Over its 100-year history, more than 50,000 different electronics products have been developed by Shure. At NAMM 2025, TPi tracked down Monitor Engineer, Kyle Woodrow, following a successful touring campaign with Noah Cyrus, to discover how Shure’s latest advanced digital in-ear monitor system benefitted the American singer and actor and her band in the lead up to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
“I did my first tour with Noah Cyrus two summers ago now. Everyone in the camp is super fun, easy to work with, and importantly, the music is great,” Woodrow said, speaking to TPi at Shure’s bustling NAMM ’25 booth. “There were immediate family vibes with everybody in the camp and we recently wrapped up a super fun tour.”
Woodrow trialled the Shure Axient Digital PSM during summer 2024. “I was excited to work with it because it’s new, but I wanted to have time to play with it before taking it to the band,” he recalled. “It was a little nerve wracking telling six musicians that we were changing their in-ears pack and going digital.”
So, what was the response? “They immediately loved it, especially our keyboard player, Roland Hamilton. He referenced the clarity of the mix, and I received wholly positive feedback from everyone in the camp,” Woodrow enthused.
“I was pleasantly surprised that they asked me to turn it down when I was A-Bing between the old analogue and the new Digital PSM. Once Production Manager, Benjamin Omlor and I got the mix to where we wanted it, they asked me to turn it down 12dB, having overshot, which was awesome – it’s better to turn it down then not having enough gas!”
The biggest benefit of the system for Woodrow is the Wideband Mode. “I ran the entire tour on a four-channel Wideband Mode, simply because functionally I’m eating up less frequencies and in a festival environment, going up to the RF coordinator and asking for just two frequencies in whatever band they can give me is much easier than asking for eight. It allows me to simply assign four stereo sends per rack unit, and it does the rest of the work for me,” he explained. “Additionally, if I’m taking hits on one sub channel, I will have to change the whole rack unit, which is weird but fine because it’s fewer frequencies.”
This is a convention Woodrow decided to pilot amid production rehearsals at The Noho House. “There is a lot of RF traffic in downtown Hollywood, and I took considerably fewer hits in Wideband Mode as opposed to Narrowband Mode, which was surprising and a big deal to me – it felt like I was doing a lot less work,” Woodrow remarked.
Having had the luxury of an entire summer tinkering around with the system privately before introducing it to the band, Woodrow forged a greater level of trust with the band during the two-month-long summer tour and a handful of one-off shows, before showing up with the new gear.
“I felt like I built up enough trust with the band, and a few of them have their own home studios, so were excited to try out some new stuff and have new technology accessible to them and be able to provide feedback.”
Woodrow further cited the “impressiveness” of the low end, a “greater sense of clarity” and a “wider stereo image” as benefits of Shure Axient Digital PSM, based on feedback provided by the band. He elaborated: “The biggest thing I noticed was a lower noise floor. We’ve all grown accustomed to the noise floor of the analogue PSM but that is pretty much gone with the Digital, which is nice. Latency also wasn’t an issue for me, personally or any of the musicians I was providing the mix for.
Having introduced Woodrow to the system, Jenn Liang-Chaboud, Entertainment Relations Manager at Shure, explained the importance of cultivating and maintaining relationships with touring camps in the field. “Being directly in touch with them and having a two-way conversation about what they are listening for, what can be done better and what tools they wish they had, helps us figure out the ideal solutions for the market,” Liang-Chaboud commented, going on to express her enthusiasm for networking spaces like NAMM in Anaheim, California.
“NAMM is huge. This is a musical town, close to Los Angeles, so we have a tonne of engineers passing through the show. It’s perfect to showcase new products. Face time is important to drive conversation.”
Woodrow was experiencing his first NAMM. “Everyone is here, and it’s awesome to experience. I can’t wait to hit the road again later this year, but for now, I’m gearing up for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.”
Words: Jacob Waite
Photos: Shure and TPi
