Shure Manages Wireless Audio at Super Bowl LI

Referee mics, in-ear monitoring support both the action and the entertainment

Shure had a busy Super Bowl LI. Its Axient wireless microphone system and its PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring (IEM) systems were used on and off the field for both the event’s play and the entertainment.

Professional Wireless Systems supplied this rack of 10 Shure Axient wireless channels, with Axient Spectrum Manager, Ethernet switch, and battery-charging docks.

On-field audio was provided by ATK Audiotek again this year, with an assist by the RF experts at Professional Wireless Systems (PWS). They were responsible for the referee’s microphone system and all wireless used during the pregame and halftime festivities. Working with NFL Game Day Coordinator Karl Voss, PWS managed the allotted frequencies in a very crowded spectrum to ensure flawless audio on the field.

According to PWS On-Site Coordinator Gary Trenda, the referee’s microphone system was a fully redundant Shure Axient system, with two bodypacks feeding separate AXT600 receivers. Axient, deploying the SM58 capsule, was also the system of choice for Luke Bryan’s rendition of the national anthem. Three Axient handhelds with KSM8 elements were then used by cast members from the Broadway musical Hamilton to sing “God Bless America,” and a KSM9 Axient handheld was used by Anquan Boldin to announce the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. In all, 10 Axient channels were used, including one universal backup for emergencies.

Fox’s NFL Sunday pre/postgame and halftime talk shows, originating from a specially built set at the north end of the stadium, also deployed the Axient and the PSM 1000 IEMs. The five commentators used the Axient handheld mics and PSM 1000 IEMs with IFB sourced through a signal chain that led from the Game Creek production truck over a Dante network, which carried 130 channels over a single fiber cable (plus a redundant backup wire) to a Clear-Com Omega Eclipse frame, enabled with a FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system using the 1.9-GHz DECT band and 22 beltpacks, according to Jason Waufle, partner and RF comms technician for Soundtronics Wireless. The Clear-Com Eclipse digital matrix fed four Dante-enabled Studio Technologies model 43D IFB interfaces. From there, the IFB audio went to the PSM 1000 transmitter and individual IEMs.

Waufle says one of the benefits of the PSM 1000 is that it is stereo-capable, allowing adjacent signals to be placed accordingly in left and right IEMs, making the environment more natural for the talent. “Sound quality was also a major reason we used them,” he says. “They just sound good, which also makes them feel more natural.”

PWS chose the Shure PSM 1000 system for its exceptional selectivity and diversity reception. A total of eight transmit mixes were used, sent to the 32 bodypack receivers on the musicians and dancers in Lady Gaga’s halftime show. PSM 1000 was also used by all pregame performers, including the piano accompanist and sign-language interpreter.

But, if the PSM 1000 IEMs made the show go smoothly, the Axient wireless saved the day for the postgame scramble. As soon as the game ended, months of assiduous frequency-coordination efforts went out the window as ENG teams clambered over the field for interviews, turning the area into a tangle of spurious emissions. The ability of Axient’s ShowLink system to automatically sense interfering frequencies and switch, with less than a sample-rate frame of latency, to another frequency kept the commentary audio pristine.

“We saw it change frequencies 27 times in 20 minutes, which is pretty amazing,” says Waufle. He notes that notch filters put on the system’s antennas by Soundtronics technicians provided an array of backup frequencies that helped the process along, “but, once the backup frequencies were in, the Axient handled the process on its own from then on.”

PWS’s Trenda had similar circumstances on the field. “We did have some alerts of possible interference during the game, so we shifted the referee’s backup frequency several times,” says Trenda, referring to the Axient ShowLink system. “But we never needed to switch the primary frequency. It was rock solid all night, which is a credit to Karl Voss and the NFL for the coordination planning they did.”

PWS also designed the wireless antenna system for the on-field portion of the show, a critical aspect to delivering flawless audio in such a crowded RF environment. PWS relied on its own helical antennas, feeding those signals through a multi-stage receiver system based on the Shure Axient AXT630 antenna distribution system.