Behind the Sound of the Savannah Bananas’ Banana Bowl 

Key Takeaways 

• Shure Axient® Digital was a key part of the deployment of more than 132 wireless channels in Washington, DC’s congested RF environment, with Wireless Workbench® simplifying equipment deployment and control.
• Axient Digital PSM delivered 16 stereo monitoring channels across four WMAS RF carriers while improving broadcast IFB organization and management by leveraging WMAS digital wideband operating modes.
• Three DCA901 Broadcast Microphone Arrays captured game effects and spontaneous player reactions while reducing the number of individual effects microphones required around the field and allowing for quick remote adjustment of the pickup patterns.
• High-density ANX4 receivers and Dante™ networking help the Savannah Bananas travel during the regular season with smaller, more efficient systems as they expanded to three simultaneous regular season shows. 

Bringing the Banana Bowl to Life

The Savannah Bananas have built their brand around doing the unexpected. Their shows combine competitive baseball with live music, elaborate performances, and spontaneous moments that make every game different.

At the inaugural Banana Bowl at Nationals Park, that ambition reached another level. John Cena delivered the game ball, the Jonas Brothers performed, and the entertainment culminated in a finale involving approximately 400 dancers and special guest performers.

For the engineers behind the production, the challenge was making sure the audio could keep up. The Savannah Bananas want the freedom to keep their audience surprised. Their engineers need technology they can trust to deliver those moments.

For Matthew Webster, Head of Technology for the Savannah Bananas, the goal extends beyond recreating the atmosphere inside the stadium.

“Our job is to try and deliver an experience better to people watching at home than the people in the venue.” 

Managing 132+ Wireless Channels in Washington, DC

Coordinating the Banana Bowl’s wireless systems requires careful planning, particularly in Washington, DC, where UHF television activity leaves limited spectrum available for large productions.

Jim Dugan of Jetwave Wireless served as the event’s RF coordinator. He estimated the team could have as few as four or five available DTV channels in Washington, DC (about 20 to 24 MHz of spectrum) for a substantial portion of the wireless deployment.

Jim approached the deployment by dividing the systems into groups and managing RF energy distribution throughout the venue. That meant accounting for transmitter power, antenna distances, signal-to-noise relationships, and how frequencies were spaced both spatially and spectrally. RF coverage was expected across the field, performance areas, and audience for crowd participation.

Shure Axient Digital’s variable power levels and clean transmitter performance were important to that strategy. Low-power operation helped manage RF energy across the distributed antenna infrastructure, while wide tuning bandwidth allowed the team to move frequencies without being restricted to a narrow operating range. For Jim, that flexibility was essential.

Wireless Workbench helped turn those frequency plans into a working system. Its integration with networked Shure hardware lets the team identify connected devices, monitor transmitter battery levels, deploy settings, and efficiently adjust multiple parameters. ShowLink® also provides remote control capabilities for compatible transmitters and Axient Digital PSM bodypack receivers.

With wireless systems spread across several production teams, efficient control was critical to managing the event's complexity. 

Delivering Live Entertainment Audio with Shure Axient Digital

Beyond the RF demands, the Banana Bowl needed to bring the energy of its live entertainment to the viewers watching at home.

Veteran audio engineer Michael Abbott, whose credits include the GRAMMY Awards, mixed the event’s entertainment, including multiple musical acts and the elaborate finale.

Michael sees productions like the Banana Bowl as part of a broader evolution in sports, where live entertainment is becoming increasingly integral to the event itself. 

“I’m trying to put the viewer at home in the space, so I try to create a sound field that replicates what they’re seeing on the television.”

To achieve that effect, Michael combines area and audience microphones with vocal processing, ensuring the microphones don’t sound dry and unnatural.

That approach depends on wireless audio that preserves the sound he wants to capture. After decades of working in demanding production environments, Michael relies on Shure Axient Digital for its consistency and sonic transparency. “Axient Digital is seamless. It’s very transparent,” Michael says.

Whether he’s using a handheld microphone or a lavalier, Axient Digital lets him hear the character of the microphone capsule without unwanted wireless transmission artifacts.

In a fast-moving live production, that consistency lets Michael focus on shaping the sound rather than managing uncertainty in the signal path. 

Maximizing Monitoring Capacity with Axient Digital PSM and WMAS

While wireless microphones carried the performances, the production also needed in-ear monitoring and IFB feeds for people working throughout Nationals Park.

The team’s Shure Axient Digital PSM system used Wideband Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS) technology to transmit 16 stereo monitoring channels across four RF carriers.

Each carrier carried four stereo channels within 800 kHz of spectrum, reducing the RF bandwidth needed to support the monitoring mixes while providing complete venue coverage.

Axient Digital PSM also provides flexible access to those feeds. Shure’s CueMode allows users to change audio feeds quickly directly from their ADXR bodypack IEM receivers. In a production like Banana Bowl, this is crucial because the ADXR bodypacks are often far from the IEM transmitter rack.

For Clayton Franklin, A2 Audio Operator for the Savannah Bananas broadcast, the updated IFB system brought another benefit: easier troubleshooting. Previously, Clayton managed a range of small receivers and bodypacks that were difficult to identify and organize. With Axient Digital PSM, he could label packs by assigned user and monitor battery and connection status.

“I can label them by players or reporters. I can see their batteries, their connections, and it’s just much easier to maintain.”

When a reporter or player experiences an issue somewhere on the field, that visibility helps Clayton identify the problem and respond quickly. 

Capturing the Sounds of Banana Ball with DCA901

Music and entertainment are a major part of Banana Ball, but the broadcast also needs to capture the sounds of the baseball game beneath them.

“We have a lot of sound. We have bands. We have baseball, and we want to make the sounds of the game come through,” explains Sean McCluskey, Head of Engineering for the Savannah Bananas.

To address that challenge, the team deployed three Shure DCA901 Broadcast Microphone Arrays at Nationals Park, positioning one in each dugout and another behind home plate.

Each array features eight digitally steerable pickup lobes, letting engineers target sounds around the field without moving physical microphones. From bat cracks and glove catches to the sounds surrounding a play, the arrays provide discrete audio sources for the broadcast mix.

But some of the most interesting sounds come from moments unique to Banana Ball. Clayton explains that players regularly move out of the dugout and closer to the action. When someone hits a home run or makes a big play, their teammates’ reactions become part of the entertainment.

Using DCA901, Clayton can steer a pickup lobe toward the area in front of the dugout and capture those spontaneous celebrations.

“All that noise adds so much flavor to the broadcast audio,” Clayton says.

Alongside miked-up player conversations and interviews captured through Axient Digital, those field effects help bring Banana Ball's excitement and personality into viewers’ living rooms.

For a deeper look at the Savannah Bananas’ broadcast audio approach, read Banana Ball Never Stops. Broadcast Audio Has to Keep Up. 

Scaling Savannah Bananas Productions with ANX4 and Dante

During the regular season, the Savannah Bananas need to deliver that same level of production across multiple venues. For Matthew, transporting a full broadcast operation means balancing equipment capacity with the realities of traveling from show to show.

Shure’s ANX4 Scalable Wireless Receiver helps address that challenge by supporting up to 16 channels of Axient Digital wireless reception in a single rack unit. “With the new Axient Digital equipment that we have, we’re able to deploy smaller racks with higher density,” says Matthew.

Matthew also values how networked control connections and Dante digital audio simplify system wiring and reduce the need for individual analog audio connections between equipment.

That combination of higher receiver density and streamlined connectivity becomes increasingly important as the organization expands to three simultaneous shows during the regular season.

More wireless capacity in a smaller footprint allows the engineering team to build systems that are easier to transport, connect, and deploy across its growing operation. 

Shure Is the Official Audio Provider of the Savannah Bananas

For the Savannah Bananas, bigger shows aren’t just about adding more equipment or performers. It’s about finding new ways to entertain fans, often through ideas that challenge traditional sports-production approaches.

Sean says reliability and sound quality are fundamental to the team’s trust in Shure. Working with Shure engineers, the Savannah Bananas have continued refining how they use the DCA901 to capture more of the game's sounds through the surrounding entertainment.

For engineers running productions where so much happens at once, that combination of proven technology and ongoing collaboration makes a difference. And for the Savannah Bananas, whose brand is built around continually doing something new, it creates room to push further.

“We always try something different. We want to do the unexpected and to have a partner like Shure that’s along for the ride with us and to help us push the boundaries of what we think is possible,” Sean says.

Bring Your Next Big Production to Life

From complex wireless deployments to in-ear monitoring and broadcast audio capture, explore how Shure technology can support your most ambitious productions. Explore Shure Pro Audio Solutions.