Mixing the US Olympic Swim Team Trials—in an NFL Stadium

Indianapolis, IN (July 9, 2024)—Swim facilities for Olympic-sized pools are known for their ultra-loud and reverberant qualities, but NFL stadiums aren’t exactly quiet places either. It’s no surprise then, that when the US Olympic Swimming Team Trials were held in mid-June inside Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis, home of the Colts football team, live sound provider Dodd Technologies had its work cut out for it.

The stadium was able to seat 30,000 spectators around a pair of two Olympic-sized pools built over the football field, so covering all those fans with sound during the event, broadcast on NBC Sports, was inevitably a challenge.

“It really is on a scale with an NFL Draft,” observes Caleb Cassler, Senior Audio Specialist with Dodd Technologies (DTI), which provided the live sound for the Olympic Swimming Team Trials. With that in mind, DTI made use of the venue’s installed JBL P.A. and additionally brought in Meyer Sound systems, resulting in a large, distributed system, with highly specific zones such as the warmup pool, first-call, athlete entrance, athlete lounge, and massage room areas and more. Each zone required its own loudspeakers and separate groups/auxes from the DiGiCo SD12-96 at the core of the audio system.

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DTI’s SD12-96 console was supported by DiGiCo SD-Racks and SD-MiNi Racks connected via an Optocore loop, as well as a DiGiCo Purple Box CAT5/MADI-to-optical convertor. Dodd also provided a second SD12-96 and a DiGiCo SD10 plus an SD-Rack for USA Swimming LIVE!, an outdoor music stage that programmed DJs, bands, and presentations all week between trials sessions.

The SD12-96 was also the hub for the live event’s comms infrastructure, managing Dodd Technologies’ Riedel Artist frames and Bolero wireless units via a DMI-DANTE64@96 card and an Optocore M12 MADI hub/switch to interface with the comm system via MADI.

“On the SD12-96, I was able to hit every flavor of audio there pretty much is and handle it easily,” says Cassler. “Anyone could throw anything at me they needed, and with the SD12, I could work with it and make it happen.”