MLB 2024: FOX Sports Steps Up to the Plate With Big Audio Plans

More player and field sound will be on tap

Chatty outfielders, assertive umpires, sound from unexpected places. Expect to hear all that and more when FOX Sports’ MLB season kicks off later this year.

“We’re continuing along the pathway we’ve been on,” says Brad Cheney, VP, field operations and engineering, FOX Sports. “We’re going to see MLB reporters onsite, expanding the coverage from that side, and continuing to push as much as we can for player mics in games. The home-plate mics, when they get augmented with the ump video, drive the entire broadcast forward. We’re excited to see all that coming back and [used more expansively] this year, which obviously drives the need for sound and clarity even higher. MLB have been great partners with us on those kinds of things.”

FOX Sports will also have games from London, where the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will meet in a two-game regular-season series June 8-9.

FOX will air MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues from Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL, on June 20, the first regular-season MLB game ever played in that state. And the All-Star Game on July 16 is on FOX from the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

The combination of video and audio on the home-plate umpire adds a dimension to the broadcasts, Cheney says. “That audio just becomes so much more important when you get video behind it in real time. It drives home the video a whole lot more by having that, the full experience.”

Conversations between outfielders and announcers are on the agenda, but Cheney says the team will be looking to include any position on the field. He notes that it has gone from an amusing novelty to a serious fan-engagement tool, offering insights into both the game and the players themselves.

“At first, it started out entertaining, but now it’s more of a learning experience for everybody,” he explains. “Whether you’re learning about that person’s last at-bat or learning about how they’re playing a certain player or a certain hitter based on the pitchers. Everything that those mics and the two-way communications have provided is intriguing stuff, we’re finding. It offers so many different ways for the fans to have this look deep into the game itself.

“We’d like to place it everywhere, if we can,” he continues. “We’ve had it on pitchers before, obviously in exhibition games and the All-Star Game, things like that. But we continue to push to find the people that are willing and have that ability to be a larger part of the game and the broadcast. It’s not limited to one group of people or positions; it’s about finding the best people to be a part of the game that way.”

Those “best people” include longtime audio supervisor/A1 Joe Carpenter and submixer Joel Groeblinghoff.

“Joe’s collaboration in finding these new and innovative ways to capture the audio and the sounds of the game is something we’re really excited about,” says Cheney. “We expect some big things this year from that group, and there’s always innovation at front. We’ll see what they come up with for June 8 and beyond. We’re continuing to push the limits.”