DARMSTADT, Germany—All sound engineers probably agree that delivering high-quality audio mixes for sporting events requires a versatile mixing console, a good speaker setup, and carefully selected microphones with an excellent tonal balance.
For my work at tier-one events, I need a console that provides quick access to all critical features, is easy and fast to configure, and is flexible. For this, I use as many direct access buttons and custom functions as possible. Designed to address these needs, the Lawo mc²56 console makes it easy to check the availability and status of hundreds of audio sources.
Dolby Atmos Sound
This is especially important for Dolby Atmos productions where I need to create and monitor several 5.1.4 presentations, as well as 5.1 and stereo renditions provided by the mc²56’s downmix function—both with and without commentary. Near-instant tweaks are of the essence when the world is watching.
Automation tools such as audio-follows-video, Lawo’s KICK software for tracking-based, close-ball mixing that delivers crisp ball and other on-pitch noises—and increasingly AI, which I use to clean audio signals such as commentary—have become essential. Without them, the high audio-quality standards viewers have come to expect would probably be impossible to achieve.
I prefer to mix remotely, in an optimized acoustic environment, which usually involves audio sources coming from several locations. The Remote Audio Control Room (RACR) in Germany, where I mix frequently, provides such an environment. While this might work with proprietary MADI over Ethernet connections, only an IP-based network allows me to mix signals originating from different parts of the world.
The total absence of bleed from the venue allows me to make informed decisions about the sound. Today’s audio and video workflows more than justify using a networked ST 2110 backbone for the production of top-notch TV events, be they World Cups, four-year athletics jamborees or music performances.
Lawo mc² consoles have become the de facto standard in all productions I work for. Almost all OB trucks in Germany and the Benelux are equipped with Lawo desks, and the host broadcaster for global soccer events also provides them. So, for me, there is definitely a muscle-memory dimension to Lawo consoles: I know them inside out and find their layout highly intuitive. Working with an mc² console almost feels like my fingers can reach inside the desk and directly touch what I need to refine. This gives me speed, reliability and confidence.
I also use a lot of plug-ins, such as Waves, high-quality Seventh Heaven reverbs, AI tools such as Clear or Clarity and many others, depending on the production, as well as new metering tools that we developed at the university.
Quest for Big Audio
I am very lucky to work on so many immersive audio mixes: the whole crowd is cheering, music is playing, different camera angles are shown in rapid succession—and everything is immersing you. This conveys the impression that viewers at home are actually at the event.
We spent the last 20 years looking for “bigger” audio as video moved from SD to HD, then to UHD and HDR. The tricky part was figuring out how to get rid of unwanted noises in the audio for optimal channel separation. We now have the tools to provide an enveloping sound experience, and we can even specify the scale of an immersive mix to match the average screen size viewers have in their homes—or make it as huge as we like.
More information is available on the Lawo website.
