The KLOVER MiK Makes It To the Little League World Series

The Sports Video Group recently ran an article on how ESPN was trying to emulate a big-league game in their broadcast of the Little League World Series. (Little League World Series 2021: ESPN Aims for Major-League Audio)

As part of that process, ESPN’s audio team used several parabolic microphones to capture the sounds of the game. We recently spoke to Devin Barnhart who was responsible for capturing that on-field sound. He said that he used three KLOVER MiK 16 (16-inch diameter) parabolic microphones at the field he was responsible for.

Mr. Barnhart said he used, “One at the home plate area shooting up the 3rd baseline, one at the home plate area shooting up the 1st baseline, and one behind home plate shooting at the pitcher and 2nd base. Those three mics were the foundation of the mix. I have used that setup for several years. I always got good results from shotgun mics, but where the mics have to be placed, they are back in a hallway that has the scorekeepers and other people walking around. I always got “extra voices” when I used the shotgun mics and with the switch to the parabs all that went away.”

He went on to say that he plans to use more KLOVER MiK parabolic mics next year. “I usually use shotguns for the pic mics at 1st and 3rd base, but on the last day of my games I tested the 9-inch KLOVER MiK for the 1st base pic mic, and I think I want to use those next year instead of shotgun mics.”