March Madness 2022: Without Player Mics, Audio Team Turns to Traditional Basketball Effects Capture NCAA prohibits wiring athletes and coaches, using contact mics on the court By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, March 17, 2022 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The pro leagues have embraced miked-up players for broadcast, but collegiate leagues have largely taken a pass on the technique, including for the NCAA's March Madness month of matches. Even though student-athletes in all three NCAA divisions can get now paid for the use of their name, image, and likeness, they still can't get wired for sound on television.
That could put college games at a sonic disadvantage, and that's what Dave Grundtvig, who is handling sound design and A1 duties for Turner Sports for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, and his crew have worked to remedy. Unable to position microphones either on players or near the coaches or the scorers tables, they have to rely on other techniques to pick up the excitement of this iconic series of games.
Grundtvig says that, without the microphones near the tables and without being able to wire the various courts with contact mics - a technique he pioneered for the NBA's COVID bubble in Orlando in 2020 - he's relying mostly on conventional basketball effects-capture approaches. Multiple lavalier mics are located on the backboards and stanchions, and shotguns are aimed to pick up the sneaker squeaks around three-pointers.
The audio effort for March Madness is focused on ambience, particularly the school bands.
But much of the soundscape will comprise the arena ambience, especially the college bands and what everyone hopes will be full grandstands.
The NCAA is very protective of the players and coaches, he notes. That being said, there are restrictions as to where we can put mics on the floor. So my focus is capturing the experience and energy and excitement in the venue: the bands, cheerleaders, and, of course, the fans. It's mostly just the basic basketball setup at that point. There really are no work-arounds for that.
Bring on the Bands For the bands behind the baskets, Grundtvig, working with RF specialist Victor Victoria and court-effects mixer Dave Bjornson, looks to the upper shelves of his microphone closet. He's deploying a Shure KSM32 large-diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone flanked by a pair of Neumann small-diaphragm condenser microphones at each end of the court to pick the music up out of the crowd sound as discretely as possible. These mics have their own place on his router, enabling them to be recalled, in stereo in the left and right L-C-R channels of the 5.1-surround broadcasts, for replays going into breaks.
It's like college football, Grundtvig explains. The school bands define college basketball, so you want to keep them out there as part of the signature sound.
The crowd fills the surround channels, and he deploys a few additional microphones for that, their locations determined in conjunction with the field producer and the league. But, he says, with most of the games played in NBA arenas, the necessary volume is built into the venue.
Grundtvig notes that 85% of second-round games will be in NBA arenas: They're big, and they're gonna be loud.
The flip side of that, though, is the battle with the PA volume, a situation he says has become endemic to almost all sports.
All these venues want to create an in-arena experience for the fans sitting in the seats, he says, adding, Sometimes their [sound perspective] and mine, which is millions of people watching at home, are not in the same ballpark, no pun intended. With all professional sports now, it seems like we're always fighting the PA.
What does help is that arenas are installing upgraded PA systems that can produce extremely precise coverage of specific areas, mostly the stands. In fact, some PA systems are designed to help keep PA sound out of the broadcast microphones.
For example, Grundtvig explains, Jeff McGinnis, who runs the PA in the American Airlines Center, will duck the PA in the cabinet hanging from the scoreboard. That's literally right at our announcer table, and it makes all the difference in the world. Other [venues] do similar things where they can manipulate a cabinet or two so they're not blasting right down on your announcer mic. Having the luxury of a well-tuned room and the flexibility of turning certain speakers on or off or adjusting their gain in certain arrays certainly helps.
March Madness sound has plenty of nuance, but mostly, says Grundtvig, it captures the excitement unique to college sports. It's just a fun time of year, and the beauty of it is, hopefully, we're getting back to normal in these arenas.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
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...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
March Madness 2022: Without Player Mics, Audio Team Turns to Traditional Basketball Effects Capture NCAA prohibits wiring athletes and coaches, using contact mics on the court By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
