Last Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game may have been a bit of a ratings disappointment, but those who tuned into the game heard the next generation of baseball broadcast audio, with more-complex sound than the sport has ever enjoyed.
Fox Sports A1 Joe Carpenter handled submix for the MLB All-Star Game.
Having tested the concept during two Arizona Diamondbacks spring-training games in March, Fox Sports arrived at PetCo Field in San Diego last week with a much larger array of microphones and audio sources than ever before. Up to 16 new microphones were buried, in pairs to achieve a stereo image, in the outfield grass and at the outer perimeter of the infield near where the shortstop and second baseman typically play to capture infield and outfield plays close-up in a way that has never been attained using only distance microphones, such as shotguns and parabolic microphones. Additional parabolics and player microphones were also deployed.
Bob Qua, the Fox Sports effects submixer on the game, recalls that he faced a math challenge when he sat down at his Presonus 32 mixer squeezed into the stadium's announcer booth. I had to put 43 microphones into a 32-input console, he says. I never had that problem before on a baseball game.
Qua's quandary was one that all sports face, with enhanced audio seen as a way to keep broadcast sports engaging and immersive for viewers. With increased field and court audio for NFL and NBA games, baseball seems ready for its turn.
One Pleased Fox
Michael Davies, SVP, field and technical operations, Fox Sports, says that network is enthusiastic about the possibilities of enhanced audio for baseball. We were pleased. The audience was treated to things that they'd never heard before: things like an outfielder yelling, I got it! I got it!' we only used to hear before if we got lucky.
Fox Sports and MLB will collectively consider using these techniques for postseason play this year, Davies adds. Fox will broadcast the National League Division and Championship Series, and the World Series during postseason. He also notes that the same audio crew on the All-Star Game had worked Fox Sports' broadcast of the U.S. Open golf tournament, where it deployed new microphone locations, such as in the hole cups. This was the same team as we had for golf, he says. I like the path we're headed down now.
Audio All Over
For audio geeks, the All-Star Game was a candy store. It would be hard to pick the most interesting microphone locations; we were hearing things all over that we'd never heard before, Qua says. But, if I had to pick one, it would be the microphone on the pitcher's mound.
That microphone, one of more than a dozen Quantum 5X QT-5100 AquaMic units, chosen for their resistance to moisture and remote-battery-management capability, was placed near the cleat scraper on the mound, a location arrived at after the spring-training experiments. It picked up the grunts that are part and parcel of throwing a ball at nearly 100 mph.
It really showed off the athleticism of the game, observes Joe Carpenter, the show's A1, who, in addition to the regular array of audio sources he mixes during a game, took on eight more effects microphones in order to lighten Qua's load. For the first time, you could hear what it physically takes to throw a ball that hard.
According to Quantum 5X Chairman/CEO Paul Johnson, the Canadian firm has received positive feedback from Fox Sports. We hope to eventually have this type of audio capture become a regular part of broadcasts, he adds. The people I have talked to have indicated that they feel that it brings them closer to the game.
The infield around the bases had the most intense sound coverage: wireless lavalier microphones were located in the base bags themselves, and several players wore wireless mics. Combining them with the in-ground sources created an entirely new audio picture for the broadcast.
There were moments where we had the first baseman and the runner at first base miked, as well as the bag itself, Qua recalls. Then the runner heads to second, and you can hear the shortstop calling and the runner sliding. It was thrilling.
Carpenter says he built his end of the effects mix starting from the microphone at the pitcher's mound, one that got as much of a workout as the bullpens as a succession of pitchers let out growls and yelps as they threw fire from the hill. From there, he blended in the mics closest to the infield as needed.
Ninety-five percent of it was the pitcher's-mound mic, he estimates. That's the one that really communicated the athleticism that you'd hear on the field.
Some operational issues had to be worked out. For instance, the signal strength of the in-ground microphones in the outfield varied as a function of distance and other factors. During the tests in Arizona, wireless-systems provider CP Communications deployed helical antennas, which are highly directional; PetCo Field has passive Sennheiser 5000CP antennas, which can cover a broader field but not with a necessarily even intensity.
As the mics got farther away, Qua explains, the reception became more difficult.
It also took some experimentation to coordinate the groups of effects microphones that each mixer worked with. We had to split them up, he adds. We just don't have enough fingers otherwise, and the consoles had their own limitations.
The six-second delay was under the network's control, Carpenter notes. With so much more audio being broadcast in near real time, the engineer working the delay trigger had to stay attentive. However, one of the advantages to having the broadcast network controlling the delay was that he could build a mix that would avoid a dead-air hole in the event the audio had to be bleeped.
I set it up so that only t
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Last Tuesday's MLB All-Star Game may have been a bit of a ratings disappointment, but those who tuned into the game heard the next generation of baseball broadcast audio, with more-complex sound than the sport has ever enjoyed.
