First know use: 1669. No way! It couldn’t be! The “parabolic microphone” wasn’t even around back then! EXACTLY! What was around back then was the first known use of the word PARABOLIC from the Late Latin parabola parable, so say’s Merrian-Webster. So what does that bit of trivia have to do with the parabolic revolution? Well it really sets the stage for going way back when, let’s see, when movies had no sound or even further back when amphitheaters, resembling the parabolic design, were built to let the crowd hear.

A parabolic microphone op records QB candence at a NY Giants football game

For clarity’s sake and material for another story, perhaps you, as I had thought the shape of an amphitheater was key to having audiences of up to 14,000 such as in the 4th century B.C. enjoy the shows at the theater in Epidaurus, Greece. Even the ‘nose bleed’ section at the top of the 55 semi-circular rows heard clearly, the unamplified offerings of the actors and musicians. It’s pretty easy to guess that with the technology available at the time, Polykleitos the Younger and builder, believed it was in the shape as well.

Well it wasn’t!!! So there! The secret is in the seats. Not where they were, rather WHAT they were. Researchers at the Georgetown Institute of Technology uncovered the filtering effects of limestone had minimized the crowds background noise by suppressing the low frequencies of voices while reflecting back the high-frequencies towards the audience to further enhance the effect. For those interested, the specifics can be further read about beyond the fact that with ultrasonic wave models, frequencies up to 500 hertz were lowered, and above 500 hertz remained undiminished.

Again I ask, so what’s that got to do with the Parabolic Revolution? I’ll tell you what, it’s through the parabolic revolution that the din of the crowd and sole or joint offerings of the commentators had taken on the dimension and impact, comparable only to that of the fateful day, October 6th, 1927 when the very first spoken words in a feature film were heard. Quite prophetically those very first words were “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” in the voice of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

The Parabolic Microphone

And more currently, over the past twenty years the parabolic microphone has been used in sports broadcasting to capture all of the up close and personal sounds of the games.

The parabolic microphone first arrived in sports broadcasting in the early eighties. In its early days the device was praised for its ability to pick up sound from great distances. While its use became prominent, it

was often overlooked due to its original design, which proved heavy (not quite amphitheater heavy) and difficult to use. Despite its flaws, hope was not lost for this new tool of the trade. By the mid-eighties, 1980’s not 1680’s, most major networks in sports broadcasting had turned much of their focus onto improving game day audio and for the first time , personalizing sound as if everyone in the audience or stadium or arena were front and center.

It was around this time when Ferro Productions Founder, Joe Scacciaferro, got his hands on the technology after meeting a television producer associated with the New York Giants.

“They were talking about trying to get audio closer on the field for all of their local shows,” explained Scacciaferro, who’s already successful career included several years working and pioneering in the music and audio industry.

While lending the Giants’ producers some help, Scacciaferro came across a company called Big Ears, founded by Bill Russell. They had pioneered a new lightweight, plastic design for the parabolic microphone. Again we are back to materials and how critical they are to the successful design and implementation of technology. Finding Russell’s new design much easier and more efficient, Scacciaferro was able to use it as an easy fix for the Giant’s audio challenges.

Although it was the folks at ESPN’s Monday Night Football who would be responsible for the outbreak of parabolic microphones across the league, Scacciaferro’s efforts held a long lasting impact on the broadcast department at the New York Giants.

“Parabolics established the fact that the sounds of the games are just as important as the visuals.” Scacciaferro said. And just like the scripted line of Al Jolson, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” in closing may I offer this from Oscar Wilde’s 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that “”Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

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