Live From Super Bowl LIV: Halftime Show Is All About That Bass

NFL, Roc Nation have teamed up to bring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira to the stage in Miami

The halftime show at Super Bowl LIV at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium this Sunday will mark the first collaboration between the NFL and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Performers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were chosen in part to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, but Mr. Carter’s affinity for urban-music genres will be well-represented in the show’s low-frequency energy. To get that bass across, ATK Audiotek, which is providing the augmented PA system for the halftime show for the 23rd year, is deploying an arsenal of subwoofers.

ATK is distributing the pregame and music-show sound throughout the venue, using speakers loaded on wheeled carts: 14 placed along the walls at field level hold six JBL A12 loudspeakers, and each of the 1,500-lb. carts will have a pair of JBL S28 subwoofers aboard; four more carts will each have four additional SB28’s on the field.

In addition, ATK will fly from the stadium’s roof 14 line-array clusters consisting of 10 A12’s each, with four more clusters of four speakers each in the corners and six nine-box SB28 subwoofers in cardioid configuration.

It will be the first time that none of the house PA system is used for the pregame and halftime entertainment sound. In the past, the field sound system would be connected to the house PA. This year, ATK will provide all the event sound; the house PA will be used solely for the game sound in the venue.

A Dante-based network will connect to key points in the system, such as mix consoles — a pair of DiGiCo SD5 desks for front of house — and amplifiers, using Focusrite RedNet D16R 16-channel AES3 I/O for Dante AoIP-network interfaces and A16R analog I/O interfaces, as well as MP8R eight-channel remote-controlled Dante-enabled mic preamps and A-D interfaces. ATK speaker-system designer Alex Guessard and Rolling Stones longtime FOH mixer Dave Natale, representing the artists, are collaborating to mix the live show.

“The system sounds awesome with the additional subs,” says ATK Senior Design Engineer Kirk Powell, who is serving as EIC for the event. Adding that it will be plenty loud, he says, “Representatives from all production elements involved have given us nothing but glowing reviews of the system.”