ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand, supplied live audio reinforcement and a stadium-wide communications network to the Super Bowl LIX, hosted at the 83,000-capacity Caesar's Superdome in New Orleans on February 9.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles took center stage for the nail-biting NFL action, which saw the Eagles reign supreme in a sports battle that was accompanied by Clair Global touring client, Kendrick Lamar's stellar Halftime Show.
ATK has worked across a staggering 27 Super Bowl games in a row, ensuring the event - produced by Roc Nation and DPS (Diversified Production Services) - is executed with unmatched technical prowess.
This year, almost 130 million broadcast viewers tuned in as ATK devised the in-bowl audio, pre-game, Halftime, and in-game stadium sound, alongside the vital site-wide comms. The scope also extended to distributing audio signals for key television partners, including the NFL Network.
ATK's intimate knowledge of delivering this event allowed NFL fans to hear the venue roar from every seat, and for hip-hop heavyweight Lamar, and collaborator SZA, to perform with headline concert audio assurance.
ATK’s Engineer in Charge (EIC), Kirk Powell, says: “When we design & supply a Super Bowl system, we need to deliver audio for the entire venue, 360-degrees of clarity, which in this case included spoken word segments from actor, Samuel L. Jackson. However, we are very limited with what we can do and where we can place reinforcement in the stadium due to sight lines, so although it is challenging, over the years we've been able to hone our skills and make a live sports and music experience that people will not only enjoy but remember.”
"ATK are entrenched in this gig, but New Orleans was only my third Super Bowl” says Systems Engineer and Designer, Johnny Keirle. “Each year has been a unique challenge, with more external entities than I'm used to – notably the importance of the broadcast. The biggest difference is that we’re designing for two very different audio needs at once; the sports announcer / broadcast side, where every call and announcement must be intelligible across a massive space, and the entertainment side, where we need full-range impact and musicality for the Halftime Show and pre-game performances.
“The Superdome presents significant acoustic challenges, making it crucial to control coverage and minimize reflections. Additionally, the event’s trim height restrictions require careful speaker placement to maintain SPL and consistent frequency response while accounting for the physics-related factors that come with a system flown at that height.”
In total, there were 16 full-range K2 hangs, 12 of which included K1SB: eight hangs utilizing K1SB as a closely coupled subwoofer, and four hangs utilizing K1SB as a line source extension for management of low-frequency directivity. Eight additional hangs of 8 x KS28 subwoofers - an increase in sub-low enclosures from the previous two Super Bowls. The full deployment included a staggering 200 x K2 speakers, 48 x K1SB, 64 x KS28, 124 x LA12X, 2 x P1 processors and 2 x LC16D audio convertors.
The system was powered by LA12X amplified controllers and run on AVB-Milan for the first time, which Johnny describes as an "exciting advancement."
All design work was undertaken in Soundvision, with advance CAD work on the side.
Johnny continues: "As with all my projects, I spend a lot of time working in Soundvision and really trust the software when making design decisions. All system management / optimization was done in Network Manager, and Smaart for the deeper acoustics analysis, particularly room reflections for referee mic equalization.
“Bringing in my usual PA team from the EU was essential to ensuring a smooth setup and management throughout rehearsals and gameday. Having Gui Burguez, Juan Beilin, Claus Köpplin Orrán, and even Clair Global Operations Coordinator Rob Gurton working alongside the core ATK team, made the entire PA deployment and management process seamless. This was particularly crucial with flown amp platforms housing all amplification, signal and power: we needed experienced team members who were comfortable working at height and ready to climb whenever necessary during the event.”
DiGiCo consoles provided mixing stability for the entertainment portion, while Yamaha was chosen for game feeds, totaling 5 x live mix positions. The event has its own outside broadcast trucks. “They receive signals from us and also send signals to us, so there's a lot of back and forth between our parties to get a seamless production for the global TV coverage,” adds Kirk. "The Super Bowl requires such a large array of audio sources, and guaranteeing they are routed accurately to their respective destinations is another challenge. To handle this, we use Focusrite RedNet components for seamless connectivity as we work through the demands of the event.”
ATK’s communications delivery, led by ATK Versacom, was overseen by Matt Campisi, who comments: “This year was an especially testing event as we took on all aspects of communication deployment; we not only supplied intercom systems for the Halftime Show and NFL Broadcast Executives, but to the Stadium Control, production company Van Wagner and the Production Club. “We also integrated several other entities such as the Halftime TV truck and the network TV trucks, NFL Films and to the tailgate entertainment concert, which takes place outside the venue.”
ATK supplied several Riedel frames with integration to Caesars Superdome, 2 x Riedel 1024 frames and Riedel Legacy frames were deployed in one large ring to make up a huge intercom system. Along with the utilization of the stadium infrastructure and a matrix smart panel, ATK brought in an additional 125 smart panels for all positions during both the football game and the Halftime Show.
Matt’s team worked closely with Riedel Communications: “We supplied 140 x Bolero wireless belt packs; wireless is the most challenging aspect of this setup, as it’s critical to most of the 250+ end users. Additionally, Riedel Communications provided extended frequency channels that were applied to our system,” he explains. “The stadium dome can cause reflections which creates multipath issues, and Riedel supplied us with special directional antennas to adequately combat this issue.”
The 2026 Super Bowl will take place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Ca, on February 9th.
