Game, Set and Match: NEP Audio Production at Wimbledon 2022 Boosted by Strong Team Led by Women

Game, set and match: NEP audio production at Wimbledon 2022 boosted by strong team led by women By Heather McLean, Editor

Friday, July 8, 2022 - 09:50

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Sophie Lambert, freelance audio engineer, is working as the A2 on court 15 at The Championships this year

NEP is once again providing Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) with technical services across the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) Championships this year, and its audio crew is being led from the front by women.

This year NEP is also doing BBC Sport's unilateral coverage, which it did previously from 2014 to 2018, when Arena won the contract. Following Arena's collapse, NEP is fulfilling the contract this year and then it will go out to tender for The Championships.

We've had a number of women working with us over the years and we always look to recruit the best people, regardless of sex, creed, race; we just want a good, strong team, and that's what we've always done in our sound department

Comments Neville Hooper, deputy head of sound at NEP UK: We have around 60 sound crew operating on site across the WBS contract, providing host coverage, interviews and press conferences via the interview rooms, as well as Wimbledon Uncovered and the world feed operation.

Of these, Lynn Munro is mixing Centre Court, Nicola Pollard is mixing No. 1 Court, Louise Willcox is a relief outside courts mixer, Caroline Brampton is mixing the world feed show, Sophie Lambert is A2 on Court 15, and Andria Sjoberg is A2 on Court 16.

In addition, of the four A2's on the BBC domestic coverage that we are providing this year, we have Jo Salisbury and Judith Healey on the crew, both of whom we have worked with for many years.

Lynn Munro is mixing Centre Court for NEP at Wimbledon

Recruiting the best people

Hooper adds: There's a good number of women working on site, and we always try and include them when they're available. Often they're in demand and they're hard to get a hold of, which is certainly something we found. We've had a number of women working with us over the years and we always look to recruit the best people, regardless of sex, creed, race; we just want a good, strong team, and that's what we've always done in our sound department. We are just keen to be inclusive and just get the best people involved.

Trying to get a consistent 5.1 audio design across all of the courts is not impossible, but very hard. We spend a lot of time talking about the esoterics of where to put microphones

There are several women in audio working on site at Wimbledon outside of NEP's crew, including Caroline Brampton, broadcast sound supervisor, audio engineer and operator, who is mixing the world feed for NEP, and Ruth Parfitt, freelance sound engineer, for Warner Bros. Discovery working with Gravity Media.

On the number of women at Wimbledon working in audio, Louise Willcox, relief sound supervisor at Wimbledon working for NEP during the event and freelance sound supervisor, says: We're getting more prevalent, let's put it that way. In the broadcast community, generally, if you're looking at the number of sound supervisors who exist in the UK, you're probably only talking about a cohort of about 150 people. It's not surprising we all meet each other. And hopefully, we're bringing on new talent as we go. There's not been that much proper training gone on over the years, but we do try and pass on our skills where we can.

Tennis audio challenges

On what the key challenges are for Willcox on this Wimbledon in particular, she notes: The challenge at Wimbledon always is that all of the courts, with the exception of Centre and No. 1, are different in shape and size, and size of audience [watching live matches]. Trying to get a consistent 5.1 audio design across all of the courts is not impossible, but very hard.

We spend a lot of time talking about the esoterics of where to put microphones for the rears, the centre, the stereo across the front, commentary, and trying to manage the acoustics, Willcox goes on. So that's one of the biggest challenges; it's just such a large set of courts. Making something that's acceptable [quality] for all of the [rights holders], who just want a consistent audio picture of audience behind you and to the sides and action in front of you, sometimes that's not quite as easy to produce here because it's such a quirky location.

The nice thing is that I've been able to sit in [with an A1] and mix for a little while, under the guidance of the guys who are doing the mixing, which is an opportunity that doesn't come along very often

Willcox states: Here we are mixing sound on Courts 3, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, Centre, No. 1 and No. 2, obviously. The Centre, 1 and 2 Courts we're treating slightly more prestigiously, because they are the bigger show. There are sound mixers associated with each of those.

Last year, there were three and this year there are six relief sound supervisors, increased numbers to cope with, I think, the fact that there is a playing on Sunday this year that there hasn't been in previous years, and also, I suspect, as COVID spares'. We have had a few people go sick, fortunately not in sound supervisor roles.

I'm one of the six sound supervisors allocated to mix in any of those courts, to give people two meal reliefs per day, Willcox continues. And where we can, we're trying to make sure people don't do more than 12 hour days. So some of us turn up late and finish late, some start early and finish early, to make sure everybody gets a reasonable lifestyle and can actually get home on time.

Willcox has also taken on the role of scheduling those meal breaks for the entire audio team, which is no mean feat. I stupidly took on the rol

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