LOS ANGELES, CA, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 — The 2009 Grammy Awards brought together the leaders in the recording industry to recognize and celebrate achievements of the past year. An essential element of this televised event were performances by such high-profile artists as Radiohead, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; Coldplay, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney with the Foo Fighters; Justin Timberlake with T.I. and more. Literally in the center of it all was Holophone’s H2-PRO surround microphone, helping to bring the excitement of these live performances to the viewers at home.
The H2-PRO was used as a near field mic to help supplement the production crew’s audience mic setup. This is the third year the mic has been used on the Grammys telecast, but it was the first time being used by Production Mixer Tom Holmes.
“I have never used the H2-PRO before this show, but have heard from many people that have had great results,” says Holmes. “I wanted to see for myself how it performs, and was very pleased with the results.”
The H2-PRO was installed eight feet above the audience in the rear center section of the Staples Center. According to Holmes this seating area had more fan-based audience members than other areas, and these audience members tend to be more vocal in their enthusiasm. Twenty-two additional microphones were placed around the area to help further capture the audience reaction. All mics were fed into a Calrec Alpha mixing console.
“The audience reaction is a very important part of our broadcast's overall sound,” Holmes continues. “I think that with the addition of the H2-PRO, we got more of the desired spatiality of the crowd, more of a surround sounding environment. It is very solidly built, rugged and the setup was simple. The Calrec Alpha has excellent surround sound capabilities, and you can have all the 5.1 channels from the H2-PRO land on one fader. There was really nothing else to do, as the surround information from the mic automatically goes to the correct surround channel. Just put it up and off you go. Having to put up a mic in one spot and collect all that ‘space’ from it, saves labor and time. You can't really get the same results from putting out multiple mono mics in different locations.”
Using a patented design which mimics the acoustical shadow of the human head, Holophone’s H2-PRO is able to capture a surround recording from a single point with no mixing or signal manipulation required. The mic features eight mic elements which are positioned within an elliptical casing to correspond with a typical home theater or studio speaker setup, helping to give listeners the feeling of “really being there.”
For more information, visit the Holophone website, www.holophone.com.
About Holophone
Holophone is committed to developing and commercializing products that use patented 3-D audio technology to bring the physical experience of “really being there” to a new level for all audio and visual productions by professionals and hobbyists. Holophone provides customers and business partners with industry-leading product and service quality. Holophone is firmly dedicated to providing outstanding value, excellence in service, and product performance.
Holophone® surround-sound microphones are patented audio recording devices designed specifically to address the challenges audio professionals face in capturing, recording and broadcasting multichannel surround sound. Developed by Rising Sun Productions in Toronto, Canada, Holophone systems effortlessly capture discrete signals that are ultra-realistic and provide the most accurate spatiality, audio imaging, and directionality of any recording device. Entirely compatible with all audio mixing, encoding, and playback systems, Holophone also enhances mono and stereo mixes. Holophone systems provide the perfect front end for all professional and consumer audio applications including HDTV broadcasting, standard broadcasting of live sporting and music events, feature film location recording, and studio recording for music, films, and worship applications. Holophone surround sound technology has been used for numerous national and international broadcasts, including the Grammy Awards and NFL Super Bowl. As a scalable system, Holophone technology is also available for license to the consumer electronics industry.