Spain's La Voz TV Contest Uses PSM IEMs & UHF-R, ULX-D & Axient Wireless Mics

The fourth series of TV vocal talent contest La Voz, recently completed  on Spanish television, made extensive use of Shure wireless technology,  including PSM 900 and PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring and UHF-R, ULX-D and  Axient wireless microphone systems.

La Voz, which airs on  Spain's Telecinco channel, is the Spanish version of The Voice, the  international television franchise founded by Dutch television producer  John de Mol. As well as completing a fourth successful season, the show,  like many of its equivalents around the globe, has spawned a hit junior  edition, La Voz Kids, featuring contestants between the ages of 8 and  14. Over the course of several weeks, dozens of hopeful singers compete  in the programme to demonstrate their talent, supported by a changing  cast of celebrities and artists who appear on air each week to perform  and judge the contestants.

Madrid-based AV Facilities company SBA Radical Sound was responsible  for supplying the AV infrastructure behind the weekly show, which, as  Radical Sound's Engineering Manager, Víctor Ondaro explains, combines  all the energy of a live concert with the additional demands of a  prime-time national broadcast. Many microphones were needed, and the  decision was taken to use wireless microphones and in-ear monitoring to  give the performers maximum freedom to move during their performances. 

Radical Sound has a history of specifying Shure wireless systems for  mission-critical work, and according to Víctor Ondaro, 160 channels of  wireless were used in the final system design for the show, including  mic channels, IEMs, and behind-the-scenes channels for ENG and  communications. The final line-up ran to 70 UHF-R transmitters (35 UR1  units and 35 UR2s, with a mixture of SM58 and KSM9 capsules) and 16  ULX-D digital transmitters; for some of the episodes of La Voz which  were transmitted live, Shure's top-of-the-range Axient wireless systems  were used for even greater reliability. The guest artists and celebrity  coaches on the show all used PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring systems, while  PSM 900s were used for the contestants.

According to Víctor Ondaro, the Shure systems used on the show proved  their "reputation, reliability, and quality" during the broadcast of  the show's fourth series. He concludes: "The robustness of the Shure  systems and the outstanding management with the Workbench 6 software  gave us the peace of mind we needed for broadcast, and the artists felt  comfortable at all times."

The third series of La Voz Kids is currently airing weekly on  Telecinco thoughout Spain, and preliminary contests are currently being  held in shopping malls throughout the country to find contestants for La  Voz's fifth series.