Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) is providing Paris 2024 rights holders with discrete audio through careful sound design. This concept, which uses immersive audio created in the design, brings viewers closer to every sound of the Games, from the whipping of a ribbon on a rhythmic gymnastics mat to the gasps of fans watching taekwondo in the echoing atmosphere of the Grand Palais.
Speaking to SVG Europe at IBC in Paris, Nuno Duarte, Sound Design and Audio Manager at OBS, said: “We have been working on getting the sound like this for a long time. All the hard work for the sound of these Olympic Games has already been done, all in the planning.”
Duarte says the goal is to make the sound of the Olympics better than it is in real life. While at the Stade de France the sound system is difficult to understand as it echoes between the sounds of fans cheering for several sports taking place simultaneously, the music and the athletes themselves, on television it’s a different story.
“I want the sound to be better than (in the stadium). What I’m trying to do is that if I have a spot mic there, all the reverberation effects that you have, it’s all picked up. So now I have about 20 mics (around the stadium), so I don’t get that reverberation because each mic only picks up the main frequency, the main sound, all the reverberation effects are below the threshold of perception.”
Shaping the sound
How OBS creates that atmosphere depends entirely on the placement of the microphones, says Duarte. High-precision sound design means that A1s don’t have to mix the sound from high to low and vice versa. If they did that, it would actually cause technical problems in the overall mix. Duarte explains: “Depending on the venue, we know what we want. That’s why we have 8.0 microphones, 4.0 microphones. So we place microphones to create those high atmospheres. We have to understand that when we record, when we design the sound, we are creating an immersive experience. We don’t process anything.
“That means there are no submixes – in some places that’s probably the case, but we shouldn’t be mixing down or cutting the highs with a low layer, a high layer with a low layer. That’s something we don’t allow our A1s to do because it’s a technical error. A lot of people like to do that, but that creates a technical problem because we’re mixing the same sound source with a time difference and when they come together everything will be different. We’re very sure that what’s high is high and what’s a low layer is a low layer.”
The placement of the microphones is crucial to avoid echoes on the screen, as different microphones will pick up the same sound. Duarte says that in table tennis, for example, there is only one microphone on the table. With two microphones on the table, a “ping” of the ball on the table would sound like a “ping ping” because the impact sound is picked up by two microphones. This concept is repeated in all venues, from the golf course to the Stade de France with its powerful PA, so there is no overlap in the sounds the microphones are designed to pick up.
Duarte says: “If you have a microphone picking up the same sound source from different distances, the sound becomes diffuse because you have the same sound at different volumes and at different times. You can’t understand what is being said. That’s why we separate the microphones so that the same microphone never picks up the same sound as the other microphone. It’s like opening two microphones at the same volume. We can’t understand what (is being said) because your voice goes into the camera microphone and into your separate microphone and becomes diffuse.”
In particularly difficult locations – such as the Grand Palais with its highly reflective glass and steel structure – the microphones are less sensitive and there are more of them, so that each individual sound picks up a specific tone and there is no overlap.
On the sound design for the Grand Palais, Duarte adds: “We use more microphones, so if there are more reflections, the microphones have to be more sensitive so they pick up less sound. If there are a lot of reflections, you can counteract this by turning on more microphones at a lower level.”
“We call it sound alignment.”
Trust in the experts
Duarte doesn’t hire the production crews himself. They come with the production crews who are experts in their sports. Duarte comments: “The mixers come with a production team that brings the directors (and all the crew for a sport). So part of my job is, for example, I’m not a golf specialist, but I know what I want from each sport and how to get it there. (The A1s) are the experts.
“All these people are experts in their sports,” he continues. “Who am I to explain to the golfer or the table tennis player, ‘This is how you have to do it, the microphone on the left, right’? No, I’m just saying: can I help you if we put microphones under the table, but not two microphones, just one, because if you put two microphones you’ll have this problem (where we hear) ping pong a lot. If you want, we’ll put microphones on the table, but only one, to make sure the ball only bounces once, not (it sounds like two) if we have two microphones.”
“We discuss that, and then I tell them for OBS, we want that, and I give them guidelines on how I want the level to be, on the mixes, where I want the pitch, where I want the atmosphere, where I want the immersive. So all (sports) are the same. And that blends into just one production. So if we change (the channel) from table tennis to water polo, the atmosphere is the same. You don’t have the atmosphere here and the atmosphere here, we change it from one sport to another and the atmosphere looks the same. (You can) mix it in a different console, mix it in a different track, not like for example in the World Cup where they try to do the (entire event with) the same console (model); here we can’t do that, otherwise I need too many consoles. So what we have to do is turn around and give them specific guidelines and then (use our quality controllers) to make sure they meet the goals we defined.”
QC Guide
OBS’s audio quality is improved over other top-tier sports because OBS employs a team of audio quality controllers who work with the A1s across a variety of sports to take the sound quality to even higher levels than ever before.
Duarte says: “Our quality from (other major sporting events) to the OBS Olympics is much higher. The main reason is that we have our team here pushing the guys; you have to fix this, you have to fix that, more EQ, more effects, more sound here, more separation.
“Quality control is not just about checking,” he adds.
“It’s not about checking whether (the A1s) are doing well or poorly. It’s about helping them, getting them to the level they want.”