Brandi Carlile sings on prototype Spectera handheld at Super Bowl

Super Bowl LX was played on 8 February 2026 between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, and it also served as the first broadcast use of Sennheiser's Spectera SKM handheld transmitter. Brandi Carlile performed “America the Beautiful” in the pre-game show on a custom gold prototype of the handheld fitted with a Neumann KK 205 capsule.

According to Sennheiser, the transmitter ran at 1 ms latency with 96 kHz audio resolution. Spectera is a wideband, two-way digital system: audio, control and monitoring share one RF channel, and a single rack unit can carry up to 64 channels, 32 in and 32 out.

Halftime on Digital 6000

The Apple Music Halftime Show was headlined by Bad Bunny. Guest performers Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin sang on custom-finished Digital 6000 handhelds, white for Gaga and silver for Martin. Over the whole event, Sennheiser ran seven wireless mics and nine stereo in-ear monitoring systems within a total of 6 MHz of spectrum.

How the prototype got there

The idea grew out of earlier work by RF engineer Cameron Stuckey. He had used early Spectera in-ear systems on Masquerade, an immersive theatre show in New York spread over six floors and 13 performance spaces. After he was appointed to handle RF for Super Bowl LX, talks began about bringing Spectera to the game.

Carlile's long-time front-of-house engineer Sean Quackenbush tested the prototype with his usual KK 205 capsule, and her monitor engineer Jerry Streeter supported the move. In the weeks before the game, Stuckey and Quackenbush worked with Sennheiser on the custom unit. For coverage, the team used three DAD antennas over the stadium bowl and one more for backstage and preparation areas.

The engineers described their impressions in their own words. Streeter pointed to the clarity and stability and to fitting everything into a single TV channel. Quackenbush said he barely had to adjust EQ on the vocal at high volume. Stuckey said placing DAD antennas takes a fraction of the time needed for coax-based narrowband systems, and noted that access to the 1.4 GHz band widens the choice of spectrum.