Shure Axient Wireless Tackles Difficult NFL Work In Miami

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Jan 20, 2012 4:53 PM, By Jack Kontney

Any football air blower will discuss it you that a of the many irksome problems in football is umpire microphone failure. This situation is quite difficult Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, where dropouts and heard interference have been a fact of life for years. Determined to find a solution, the team's newly hired executive of announce operations, Bryan Lykins, incited to Shure .

In add-on to all the air wave magnitude (RF) traffic compulsory to theatre and announce an NFL diversion in a leading metro area, Sun Life Stadium is only a half-mile from the principal "antenna farm" of transmitters is to city's TV stations. The existing umpire wireless system, implemented by the NFL, simply wasn't working, so Lykins commissioned Shure UHF-R.

"That got us by the season, but we kept seeking for a improved solution," Lykins recounts. "One of our vendors, Pro-Sound here in Miami, told us about Shure Axient . When we saw its capabilities, it looked similar to the best solution."

Axient was in beta test, so Pro Sound put Lykins in hold with Shure marketplace growth manager Luis Guerra, who organised a demo. "The demo went well, but the amount of interference at the track was indeed amazing," Guerra recalls. "With that sufficient RF on the air, even a washed magnitude becomes loud and non-linear, that is because nothing else unequivocally worked reliably. We took a magnitude indicate and sent it to the Axient product team. When they saw the dare it was, they set up Sun Life as an authorized beta assessment site."

Shure Axient is written to broach clean, undeviating audio, even in the participation of send interference, for mission-critical channels. The network all the time scans the local RF mood for problems and uses magnitude farrago to keep a second washed duct available. When a complaint is detected, Axient uses a well-defined information duct to seamlessly change receiver channels before any complaint becomes audible. This may be completed possibly automatically or around handbook alert.

Another change implemented by Guerra previous to using Axient during a diversion was revamping the stadium's antenna system.

"The aged considered in wireless was to use bigger, more absolute antennas," he notes. "But that obviously amplifies the sound building and interference along with the signal. The Axient network is so absolute and the filtering is so correct that we got the best results with pacifist omni antennas. You can travel the whole field, even in to the hovel at the far end, and still have best reception."

The designation at Sun Life Stadium includes 4 Axient channels - two bodypack systems is to referee, and a span of handhelds that are used is to pregame national anthem and halftime entertainment. Pro-Sound moreover built an on/off toggle switch to tie in the pattern the referees are in the habit of to. In add-on to the antenna system, there are 4 access points for Axient's backchannel information manage network - 3 decorated around the field, and other outward the referees' room. The initial live announce with the network was at the Dolphins' final preseason game, Sept. 1, 2011, against the Dallas Cowboys.

"The initial diversion was a complete success," states Bryan Lykins. "The sound high quality was glorious and, is to initial time in years, there were no dropouts on the referee's mic. In fact, we right away got a call from the NFL magnitude coordinator in Tampa. He beheld we had something not similar and longed for to know all about it."

For NFL broadcasts, the joining has a magnitude coordinator in any town who assigns the indispensable channels, minimizing the luck of intermodulation. Bryan Lykins simply requests a list of 8 frequencies is to referee's microphone and thatch them in to Axient.

"If Axient finds a problem, we only return to the coordinator and inquire to barter those frequencies out," Lykins states. "The great thing is that the system's Spectrum Manager can even suggest that ones are best. The league's diversion day coordinator unequivocally appreciates that, because it helps him, too. We compare records and collect the frequencies that pass both our systems. That list gets sealed in to the Axient network and we're great to go."

Another value of Axient is its aptitude to guard and manage all vicious aspects of the system, inclusive receiver outlay power and outstanding life of the rechargeable battery.

"I admire the fact that we have regular access to the outstanding battery life in any unit," records Lykins. "If I'm running low toward the finish of the game, we can lower the transmit power of a beltpack remotely to save battery. It gives me a larger turn of confidence, knowing precisely where we mount instead of only guessing."

Axient ran at Sun Life Stadium throughout the 2011 NFL season, together with during University of Miami home games, that are moreover played in the facility. For an additional covering of redundancy, the referees wore two leather belt packs fed by a singular Shure WL184 unidirectional lavalier microphone and activated by the toggle switch. Reactions from broadcasters and referees have been zodiacally positive.

For Bryan Lykins, it's all about results.