Super Bowl XLII was truly a mega-event. With a record-setting 98 million viewers, this year’s game was the most watched Super Bowl ever. According to Nielsen Media Research, the 1983 “MASH” Series finale, with 106 million viewers, was the only televised broadcast to reach more viewers. It also set another performance record for Sennheiser. For the first time ever, the musical entertainment during the pre-game and halftime segments of the Super Bowl broadcast had every performer using a Sennheiser G2 wireless personal monitor system. Every artist, from Alicia Keys’ show opener, to Jordin Sparks’ singing of the National Anthem, to classic rockers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, relied on Sennheiser personal monitors. In addition, Petty and his band sang through a half-dozen of their longstanding favorite model of vocal microphone — the Neumann KMS 150.

Freelance RF specialist James Stoffo says that the Sennheiser G2 IEMs were rock-solid despite having to transmit and receive between the side of the field and the stage through a wireless frequency spectrum that included over 1,000 devices in the RF microphone band. “It was a pretty long throw,” he says. “The band was basically out in the middle of the field on the stage and we were around the 15-yard line, on the sideline. It speaks volumes for the integrity of the Sennheiser personal monitors. If they had taken a hit I would have heard about it. Everybody was happy and there was not one complaint.” This was Stoffo’s twelfth year coordinating wireless audio equipment at the Super Bowl, yet it also marked a first for him: “I got to watch the halftime show for the first time! I walked around with Tom Petty’s ear mix and made sure it was fine. Pre-game, I did a little more work, but this was probably the smoothest year I’ve ever done.”

Rock icons, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, longtime Neumann KMS 150 users, were “Runnin’ Down a Dream” during their classic halftime show performance at Super Bowl XLII. Petty and the Heartbreakers were all on Sennheiser 300 G2 personal monitors, as were pre-game performer Alicia Keys and National Anthem singer Jordin Sparks. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Brian Hendry, the longtime monitor engineer not only for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers but also Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and Joss Stone, comments, “I use the KMS 150 primarily because I can use the high-pass filter and the pad on it, which I do on everyone. They’re very, very good sounding mics.”

“The Neumann mic has a frequency response and audio signature that make it particularly suited to in-ear use,” he continues, “and works especially well in Petty’s monitor mix. Personal monitors are very studio-like. I find the top-end of that mic so open and breathy, and that’s primarily why I use them. Neumann microphones are really good, high-end, breathy recording mics. You can hear every nuance in the top-end. It really helps me a great deal.”

Understandably, Petty was a little anxious performing in front of the tens of thousands of fans at the stadium and many millions watching on live television. “He was so nervous before the show,” Hendry shares. “They wheel the stage out in sections and it isn’t until the very end that they run over with the multicores. When Tom and the band stepped onto the field and were walking towards the stage, which was still going together, I spoke to them all.” During the band’s walk to the stage, Hendry says, he reminded Petty of the comment that he had made earlier: “It’s just like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ only much bigger!”

After the show, says Hendry, “Tom said, that was so great, that gave me so much confidence. I’ve worked for him for so long that he’s accustomed to having me beside him, at stage left. He’s a lovely, lovely man. As a musician and as a person, I can’t say enough about him.” Hendry adds, “And along with Neumann microphones the
Sennheiser G2 monitors were perfect.”

The Sennheiser Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. A family firm established in 1945 and based in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, the company recorded sales of over 356 million euros in 2006, 82% of which was generated abroad. Sennheiser employs over 1,800 people worldwide, around 55% of whom are in Germany. The Group has manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA and is represented worldwide by subsidiaries in France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark (Nordic), Russia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as well as through trading partners in other countries. Also part of the Sennheiser Group are Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin (studio microphones), K + H Vertriebs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (Klein + Hummel studio monitors, installed sound) and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S (headsets for PCs, offices and call centers).

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