KSM8 Proves A Shure Move For London Speaker Hire

LSH Looks Back On A Record-breaking 2016 With Shure's KSM8

Audio-visual equipment supply company LSH Events (part of the London Speaker Hire  family) has been an enthusiastic supplier and promoter of Shure  equipment over the last 10 years, and was closely involved with testing  the mic manufacturer's technically groundbreaking dual-diaphragm KSM8  even prior to its official launch in January 2016. Throughout the  microphone's launch year, LSH supplied KSM8s to many high-profile  artists and engineers, and even helped it to play an important part in  the setting of a new world record, as LSH Managing Director Grant Turner  relates.

"Since we opened our event and band rehearsal facilities in East  London, LSH Spaces, we've been involved with a lot of current  high-profile bands and their technical support staff," explains Turner  from LSH's London HQ. "We put some KSM8s in one of the rehearsal rooms  there alongside the usual SM58s, and people soon started to ask us about  the new mic."

Early adopters of the KSM8 were up-and-coming Essex-based Dirty Pop band Arcaves,  who had previously been using Shure SM58 and Beta 87As as live vocal  mics. The band auditioned prototype versions of the mic at the 2015 V  Festival, and progressed to using two KSM8s as their main live vocal  mics by mid-2016: the black edition for their female vocalist Bekile,  and the brushed nickel version for lead vocalist Billy Wright. Both mics  feature clearly in the video shot to accompany the band's most recent  single, 'Out Of The Blue', which was one of the first videos shot in the  UK using a high-resolution 8K sensor.

Arcaves were not alone, as Grant Turner continues. "Everyone who used  the KSM8 gave us very positive feedback; it took off very fast. Matt  Lewis, the live sound engineer for Nick Mulvey and Jamie Woon, was keen  to audition it, and the next thing we knew, it went from 'Nick's trying  it out' to 'Jamie would like the KSM8 for his summer tour...'. In the  end, we supplied KSM8s and other Shure mics for that tour, along with  PSM1000 in-ears. We gave LeAnn Rimes a black KSM8 to use when she was  promoting her new album Remnants with a live 'unplugged' session in the  piano room at the Yamaha Music London Showroom in Soho in August. And of  course, the KSM8 was also used in 2016 to set a Guinness World  Record...!"

Sure enough, in April, the KSM8 was the vocal mic used for what was  subsequently certified as the World's Highest Ever Stand-up Gig. Stand  Up On Everest, as it was known, involved UK comedians Tom Wrigglesworth  and Martin Mor, together with Australians Wayne Deakin and Mickey D,  performing on a temporary stage erected solely for the purpose at Mount  Everest South Base Camp in the Nepalese Himalayas, 5365 metres above sea  level. "We got involved through our work with Save The Children, which  sponsored the event," explains Grant Turner. "They asked us to spec a PA  for the gig, and we brought Shure and Martin Audio on board. We have a  great relationship with both companies and that really stood us in good  stead for this event; we had to be sure that the mics and speakers would  still work at the temperature and pressure extremes you find at the  Everest Base Camp — we made a few calls to the technical support  departments of both companies! But as you would expect, everything  worked perfectly, the gig went without any problems, and it raised lots  of money for Save The Children."

To see off 2016, Arcaves threw a free pre-Christmas concert on  London's South Bank on December 9th. As at many LSH-supported events  throughout 2016, the KSM8 was the main vocal microphone. "Promoting a  new Shure microphone is never a very hard sell, thanks to Shure's  excellent reputation in the field," concludes Grant Turner, "but we've  been particularly pleased with the response to the KSM8."