CP Overcomes Crowded RF Landscape for ESPN’s NFL Draft Coverage

The NFL Draft, held at Radio City Music Hall presents many challenges for ESPN, not the least of which is the RF spectrum and coverage needed.

“We always look to engineer RF and Fiber systems for our clients based on their needs. You could say we are like the scouts making suggestions.” says CP Communications SVP Kurt Heitmann.  “We listen to what the client needs, what type of coverage they are looking for, and then we make suggestions, or in other words we “pick” the technology and the manufactures.

“For this year’s draft we chose Link Research technology in the 7 Gig band for the 2 RF cameras needed. Link Research is always our first choice for entertainment scenarios,” says Heitmann.

CP provided inside and outside coverage for one of the Stedi-cam camera systems using proprietary RF over fiber technology, and inside coverage for another Stedi-cam system. The 7GB system allows CP to stay away from the crowded 2GB spectrum.

For the RF mics CP chose Sennheiser skm5200 HH mics and sk250 body packs with Lectrosonic IFB systems.

“ESPN is very demanding just like the owner of a team would be so you must make the right choices. There are no excuses, says Heitmann. “Sennheiser is a player that you can always rely on.  Lectrosonics IFB systems are very robust and the talent is comfortable with the technology.  All systems did a great job and they just sounded great. All in all it was a very successful show and we picked the right players.”