Hand-crafted, Wisconsin-made microphones that can capture sound from 500 feet away are going to be used in the Winter Games. They have been used in every Olympic Games since Rio in 2016.Watch: Meet the Wisconsin engineer who has created microphones for every Olympics since 2016 Meet the Wisconsin engineer who has created microphones for every Olympics since 2016Capturing crisp audio from a long distance is a difficult challenge, and Paul Terpstra is the man who took on that mission.Terpstra runs Klover Products alongside his wife. Their design lab is in their home.The shape of the dish is very specific, Terpstra said.It is here, in Janesville, Wisconsin, where ultra-precise design is engineered to capture distant sound.Its a mathematical equation that defines that shape, he said.We have shelves in the detached garage. We have shelves in the garage downstairs. The laser cutter is in my shop in the basement. So yeah, its kind of consumed our house, Terpstra said. Im an engineer through and through, Terpstra said.When I was 10 years old, I was designing race cars, he said.His path to today began with a simple question: What do you know about parabolic microphones?I said, not a thing, but well figure it out. We built a prototype in the fall of 2011, Terpstra recalled.Fox Sports hired Terpstra to find a better way to capture game-day sound while isolating ambient noise.When asked if there had been a wow moment for him, Terpstra said it was the first time he was on the football field at Green Bay.Fox has been great to me. They let me test a lot of things at football games, at baseball games and so forth. So I jokingly call Lambeau Field my RD lab, Terpstra said.Klover Products has now produced more than 700 parabolic mics. They have been used in every Olympic Games since Rio in 2016 and in six Super Bowls.I would say 75 or 80% of every football game thats on TV will have our dishes on the sidelines, Terpstra said.Major TV networks, including NBC, use them, but most do not own the mics. Instead, they stay in the hands of a leasing company until they are needed like now, for the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.They give them this laundry list, and the leasing company puts it together, puts it in a container and ships it to Italy. So thats how I know theyre being used in Italy, but I dont know exactly how theyre being used, Terpstra said.The mics are used primarily for sports broadcasts, but universities and bird watchers are also customers. Klover Products has even sold the mics to government agencies like the FBI.Were trying to do more in security and law enforcement. Weve got two sheriffs offices right now that are just waiting for the funding to be approved, Terpstra said.Using a parabolic microphone during crisis negotiation lets law enforcement hear from a safe distance.You cant get close to them, so they might be talking to themselves. They might even be trying to yell at cops, but you cant hear it, Terpstra said.Terpstra said the untapped potential for parabolic mics is truly limitless.Thats one of my joys in life, I guess, is when people call up and say, I want to do this. Is there any way we can do that? I love the problem-solving part of it, he said.This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less