Delivering the Super Bowl Experience

New Orleans, LA (February 7, 2025)—Ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9, Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports audio consultant/sr. audio, talks about creating a dynamic fan experience. The following are highlights from a conversation between McCombs and Calrec:

Can you tell us about your background, Jamie, and how you started in the industry?

It all started about 39 years ago, when I was in high school. I was given the opportunity to run the parabolic microphones on the sideline for NFL games… I moved through the ranks from an A2, setting things up on the field, to an A1 where I started mixing shows for Fox. I mixed NFL and then moved over to college sports for 10 years when they started covering college football. Then I came back about four years ago to mix the NFL games for Fox Sports.

Tell us about your audio setup.

The Super Bowl is a hybrid IP setup this year; we have three Calrec Apollo consoles in Encore, PrimeOne and Varsity Game Creek trucks and four Calrec Artemis consoles across Encore, PrimeOne, Edit 4 and FSJE in the compound. All Calrec consoles are interconnected with ImPulse cores or Hydra2 cores via AoIP Gateways, and some via MADI streams. Encore, which is being used to mix the game and PrimeOne, which is being used to mix studio shows, both use Calrec Apollo and Artemis consoles and are connected to the AoIP network, and Hydra2 network via Gateways and MADI streams. The Artemis consoles in the Edit 4 truck do all the early shows from Bourbon Street. Our studio show, called ‘Purple Carpet,’ where all the celebrities come in, is mixed on a Calrec Apollo in Game Creek’s Varsity truck and Fox Sports FSJE truck uses a Calrec Artemis to operate tape release.

How many audio channels are you managing?

In the field, just the microphones to capture the event. I think we have upwards of 50 microphones to hear everything that could possibly happen in the locker room and hallway areas, and the field of play. For our show, we have three talent including two roving talent on the field… We mic the goal posts, so you can hear when the ball hits and we always use several crowd mics to capture the experience and the family action. We really like to emphasize those things… You want it big and expansive, so we put out quite a few crowd mics around the stadium to capture its vast size. You can kind of hear the space and feel how big the stadium is, it sounds really good.

How do you approach the mix?

It’s a fine balance because you want the fan reaction but we’re truly here to capture the sounds of the game. Viewers really want to hear the quarterback cadence, the snap of the ball, the impact when a really big tackle happens. You’re hoping everybody at home is saying “Oh, wow.” That’s when you really know you’ve captured something. It’s a fine balance, you hear the crowd and the fans, but you really want to capture the sounds of the game because that’s what gets people excited.