More than 300 million soccer fans tuning into the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Champions League Cup soccer final this summer watched Manchester United defeat Chelsea at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium and listened to the global audio feed mixed on a Calrec Alpha audio console with Bluefin.
The match was the first all-English final in the championship's 52-year history, and UEFA appointed Britain's Sky Television to handle all production requirements. Two Visions OB trucks, HD4 under contract to Sky and HD3 under contract to Russian host broadcasters RTR and NTV, carried Calrec Alpha consoles. Another truck working on behalf of ITV Sport sent by 021 Television also used a Calrec 60-fader Sigma console. Although ITV Sport broadcast the game in SD, an HD rack in that truck was used to record the match for posterity.
The Visions OB HD3 supplied all feeds using a 54-fader Alpha console, including the main 5.1 match mix, stereo match mix and international feeds routed via the technical operations center. The TOC international feed provided every other broadcaster with a clean feed to add local commentary.
Working on his third UEFA Cup Final in as many years, BAFTA award-winning sound designer Robert Edwards mixed the world feed in HD3. Edwards is at the forefront of live-to-air 5.1 surround sound. Besides mixing UK Premier League matches for Sky, he is responsible for a variety of entertainment shows and has mixed live 5.1 soccer audio for the FIFA World Cup.
According to Edwards, a SoundField mic, along with other mics, was used to capture 5.1 audio of fans. Sixteen additional mics were located around the field, and Edwards spent all of time “chasing the ball around with the fader,” he said.
See Calrec at IBC Stand 8.D70, or visit www.calrec.com.
