AEW Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision - Big Sound at Arthur Ashe Stadium Team produces both in-venue and broadcast audio for the noisy wrestling event By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 3:31 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Arthur Ashe Stadium has long had noise complaints when it hosts the US Open tennis tournaments, but its neighbors haven't heard anything until they hear the racket generated by the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision, which takes place there tonight. Spectators at the combined Dynamite and Collision events are expected to fill the venue's nearly 24,000 seats for a raucous evening, which will be broadcast on TBS and, for the first time, live streamed, via PPV Triller TV.
It's the combined events' fourth consecutive year at the stadium, before it heads to Brisbane, Australia, for its first-ever visit there, in February.
Like most AEW events, Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision is produced in-house, from AEW's own Live Media Group-built truck. The Nashville office of Sound Image, now a Clair Global subsidiary, has operated various AEW events' live-production and broadcast interface for five years.
Wrestling as Theater All wrestling is theater, and the production embraces it as such, boosting the volume and the impact of sound effects to support the wrestlers' mythical narratives and keep the crowds roaring.
It is theater, and it is loud, acknowledges Philip Piercy, crew chief/systems engineer/project audio lead, Sound Image. I've been touring for a long time, with music and events, and this is truly unique. It's interesting to watch and hear the crowds react to how the stories play out on stage, and it's rewarding knowing that I can add to that, adjusting the sound system as the show progresses. It's not linear, like a concert. You're never exactly sure how things will turn out.
Arthur Ashe Stadium preps for the fourth straight year of AEW Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision.
The PA system takes its audio feed directly from the broadcast truck, its consoles - a DiGiCo Quantum 338 and Calrec Apollo over a Hydra2 network, connected via MADI and Dante, respectively - mixing the live show and broadcast separately and simultaneously. Frequency Coordination Group provides the wireless audio for the event, including backstage and ringside interviews that are simulcast on-air and on the large, curved screen, provided by vendor partner Fuse Video, that Sound Image deploys. Two rotating crews handle sound, video, and lighting, traveling 52 weeks a year and doing two or three live shows every week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as well as special events, such as Pay Per Views.
We're in charge of all the venue audio, notes Piercy, but we're also providing the control package. So we're in charge of the front-of-house audio, and all of that interacts with the broadcast trucks. All the inputs, playback, commercials, pre-tapes, microphones hit the broadcast truck and are sent to us. Ultimately, it is a TV show first, but the live show energizes the audience and becomes a big part of what the television audience will see and hear.
A JBL VTX A12 sound system installed at Arthur Ashe Stadium helps energize the audience.
What they're hearing comes from various crowd mics deployed throughout the venue, some hung from the lighting rigging used with Ashe Stadium's roof closed (which also further amplifies the interior noise), and from camera-mounted shotgun mics used to pick up the sometimes very physical and contentious interaction between wrestlers even before they get into the ring. There are also key effects microphones, such as the Audix D6 cardioid dynamic mics placed facing upwards beneath the ring's floormat, functioning for wrestling much as they do for the kick-drum microphones they were designed to be for live music.
When they pick up a slam on the mat, the crowd hears that, and it sounds like it really hurts, in the PA system and on the air, Piercy says. It's up to the mixer in the truck how much he uses of that. We get all the same mic inputs as the broadcast does, and we can use any of them in the PA. The crowd gets plenty of sound.
That PA is a JBL VTX A12 system, with seven hangs comprising A12 boxes around the venue, four hangs of A8 boxes in a center cluster, and four hangs of VTX S28 subs, Some B28s are also planned for deployment at the Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision event.
The event gets bigger in a larger venue, and the music gets louder, Piercy notes, so the sound system has to be bigger, too.
Music Choices It's a large system designed to support a large story, as much opera as sport, with music choices carefully crafted to reveal each wrestler's persona, Not unlike walk-up music played as MLB batters approach the plate, the song tells the wrestler's epic backstory - in a minute or less.
With the entrance songs that these guys walk out to, Piercy points out, you can tell a lot about their character based on whether it's a rock song or a mellow song or something else. Some of the wrestlers have [arrangements] with certain [music] artists, and the crowd knows the songs and associate the character with the song. It's part of the history of the sport. A lot of people might wonder why you need a concert-level PA system for a wrestling match. But it's more than just that. You're seeing an entire story unfold.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
AEW Grand Slam: Dynamite & Collision - Big Sound at Arthur Ashe Stadium Team produces both in-venue and broadcast audio for the noisy wrestling event By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
