LONDON—When mic-ing up for a sporting
event, consider that most U.S-based
sound technicians who work on major
league sports normally stick to those that
are most popular domestically. That means
many of them are highly skilled in the nuances
of sound for baseball, football, basketball,
hockey, golf and auto racing.
Then consider that many of those same
people, who are well-respected in sports
circles, will therefore be asked to work
the Olympics— which revolves around
dozens of sports that aren’t part of the
mainstream in the United States.
That can present an interesting set of
circumstances when those technicians
are being asked to cover sports that are
somewhat, well, foreign to them—such as
archery, badminton, track and field, and
gymnastics.
But don’t think that domestic operators
don’t want to broaden their skills by
working a more varied palette of sporting
events, according to Dennis Baxter,
a freelance soundman who has served as
the full-time audio designer for the host
broadcaster, as well the International
Olympic Committee, dating back to the
Atlanta games in 1996.
“The challenges presented
by covering
various sports can be interesting,
especially considering
that mics have
not changed much since
they were invented,” said
Baxter, “in stark contrast
to the rest of the TV industry.”
That’s because of the
basic approach that’s required.
“The physics of sound is about the
movement of air. And the diaphragm is set
in motion by the movement of air to capture
sound. No one has figured out how
to make any enhancements, though the
speakers have certainly improved.”
Baxter oversees the pool feed for the
world, “meaning NBC is one of my clients.
So we produce the soundtrack for
the world, opening to closing, for every
athlete,” he said, “and we do 60 different
sports.”
BEYOND TRADITIONAL MICS
Since the aforementioned marquee
sports get most of the coverage in the
U.S., that’s what the production teams become
the most proficient in covering.
 |
|
The Audio Technica BP4071L is used with a microphone operator to follow the action. |
“So when the Olympics start, we have
little time to ever get it right. We spend
lots of time putting the plans on paper,
and conferring with different people and
technologies in the other sports, to try to
perfect it. We have 20 production teams
from around the world, all pros in their
own field. And they all have their own
ideas about what works.”
As for Baxter’s journey, nine Olympics
ago in Atlanta he was determined to get
beyond the traditional mics that had been
used. Now, he has. “We use 25 types of
mics during the course of the games and I
started looking for micro details,” he said.
That took a great deal of work and
enough numbers-crunching for a team of
statisticians, given that those 25 types of
mics are from the 3,500 total that Baxter
uses during the Olympics (with the addition
of golf to the games in Rio de Janeiro
in 2016, he’s planning on using up to
4,000); 25 unique models are from Audio
Technica, the manufacturer that Baxter
primarily relies on.
“There are about 50 different setups in
the Olympics,” he said. “One subset is the
gymnastics events, where we use 25 mics,
including mono shotguns, stereo shotguns,
lavaliers, contact mics, dual-element
and studio-grade large diaphragm mics to
completely construct the sound.
“A major component of that selection
is the housing and size of the mics. I’m
looking to put the mics as close as possible
to the athletes and the action,” Baxter
said, “and we build layers from there.”
 |
|
This Audio Technica boundary microphone captures the pounding running sounds as Olympic gymnasts approach the horse. |
For instance, if he’s covering the vault
of gymnastics, he starts at the chalking
box with a wireless mic so the viewers
can hear the hand slap. Along the runup
ramp are
boundary mics
on both sides,
so they hear
the pounding
running sounds
as the athletes
approach the
horse. Under
that runway
(actually a oneinch
piece of
birch plywood)
are contact (or
velocity) mics
that detect the vibrations
in a resonant
surface.
Then there are
lapel mics on the
vault; one faces
the athlete and
one is set toward
the landing zone,
where there are
additional boundary
and lapel mics.
And that’s just
one of the six
events that compose
the gymnastics
competition.
“Then we cover every single sport to the
same level, including vaults, hurdles, tennis
nets, etc.
EXPANDING ROSTER
To think: “In 1992, the Olympic mic roster
was basically lapel, long shotgun and
short shotgun,” he said.
Baxter gave a special nod to Audio
Technica. “I’ve dealt with all of the major
manufacturers. Since 1996, I’ve made significant
changes in my approach because
a manufacturer may have designed a mic
for a certain purpose, but I may want to
use it in a different way” he said.
“For example, when I came across the
small, flat boundary mic, I found a tool
with a low visual profile and was safe to
place close to the athletes,” he said, with
another example being his use of AT
4045s spaced in arrays for all of his atmosphere
mics.
All told, the company was very helpful,
he said. “In sports, there should be a lot of
consideration to use lots of mics,” he said,
“and for the Olympics, since they are so
diverse, we had to rethink the sound stuff.
Audio Technica was a supportive and willing
partner and has made every attempt
to satisfy my needs.”
Referring to a documentary that aired
on BBC Radio 4 in the U.K., “The Sounds
of Sports,” Baxter noted that the mere
existence of such a program proves that
there is much more going on in the sound
department than meets most ears.
“I was astonished at how many nonindustry
people listened to that show,” he
said. “It explained how and why sound
coverage is different for each of each
sport is very, very unique.”