American Gladiators utilizes Sennheiser mics

Season
two of American Gladiators which returned to the air in mid-May on NBC, is filmed at
the Los Angeles Sports Arena using Sennheiser equipment including MKH 8040 Series wired microphones, SKM 5200 wireless handheld mics and the
company’s A 5000 CP circularly polarized antennas.

American Gladiators acquired two dozen of Sennheiser’s new compact MKH 8040
Series microphones in time for the latest season of the series. The show’s
audio designer Chris Olson of Video Equipment Rentals says, “We used the
MKH 8040s as crowd and effects mics. The mics were mainly stand-mounted and
used primarily to capture the sounds of the amateur athletes and professional
gladiators competing against each other on the various courses such as the
Gauntlet, Powerball, and The Wall.”

“In some instances the mics were hanging from the ceiling,” says
Olson. “They were spectacular in that application, too. As they offer a
flat response over a wide dynamic range, the MKH 8040s are useful in a variety
of different situations.”

According to Olson on the wireless side, they used four SKM 5200 RF handheld
transmitters with Neumann KK 105-S heads. Those microphones were used by
regular show hosts Laila Ali and Hulk Hogan and contestants. “We
were using the A 5000 CP circularly polarized antenna for communications, on
the receive side, and we were also using them for the receives on our wireless
mics.”