Welcome to Going Bionic, #215. What is a Silent Disco Night? A good start, if you ask me, but that’s because I love Rock and Roll. Okay, that diss on Disco isn’t fair, as the Bee Gees smote me as a kid, and I still have vinyl albums from Donna Summer and The Village People tucked away in storage.
With my embarrassingly true history of loving 1970’s Disco aside, Silent Disco Night circa 2014 was an unquestionably hip moment in time during the Cannes Film Festival.
Sennheiser sponsored the event at the American Pavilion on May 21. The beats fired up at 10 PM and kept pounding way ‘til to 2 AM, and then rang in the ears of the participants for countless hours thereafter. The night featured Paris-based DJ Speedermike, who spinned his musical brilliance to a packed crowd of festivalgoers, all of whom who were hearing the event over lightweight Sennheiser headphones. That’s right, the evening, as crazy-fun as it was, was almost as quiet as a film screening at Cannes.
It’s refreshing to see a bunch of strangers rocking out to music over a set of headphones, because once they get lost into their own worlds, they pretty much lose all inhibitions. Thus, Silent Disco Night was a way to experience mind-blowing sound through impressively mixed music, all in the comforts of an oceanfront hotspot in the South of France. Should this “sound” like a perfect experience, it was, and hopefully will be again, if Sennheiser chooses to do it again next year.
In addition to Silent Disco Night, Sennheiser also provided The American Pavilion with quite a few wireless headphones, so people could hear the panel discussions without having to actually be in the conference room. That too, was an incredibly enjoyable experience, because you could listen into to panels you wanted to snake information from, without feeling like you had to do so in a structured school-like environment.
As for my personal history with Sennheiser, I have exclusively used their headphones and mikes on every professional shoot I’ve done. I strongly believe the quality of sound is a crucial element to every film, so it only makes sense to get your hands (and ears) on the best sound products out there.
More importantly, I still have the Sennheiser headphones my parents gave me for Christmas back in the early 1980’s. The crazy thing is, they still work! I can’t think of another Christmas (or birthday) gift I received 30+ years ago, that is still working, so Sennheiser must be doing something right!
On that note, I bid you au revoir (goodbye in French). Thank you again for lending me your eyes, and I would love to borrow them again sometime soon! Until then, I can be followed on Twitter @Lonelyseal. Take care!
