At this year's Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, the referee's microphone worked flawlessly throughout, with crisp, clear and authoritative audio. Using a setup approved by the NFL, the operator for the ref's mic channel was Jack Bowling of ATK Audiotek, whose primary tools included a CEDAR DNS1500.
He said, "The middle of a football field is far from an optimal place for any microphone. Reverberant energy from the stadium PA is abundant, the coverage by both the PA and the antenna system for the wireless varies across the field and, with no crowd in place, finding effective settings before the game is a major challenge because having bodies in seats drastically changes the reverberation characteristics. The rehearsal for the coin toss gave me the only opportunity to check out the tonality of the ref's voice and tweak a few settings, but even with that, I still had the unknown of how his voice would project during a call."
As a result, Bowling was forced to make his final adjustments live, but he confirmed, "Although I had limited time, we were definitely happy with the results, and will be using [the equipment] again in the future."
CEDAR Audio Ltd 20 Home End, Fulbourn, Cambridge CB21 5BS, UK t: +44 1223 881771 · e: info@cedaraudio.com
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