
Fiber Network, Wireless Combine To Capture Audio for UCI Bike Races in the Mountains Sound system covers downhill, cross-country, short-track events across 6-plus acres By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, August 18, 2022 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The X Games established the model for sprawling extreme-sports events. The Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup event has been among those refining that model for the past decade or so. Most recently, the event played out July 29-31 at the Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Snowshoe, WV. Spanning the resort's 11,000 acres in the Allegheny Mountains, the internationally viewed series of races, broadcast over Apple+ and Red Bull streaming networks, among other outlets, encompassed downhill, cross-country, and short-track bike racing.
Gathering the audio for the event, which features announcers along the race courses and at music stages at the start and finish lines, was a Herculean task.
Networked Audio A massive fiber network, owned by the resort and used for connectivity for such locations as ski lifts, took care of most of that, and Dante endpoints, such as loudspeakers for announcers and music, rode on a strand of the network dedicated to the event.
It wasn't a full 6 square miles that were covered but rather zones within that area, such as the cross-country racecourse and the downhill racecourse, which were the base courses for the event, explains Austin Addair, production manager, Midway Production Services, which provided the event's audio systems. We were able to add a speaker or a video wall wherever we needed to along those courses and in the other networked zones. We had a broadcast-type control room set up in one of the buildings as the command center for the distributed audio around the mountain, handling all of the routing and mixing of audio as well as the comms, which were all on the network.
Midway Production Services deployed an RF Venue Diversity-Fin antenna for the cross-country race at Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Snowshoe, WV.
Because both events and spectators were widely dispersed, he adds, in some instances, announcers were on stages, calling the races from video displays. That was enabled by the fact that the network had extremely low latency, with no shared resort traffic during non-skiing months.
The distributed PA systems used JBL 712M passive loudspeakers powered by military-spec amplifier racks, hardened to deal with weather and the occasional bumps by crowds, and integrated into the network via a combination of Neutrik NA2-IO-DLINE two-channel XLR line-level-to-Dante adapters and Audinate AVIO networking adapters. The stage PA systems featured Martin Audio W8LC loudspeakers configured in traditional line arrays. Speaker DSP was through Lake LM44 processors.
Wireless Several critical areas that required coverage but weren't accessible by fiber were covered by wireless systems using various antenna solutions.
For example, for announcers at the starting line for the cross-country race, a cable would have been restrictive. There, Midway Production Services deployed an RF Venue Diversity-Fin antenna. This was a pretty traditional setup - a wireless microphone transmitter to a receiver - but the distances and movement had to be considered, says Addair. The announcer would be roaming the area so we had to make sure we maintained constant connectivity. He notes that Midway's Greg Fairbanks worked on the network and Dante switching and routing and Mike Snow supervised network operations.
JBL speakers (shown at right) were used for downhill bike races at Snowshoe Mountain Resort.
Another problematic area was at the downhill-race finish line, where the audio from the Stageline SL100 mobile music and announcements stage had to reach back up the hill. To facilitate that, JBL delay speakers were deployed upwards from the stage, using the fiber network. However, given the topography in certain areas, a cabled solution would have required having wires crisscross the track several times. So the team combined a Shure in-ear ULXD transmitter and a high-gain RF Venue CP Beam helical antenna, transmitting from the PA system at the stage to a D-Fin antenna connected to the delay speaker and ULXD receiver. (The handheld wireless microphones were also Dante-enabled ULXD's.)
We were able to reach more than 500 ft. using this arrangement, says Addair, noting that the trick has been a lifesaver in other challenging wireless situations. It's something we've used before, and [it] reliably gets us well past 500 ft. this way.
The Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup event is notable in a number of ways, not least of which is its wireless operations. Although the event takes place within the exclusion zone of the Greenbank radio astronomy observatory - putting it in one of the least-dense RF environments on earth - the races take place as thousands of cellphone-toting spectators, racers, and others roam the area, creating their own RF challenges.
This is one of the least RF-polluted environments on earth, says Addair, but you never know how the crowds and other things at the event can affect that.
North America Stories
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
06/05/2026
The streamer aims to provide a fully integrated Spanish language experience with...
06/05/2026
Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...
06/05/2026
For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...