Sound for NFL’s Pro Bowl Weekend Show Will Be as Unique as the Games

Audio team benefits from fewer restrictions on sound capture

The 2024 NFL Pro Bowl Games return to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium in a multi-day (Feb. 1-4) competition format designed to build off last year’s reimagined format of skill challenges and a very miked-up flag-football game.

The multi-day AFC vs. NFC competition features new and returning skills challenges — including dodgeball, tug-of-war, and precision passing — in which 88 of the league’s top players showcase their football and other athletic skills. The event features skills competitions starting Thursday at the Nicholson Fieldhouse at the University of Central Florida and culminating in a flag-football game at Camping World Stadium on Sunday. The events will air on ESPN, ABC, Disney XD, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+.

The Monday Night Football truck, NEP EN1, houses the audio team for the Pro Bowl Games. (Photo: Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)

With so many events, athletes, and audio sources, the audio team for the coverage faces a wealth of challenges. But it will also have considerably more latitude in what it can access and air compared with a typical NFL game, for which the league maintains fairly strict control over audio from the field and sidelines.

No Off-Limits Sound

“This is one event where the NFL gives us almost complete access to use player mics live and there are no out-of-bounds areas,” says A1 Scott Pray, who will mix the events with submixer Jonathan Freed, reprising their seasonal roles on Monday Night Football aboard that show’s NEP EN1 truck. “During a normal NFL football season, we’re not allowed to open up handheld mics if they’re around the benches. All that bench sound is off limits, but here we’re free to pick up any sound anywhere.”

According to Freed, much of the sound from the field will be captured similarly to that for regular games, with parabs on the sidelines and microphones on approximately a dozen handheld cameras deployed for the production. Also, more than a dozen Q5X wireless transmitters will be worn by players and coaches: six players per side for flag football, ManningCast hosts and team coaches Eli and Peyton Manning (Eli will coach the NFC team; Peyton, the AFC) and two assistant coaches, and others for various Skills events. In addition, a batch of wireless lavs will be attached to various Skills-specific “contraptions.”

To Capture the ‘Nice Clunks’

“We place RF mics near each of the contraptions that make any noise,” Freed explains, citing such gadgets as the large square target for Kick Tac Toe and the precision-passing targets. “A couple of the apparatuses also have hardwired mics on them. They all make nice ‘clunks’ when you hit them. There will be a lot of clunks. Basically, we’re just trying to get noise from the things that make noise.”

According to Pray, there will be a standard football-type announcer booth for the flag-football game and an on-field studio set for the Skills competitions bookending the game. Each location will have a producer and a director: Brian Ryder and Jeff Evers, respectively, for flag football; Rob Adamski and Steve Zawilinski, respectively, for the Skills competitions.

Audio for all the events will be sent to the truck via a combination of Audinate Dante and Calrec Hydra networks.

Managing the Mics

While NFL players try to get footballs into places they don’t usually have to, Pray and Freed will have their own sets of challenges.

“The big challenge from a main-mix perspective,” says Pray, “is that we have a lot of talent, especially for the Pro Bowl, where we’ll have three roving reporters plus the studio set, plus our booth. Managing all of that is a bit of a challenge. We bring in two A2s from NFL Films to help us with a lot of the field stuff, like player miking.”

Adds Freed, “The biggest challenge during the live show for effects is managing the player mics: making sure the correct players are miked, tracking the ones that you see, and not tracking ones you don’t see. He adds that he’ll use the Calrec console’s onboard limiter to maintain control of the wide range of SPL from the Skills competition.

“We’re ready for it,” says Pray of what promises to be a busy and unique sports weekend. “Wish us luck.”