For Sound Supervisor Daniel S. McCoy, owner and operator of Los Angeles-based location and post-production audio company ToneMesa, Inc., it is The Sidekick In-Ear IFB Monitors that are currently making his life a lot easier. These virtually invisible communications earpieces have proved invaluable for McCoy who used them to great effect during the most recent season of America’s Got Talent, which was filmed in a very different way because of Covid-19 restrictions.

“With today’s productions requiring an element of ‘social distance’, getting comms sorted out is absolutely critical,” McCoy explains. “You can’t expect technicians to show up and place 10 wires on people because it is just not safe. That’s probably not going to happen again for many months, if not years. What’s important now is having comms equipment that talent are comfortable with. It also needs to have a high useability factor so people don’t need technicians to fit it because they can do it themselves.”

Bubblebee’s Sidekick IFB monitor fits the bill perfectly because it delivers high speech intelligibility, as well as a very comfortable experience for the end user. The Sidekick features the world’s first micro driver solution where the driver fits invisibly in the ear canal, eliminating the need for acoustic tubes outside the ear. This gives it an extremely small and lightweight footprint and makes it a popular alternative to earwigs.

McCoy first heard about The Sidekick in 2011 when he was working on X-Factor USA and was introduced to them by a Front of House engineer…

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