Held at the 83,000-capacity Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans and viewed by almost 130m viewers, Super Bowl LIX saw ATK Audiotek supply live audio reinforcement and a stadium-wide communications network. To date, ATK has worked a staggering 27 consecutive Super Bowl games, ensuring unsurpassed technical services for the event.
ATK devised the in-bowl audio, pre-game, halftime and in-game stadium sound, alongside site-wide comms. The scope also extended to distributing audio signals for key television partners, including the NFL Network. ATK’s intimate knowledge of the event allowed NFL fans to hear the venue roar from every seat, and for hip-hop heavyweight Lamar and collaborator SZA to perform with headline concert audio assurance.
‘When we design and supply a Super Bowl system, we need to deliver audio for the entire venue, 360° of clarity, which in this case included spoken word segments from actor, Samuel L Jackson,’ says ATK Engineer in Charge (EIC), Kirk Powell. ‘However, we are very limited with what we can do and where we can place reinforcement in the stadium due to sightlines, so although it is challenging, over the years we’ve been able to make a live sports and music experience that people will not only enjoy but remember.’
‘New Orleans was only my third Super Bowl,’ says Systems Engineer and Designer, Johnny Keirle. ‘Each year has been a unique challenge, with more external entities than I’m used to – notably the importance of the broadcast. The greatest difference is that we’re designing for two very different audio needs at once; the sports announcer/broadcast side, where every call and announcement must be intelligible across a massive space, and the entertainment side, where we need full-range impact and musicality.
‘The Superdome presents significant acoustic challenges, making it crucial to control coverage and minimise reflections. Additionally, the event’s trim height restrictions require careful speaker placement to maintain SPL and consistent frequency response while accounting for the physics-related factors that come with a system flown at that height.’
In total, there set-up used 16 hangs of L-Acoustics K2 boxes, 12 of which included K1SB subs: eight hangs using K1SB as a closely coupled subwoofer, and four hangs using K1SB as a line source extension for management of low-frequency directivity. Eight additional hangs of eight KS28 subwoofers – an increase in sub-low enclosures from the previous two Super Bowls. The full deployment included 200 K2 loudspeakers, 48 K1SB, 64 KS28, 124 LA12X, two P1 processors and two LC16D audio convertors.
The system was powered by LA12X amplified controllers and run on AVB-Milan for the first time, which Keirle describes as an ‘exciting advancement’.
‘As with all my projects, I spend a lot of time working in Soundvision and really trust the software when making design decisions,’ he says. ‘All system management/optimisation was done in Network Manager, and Smaart for the deeper acoustics analysis, particularly room reflections for referee mic equalisation.
‘Bringing in my usual PA team from the EU was essential to ensuring a smooth set-up and management throughout rehearsals and game day. Having Gui Burguez, Juan Beilin, Claus Köpplin Orrán, and even Clair Global Operations Coordinator Rob Gurton working alongside the core ATK team, made the entire PA deployment and management process seamless. This was particularly crucial with flown amp platforms housing all amplification, signal and power: we needed experienced team members who were comfortable working at height and ready to climb whenever necessary during the event.’
DiGiCo consoles handled mixing for the entertainment portion, while Yamaha desk were chosen for the five live mix positions providing game feeds. The event has its own outside broadcast trucks. ‘They receive signals from us and also send signals to us, so there’s a lot of back-and-forth between our parties to get a seamless production for the global TV coverage,’ Powell adds. ‘The Super Bowl requires such a large array of audio sources, and guaranteeing they are routed accurately to their respective destinations is another challenge. To handle this, we use Focusrite RedNet components for seamless connectivity as we work through the demands of the event.’
ATK’s communications delivery, led by ATK Versacom, was overseen by Matt Campisi: ‘This year was an especially testing event as we took on all aspects of communication deployment; we not only supplied intercom systems for the Halftime Show and NFL Broadcast Executives, but to the Stadium Control, production company Van Wagner and the Production Club,’ he says. ‘We also integrated several other entities such as the Halftime TV truck and the network TV trucks, NFL Films and to the tailgate entertainment concert, which takes place outside the venue.’
ATK supplied several Riedel comms frames with integration to Caesars Superdome, two Riedel 1024 frames and Riedel Legacy frames were deployed in one large ring. Along with the stadium infrastructure and a matrix smart panel, ATK brought in an additional 125 smart panels for all positions during both the football game and the Halftime Show.
‘We supplied 140 Bolero wireless belt packs,’ says Campisi. ‘Wireless is the most challenging aspect of this set-up, as it’s critical to most of the 250-plus end-users. Additionally, Riedel Communications provided extended frequency channels that were added to our system,’ he explains. ‘The stadium dome can cause reflections which creates multipath issues, and Riedel supplied us with special directional antennas to combat this issue.’
More: www.atkaudiotek.com
