For the NFL in Europe, It's All About the Crowd Sound A1 Dave Grundtvig changes his protocol to capture consistently loud European fans By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, October 12, 2023 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
London calling - again. After besting the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 1 at Wembley Stadium on ESPN, the Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Buffalo Bills a week later at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the NFL Network. That venue and network will host the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 15. Then, the NFL goes to Germany. NFL Network will air the Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 5 and the Indianapolis Colts and vs. England Patriots at Frankfurt Stadium in Frankfurt, Germany.
The games in Europe look remarkably like any played in the U.S., with onscreen graphics and familiar gridirons painted onto the soccer pitches. Much of the audio will be equally recognizable, with quarterback cadences and helmet clashes picked up by a well-established combination of NFL-controlled player mics and broadcasters' sideline parabolics. But the crowd sounds - those are different.
WBD Sports' Dave Grundtvig: The big thing is to make sure it's a nice, robust, full mix but one in which we also protect the announcers. There'll be a lot to listen for.
Most of what I'll be doing is the same as if I'm doing a game in the States, explains WBD Sports Senior Audio Supervisor, Remote Operations, Dave Grundtvig, who is serving as A1 for the NFL Network broadcasts, working from EMG Nova 111 van. What I'll be doing differently is capturing the audience: the European fans react differently and at different times than the fans do in the U.S. For instance, a first down for the home team in the States, and the crowd will cheer loudly. But here, they might not react at all, maybe because they don't necessarily understand the game as well. On the other hand, they'll react to things that don't necessarily need a reaction to the level at which they would cheer it.
In mixing previous games in Europe, Grundtvig has noticed that the crowds will be consistently loud throughout the game no matter what happens. It is such a raucous crowd, and there is so much energy in that stadium. The play didn't matter. These fans were just constantly cheering and excited.
Audio Mixing Is the Same as in the U.S. As a result, Grundtvig, who is mixing all the NFL Network games with his son Nicholas Grundtvig working as audio submixer, changes his crowd-capture protocol. The main change is the use of six pairs of microphones, mostly Shure VP88 stereo condensers, deployed in a mid-side (M-S) configuration. He says this arrangement allows him to cover the stadium's seating from high to low on all sides and gives him a consistent soundfield when he changes the mic balances as the energy moves from one side to another, a typical crowd-sound dynamic in European football. He'll mix that with the NFL enhanced feed provided by the league, which includes the scrimmage-line audio.
My approach to mixing an NFL game here is the same as in the States, he notes, and I'm deploying the same gear. There'll be more cameras and more tape machines than the games I have in the States, but there's no secret tricks being deployed here that I don't do back home.
(The audio was good enough to clearly catch Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen's cadence LeBron James, LeBron James! for a particular play, which also caught the attention of James himself.)
In addition to the game mix, Grundtvig mixes the audio for the NFL's expansive 2 -hour studio show during the games. The audio comprises a host position with four mics, an outside plaza position with two mics, and an RF reporter who has three positions, and the entire audio mix is sent to the NFL Network facility next to Los Angeles's SoFi Stadium for a final mix to air.
As with an NFL game in the U.S., Grundtvig will fill the surrounds in the 5.1 broadcast mainly with crowd and ambient sounds. But the crowd sound occupies the greater share of his attention as he mixes, trying to anticipate the swells and the (slightly) quieter moments - for instance, crowd noise may wane momentarily right after a flag is thrown for an obscure rules infraction - to give U.S. viewers a sense that the game is being played in a very different environment.
NFL football - American football - is becoming very popular over here, he acknowledges. The fans are learning more and more about the fine points of the game. I think a lot of the challenge for the audio person is to authentically capture that energy that the fans are going to provide. That's what I'm going to have fun with. The big thing is to make sure it's a nice, robust, full mix but one in which we also protect the announcers. There'll be a lot to listen for.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
For the NFL in Europe, It's All About the Crowd Sound A1 Dave Grundtvig changes his protocol to capture consistently loud European fans By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
