DALLAS—Being selected to host nine 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, including a semifinal, was a great honor for AT&T Stadium and a tribute to the work of our entire team. From an audio perspective, the project brought our in-stadium production together with an international broadcast operation requiring several new signal combinations and delivery paths.

Our main audio control room is built around a 48-fader Solid State Logic System T S500m surface. It is the central point for audio distributed throughout the venue and for the feeds we exchange with broadcasters.

Game-Day Planning
We began meeting more than a year before the tournament and as plans developed, we learned that a central hub would connect the stadium’s audio, video and communications systems to the International Broadcast Center in downtown Dallas and the international broadcast truck at the stadium.

The show content was not radically different from a Cowboys game, where we regularly manage dozens of inputs routed to around 30 auxiliaries and patchable outputs, together with several stage submixes.

For the World Cup, the principal difference was how that content needed to be packaged and distributed. We had to send our show audio to both the IBC and the international broadcast truck, while continuing to supply feeds to the stadium PA and back-of-house areas. Our production partners at Media West provided audio support for the entertainment stage and sent their mixes back to me.

Broadcast requirements called for several distinct mixes and delivery paths. Music, video playback and entertainment content were supplied in stereo, while commentator and host microphones required a separate mono mix-minus. Later in the planning process, we received an additional request for crowd microphones and introduced a separate submix position in an adjacent control room, where the operator managed a combination of sources that changed during each match.

The main change to our System T game-day showfile was adapting the existing routing for the new broadcast workflows. We expanded the routing and monitoring setup to support the additional feed requirements, while keeping our control-room operation intact.

System T allowed us to make these additions without affecting our established stadium workflow. Its routing and I/O options gave me the flexibility to add sources, build new submixes and position the additional playback channels where I needed them, all on top of our typical configuration.

Touch and Done
During each match, the S500m remained at the center of the production, with a remote System T TCA and fader tile allowing an operator in the bowl to adjust EQ and levels as crowd conditions changed. Our bowl mix was embedded into the video feed returning to the IBC. The music mix and the mix-minus for commentator and host microphones were sent separately, while our crowd microphones were routed through another video stream with embedded audio.

I received the international broadcast audio feed and routed it to our back-of-house submixer. My mix and a return submix from the IBC, which needed adjustments during the match, were then sent to another control room. From there, a further submix was created and returned to both the IBC and the international broadcast truck.

The stadium’s Dante infrastructure continued to carry signals between our Shure wireless microphone receivers and System T, while connections to the World Cup broadcast operation were made through the IBC hub in our broadcast rack room.

Redundant System T engines provided confidence for both our team and FIFA’s technical team. At source level, I used the console’s A/B inputs for the primary and backup music playback, making either source immediately available while preserving my normal layout.

Delivering nine matches required preparation, coordination and an ability to adapt our established operation as broadcast requirements evolved. System T gave us that flexibility. When a technical manager requested another source in a submix during one match, it was simply a case of “touch, touch, touch…done.”

More information is available on Solid State Logic’s website.

With the Major League Baseball season still in its first month, CNBC has issued its first ever list of the most valuable MLB franchises, with the New York Yankees topping the list at $8 billion, followed by the L.A. Dodgers who are valued at $5.6 billion.

The valuations were calculated by sports valuation expert and CNBC’s senior sports reporter Michael Ozanian. After adjusting for revenue sharing, he noted in an article that “the Yankees posted an MLB-high $705 million in revenue during the 2024 season.”

The Dodgers, who are the reigning World Series champions, generated $701 in revenue, according to CNBC’s calculations. The Yankees and the Dodgers were the only two teams to rack up more than $600 million in revenue according to CNBC.

Ozanian also reported that the Yankees, valued as the MLB’s most valuable team at $8 billion, were the third most valuable sports franchise in the U.S., trailing the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys (worth $11 billion) and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors ($9.4 billion). The NFL’s L.A. Rams were also valued at $8 billion.

While the MLB teams had eye-watering valuations, Ozanian also reported that the “MLB has been facing revenue headwinds from the decline of the regional sports network model and concerns about national TV rights, particularly since February, when ESPN announced it would opt out of its agreement with MLB after this season. A lack of a salary cap in the league has also hurt the bottom line. The NBA, NFL and NHL, all of which have salary caps, boast margins for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of about 20%. In contrast, MLB, which does not have a salary cap, has an EBITDA margin of 5%, according to CNBC’s calculations.”

The full rankings along with details of each team can be found here.

The full CNBC clip of Ozanian discussing the rankings can be viewed here.

STAMFORD, Conn.—The San Francisco 49ers’ 30-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 27 ranked as NBC’s most-watched Week 8 “Sunday Night Football” game on record, averaging 23.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms and NFL Digital platforms, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

NBC Sports’ audience peaked at 26.4 million viewers in the second quarter (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET).

Viewership of Cowboys-49ers outpaced last year’s Week 8 game by 43% (16.7 million for Chicago Bears-Los Angeles Chargers).

NBC Sports also reported that “Sunday Night Football” is averaging 22.4 million viewers across all platforms—the series’ best average audience through Week 8 since 2015.

BRISTOL, Conn.—NFL football continues to attract large audiences with ESPN reporting that viewing for the season to date through six weeks is up 6% (averaging more than 15 million viewers) and that the week 6 audience for the Dallas Cowboys at Los Angles Chargers on October 16 was the fifth most popular MNF game ever, garnered more than 19.7 million viewers (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+). 

It was also easily the most-watched ESPN MNF Week 6 game, surpassing the Bears-Cardinals in 2006 (14.2 million viewers). The Cowboys-Chargers was up 63% from last year’s week 6 game (Broncos-Chargers).

ESPN reported that the audience peaked at 21.8 million in the fourth quarter (11 – 11:15 p.m.). Monday Night Football was also the most-watched telecast of the night overall and across all key demos. 

Audience levels for the five previous weeks were: 

• Week 1: 22.6 million viewers, ESPN’s most-watched Monday Night Football game
• Week 2 and 3: More than 21.7 million viewers during each of the two hours of overlapping action of two games (8:15 – 10:15 p.m. ET)
• Week 4: 16.6 million viewers, the most-watched Week 4 MNF game in 14 seasons
• Week 5: 17.4 million viewers, the most-watched Week 5 MNF game in the ESPN era

DALLAS—KXAS, the NBC station for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, issued an apology for it failing to immediately interrupt the broadcast of Sunday Night Football between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles with a Tornado Warning.

After meteorologists issued a Tornado Warning for Dallas County on Oct. 20, KXAS delayed interrupting the game for six minutes.

“When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter,” the station said in its statement. “We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we’re doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again.”

KSAX meteorologists were livestreaming weather coverage on its website throughout the evening and alerted the football audience to the livestream throughout the game, the station said.

However, that did not stop criticism from some.

The tornado ultimately impacted more than 17 miles across the Dallas County area, destroying homes and businesses, with three people hospitalized but no reports of fatalities.

CHESHIRE, CONN.—The stars are night are reportedly big and bright in Texas, and few shine brighter than the star of the Dallas Cowboys. Now, the NFL team has a brand new broadcast studio courtesy of Creative Dimensions to emphasize that.

The Connecticut-based company was tasked with building a new broadcast studio for the Cowboys’ Star facility in Frisco, Texas, which serves as a basis of operation for much of the organization. The studio was completed back in late October.

Creative Dimensions is a provider of permanent and traveling broadcast set options.