Live From Super Bowl LVI: ATK Audio Boosts Subwoofer Complement for Hip-Hop Halftime Show

The audio will be thoroughly networked and distributed to increased destinations

Super Bowl LVI, taking place this Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, will mark an inflection point in the event’s signature halftime spectacular. It will be the first time that all the performers are hip-hop artists, reflecting the shift that has taken place over the past decade, with the genre dominating popular-music sales, charts, and culture. The headliners — Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar — will constitute what halftime sponsor Pepsi says “could be the greatest 12 minutes in music entertainment the world has ever seen.” The event may be culturally momentous, but it also has implications for the event’s live sound and audio.

In addition to 14 custom wheeled carts loaded with six JBL VTX A12 speakers and two VTX S28 subs per cart that have been used for the special halftime performances for the past two decades, there will be four more carts with four VTX S28 subwoofers each, plus four other carts carrying two Powersoft M-Force 30-in. drivers each — all deployed in an elliptical array on the field. Along with the 44 VTX 28’s in the installed venue system, SoFi is getting ready to literally rumble.

The Super Bowl’s first hip-hop Halftime Show calls for sub-heavy sound.

“We’re using quite a bit of the house system to reach the upper decks,” notes Kirk Powell, system design engineer, ATK Audiotek, which designed both the halftime cart system and SoFi’s installed sound system. “It’s a JBL VLA, and we’re using all the VLA subs in that system as well. Yeah, hip-hop means sub-heavy.”

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A late addition to the Super Bowl halftime entertainment lineup brings another dimension to its sound. According to the Detroit Free Press, deaf rapper Sean Forbes will perform alongside Eminem, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. It will be the first time the Super Bowl Halftime Show will feature ASL interpreters. Forbes and fellow deaf rapper Warren (WaWa) Snipe will perform sign-language interpretations of the headliners’ music.

Networked in the House and Across the Street

The field sound system will also be more thoroughly networked than in previous years. It will deploy RedNet interfaces to the arsenal of Powersoft K10 and X4 amplifiers powering the field PA system, using dark fiber that was part of the original system installation, whose audio elements were installed by ATK. That audio is also being more widely distributed this year, with the halftime field mix also distributed to Spanish radio and auxiliary press endpoints.

“[Media destinations] that we haven’t fed normally in the past have asked for things this year,” says Powell. “This year, we’re relying more on the installed-system fiber infrastructure than ever before, instead of running our own cables just for the event. I helped commission the system, so I know the stadium like the back of my hand.”

Another new wrinkle this year is that the audio from the halftime music will be sent across the street, via fiber, to the NFL’s new Inglewood headquarters facility, from which the mix will be sent to the NBC Sports truck in the broadcast compound. Music A1 Tom Holmes will mix the show on an SSL console from the NFL’s studios.

The live-sound mix in the venue for the halftime event, the opening ceremonies, and the Lombardi ceremony will be done by Super Bowl veterans Alex Guessard for front of house and Tom Pesa on monitors. Each will be working on two DiGiCo SD5 consoles running in mirror mode, with the second console as a failover backup, and close-monitoring over JBL VRX 928 nearfield monitors.

“Because of the style of music, the sub is so important,” says Powell. “The rest of it — vocals and all else, that’s like mixing any other artist. But, with hip-hop, you have to get up above all of the bass That’s the big difference.”

“This should’ve happened a long time ago,” opined Dr. Dre at a press conference. “Hip-hop is the biggest genre of music on the planet right now, so it’s crazy that it took all of this time for us to be recognized. I think we’re going to go on and do a fantastic show, and we’re going to do it so big that they can’t deny us any more in the future.”