Wow, much to my surprise, sports beat out music mixing for the Michigan Area NATAS Emmy for Excellence in Audio Mixing.
I submitted a Detroit Pistons broadcast which included some serious mixing of nat sound microphones including a very cool back and forth conversation between Jim O'Brien (Indianapolis Pacers head coach) and the lead referee. The announcers played along nicely and let the conversation play out on the air and much to my surprise there were no expletives requiring FCC intervention.
My competition was a Symphony Orchestra / Holiday concert TV broadcast.
This now leads my resume "qualifications" section to say the least.
Various news stories covering the Emmy
Lapeer County Press
Pistons.com
Equipment used for the Emmy.
Lyon Mobile Unit 6
Calrec Alpha mixing console (utilizing 132 inputs)
Announcer Microphones
3 HMD-25 Sennheiser headset announce microphones.
5 Sennheiser MD42 handheld microphones
2 Sony Wireless Handheld mics
Nat Sound / FX mics
5 Sony ECM-77 Lavs ( 2 for swish / net sound, 3 along press row to bring the sound of coaches / refs)
5 MKH 416 short shotguns on cameras and basketball hoop stancions
2 MKH 816 Long shotguns on scoreboard for crowd
2 contact mics on glass backboards
8 VTR / EVS playback decks each with 4 audio channels (stereo program / stereo FX mix)
2 DigiCart music playback Hard Disk players ( bumper / highlight music )
Various SFX players for font / scoreboard sound effects.
KC
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Audio for Fireworks Broadcast
This past weekend I had the interesting job of mixing Fireworks for television broadcast.
The best treat was we used the All Mobile Video "Resolution" TV truck which provides a Sony OXFORD OXF3R console to mix on. Now if you havent had the privledge of using this or the Sony Oxford Dynamic plug ins you should know that nothing compares to the way the Oxford handles dynamics.
For Fireworks FX sound we used 2 816 mics in a X-Y configuration to provide fireworks high in the sky FX and 2 416 shotguns to provide the thump of the launch off the barges in the Detroit river.
The 816 mic were EQ'd to provide a significant more bright tone (+6 around 6kHz) and panned hard left / right.
The Low mics were EQ'd to have a +6dB bump around 100Hz and panned to be somewhat more narrow in the stereo sound field.
So, as the fireworks are ignited they had a nice tight thump on launch and then bloomed into a big wide explosion when they detonated high in the sky.
The biggest difficulty was actually hearing the mix since we were located very close to the river / fireworks area.
Dynamics wise all FX mics were compressed 4:1 with a gentle knee and on average were getting about 6-8 dB of compression on launch / explosion.
KC
The best treat was we used the All Mobile Video "Resolution" TV truck which provides a Sony OXFORD OXF3R console to mix on. Now if you havent had the privledge of using this or the Sony Oxford Dynamic plug ins you should know that nothing compares to the way the Oxford handles dynamics.
For Fireworks FX sound we used 2 816 mics in a X-Y configuration to provide fireworks high in the sky FX and 2 416 shotguns to provide the thump of the launch off the barges in the Detroit river.
The 816 mic were EQ'd to provide a significant more bright tone (+6 around 6kHz) and panned hard left / right.
The Low mics were EQ'd to have a +6dB bump around 100Hz and panned to be somewhat more narrow in the stereo sound field.
So, as the fireworks are ignited they had a nice tight thump on launch and then bloomed into a big wide explosion when they detonated high in the sky.
The biggest difficulty was actually hearing the mix since we were located very close to the river / fireworks area.
Dynamics wise all FX mics were compressed 4:1 with a gentle knee and on average were getting about 6-8 dB of compression on launch / explosion.
KC
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
EQ for Basketball FX Mics
2 Schools of thought when I peruse the Presets on some of the digital consoles I encounter on the road. Many of the top Sports engineers tend to do very little EQ on FX mics. Others do quite a bit.
This past NBA season I made some reference recordings (Flat - No EQ, no processing) of the actual microphones I am using for Key area (paint) and hoop mics. This allowed me to do some research on the sounds I am trying to capture.
I then took those recordings into Adobe Audition, and use its frequency analysis tools to find the critical frequencies to bring the mics to life.
On the graphic below you see a approximate representation of my EQ settings for both Key and Hoop mics.
On Key mics, I try to utilize the physical connection to the basketball hoop support stantion arm to my advantage and bring out its resonant frequency. At the Palace their is a considerable resonance around 90Hz. On the graph below I would include it in the Low Shelf boost then roll off most of the low end leaving 90Hz as its peak on the low end of the spectrum.
Another note you can see illustrated in the OVERLAY graphic... the frequencies of the Key and Hoop mics are not similar, in this manner when you get them blended in together you get a rather robust overall sound with presence.
Overall, traveling around to the other NBA arenas I find these settings work fairly well from building to building.
I will attempt to add sound files of my before and after processing as well.
EDIT: I am going to provide a graphic on microphone choices and placement.
Kyle
This past NBA season I made some reference recordings (Flat - No EQ, no processing) of the actual microphones I am using for Key area (paint) and hoop mics. This allowed me to do some research on the sounds I am trying to capture.
I then took those recordings into Adobe Audition, and use its frequency analysis tools to find the critical frequencies to bring the mics to life.
On the graphic below you see a approximate representation of my EQ settings for both Key and Hoop mics.
On Key mics, I try to utilize the physical connection to the basketball hoop support stantion arm to my advantage and bring out its resonant frequency. At the Palace their is a considerable resonance around 90Hz. On the graph below I would include it in the Low Shelf boost then roll off most of the low end leaving 90Hz as its peak on the low end of the spectrum.
Another note you can see illustrated in the OVERLAY graphic... the frequencies of the Key and Hoop mics are not similar, in this manner when you get them blended in together you get a rather robust overall sound with presence.
Overall, traveling around to the other NBA arenas I find these settings work fairly well from building to building.
I will attempt to add sound files of my before and after processing as well.
EDIT: I am going to provide a graphic on microphone choices and placement.
Kyle
Welcome to the Broadcast Audio blog
Here is quite possibly my 3rd or 4th attempt at kick starting a blog spot to focus on the audio for television broadcast world.
My background is in audio engineering / mixing for Sports and Entertainment broadcasts.
I have been in the industry as a audio mixer and editor for almost 20 years. I have held a full time gig with Palace Sports & Entertainment (Detroit Pistons) for 15 years. And I continue to learn from some of the legends who frequent our facility.
I will also focus on the remote trucks that I inhabit and the equipment supplied by the truck vendors.
Also, I hope to create a 101 series of learning modules for the young guns who hope to get into the live broadcast world of mixing.
With that said... im gonna fill in some critical links on the sidebar to truck companies, blank mult sheets and various setups I use on some of the modern digital mixing consoles.
My background is in audio engineering / mixing for Sports and Entertainment broadcasts.
I have been in the industry as a audio mixer and editor for almost 20 years. I have held a full time gig with Palace Sports & Entertainment (Detroit Pistons) for 15 years. And I continue to learn from some of the legends who frequent our facility.
I will also focus on the remote trucks that I inhabit and the equipment supplied by the truck vendors.
Also, I hope to create a 101 series of learning modules for the young guns who hope to get into the live broadcast world of mixing.
With that said... im gonna fill in some critical links on the sidebar to truck companies, blank mult sheets and various setups I use on some of the modern digital mixing consoles.
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