Audio-Technica equips ORF's broadcast of the Alpine World Ski Championships with an edge inside the industry
The recent Alpine World Ski Championships were covered by ORF, with TV Skyline producing the sound. The company relied on Audio-Technica microphones to provide a complete ambience microphone system, ensuring viewers could enjoy the Championships via the TV broadcast as if they were in the stadium or on the piste themselves.
Comprehensive Ambience Capture
The system covered all ambient sounds on-site, enabling a rich audio experience that included natural surroundings and the dynamic atmosphere of the live event. This is especially important in outdoor sporting events like skiing, where the environment contributes significantly to broadcast realism.
Reliability in Harsh Outdoor Conditions
Given the alpine location in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria, the microphone system was designed to perform consistently despite challenging weather and temperature conditions, crucial for dependable live coverage.
Integration with Broadcast Infrastructure
The microphone system seamlessly interfaced with complex broadcast and livestreaming setups, ensuring that audio feeds were synchronized with the overall production workflows TV Skyline employed.
Applications of Audio-Technica’s microphone solutions in this event included:
- Providing Broad Ambient Soundscape for TV Coverage: The microphones captured not just focused action sounds but the entire audio environment to enrich viewer experience.
- Supporting Multi-Channel Audio Feeds: Enabling simultaneous capture of different sound zones and perspectives across the ski course, enhancing broadcast flexibility.
- Ensuring Clear Communication Across Production Teams: Though Clear-Com handled intercoms, Audio-Technica’s reliable and precise audio capture facilitated clear communication when combined with the overall broadcast systems.
In the Starter's House, BP899 subminiature omnidirectional condenser lavaliers and U851R boundary microphones were used to pick up highly detailed sound. These microphones were equipped with customised wind baskets to capture sound without impact or wind noise.
In the stadium, directional shotgun microphones, including the BP4073, BP4071L long, and BP4029 stereo models, were employed to immerse the TV audience in the race atmosphere. Skyline used parabolic reflectors fitted with low-profile Audio-Technica ES933 cardioid condenser microphones at the jumps to capture wind noise and jump sounds.
A separate control room was set up for mixing the upper section of the course, equipped with mixing solutions from Allen & Heath. Four DT168 stage boxes in the upper part of the track picked up the atmosphere microphones and fed them into the Dante network. A dLive S5000 console with DM0 MixRack was integrated into the audio infrastructure via MADI and Dante.
In summary, Audio-Technica’s microphone system offered TV Skyline a robust, high-fidelity, and environment-optimized audio solution tailor-made for the demanding conditions and immersive sound requirements of the Alpine World Ski Championships coverage. The clever use of technology by the TV Skyline team, together with Audio-Technica's innovative solutions, ensured an impressive sound backdrop.
[1] Audio-Technica [2] TV Skyline [3] ORF [4] Clear-Com [5] Allen & Heath
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