The 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony was broadcast from Copenhagen, Denmark, with the expected spectacular production elements and A-list performers and presenters. Notable in the telecast was the fact that Sennheiser was the choice of almost all of the performing artists, including Keane, Nelly Furtado, Rhianna, Jet and Snoop. Justin Timberlake, winner in the Best Pop and Best Male categories, hosted the show using a specially designed gold SKM 5200 handheld mic fitted with the Neumann KK 105 S capsule.
Derrick Zieba was sound designer for the show and worked alongside a team from Britannia Row for the broadcast and venue mixes, with local company DPA Sound handling the live sound from the town square. Copenhagen in November can present its own problems, as witnessed during rehearsals in the town square the day before transmission when snow blew horizontally through a wind-torn plaza and the stage had to be closed, leaving the crews to hope that the weather would ease in time for the live broadcast.
The Bella Centre stage itself was 150ft in diameter with a split stage in the round. This presented concerns for wireless reception, especially for in-ear monitors. This concern was met by using the new Sennheiser A5000-CP circular polarized antennae, which allowed faultless RF coverage throughout the arena. This new, passive helical antenna provides high gain, virtually no multipath problems, and superb RF performance over the entire UHF broadcast band. Designed for the toughest transmission conditions, the A5000-CP can be used as either a transmitter or receiver device, making it ideal for wireless microphones and monitors.
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