JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: Viewers who tuned in to see the televised pregame entertainment from Super Bowl XXXIX, this year held at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, caught an eyeful of Sennheiser gear. From the pregame show, to celebrity introductions, to the all-star musical performances, there were Sennheiser microphones and personal monitor systems everywhere.

"The entire pregame entertainment was all Sennheiser," confirms James Stoffo, the go-to RF expert for any major sports and entertainment event in the southeast and beyond. "There were Sennheiser 3000 ears and Sennheiser EM1046 receivers and Sennheiser 5000 handhelds with Neumann heads.

     

"Stoffo, whose Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a Masque Sound company, is based in Orlando, Florida, supplied the RF microphones, receivers and antennas, while sound production company ATK AudioTek supplied the 3000 Series personal monitor systems. Every handheld comprised a Sennheiser/Neumann hybrid RF mic, which combines a Sennheiser 5000 Series wireless transmitter with Neumann's KK105 capsule.

"But the cool thing this year," reports Stoffo, "was that there was a surround sound mic with five outputs - left, right, surround left, surround right, and top - and those were on Sennheiser SK50 transmitters, zapping back to me. The guy ran around the field during pregame, the anthem and halftime, and picked up surround crowd noise, and it went out on the broadcast."

"Relying on wireless transmission for the surround mic was groundbreaking," says Stoffo. "We were only the second people to do this. The only other time that's been done on an RF link was one time in Europe. Everybody loved it and it was crystal clear.

"Regarding the proliferation of Sennheiser RF gear during the pregame entertainment segment, he continues, "It was pretty intensive. We had 24 mics lit and at least ten Sennheiser personal monitors. When Alicia Keys did her tribute to Ray Charles she had an RF link to me and back to her on Sennheiser mic and ears. She was rock solid.

     

"Keys paid tribute to Ray Charles with her rendition of "America The Beautiful," which has only been performed twice previously at the Super Bowl, the last time, in 2001, by Charles himself. She was accompanied by over 100 students from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, which Charles attended in the late 1920s while growing up in the Jacksonville area.

All the entertainment mics went into PWS combiners on the company's proprietary helical antennas. "We used Sennheiser tuned splitters fed from the helicals," he notes. "We even used Sennheiser parts for a comms splitter.

"There were over 1,000 channels of RF on the field, according to Stoffo, including all the various production and game communications systems, plus television requirements. "This year, there were so many comms that I had to have the coach comms kill there stuff when we were up, and I would kill my stuff when the game was on so the coach comms and ref mics worked. We had to literally take turns."

Bringing together country, hip-hop and funk, the pregame show also featured Gretchen Wilson, who wowed the crowd at the Country Music Awards last year when she appeared with a 1949 vintage Neumann U49. This time wielding a Sennheiser/Neumann hybrid mic, Wilson was joined by Charlie Daniels for his classic hit, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Those same mics were again out in force when Black Eyed Peas reworked "Where is the Love" for the Super Bowl with Earth Wind & Fire, who then performed one of their best-known hits, "Shining Star."



But it was the lengthy introduction and presentation by Michael Douglas that made Stoffo the most nervous, this being the nation's highest-rated TV show and the most watched single-day sports event. Not that he needed to worry. Douglas was using a Sennheiser mic. "He was out there for the longest amount of time holding an RF mic that was critical to the show with no wired backup. He was probably 150 feet away from my position at the receivers, and there was a sea of reporters between us." As an aside, he adds, "My dad handed him that mic. Out of all the performers I figured that was the only guy he'd recognize, so I gave him the mic to give to Michael Douglas!"

With the Grammy Award telecast setup days away, Stoffo and his PWS crew had some extra work to do after the Super Bowl before shipping the Sennheiser in-ear systems back to ATK in Los Angeles. "That stuff shipped str aight back to the Grammys, so I had to sit in the compound after we struck and my guys tweaked all of the frequencies to new bands to work at the show."

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AliciaK.JPG: Alicia Keys sang "America the Beautiful" through a Sennheiser wireless hybrid mic during the opening ceremonies at Super Bowl XXXIX. BlackEye.JPG: Super Bowl XXXIX performers the Black Eyed Peas and Earth Wind & Fire all used Sennheiser SKM5000N wireless transmitters with Neumann KK105S capsules. Gretchen.JPG: Gretchen Wilson opens Super Bowl XXXIX. MDouglas.JPG: Sennheiser wireless performed flawlessly for Michael Douglas' pre-show presentation although he was at least 150 feet away from the receivers.