Tech Focus: A1s' Favorite Mics - Why They Like Them, How They Use 'Em In their own words, audio engineers on their tool of choice By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - 10:28 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
A boy and his dog. Homer and his doughnuts. An A1 and his or her favorite microphones. All duos made in heaven - or, in the last case, over many years of critical listening and clever problem-solving of the challenges that come with capturing sound for broadcast sports. In the first of a recurring feature, three A1s tell tales of their preferred transducers and why they love them.
The Fox Mod' Phil Adler
Ten-time nominee and winner of four Technical Team Emmy Awards, including for 2020 Golf on CBS and the 1991 X-Games, A1 Phil Adler has mixed for the NFL, NHL, MLB, and the NBA:
When I mixed the NHL for ESPN and Fox Sports, I was part of the team that chose the Crown PCC for ice (effects) mics, some time around 1996-97. Originally developed for the theater, they were new. Most mixers at the time were using some variation of a lavaliere taped to the glass and maybe some shotguns overhead. The Crown PCC got clarity and detail like no other mic - an absolute game-changer, and they've since become the standard. Fox liked the result so much they ordered about 30 of them. It became known as The Fox modification. Should have been The Adler modification. Oh, well
Now I have a few mics I like better than what the trucks carry: Telefunken M80 handheld mics for on camera and some vintage Audio-Technica 825 stereo mics for crowd sound.
PS: When the Colorado Avalanche management tore my mics down off the glass before a Stanley Cup playoff game, I asked Crown to develop a clear base for my mics to make them stealthy : put them on the glass with clear tape, and they practically disappear.
Use What You Have Jeri Palumbo
Broadcast A1 Jeri Palumbo has worked on the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cups, and esports in immersive surround and has served on the RF coordination committee for the NBA All-Stars and annually for the Rose Bowl:
While almost everything I do when it comes to domestic broadcast sports is the usual cookie-cutter mics and placements that almost everyone uses, there are times when you need to get creative with what you have, especially if your gear supply or options are extremely limited. At a smaller Duke University football game years ago, I used almost all field effects down the camera CCUs (no submix); it was a very small truck, and we didn't have a lot of mics or options. I used the old workhorse Sennheiser hypercardoid MKH816s on end-zone cameras along with one MKH816 on the near handheld. The tight as well as distance throw of the MKH816's enabled me to capture deep into the end zone and cross-field ambiance from the handheld, and the end-zone mics doubled as my field-goal-kick mics as well. (Yes, it worked!) Since we had only one working lav, I used the common EV635's in the two near parabs so they would match; the remaining three MKH416's that were available went to the booth hard cam and any remaining upper cameras to cross-catch audience/ambient crowd. I filled in the crowd from the booth instead with two SM58's (yes, dynamic vocal mics!). While the norm is to use a 416 or similar for crowd ambience from the booth, the 416's with their ability for capturing distance while having great feedback ambient rejection served me better outside the booth than in. The SM58 omnis mixed in with the other 416's from high cameras gave the illusion of a big, fat, rowdy crowd without singling out that one screaming fan. The show had a solid, robust sound without its being obvious [that] many elements were missing. Sometimes having less pushes one to think more outside of the box for solutions.
Flexibility Is the Plus
Joe Carpenter
Joe Carpenter is the senior audio mixer for Fox Sports and A1 for the MLB Network's Showcase games:
My favorite is the Sennheiser 418 ST. I love the way it responds whether it's in close proximity or from a distance. I use them on handheld cameras and M VI's for Major League Baseball.
Sometimes it sounds so good, it might be the only effects mic I have open! It's set up as a mid-side mic rather than as a stereo X-Y, and the side capsule has two condensers in it. I think it was the first RF condenser where it actually converted it to RF in the capsule.
I love how you can manipulate the image spread afterwards on the console. It's especially great now that we're using Megalodon cameras, where the operators go from extreme close to extreme far away. I love the way that mic reacts and the way it handles sound pressure. I use it now on almost every sport, especially with baseball because they let those cameras go out on the field. When a guy hits a home run, the camera will go out and meet him at third base and take him all the way past the home plate into the dugout. Sometimes, I'll drop everything else out, and it'll be the only mic open on the air and it just carries the shot.
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...
Tech Focus: A1s' Favorite Mics - Why They Like Them, How They Use 'Em In their own words, audio engineers on their tool of choice By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
