• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Doing gigs for major league sports?

S

spinjector

Hey all,

Has any out there done engineering gigs for major league sports, such as NFL, NHL, or MLB...?

I have an opportunity to do some games for a major team and I need some advice.

Thanks.
 
I did a one-time gig for Coast to Coast once.

The main thing to keep in mind is that this is the big league. A lot of the posters on this forum would not be up to the task. Some required attributes are:

1) Professionalism - getting there there early with all equipment pre-tested. Not a complete slob, being respectful of the people there no matter how silly they act, etc.

2) Flexibility - Ability to deal with last minute changes without panic. This also involves extra equipment to allow such flexibility.

3) Prepared. You will need to do your homework upfront and learn all you can about each venue. You should have primary, secondary and even tertiary plans for every aspect of the equipment. You should have basic tools and a fully charged phone. This goes hand in hand with 1 and 2, above.

4) Ability to think on your feet. When your tertiary plan fails you will need to devise a quaternary plan using bits and pieces of your previous plans. You won't be able to come to a forum to get advice on game day, you will need to be able to depend on yourself.

Best of luck
 
Another thing to consider is who will be paying you - will you be employed by the team, the flagship station or as an independent contractor?

If it's the first two, then the equipment needs should be taken care of. If it's the last option (as it is in many cases these days) you may need to invest considerably in your own gear as you could be expected to provide it. And as the Checker noted above - you'll need backups to backup your backups. It may not be worth it financially if you're just doing a gig here and there.
 
I haven't seen the ref mic on 5 way binding posts...Some locker room circuits appear on both binding posts and modular jacks. The feed to HTN/IDB is normally on a binding post with a 1/4" jack for receive...

Testing123
 
Ran into binding posts at the U of Washington. Was informed they were left over from when the NFL used the stadium for a season. Our on-site tech cut a couple XLR cables up to make it work. He dad never seen what I called bannana plugs.
 
The large stadiums that I've been to had XLR's for ref and crowd, but I didn't look for other connections. I don't do major sports, just high school games -- in my case, playoffs or tournament events were using these venues.

Some of the local high schools have taken to using ref mics. If I go to one of those places, I can usually get a patch from their PA system to pick up the ref. Of course, the last time I bothered to do that they apparently forgot to put fresh batteries in the transmitter and we gave up on using that input since the ref kept cutting in and out.
 
The first college football game I did, the stadium had XLR's for ref and crowd, and a RJ45 jack for the two pairs to the locker room. I wasn't expecting this, but I had a CAT5 patch cord in my kit and soldered up an adapter pretty quick. I usually have a extra case in the car with enough odds and ends to build stuff on the fly, an assortment of fuses, AC plugs, wire, etc. You just never know...
 
grich said:
...and if you have wireless gear, it's not a bad idea to do some frequency coordination in advance.
Click to expand...

Great point. We have two wireless frequencies involved, one for the sideline guy's mic and one for his cueback (actually uses a musician's wireless monitor system). I always ask about frequencies whenever we go on the road. What's funny is that most of the time the response I get is something along the lines of "Oh, I never thought about that."
 
In the NFL frequency coordination is mandatory. If you are found to have un-coordinated RF gear you stand a chance of being escorted from the stadium. The league started mandatory coordination not long after the implementation of the wireless 'Coachcom' system.

Not a bad idea to at least do a little research anywhere you go...Many years ago I did a college football playoff game in Boise, ID. Give you an idea how long ago it was, we had 4 wire Switched 56 installed in Boise and 2 wire Switched 56 at the studio. First time we tried something other than a 2 line Comrex...We couldn't get it to stay connected...Anyways...I was using HME Wireless Mics. I had two sideline guys and 2 parabolic mics. Two of the mics were in TV channel 7. I never thought to check what channels the TV stations were on. Needless to say the channel 7 mics didn't work. Boss was a little upset he traveled those parab operators from the East coast to sit and watch the game...

t123
 
NFL freq coordination is far better than the mess for college sports.
We had to do a radius search from the venue for UHF TV stations and pick some likely frequency ranges. When they got there they’d set up early and scan with the Lectrosonics wireless mic receiver (has a neat little spectrum display that saved us many times). Then “camp out” on some frequencies. A little before game time scan again for interference.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom