For Emirates NBA Cup Final, Big Sound Comes in a Small Package New Q5X PlayerMic X lighter but more powerful than previous versions By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 - 9:41 am
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Tonight's ABC Sports broadcast of the Championship Game in the complex Emirates NBA Cup series will mark the debut of a very small mic system. Q5X's new XD25 PlayerMic X is the smallest and lightest iteration of the Canadian manufacturer's decade-plus effort to maximize audio performance while minimizing the physical dimensions of the transmitter worn inside the jerseys of NBA players.
Three generations of the Q5X PlayerMic: the PlayerMic X is less than half the size and weight of the previous versions, with 50% longer battery life.
The XD25 PlayerMic X is the successor to the AD10 PlayerMic S, a transmitter used by the NBA for three years, which incorporates Shure's Axient Digital technology. The X version, which Q5X says is less than half the size and weight of the S version yet increases battery life by 50%, was first deployed by distribution partner Bexel for ESPN and TNT Sports, which jointly produced and broadcast the semifinal matchups from Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena over the weekend.
The new PlayerMics eschew the 1.9 GHz RF range and return operations to UHF - in this case to the 500 MHz range, from 460 to 608 MHz. Given the decreased physical design of the new transmitter, says Q5X CEO Paul Johnson, the UHF range offered the best sonic quality and range.
We'd been working on this for the better part of three years now, he explains, after the NBA came back to us and asked if we could make the PlayerMic even smaller and lighter, which is not an easy task. We experimented with 1.4- and 1.9-GHz versions of the transmitter, but those didn't provide the kind of range we'd need. We tested the new UHF transmitter and receiver during an WNBA game in October, and it worked perfectly.
Coaches, Officials Get New Transmitters, Too Two other variations on the new format will debut at tonight's Championship Game. Team coaches will be using the new AD10 CoachMic; officials, the AD10 PushMic. The latter, part of Q5X's Switch series of transmitters, is a completely new product and features a momentary-pushbutton switch programmable for different functions (versus the rocker-style switch used on Q5X's older CoachMic used by both coaches and referees).
Both mics feature the smaller, lighter transmitters of the new PlayerMic X, and, Johnson notes, NBA players have responded positively to the new PlayerMic X design, which may enable more on-court audio used for broadcast.
Some [players] who have previously refused to wear a mic during games have indicated that they are willing to wear the smaller PlayerMic X, he says. The players understand that fans crave this added dimension to the game.
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For Emirates NBA Cup Final, Big Sound Comes in a Small Package New Q5X PlayerMic X lighter but more powerful than previous versions By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
