Sennheiser Digital 6000 shines on the Super Bowl stage

Sennheiser's SKM 6000 transmitters, with MD 9235 capsules, were used by Shakira and Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show.

Transmitted by the chain Fox to an international audience of more than 100 million viewers, the Super Bowl halftime musical show This year's event was held at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, in sunny Florida.

Although the performance itself only lasted 14 minutes, the preparation was intense and the technical execution impeccable. According to figures published by the Fox network, this year's half-time musical show had a larger audience than the game itself, with a total of 104.1 million viewers worldwide.

Los SKM 6000 transmitters Sennheiser, with capsules MD 9235, were used by Shakira y Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show.

The Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless system was the microphone chosen by the artist Shakira, and also by her special guest Bad Bunny, both Latin Grammy winners, to sing surrounded by the perfect cultural backdrop of Miami. This is the twenty-third consecutive year that ATK Audiot is in charge of the audio design for the pre-game festivities, the referees' microphones and the Super Bowl halftime musical show.

Just before halftime, there was a lot of excitement on the field when the Kansas City Chiefs staged a spectacular comeback, tying the game 10-10. As soon as time ran out in the second quarter, the technical staff in charge of the halftime performance had just 6 minutes to transport and set up the entire stage, which would be located near the field's 30-yard line. Antenna systems for the wireless microphones were installed on each sideline well before the game, along the stadium wall behind the players' benches.

“It's not the traditional concert environment, where you can install the antennas on the sides of the stage so they are close to the artist,” he notes. Gary Trenda, lead RF technician for the Orlando-based company PWS (Professional Wireless Systems). “We deployed the antennas on the sidelines and oriented them toward where the stage would be, then used a radio frequency over fiber (RFoF) system to connect them to receivers located in a rack room under the stands.”

During the halftime show, the wireless receivers are generally placed further away than at a typical rock concert, as it is a temporary stage that is taken down just 14 minutes later. That's why wireless systems must work perfectly, despite not having the advantage of being close to the stage. “In a show of these characteristics, reliability is paramount,” says Gary Trenda. “By having to capture the signal at a greater distance, reliability must be total.”

Sennheiser sound for millions of fans

For Shakira and Bad Bunny, the personnel in charge of the RF deployed four channel wireless systems Sennheiser Digital 6000: three microphone channels for Shakira and one for Bad Bunny. Shakira performed several songs using a shiny gold SKM 6000 handheld transmitter with MD 9235 dynamic cardioid capsule, and then Bad Bunny, as a guest artist, joined on stage also using a neon yellow SKM 6000, topped by a striking red MD 9235 capsule.

“This is the second Super Bowl in which I have used Sennheiser digital systems and, from experience, we have found that even in a very saturated RF environment, it is a very reliable microphone system,” says Trenda. As you might expect, the RF environment at the Super Bowl is challenging: "In the stadium area alone, there are probably about 500 mic frequencies and in-ear monitoring systems, so our goal was to focus on the mics we were interested in and rule out everything else. That's why we applied cavity filters tuned to 6 MHz in front of the Sennheiser receivers. The filters are tuned specifically to the frequencies we were using for those two mics."

With 23 Super Bowl shows under their belt, preparation is a key component for ATK Audiotek. Among the various activities to be carried out, they carry out a reconnaissance of the site towards the month of September, which consists of sending a technical team to examine the radio frequency environment of the area. RF coordination is carried out by the Event Frequency Coordinators, or EFC, of ​​the National Football League (NFL). As chief EFC manager, Loren Sherman is responsible for assigning frequencies for the halftime show, so that all phases of the performance go smoothly. The technical staff began assembly a week and a half before match day and took advantage of that time to carry out on-site rehearsals. This year, the companies ATK and PWS carried out up to three full rehearsals of the half-time show, each time scanning the radio frequency environment with great attention to ensure impeccable operation.

Aesthetics and functionality

For large-scale programming like the Super Bowl, RF staff must inevitably overcome last-minute problems: In this case, the artists' decision to use microphones that had a modern aesthetic had to be reconciled with transmitters at the appropriate frequencies. As Trenda explains: "We had a shiny black microphone, one painted metallic red and another shiny gold, but all the transmitters were in a frequency range that we couldn't use at the Super Bowl. So we called Sennheiser and they sent us some handheld transmitters whose frequencies were exactly what we needed for the show. We just had to attach the shiny casing to these other transmitters. Sennheiser's help was quick and efficient."

Brett Valasek, CEO of ATK Audiotek, appreciates the quality, reliability and technical support that Sennheiser offers: “We have done many shows with the Sennheiser Digital 6000 system and it is a product we trust,” he comments. "We were very happy that both Shakira and Bad Bunny used Digital 6000 systems, because the radio frequency levels and audio clarity were spectacular. Regarding the problem with the frequency of the transmitters, it was very good for us to be able to count on the help of Sennheiser to find the best solution. We value our collaboration with Sennheiser very positively."