From Rehearsals to Reverb: Unpacking the tech behind Beyoncé Bowl: “Everybody had a built-in safety net at all levels”

Not everyone can say that they spent Christmas day with Beyoncé, but for the 72,000+ people attending the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas in 2024, they can – technically – claim this as fact. 

Taking place on December 25, Netflix gave its subscribers the gift of Queen Bey, who performed a hometown halftime performance of songs from her multiple GRAMMY-winning Cowboy Carter album during the NFL Christmas Gameday – the first to be streamed live on Netflix. Usually, a Super Bowl-esque event such as this requires at least five months of preparation for the tech teams, however, FOH engineer Alexandre Guessard got the call just five weeks before show day. Luckily for him, this ain’t his first rodeo.

“I think it's my 18th Super Bowl,” Guessard tells Headliner, having just completed the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime show. 

“It's such an intricate and special show. I've seen probably three or four producers since I’ve been doing FOH for the Super Bowl, and we always come back because it's such a special event. The way it's approached, the way it's managed, the nature of it…it's a big learning curve.”

Dubbed Beyoncé Bowl, the NFL 2024 Christmas Day Halftime Show packed in an expansive medley of music, fashion and history, Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul Marching Band – and a slew of guest performers – into a fast-paced, 12-minute set. There was a lot to organise.

“Normally it’s a five-month process. This one was a five-week process,” he nods, “so it was a rush. The good thing is, pretty much the whole team was the same that normally do the Super Bowl, and we were already prepping for that. So we kind of piggybacked that show to the Super Bowl and used the same design. Not the same design, acoustically,” he points out, “but the same design of the main system and the flow of the audio was exactly what we normally do at a Super Bowl. That equipment was already in place, so we just got it ready a few weeks before.”

ATK – A Clair Global brand – provided a massive JBL Professional rig for Beyoncé Bowl, featuring 14 custom carts, each loaded with six VTX A12s and two VTX S28s, bolstered by four additional carts that held three VTX S28s, either front-facing or cardioid. 

ATK also deployed two DiGiCo Quantum 338 Digital Mixing consoles for FOH, two Quantum 5 256-channel mixing consoles for monitoring, Sennheiser 6000 RF Microphone Systems for all performers, Shure PSM1000 IEMs, and Focusrite Rednet Network distribution/management for this one-off event.

REHEARSALS

Guessard shares that once brought on board, he completed the system design, tuning and live mixing for Beyoncé Bowl supported by system tech Brian Bednar with Dave Caldwell on hand, while Jimmy Corbin and Tom Pesa handled monitors. Beyoncé’s touring FOH engineer, Steve Curtin, was also on-site to advise.

“Steve was sitting with me and would vocalise if he had a suggestion, but the way it works is it's just me who has control of the mixing, and I'm the only one operating the console,” clarifies Guessard. “All the guest engineers came and sat with us, gave us opinions and ideas, or just cracked jokes, and let us do our thing.”

Guessard provides an insight into the rehearsal process, which involved a meticulously choreographed sequence featuring multiple camera crew, Beyoncé and co. moving across multiple locations on the pitch, integrating guest singers (Bey even had Post Malone working on Christmas Day), a troupe of dancers, The Texans Cheerleaders, an almost 200-strong marching band, a live band, numerous moving cars (including a denim-covered Ford F-series pickup truck), culminating in Beyoncé being lifted into the air on a narrow platform above the midfield, dropping a huge banner flag beneath the platform that read "bang”.

“They do off-site rehearsals, so normally they come in fairly buttoned up,” he shares. 

“We talk about the artistic concept, and they will have been working on their tracks and orders prior to this. We had three nights of rehearsal. The first night is really a big camera block rehearsal to just see all the shots, and with regards to the audio, we have time to balance everything.

“The next two nights we are focusing more on any moments that need to be reworked. They pretty much build the show off-site and then come to us with it. Then we start working with the venue with the whole system and all the cameras; generally, we follow the cameras, as it’s pretty much the artist and the directors working on the visuals, and we follow along.”

LOUDSPEAKERS

Given the scale of the performance – not to mention the extremely quick turnaround required to fit into the game’s tight halftime window – the audio coordination had to be seamless.

“Quick deployment on and off the field was one of the main objectives,” agrees Brett Valasek, general manager at ATK Audiotek, “so time was the largest challenge. Although it was complex with all the moving elements, once the scenic element’s choreographed moves were known, things became easier with each rehearsal, and the show's timing was flawless,” he notes of the end result.

The show featured 84 JBL VTX A12 speakers and 40 VTX S28 subwoofers spread across 14 (silver tassled) custom carts. Guessard explains the reasoning behind this particular system design and deployment:

“The cart system is something that has been done in the past quite a few times,” he notes, adding that when possible, they prefer to fly a full system. “But the issue with that is the cost is quite elevated when you factor in rigging and flying everything, and due to the limited time we had, it was not possible, so we went for the cart system, which was deployed on the field in an ellipse configuration so all the timing and coherence was perfect and in-phase. The A12 is probably my favourite speaker from JBL,” he adds.

“With source timing and delay issues from an audio source, an oval design is very helpful,” agrees Valasek. “We basically break the oval down into quadrants, and then as you have the timing for one quad done, it is basically cut and paste settings from there.”

Guessard takes up the story: “It was crucial that it covered about two-thirds, to almost three-quarters of the bowl. For the last seats, we generally use a little bit of the house system to cover that. We've done many Super Bowls like this. As a matter of fact,” he realises, “next year is going to be something similar to that since there will be no roof, so there is no structure to fly a system from. So everything has to be ground-stacked. 

"The carts get deployed as they’re on wheels, and they protect the grass on the field. We were able to roll them on easily and deploy them very quickly.”

The original plan was for cardioid subs to be used, but once on site, Guessard decided that a front-facing setup would be more suitable. Usually, four carts with just subs are used within the cart design to add additional low end to the system.

“This approach worked really well,” he reasons, “as they’re extremely in-phase, so it's very efficient. It also looked better on the field, so one cart shadowed the other one.”

She comin'

The Netflix broadcast of the halftime show began with a prerecorded segment (likely for costume change and horse-related reasons) in a tunnel leading to the stadium, which sees a stunt rider lead a magnificent half-Andalusian steed in the direction of the pitch, ridden by Knowles Carter, opening with 16 Carriages. 

Once everybody was done looking at that horse, the live performance and broadcast segment commenced with Beyoncé entering the stadium, kicking off with a rousing rendition of Ya Ya.

“They were great straight out of the box,” Guessard says of the JBL system. “The first bar of Ya Ya sounded great. I didn't have to chase anything; the work that we did in rehearsals really transpired into a great show.”

However, Guessard shares that a few logistical tweaks were needed to work around Beyoncé’s start position. “I did an audio design, then I redid that design. Then every time I got more information from the art department, I did another version until we were pretty much very close,” he chuckles good-naturedly. 

“I had to have one cart moved during the show at the entrance. After the part with the horse, Beyoncé walked on the stage and there was a cart right there, so it had to be removed. As soon as she left that location, it was put back in place.”

NETFLIX BROADCAST

The Netflix broadcast mix was handled by Paul Wittman, who was stationed inside an NEP Denali Broadcast truck. Despite it being Christmas Day, live viewers in the US peaked at 27 million during the halftime performance, making it the most-watched Christmas Day NFL game since 2001. 

Within 10 days, nearly 50 million Netflix users had watched the standalone Beyoncé Bowl special on Netflix, which did not include the football game – (the internet’s general consensus being that it was nice of Beyoncé to let the NFL play at her concert). Guessard explains how he balanced the mix for both the in-stadium crowd and the live broadcast:

“The music and all the stems coming to us are the same as what goes to broadcast, and then I do my mix for the stadium,” he explains. “I deal with a large reflection of eight or nine-second reverbs, of course, so it has to be treated differently. In a stadium like this, it's all about the design first, because it needs to put the energy in the right place. 

"The design is crucial. If you energise the stadium in the wrong area, you will end up with catastrophic results that you cannot solve by mixing, so the design needs to be very efficient, but also very precise, and must not energise anything that you don't want.

“Managing energy in the stadium is essential, as there’s a narrow sweet spot where the sound is optimal,” he elaborates. “Pushing beyond this range creates chaos, while dropping below it results in a loss of clarity and definition. 

"With a dense arrangement featuring numerous instrumental layers and background vocals, I had to carefully balance everything within that ideal range to maintain a clean and powerful sound.”

The Console

At FOH, Guessard used two DiGiCo Quantum 338 digital mixing consoles in mirror mode. “For any complicated show, it's my go-to console,” he states. “It's reliable. I know that console inside out, sonically. It's been good to me. It's robust. It does everything that I want, and more.”

With a maximum of 128 input channels with 64 busses and a 24 x 24 matrix, all with full channel processing, the Quantum 338's built-in console I/Os provided everything Guessard needed for this one-off event. 

The console’s eight local mic/line inputs and eight local line outputs all feature 32-bit Ultimate Stadius converters, four stereo AES/EBU in/out, triple redundant MADI in/out (which can also be configured as six MADI I/O at 48kHz), dual DMI card slots, support for dual second generation Optocore loops, and a built-in UB MADI USB interface.

“As long as all the elements have the same latency coming out of the system together, you keep all the coherence,” notes Guessard. “In a stadium like this, the latency from the source to the audience is so big because of the huge distance, so you want to have all the elements to have the same latency.”

The show incorporated guest vocalists, including a Shaboozey mashup of Spaghettii and Riiverdance, and a more intimate duet with Post Malone on Levii's Jeans. Guessard shares that he prefers to rely on real-time adjustments using the Quantum 338 for these moments:

“All those vocals were live, so that, together with the roar of the crowd, meant I needed to make some adjustments in real time. Everything was so well calibrated,” he says. “Everything was done live: all the singers coming in and coming out, so I was pushing out some solos, and I enjoy doing that.”

The performance culminates in Beyoncé being lifted above midfield on a narrow platform to belt out the last bars of Texas Hold ‘Em, which builds to an exciting crescendo. 

Guessard reveals that he didn’t need to make any unique adjustments to the system to accommodate changes in reverb, reflections, or delay times, or make any mixing or effects adjustments on the Quantum 338 to account for the open-air sound reflections:

“That’s because she was in an area where she was out of proximity to the sound pressure,” he explains. “The only real change that happened is that we lowered the intensity of one JBL cart for that one segment and brought it back up. It's nice to do it live,” he adds. 

“You get in the feel of it, so I’ll push a solo here, a little guitar solo there, or the voice of Dolly Parton comes in at one point, so I had to grab it and push it out. There were some big background vocals that I honed in on at one moment because it was nice to get that energy, especially toward the end. I pushed some elements that really drove that moment.”

Vocal Effects

Waves connectivity was added to the console with a SoundGrid Interface card, adding up to an additional 64 I/O. Guessard used Waves Audio plugins, his go-to being Waves’ Scheps Omni, which gives him Grammy-winning mixer Andrew Scheps’ time-tested combinations of compression, EQ, and saturation tones. “I bring in Waves to process the vocals, some groups of music, and the master bus as well,” he says.

For Beyonce’s vocals, Guessard keeps it simple: “It's some compression, some side chain, a multi-band, and I really like the Waves plugin designed by Andrew Scheps. It's a channel plugin; it’s got some harmonic distortion, equalisation, some de-essing, some equalisation, some compression, and I can make really well-produced live vocals with that. 

"They have zero latency – it’s a wonder for me. Especially for vocals, that plugin is my go-to. I can have a very cleanly-produced, in-your-face vocal that can cut through anything.”

THE MIC IS AWN

Elsewhere, Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) executed an RF over Fiber system for Beyoncé Bowl, ensuring flawless audio across an expansive 80-yard field using split transmissions across multiple zones. PWS managed frequencies for Sennheiser and Shure microphones, and Wisycom and Shure in-ear monitors, working alongside NFL gameday staff, Netflix’s broadcast crew and stadium technicians.

PWS implemented a robust RF over Fiber (RFoF) antenna system, spanning UHF and STL ranges to facilitate wireless microphones and in-ear monitors (IEMs) for Beyoncé, her dancers, and the production team. 

The setup incorporated 10 helical antennas, including four STL models, four standard UHF antennas for microphones, and two specifically designated for dual IEM zones, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity across the expansive performance space.

Post Malone used IEMS from Fir Audio, while Beyoncé used her custom 64 Audio Tiffany & Co. diamond encrusted A18s IEMS, which were developed in part because of special requests made by the singer in 2019 relating to the previous model she used, which was the A18t. The three main additions that set the A18s IEMS apart from A18t are higher maximum output, warmer tonality and LID technology.

“Beyoncé was on Sennheiser,” confirms Guessard. “It's a really good mic. It's perfect. It's precise. It works for her and it has a very nice presence.”

He explains how RF frequencies were coordinated to avoid interference between the Sennheiser mics, IEMs, and other wireless devices in the stadium: 

“We had the talent, where I am at FOH, dancers and the other ‘cast people’, and we used an FM system, so people wear FM receivers, and we broadcast on an FM frequency outside the normal range, so it's easy to get 1,000 of them on the field. We have multiple channels of that, so the matching band can be on one, and all the dancers can be on another channel, and so forth.”

A Focusrite RedNet system was used for network distribution and management. Guessard explains how RedNet helped streamline routing, latency control, and overall system management using Dante-based audio networking during the show:

“We used the Focusrite to transport our signal flow all the way from the broadcast truck to all the consoles,” he explains. 

“Because the consoles are MADI-based, the broadcast is also MADI-based, as is the network between it and the system for the carts, so it’s all based in Dante. We converted all the MADI files to Dante and managed everything through the Focusrite RedNet system.”

SAFETY NET

With redundancy systems in place at every level should the worst happen, the only thing that could stand in Beyoncé’s way was buffering. The two-game NFL Christmas Gameday broadcast was the first ever to be streamed live on Netflix, and with the way Netflix fumbled the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson live-streamed boxing match just prior, the pressure was on. 

Beyoncé wasn’t going to let that happen. Not on Christmas Day. 

Guessard shares that should the worst have happened, there was a plan in place for that scenario too:

“One of the rehearsals is previously filmed at the same time of day as the show, and that is our safety net. It would be a full dress rehearsal that was filmed. In a worst-case scenario, if something collapsed with the tech, that's the go-to,” he reveals. 

“That video will be rolling at the same time the show is happening live, and we would need to cut to it for the people watching the show if something happened, so there is a way to keep going. It would have to be something catastrophic to get to that – a real showstopper,” he points out.

“Everybody has a built-in safety net at pretty much all levels. We have a redundancy on everything. If a microphone cuts, we have a way to recover. If one console dies, there is another one running in parallel that will automatically switch over. 

"If Pro Tools collapses, the other one will keep going. We have redundancy everywhere on that show. Fortunately, I have never really had to go to it, but we have safety nets everywhere.”

Beyoncé Bowl ended with a bang, as planned, and Guessard reflects on another successful halftime performance: “It was a great show,” he says. 

“The showmanship was perfect and everything went well. It felt a little strange to come back to the hotel at night and figure out it was actually Christmas! All the elements and the vendors work together to be able to create that moment and execute the artist’s vision. We know what's possible. We know the beast very well,” he grins.

Main image credit: Copyright Parkwood Entertainment