hear JK Rowling reading excerpts from her latest book - "Harry Potter and The Order of The Pheonix".

Hand Held Audio were asked to put in a rather large system of radio mics by sound contractors Britannia Row. Hand Held in turn asked John "Freddo" Fredericks to keep an eye on the wireless proceedings.

Unperturbed by a flying Ford Anglia he oversaw the double miking of the author and Stephen Fry who conducted an interview with her. Both wore a flesh coloured DPA headset mic and a lapel mic in invisible fashion as the theatrical production values demanded. A further 8 DPA headmics were used by ushers - disguised as school prefects - as they occasionally joined in the banter. All mics were used in conjunction with Shure Premier series UHF radio systems.

Rowling also used a Shure PSM700 in ear system so that she could follow the show calling and keep her ear to the ground.

A couple of Shure hand held systems with portable receivers were in action for backstage interviews and live reporting. Add to all this the technical implications of a live webcast, and one starts to get an idea of the "busy-ness" that Freddo experienced at the event.

July 6th in Hyde Park saw the longest, most star-studded, musical party of the year - broadcast live-to-air for a solid 8 hours on Channel 5 TV. Hand Held Audio had been asked to supply radio mics and in ear monitors to service the requirements of a truly astonishing list of artists.

Performing fully live were Daniel Bedingfield, Meat Loaf, Wheatus, Beyonce Knowles and David Gray. Their sets were interspersed with a galaxy of stars performing live vocals to track. The list is to long to give in full but includes; Girls Aloud, Mel C, Craig David, The Sugababes, Gareth Gates, Kim Marsh, Liberty X, Blazin' Squad, Busted, Atomic Kitten, Shania Twain, Danni Minogue and 50 Cent.

To cover these acts Hand Held Audio put in a 12 way Shure radio mic system with Beta58A and Beta87A capsule options. On the in-ear side there 12 Shure systems - 6 PSM600's and 6 PSM700's. Add to this the presenters mics and a complex wirless communications system for the Britannia Row sound crew and it seemed like a good idea to have wireless guru John "Freddo" Fredericks on hand.

His comment on the day? "It was quite long."

Julian Cope

Julian Cope, veteran, survivor and re-inventor asked Hand Held Audio to supply the headset mic which is crucial to his athletic, double-jointed live show. He performed at Glastonbury and is also appearing at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

The man from Tamworth chooses to use the Crown CM311 differoid headset mic coupled to a Shure UHF premier series radio mic. The Crown mic has served him well for a several years and is arguably the best sounding headworn mic available.

Hand Held chose to license special frequencies so that Julian could avoid those festival wireless blues.