SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—As the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots faced off Feb. 8, Sennheiser wireless solutions played a pivotal role in delivering pristine live audio throughout the Super Bowl LX broadcast.
Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” during the pre-game show marked the debut of a prototype Spectera SKM handheld, while the Apple Music Halftime Show brought memorable guest performances on the proven Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless system by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Spectera is a wideband, bidirectional digital wireless ecosystem that enables simultaneous audio transmission, system control and monitoring within a single RF channel. It allows up to 64 channels (32 in/32 out) of simultaneous audio transmission, monitoring and control within a single rack unit, significantly reducing RF complexity and improving stability.
Carlile’s performance featured a custom gold Spectera SKM handheld prototype and Neumann KK 205 microphone capsule, operating at 1 millisecond (ms) latency with 96 kHz audio resolution. The Spectera system’s ultra-low latency and high-definition signal path ensured exceptional vocal clarity and immediacy across the stadium and broadcast feed.
The star-studded halftime show, led by Bad Bunny, featured guest performances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, each using custom-finished Sennheiser Digital 6000 handheld transmitters—white for Gaga and silver for Martin. Their wireless microphones delivered consistency, transparency and reliability.
Across the event, seven Sennheiser wireless microphones and nine stereo in-ear systems operated using just 6 MHz of RF spectrum, highlighting the spectral efficiency of the Spectera and Digital 6000 solutions in one of live audio’s most congested RF environments.
“The clarity and stability were what stood out right away,” said Jerry Streeter, monitor engineer for Carlile. “There is no audible compression, the top end stays smooth on wedges, and the in-ears sound incredibly open. From an RF perspective, getting all that performance on a single TV channel is a game changer.”
The path to the Spectera handheld transmitter’s Super Bowl LX debut began last year, when lead RF coordinator Cameron Stuckey collaborated with Sennheiser on the ambitious New York theater production “Masquerade,” where early Spectera in-ear monitoring systems demonstrated reliable, high-channel-count wireless performance in an exceptionally challenging RF environment. When Stuckey was later named lead RF coordinator for Super Bowl LX, that experience sparked discussions about whether Spectera could meet the technical demands of the event.
“That project [“Masquerade,”] required high-density, bidirectional wireless in a complex structure environment, utilizing every feature of Spectera – device capacity, multi-zone operation, modulation diversity,” said Stuckey. “It was the best demonstration of the system’s stability. Knowing the Sennheiser team was as committed to perfection as I was meant it was ready for any production.”
A key factor in bringing the Spectera handheld to the Super Bowl was the support of Sean Quackenbush, Carlile’s longtime front of house engineer, and her monitor engineer, Jerry Streeter, who have relied on Sennheiser and Neumann vocal solutions for years.
In preparation for the pre-game show, Quackenbush evaluated the Spectera handheld transmitter prototype alongside his preferred Neumann KK 205 capsule and recognized the system’s sonic advantages.
“As a front-of-house engineer, the biggest thing for me is when I don’t have to work on a vocal mic to make it sound right,” said Quackenbush. “With Spectera, what I heard right away was how musical it was. The proximity effect felt natural, not exaggerated, and for the first time with a wireless handheld you’re really hearing the Neumann capsule itself. It has that German studio quality you expect in a controlled environment, but we were hearing it live, wirelessly, in a stadium. Once we heard that immediacy and clarity, it was hard to imagine going back.”
In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, Stuckey and Quackenbush worked closely with Sennheiser to prepare a custom prototype Spectera handheld transmitter for the broadcast.
To ensure seamless coverage through rehearsals and the live broadcast, the production team deployed three Sennheiser DAD antennas covering the stadium bowl, with an additional DAD antenna supporting backstage and preparation areas.
“Spectera allows us to deploy antenna systems in a fraction of the time that coax-based narrowband systems require to get right,” said Stuckey. “Instead of compensating for lossy links or RF-Over-Fiber conversion artifacts, we define the coverage area, place the DAD antennas and plug it in. Spectrum selection is the challenge of large events like Super Bowl. Having such a wide tuning range and access to 1G4 spectrum means that Spectera can be used on any show, regardless of size. You’ll see it on TV again soon.”
