The Fox Sports Radio Spread at Radio Row
The author is VP of engineering at iHeartMedia Denver.
Our week of Super Bowl Radio Row broadcasts for KOA(AM), KRFX(FM) and KDSP(AM)/Denver Sports 760 have for the most part been flawless so far. It seems as if our extensive planning has paid off and we have been able to accommodate most anything that our hosts have thrown our way.
The 2 a.m. wake up calls each morning have left us exhausted as we build up to the big game this Sunday. As the week has progressed for the Radio Row venue in the massive convention center we found our biggest battle to be audio quality issues.
The Remote Operation Screen for the PreSonus StudioLive RM16AI Mixer
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Mackie CFX12 Mixer
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We were thankful for the many features found in the PreSonus StudioLive RM16AI mixer. This unit provided to us the opportunity to streamline the production element in our extremely busy KOA booth. The mixer is essentially a control room in a box. All mixer functions, signal routing, as well as processing, gave us the ability make necessary changes on the fly with the different guests that brought a variety of voice projections, not to mention room loudness that increased throughout the day.
Broadcast Booth Patch Panel
On Thursday we were able to break away for a few hours and deliver some of our game day broadcast equipment to Levi’s Stadium. We’ve been to the stadium a couple of times over the past two years and their broadcast infrastructure is one of the finest in the league.
Getting into the stadium, however, proved to be our biggest challenge. Security was as tight as I have ever seen it. It took just over two hours to get from the outside perimeter of the stadium to the loading dock. Three separate background checks for everyone in our SUV, which we were using to transport our equipment.
Additionally, we had to exit to a secured area to allow the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) to X-ray our entire vehicle. Once complete and we were given the all-clear we continued to the loading dock behind the military Humvee escort. Once in the stadium we stopped by to visit the Game Day Coordinators desk to check our wireless gear then we were off to set up our game day broadcast booth.
The complication that troubled us for this game was the fact that we will be broadcasting from the visitor’s radio booth yet the Broncos are occupying the home locker room. Connectivity between the two did not exist. A big thanks to San Francisco 49ers radio engineer Mike Baird who provided some behind-the-scenes patching for us in advance, allowing us to get locker room audio up to our broadcast booth in the press area.
We were able to set up as much equipment as possible with the thought of coming back on Saturday with the rest of equipment that would free up after our Radio Row broadcasts came to an end.
Related:
How iHeartMedia’s Denver Tech Team Prepped for Super Bowl
Denver iHeartRadio team member Erik Hood sets up broadcast equipment.
Very Important People — frequency coordinators make sure everyone and everything has an RF space at Radio Row and for the Super Bowl.
