Shure had a busy Super Bowl LI. Its Axient wireless microphone system and its PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring (IEM) systems were used on and off the field for both the event's play and the entertainment.
Professional Wireless Systems supplied this rack of 10 Shure Axient wireless channels, with Axient Spectrum Manager, Ethernet switch, and battery-charging docks.
On-field audio was provided by ATK Audiotek again this year, with an assist by the RF experts at Professional Wireless Systems (PWS). They were responsible for the referee's microphone system and all wireless used during the pregame and halftime festivities. Working with NFL Game Day Coordinator Karl Voss, PWS managed the allotted frequencies in a very crowded spectrum to ensure flawless audio on the field.
According to PWS On-Site Coordinator Gary Trenda, the referee's microphone system was a fully redundant Shure Axient system, with two bodypacks feeding separate AXT600 receivers. Axient, deploying the SM58 capsule, was also the system of choice for Luke Bryan's rendition of the national anthem. Three Axient handhelds with KSM8 elements were then used by cast members from the Broadway musical Hamilton to sing God Bless America, and a KSM9 Axient handheld was used by Anquan Boldin to announce the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. In all, 10 Axient channels were used, including one universal backup for emergencies.
Fox's NFL Sunday pre/postgame and halftime talk shows, originating from a specially built set at the north end of the stadium, also deployed the Axient and the PSM 1000 IEMs. The five commentators used the Axient handheld mics and PSM 1000 IEMs with IFB sourced through a signal chain that led from the Game Creek production truck over a Dante network, which carried 130 channels over a single fiber cable (plus a redundant backup wire) to a Clear-Com Omega Eclipse frame, enabled with a FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system using the 1.9-GHz DECT band and 22 beltpacks, according to Jason Waufle, partner and RF comms technician for Soundtronics Wireless. The Clear-Com Eclipse digital matrix fed four Dante-enabled Studio Technologies model 43D IFB interfaces. From there, the IFB audio went to the PSM 1000 transmitter and individual IEMs.
Waufle says one of the benefits of the PSM 1000 is that it is stereo-capable, allowing adjacent signals to be placed accordingly in left and right IEMs, making the environment more natural for the talent. Sound quality was also a major reason we used them, he says. They just sound good, which also makes them feel more natural.
PWS chose the Shure PSM 1000 system for its exceptional selectivity and diversity reception. A total of eight transmit mixes were used, sent to the 32 bodypack receivers on the musicians and dancers in Lady Gaga's halftime show. PSM 1000 was also used by all pregame performers, including the piano accompanist and sign-language interpreter.
But, if the PSM 1000 IEMs made the show go smoothly, the Axient wireless saved the day for the postgame scramble. As soon as the game ended, months of assiduous frequency-coordination efforts went out the window as ENG teams clambered over the field for interviews, turning the area into a tangle of spurious emissions. The ability of Axient's ShowLink system to automatically sense interfering frequencies and switch, with less than a sample-rate frame of latency, to another frequency kept the commentary audio pristine.
We saw it change frequencies 27 times in 20 minutes, which is pretty amazing, says Waufle. He notes that notch filters put on the system's antennas by Soundtronics technicians provided an array of backup frequencies that helped the process along, but, once the backup frequencies were in, the Axient handled the process on its own from then on.
PWS's Trenda had similar circumstances on the field. We did have some alerts of possible interference during the game, so we shifted the referee's backup frequency several times, says Trenda, referring to the Axient ShowLink system. But we never needed to switch the primary frequency. It was rock solid all night, which is a credit to Karl Voss and the NFL for the coordination planning they did.
PWS also designed the wireless antenna system for the on-field portion of the show, a critical aspect to delivering flawless audio in such a crowded RF environment. PWS relied on its own helical antennas, feeding those signals through a multi-stage receiver system based on the Shure Axient AXT630 antenna distribution system.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Shure had a busy Super Bowl LI. Its Axient wireless microphone system and its PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring (IEM) systems were used on and off the field for both the event's play and the entertainment.
