Super Bowl LVIII: For the First Time, Game and Halftime Show Will Deploy the Same Sound System The sound will be bigger and bassier than ever By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Friday, February 9, 2024 - 9:59 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
When Super Bowl LVIII kicks off on Sunday (broadcast on CBS, streamed on Paramount+, Slimed on Nickelodeon), viewers at home and fans in the stands will hear the game's sound through the same PA system that will amplify eight-time Grammy Award-winner Usher's halftime performance. It's the first time the same temporarily installed music PA system will be used as the sound for both the game's play and the entertainment performances.
ATK Audiotek, acquired by Clair Global in 2021, has designed and managed the halftime show's sound system for 26 years, usually rolling onto the field a separate music-PA system loaded on eight carts. This dedicated system would also be connected to the venue's installed PA system, which would be used as delay speakers to cover the upper reaches of seating, becoming an extension of the temporary music system for entertainment applications.
Multiple-Grammy winner Usher says he has been preparing for his Super Bowl Halftime Show moment for 30 years.
Last year, however, the roll-out grass field at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ, prevented use of the carts: it couldn't be moved fast enough to accommodate the quick change necessary to assemble the performance stage midfield. For the first time, then, ATK had to fly the music system, but it still adhered to the practice of connecting with the stadium's existing installed sound system for delay speakers.
This year, Allegiant Stadium has the same kind of roll-out field, again preventing the use of speakers on carts. In this case, though, ATK will fly an entirely new temporary L-Acoustics K2 system, and it will be used for both the halftime music show and the game's announcements and other sound elements.
We're flying the entire PA again, except this year we're not augmenting the house system, says Kirk Powell, engineer in chief, ATK, who is working his 22nd Super Bowl production. Last year, we augmented what already existed; we just added clusters to the existing system. This year, we flew a completely separate PA system for the first time.
The existing house PA, a JBL VLA system, will be available for emergency paging needs, he adds.
Implementing the temporary sound system had its own challenges, due largely to Allegiant Stadium's roofing, which is made of thin ETFE material. It's a cable-type ceiling, so you're limited in where you can put clusters and things of that nature, Powell explains, adding, The rigging and cable management was also a challenge, as was amplifier placement.
Hip-Hop Takeover Continues In the fourth year of the NFL's multi-year deal with rap mogul Jay-Z and his Roc Nation production company, Usher's show at Allegiant follows Rihanna's appearance at State Farm Stadium; the 2021 show at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa featuring The Weeknd; the 2022 show with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem; and the 2020 appearances of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, with guest appearances by Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Emme Mu iz at Miami Gardens (a show that earned a Primetime Emmy and four nominations).
As the line-ups suggest, the shows have provided for progressively larger numbers of subwoofers to accommodate the bass-heavy rap and hip-hop genres. That includes 16 L-Acoustics K1 extended-low-frequency boxes and 48 KS28 subs all flown, buttressed by a complement of 16 Clair Cohesion 218 subs on the field. They'll join a system comprising 212 K2 boxes flown from the roof rigging and managed by System Engineer Chris Daniels. Signal distribution will be over a Dante network using Focusrite RedNet D64, D16R, and A16R interfaces. Shure Axient Digital will be the main wireless-microphone system on the field, managed by Cameron Stuckey, RF engineer, Professional Wireless Services.
Quick Switch From Game to Music Although the system is larger than last year's, mainly on the low end, the fact that it will already be in place will help smooth the switch to music for the halftime show. However, it still requires a team of 100-plus temporary audio-team workers to make the system transitions precise. The team will be supporting the core ATK team of Powell, show mixers Alex Guessard and Dave Natale working on a pair of DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles, monitor mixer Tom Pesa on an SD5, and game-sound mixer Jack Bowling on the stadium's installed Yamaha PM3 desk. All are Super Bowl Halftime Show veterans.
The sound system got its first use at Monday's Opening Night event at the stadium, Powell says, where hundreds of media folks interviewed Super Bowl players and coaches in their only public appearance in Las Vegas before Super Bowl Sunday. It was also the only time the two teams would be together in one location prior to taking the field for the Big Game.
He notes that deployment of the NFL OnePass app will allow fans in the stands to tune into any of the dozen podiums in simultaneous use on the field, even as only one of the podiums at any given time could be pumped through the PA system: That's just one more cool way that sound is being used for the Super Bowl. It's another way that fans are engaged.
And viewers can expect a rather sharp halftime show by a performer who's in the middle of his second Las Vegas residency, who says he has studied what has become the ultimate gig in the ongoing convergence between sports and entertainment.
I've watched every performer, analyzing how they maximized those 12 minutes, Usher told Billboard this week, citing Michael Jackson's 1993 performance as the halftime show's inflection
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Super Bowl LVIII: For the First Time, Game and Halftime Show Will Deploy the Same Sound System The sound will be bigger and bassier than ever By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
