Stagetec Crescendo Makes Inaugural Appearance at X Games

This year’s 14th Winter X Games marked the first appearance of the Stagetec Crescendo at ESPN’s annual event. As part of the new refurbishment of CP Communications’ RF5, the Crescendo was used for sub-mixing and routing all RF feeds used at the events in Aspen, CO.

This was CP and Total RF Productions’ second year supplying a turn-key operation for all the RF Mics, RF Cameras, and fiber infrastructure at the Winter X Games. CP’s coverage included the Pipe, Slope, Big Air, and Snowmobile events.

Over 30 RF audio feeds were streamed into the truck from the talent, athlete and effects mics, follow-cams, hand-held cameras, and on-board sled cameras.  In the truck was a 16-fader/80-channel Crescendo console.

“The visual feedback provided by the console surface and the additional metering of the NEXUS system gave me a really clear snapshot of what was going on at anytime,” says audio mixer Jeff Shuey, who ran the console for the first time in Aspen. “The Crescendo was really easy to understand and operate and that enabled me to concentrate on getting everything else up and running.”

RF HD 5 is a hybrid RF and Fiber HD truck, which was recently refurbished. It is used on events like the X Games, NYC Marathon, Chicago Marathon and Golf.

“Although, 75 percent of the equipment on the truck is new, my team was able to get all the fiber laid up the mountain, RF HD cameras and audio going in record time,” says Kurt Heitmann, President of Total RF Productions. “We were very happy with the results and with the new Stagetec console as was our client ESPN. The Crescendo is packed with IO capabilities including MADI through the NEXUS and we hope to use even more of its’ resources on future events.”