STAMFORD, CT― When NBC Sports’ Director of Remote Technical Operations for Motorsports Matt Hogencamp walks onto a NASCAR track, he’s not thinking about lap times or leaderboard standings, he’s thinking about how to make viewers feel the race. In his role, Hogencamp oversees the sprawling, high-octane productions that bring NASCAR into living rooms across the country with one mission: give the production team the tools they need to turn their wildest broadcast ideas into reality.
Recently, those ideas have sounded better than ever, thanks to the network’s new DPA Microphones solutions. The choice of DPA began with simply asking how NBC Sports can bring fans audio they’ve never heard before. For Hogencamp, the answer was found in the brand’s tiny, rugged and remarkably powerful 4062 Omnidirectional Miniature Lavaliers. The NBC Sports team mounted the mics in unconventional places — on front bumpers, rear quarter panels and even directly inside the drivers’ helmets without disrupting cameras or slowing pit lane setups.
“In NASCAR, grams matter and racecars generate brutal wind speeds, punishing vibration, extreme temperature shifts and showers of track debris,” Hogencamp explains. “We needed mics that were small enough to hide, light enough to avoid affecting aerodynamics and strong enough to survive extreme conditions lap after lap, while still delivering top-tier audio. The 4062 checked every box and gave us a real leg up in the sound department. Now, fans can hear the gritty scrape of a car skidding along the wall without crashing, or the vacuum of ‘dirty air’ when one car tucks in behind another, the sound vanishing into eerie silence.”
Hogencamp sees this as more than a novelty, calling it a “game-changer” for storytelling. “We’ve always had new camera angles and visuals, but sound is equally important,” he says. “When we put a mic under the hood, our viewers can hear the engine in a way that changes how they experience the race. It’s like they are in the car themselves. Even more revealing, viewers can now catch a driver’s unfiltered thoughts mid-race — the adrenaline-laced monologue they usually have on their own, as they hurtle toward a 200-mile-per-hour turn. These mics nearly disappear into the car but still capture everything we want.”
Just as important for Hogencamp’s role, “the mics performed consistently no matter where they were placed — cutting down on post-production fixes and letting the engineers focus on the dozens of other live feeds streaming into the truck. Durability is another win. During multi-day events where crews have little time for repairs, the DPA mics kept running, meaning we had fewer mid-race swaps and less risk of losing key audio moments. Quick mounting and low maintenance also made life easier in the high-pressure environment of race day, where every second of setup time is precious.”
For NBC Sports, the future of NASCAR broadcasting lies in this blend of technical ingenuity and creative risk-taking. With DPA on board, Hogencamp is confident the audio side of the sport will only get more immersive. “We’re always looking for new ways to put viewers closer to the action,” he says. “With DPA, we’re not just showing them the race — we’re letting them feel it.”
Hogencamp’s NBC Sports Motorsports responsibilities aren’t limited to just NASCAR, the broadcast professional also oversees all technical aspects for other popular racing series. Known by colleagues for pushing the creative boundaries for how broadcast audio and visuals are captured, Hogencamp’s role includes logistics, planning and problem-solving in real-time for large-scale productions with hundreds of crew members, dozens of cameras and miles of cable to ensure coverage is uninterrupted. He also acts as a liaison between production teams, engineers, and vendors, like DPA, to test and implement new tools.
The relationship with DPA has proven as dynamic as the races. Hogencamp praises the company’s willingness to experiment, whether sending multiple shotgun mics for trackside tests or developing new windscreens to battle high-speed turbulence. “They don’t just ship out gear,” he adds. “They brainstorm with you, send extras to try and push the limits alongside us. That’s a true partnership.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Bachman NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 via Getty Images.