Beezball Finds a New Application for Effects Mics

Swarming bees add buzz at a Cactus League game

There may be an ongoing shortage of bees in the U.S. at the moment, but that wasn’t the case at the Peoria, AZ, Sports Complex last Thursday. That’s when a swarm of bees decided to hive around a Sennheiser 416 short shotgun microphone aimed at the field, one of two used by the Fox Sports RSN covering the game to pick up bat-crack sound effects. The bees accomplished what many line-drive hitters aspire to: they sent the pitcher flat on his stomach at the mound.

The bees hung out on a Sennheiser 416 short shotgun.

As the bees swarmed off the microphone, San Diego Padres pitcher Trey Wingenter dropped first, followed by Colorado Rockies batter Daniel Castro, home-plate umpire Alex Tosi, and then everyone else in the infield. According to news reports, the stadium announcer also told the crowd to steer clear of the bees.

It’s not an everyday occurrence, but Senior Audio Engineer Fred Domenigoni, who usually mixes Diamondbacks games for Fox Sports, says he has heard of at least three instances of bees swarming a ballpark, including experiencing it once himself, at nearby Chase Field, the D-backs’ home.

“We had them in a corner where my outfield-mic wires come in through a conduit from an amplifier box near the wall, before they come out and split off left and right,” he explains.

He speculates that the bees might be attracted by microphones’ electrical fields, since many shotguns use 48-V phantom power, enough of a charge to create a tight, non-toxic field around the microphone.

He’s likely on to something. Science has documented how bees use minute electrical charges to pollenate flowers. Bees have a positive charge, as a result of friction generated by flight, while flowers are, naturally, grounded and possess a negative charge. Thus, the minimal charge around powered audio elements may be what attracts bees to them.

“It makes for a bit of added excitement for the game,” Domenigoni says, but it’s a short-lived euphoria. “After they’ve sent in a beekeeper or someone to chase the bees away, we have to clean up the microphone after a few hundred bees have been hanging out on it.”

The bees’ visit didn’t change the outcome of the game, however. Their visit came in the ninth inning of the Rockies’ 10-5 win.