2007 NFL Super Bowl

February 4, 2007, Miami, Florida, NFL Super Bowl - Wet, cold and tired are words any of the Audiotek crew could have used to sum up Super Bowl XLI. After all, it was in Miami, Florida. Wait a minute! Stop the press! How could it be that in sunny Florida the NFL could have its first Super Bowl in history to have rain? Well, it was, and this is how the day unfolded.

It was 6:00AM and the skeleton crew was gathering in the parking lot of the hotel to shove off to an early morning soundcheck at the stadium. It was gameday and Roger Goodell, the new NFL commissioner, wanted to do a soundcheck of the microphone he would be using later for the Lomabardi Trophy presentation at the end of the game. Yes, it was one microphone (not including the backup) but it is quite possibly the world’s most important microphone, at least on that day. Included in this task were monitor mixer Mike Parker, monitor assists George Schwartz, John Protzko, Jim “Redford” Sanders and Dave Ingels, compound manager (for lack of a better term the guy that does everything) Don Eberhard, ATK RF coordinator James Stoffo and the head cheese himself, our fearless leader and Super Bowl event coordinator for ATK, Mike Stahl and his man in charge, Paul Lizsewski (or #1 as he is endearingly referred to.) So, off we went the whole while quietly thinking to ourselves, “Could it possibly rain all day?” “Will they cancel the Pre Game show…or Halftime?” All of us headed into the stadium with those questions looming. It was a quiet ride in and final walk to our compound. Once there, a collective sigh of relief was given, because at Super Bowl, no matter what credentials, or how many of them you have, you are never guaranteed that you will get from point A to point B. Safe in our familiar territory the questions began aloud. “Do you think it’ll rain all day?” “Think they’ll cancel Pre Game…or Halftime?” “That’s what I was thinking.” We sloshed down to the field to the entertainment monitor mix platform/ RF world and began taking the plastic off just enough to commence with the Commissioner’s mic check. He showed up. It worked and he was happy. See you after the game.

The rain sporadically came and went during the day. It was hard at times. For the most part, it never really did stop raining. This was going to be good. All I could think of was how and when they could make the decision to cancel the entertainment portions of Super Bowl. All of the production and planning, all of the equipment and people, all of the hotels and incidentals! Who was going to pull the trigger on THIS one?! Then at the tunnel entrance to the field I heard the crack of the stage manager’s radio from production. “It’s a GO!” As I witnessed the first stage piece for the Cirque du Soleil pre game show roll its way onto the field I was stunned. This grass is amazing. Up and down the sideline you could feel your shoes sink deeper in the slowly deteriorating mud and grass after each pass all morning, yet the playing surface did not budge. It was well drained and supported the antics of one hundred French Canadian clowns as they put on their show. All of the wireless RF microphones and all twenty-five of the wireless RF in ear monitors worked. Pressed against wet flesh…that is a chore. As I looked around standing at the edge of the stage something caught my attention. I stared at the ATK audio carts loaded with JBL VerTec speakers and, as always, was stunned at how hard they work pumping full range audio far up into the highest seats to the listener. Only this time I watched beads of water dance around the upward facing components to the thumping Cirque music. Dance around and then ultimately fall and flow into the compression driver. “Hmmnn, that can’t be good.” But, the show must go on, and it did. The PA was unaffected during the game…days after…different story. Billy Joel performed our National Anthem, not without some technical difficulties due to water, well, I have to be honest here, in all of the rainy mess of staging that piano in the middle of the field I personally did not plug in Billy’s vocal monitors. There, I said it. I thought he still sang like Billy Joel, with a lot of emotion and clear control of his vocal style. I apologized to him personally afterwards and he said, smiling, “Don’t worry about it.” I did. The first half of the game commenced as all of the ATK troops and volunteers pushed speaker carts to the storage spots on the sideline, detached monitor speaker cables from stage pieces and coiled three hundred foot speaker mult cables to the sideline and out of the way. All thirty plus wireless intercoms were turned off and given back to John Arenas, who is in charge of all wired and wireless communications for ATK Versacom. We all hoofed back to the ATK compound in the rain to sit, reflect and further contemplate, “Do you think they’ll cancel halftime?”

At the two minute warning signaling the end of the first half the halftime stage, in all its enormity, stood lined up ready to roll, consuming all available space in the three hundred feet from the production compound to the end of the field tunnel. Each piece has eight large pneumatic tires that individually spin, a steering mechanism, weighs anywhere from one thousand to three thousand pounds depending what is loaded on it, stands up to eight feet high and requires ten people to move. There are twenty five pieces to a typical halftime show. Each piece was wired with monitor speaker cables that interconnect to each piece as well as signal cable for live inputs. In this year’s Super Bowl Halftime extravaganza, those live inputs would happen to be guitar microphones for the one and only Prince. The artist formerly known as, who is now again known as…Prince…delivered an incredible show that was perfectly aided by special effects courtesy of Mother Nature, who thought in her divine wisdom that while Prince blazed through his set ultimately ending with a shredding guitar solo at the end of Purple Rain…it should rain! And it did. I still do not know how those dancers in those stiletto heels did not fall flat…well, you know. Nothing bad happened. All of the RF, the custom chrome Sennheiser microphone, the in ear monitors, the guitar wireless, it all worked in the rain. Some wondered openly in various internet discussion groups days after the game how nobody got shocked by all of the wireless equipment in the rain. Well, they have these things called batteries…low voltage…no wire needed…ahhhhh, forget it. What a great show, in the rain, on a field that I still cannot believe withstood all of that abuse! Again, all of the high powered, highly mobile, custom ATK speaker carts were covered and parked on the sidelines directed by the team of Geep Parker, Bryan Kiger, Dave Caldwell and Robert Brogden. All of the thousands upon thousands of feet of cable were recoiled to the sidelines in their “figure-eight” formation, which everyone knows is the only way to guarantee rapid deployment. The volunteers that live for this moment and donate their time to be a part of this whole event had done well. Then the gratifying look around the field as the second half of football begins. What an absolute onslaught of entertainment. What does that look like to someone in the stands? A four minute setup of a giant stage, eighteen speaker carts with five cabinets each (90 speakers), twenty stage monitor speakers, miles of cable, hundreds of wireless frequencies, transformered splits going to music mixers in trucks and eventually broadcast around the world and…BAM!...a concert for eleven minutes and then more football. That is why we are all here, right? You got that memo, correct? This is a FOOTBALL game!

Back in the compound a collective sigh of relief. The end of a successful halftime always makes an audio guy elated and gratified. All the months of planning and weeks of installation are substantiated in that eleven minute show. It takes a lot to get there and just a moment to execute. But, when it is executed properly and you hear the roar of the crowd being genuinely entertained…you are…happy. I share a smile with Pat Baltzell, system designer and live entertainment PA mixer, and without words we mutually laugh at the show that just happened. It was a great one. There was only one more mission to accomplish for the game to be complete.

Remember that microphone check for the commissioner? Well, the time had finally come to get on with it. The main monkey business, as it were. The Colts had finally pulled off what was escaping them the last few seasons with a Super Bowl win. They beat Chicago in a very definitive way. So, as the final shot rang into the air signaling the end of the game, the elegantly appointed Lomabardi Trophy Presentation Stage rolled onto the field. Of miniscule size compared to the halftime stage, its importance is far greater. This stage is where grown men cry. Big footballers hug it out. This is their gratifying moment. And this is where Mike Stahl has passed off the Lomabardi microphone for every one of the last ten Super Bowls. “Check-one-two”. A confirmation from any one of four different engineers on the ATK team that are manning consoles for various mixing and mix minuses is given and then, the hand off. The commissioners voice booms clearly around the stadium as he awards the Colts. Everyone hears his words that he has been waiting to say all day. He is happy. Job well done.

There are a lot of names and jobs that the above text has not mentioned. Jobs that may be some of the most difficult. The entire crew of people needed to pull off the audio for Super Bowl is astounding. It is a collective that has grown over the years to a finely tuned machine. It is a ton of work, a lot of fun and ultimately very difficult to explain to people. I did my best. - Tom Pesa