NBC Sports Ices the Audio for the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating ChampionshipsMics embedded in the rink ice provided a third dimension for viewersBy Dan Daley, Audio Editor Tuesday, January 13, 2026 - 7:00 am
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In an important prelude to the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, NBC Sports this past weekend broadcast the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which preceded selection of the figure skaters who will represent Team USA at Milano Cortina 2026. The broadcast from the Enterprise Center, home to the NHL's St. Louis Blues, featured deployment of in-ice microphones.
Isolating the skate-effect sounds poses an interesting challenge in an ice arena with lots of acoustically reflective surfaces, says Gary Dixon, director, broadcast business development, Audio-Technica, which supplied 10 AT 880b microphones for the event.
The Enterprise Center ice mic crew for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships was a mix of venue, NBC Sports, and Figure Skating teams: (from left) Jachin Severs, Tom Ham, Michael Joseph, Kaleb Null, Eric Zornes, Jim Schmuke, Dan Jennings, Brian Nortrup, Scott Schram, Nick Grimes, and Dave Staloch.
The beauty of under-ice mics is that they are a contact mic and not affected by the movement of air, notes Karl Malone, senior director, audio engineering, NBC Sports and Olympics. As they are embedded in the ice, the ice acts like the diaphragm of a conventional mic, meaning [that it picks up] nothing above the ice - such as the PA system or crowd sound - only the sound of the blade on the ice.
Special Surface, Special MicsThe microphones, which are part of Audio-Technica's rental inventory and not currently sold, were developed specifically for ice sports, Dixon says. Designed to convert the vibrations on the ice above it into audio, the surface-contact piezoelectric-type microphone is housed in a water- and corrosion-resistant case containing the transducer's 48-V internal preamp. Flat and low-profile, the 1-mm-high mic is designed to be placed under ice for winter-sports applications and is tuned to between 50 Hz and 4 kHz to specifically focus on ice sound effects.
A router is used to cut a location for a mic that will be covered by ice chips.
NBC Sports has deployed the microphones for previous figure-skating events in Wichita, KS; Detroit; Nashville; and San Jose, CA. Getting them into the ice is itself a production. There are various means by which to place them into the ice, including combinations of woodworking-type router or heated block of metal to create holes for the mics and troughs for the cabling.
This is done atop existing ice, such as the surface at the NHL's Enterprise Center, placing the mics 0.25 in. below the surface of the hockey ice, then either spraying it with water or covering it in ice chips from the trenching process, which helps mark the locations to prevent conflict with sponsor signage subsequently painted onto the surface. Dixon points out that a hockey puck is used as a tool to pack the loose ice in.
Ice techs create a small trench to bury mic cabling in the ice for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
The surface is further covered by another layer of ice, chilled but at a slightly higher temperature to create the softer ice needed for figure skating. This freezes the microphones and their cabling slightly less than 2 in. below the top of the new ice. In St, Louis, a router and the shaved ice chips were used.
A microphone is buried in one layer of ice chips. A second layer will be added to freeze the mic and cabling less than 2 in. below the new ice.
Figure skating actually has their own ice techs who work with the local facility's crew, explains Dixon. They know how to make the ice safe because, at the end of the day, you don't want an athlete tripping over the trench you built. You don't want that skate getting caught in there. So the big thing is making sure you get all the air bubbles out, which would create weaker ice.
The microphones are placed 6 ft. out from the dasher boards, with four on the near and far sides equally spaced; a pair of goal-end microphones are 8 ft. out from the dashers. That provides a coverage area of about 10 ft. in diameter around each microphone, Dixon estimates. Depending on the style of each individual skater, the audio can sometimes provide almost a Doppler-type effect, as the skater moves toward, over, and past each mic, adding a dynamic dimensional effect to the sound.
The Sound of MusicMusic is as integral to figure skating as the sounds of blades on the ice. However, integrating the music - establishing and maintaining sync between the sound from the venue PA system and the television audio - requires some effort.
A hockey puck is often used to pack the loose ice into the mic trench.
Figure skating is a beautiful sport to watch, listen to, and mix, says Malone. We pay great attention to the music and to having that music feed direct into the [broadcast mix] in order to have a clean and powerful effect.
He notes that the crowd and effects mics play a role in creating that effect, given the inevitable delay between a direct signal and the acoustical one captured by the microphones. We have to delay the effects mics to be in time with the direct music to the console, he explains. That tightens up the effect of the music, with less reverberation and echo in the mix. This gives you a perfect trifecta: clean music, clean skate sounds, and the ability to blend in some mics from above the ice to get the cheers and applause of the crowd. It's a fine balance that [A1 Randy Pekich] understands perfectly.
Off the IceInstallation of all those microphones has been straightforward, thanks to careful planning by the venue ice team. Their removal has to be just as painstaking and efficient, especi
