Sacramento Production Services installs Wisycom RF system at Sutter Health Park
Sacramento Production Services has upgraded the wireless audio infrastructure at Sutter Health Park using a Wisycom antenna and fiber-based RF distribution system. The installation, which includes wideband antennas and antenna-over-fiber links, was designed to mitigate RF congestion and support MLB broadcast requirements for the Athletics.
Key Takeaways
- Deployment includes 10 Wisycom antennas, with four outfield units connected via BFL2T2 and BFLR2 antenna-over-fiber links.
- Hardware stack features MAT244 RF combiners and LFA wideband antennas to lower the noise floor in high-congestion environments.
- Remote control and telemetry capabilities allow the production team to manage RF settings without walking to distant antenna locations.
- The upgrade specifically addresses the increased frequency demands of MLB broadcasts compared to previous minor league requirements.
Why It Matters
The transition from minor league to major league broadcast standards requires a significant leap in RF management to handle increased frequency density. By utilizing antenna-over-fiber technology, Sacramento Production Services has eliminated the physical distance limitations of traditional coaxial setups, ensuring talent can move freely across the 460-foot span of Sutter Health Park. This shift toward fiber-based RF distribution reflects a broader industry move to stabilize wireless audio in crowded urban and professional sports environments. As the Athletics begin their Sacramento residency, watch for how this infrastructure handles the peak RF load during high-profile divisional matchups and national broadcasts.
Additional Context
Wisycom has been expanding its footprint in professional sports broadcast environments, positioning its antenna-over-fiber technology as a solution for RF-dense venues. The company's BFL2T2 and BFLR2 fiber links, which convert RF signals to optical for long-distance transport without coaxial loss, have become a reference architecture for stadiums where traditional cable runs exceed practical limits. In the broader RF distribution market for live sports, Wisycom's wideband antenna and fiber-optic approach has been cited as a model for handling the frequency congestion that accompanies major league broadcast requirements, particularly as teams transition between venues with varying RF environments. The Athletics' move from Oakland to Sacramento represents one of several recent MLB relocations that have forced production teams to rebuild wireless audio infrastructure from scratch under compressed timelines.
The professional RF market for live sports production is experiencing pressure from multiple directions. The FCC's ongoing spectrum repacking, which has removed portions of the UHF band from wireless microphone use, continues to force broadcast operations into tighter frequency allocations. Wisycom's wideband antenna designs, which cover a broader frequency range in a single element, address this constraint by reducing the number of discrete antenna deployments needed per venue. Meanwhile, competing RF distribution vendors such as Shure and Sennheiser have also introduced fiber-based transport options for large venues, though Wisycom's integrated approach combining combiners, wideband antennas, and fiber links in a single vendor stack remains a differentiator for production companies seeking to minimize interoperability risk. Nokia and AWS announced a partnership to build autonomous network control layers for telecom operators, a development that, while in a different vertical, illustrates the broader industry trend toward fiber-based infrastructure replacing legacy coaxial and copper transport in bandwidth-intensive environments.
Technical performance data from the Sutter Health Park installation highlights the practical advantages of antenna-over-fiber in sports applications. The system extends reliable wireless microphone coverage to 460 feet from the nearest antenna, a distance that would require multiple coaxial amplifier stages in a traditional setup, each introducing noise and signal degradation. Ericsson launched its AI in RAN commercial software subscription in June 2026, claiming up to 20% higher downlink throughput across more than 15 live deployments, demonstrating how adjacent wireless infrastructure sectors are similarly investing in . For Sacramento Production Services, the Wisycom deployment represents a scalable template that could be adapted as the Athletics' broadcast requirements evolve during their three-year Sacramento residency, particularly if national broadcast partners introduce additional wireless camera or IFB channels that further stress the RF environment.
Read full article at sportsvideo.org
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