Sennheiser and Neumann return to the PLASA Show in London next month, and buried in the announcement is a date a good many production sound people have been waiting for: the Spectera SKM handheld transmitter starts shipping from mid-September. Both brands will be on Stand D6 at Olympia from 6 to 8 September.
Why Spectera matters
Spectera is Sennheiser’s wideband, bidirectional digital wireless ecosystem, and the bidirectional part is what makes it unusual. Conventional wireless systems run one way — a transmitter sends, a receiver listens — which means microphones and in-ear monitoring are separate systems with separate hardware, separate frequency coordination and separate racks.
Spectera handles both directions on the same wideband infrastructure. For touring and theatre, where RF spectrum is scarce and shrinking, that consolidation is significant rather than merely convenient.
The SKM handheld has been the eagerly awaited piece, and mid-September is now confirmed. Also on the stand are Evolution Wireless Digital systems, Sennheiser stage microphones, and the HD 480 PRO — the company’s top-of-range closed-back headphones for studio and live use.
The SoundBase tool worth knowing about
Partner SoundBase is demonstrating something that solves a genuinely irritating problem. Its brand-agnostic RF planning app now has full Spectera integration, making it — the company claims — the first RF management application built for both narrowband and wideband systems across multiple manufacturers.
The interesting feature is Remote View. Until now, everyone on a production who needed to see wireless hardware data had to install the same monitoring software on their own device, with each instance adding network traffic. Remote View acts as a built-in web server, generating shareable links with customisable views instead.
Donny Kuser, co-founder of SoundBase, describes it as a smarter way to share wireless telemetry across multiple endpoints without running duplicate software, with the benefit that reducing connections keeps the control network efficient and the gear responsive.
That is the sort of unglamorous fix that saves real trouble on a show site, where an overloaded control network is a genuine failure point rather than a theoretical one.
Neumann on the stand
Neumann is showing its live microphone portfolio alongside the KH studio monitor range, the MT 48 audio interface and NDH professional headphones. The MT 48 is worth a look if you record audio for video — it has earned a strong reputation for conversion quality in a compact desktop interface.
PLASA is a live events and entertainment technology show rather than a photography one, so it sits slightly outside our usual patch — but for anyone shooting live performance, theatre or broadcast, the wireless and monitoring kit on display is exactly what you will be working alongside.
Sennheiser and Neumann at PLASA 2026: what’s on show
Spectera: wideband, bidirectional digital wireless ecosystem, including the Spectera SKM handheld transmitter shipping from mid-September 2026. Also from Sennheiser: Evolution Wireless Digital systems, stage microphones, and the HD 480 PRO closed-back headphones for studio and live environments. SoundBase: brand-agnostic RF planning app with full Spectera integration, covering narrowband and wideband systems across multiple manufacturers; new Remote View feature generating shareable links with customisable views via a built-in web server. Neumann: live microphone portfolio, KH studio monitor range, MT 48 audio interface, NDH professional headphones.
Show details
PLASA Show 2026 takes place at Olympia London from 6 to 8 September 2026. Sennheiser and Neumann are on Stand D6, with the team providing live demonstrations and answering technical questions throughout the show.
