Sports Audio Summit 2024: Immersive sound and inclusivity discussions top the bill at bustling London event By Kevin Emmott
Monday, November 25, 2024 - 17:03
Print This Story
The third annual Sports Audio Summit was the biggest one yet, attracting more than 100 sound professionals from around Europe for a day of debate, discussion and insight. Kevin Emmott has the full story of the day.
Sports Audio Summit 2024, sponsored by Audio-Technica, got off the starting blocks with a two-hander from this summer's Olympic Games, with Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) senior manager, audio, Nuno Duarte (pictured above and below, left) looking at the Games from the host broadcaster's perspective, and NBC Sports and Olympics, senior director of audio engineering Karl Malone (pictured below, right) representing one of the world's biggest rights holders.
Immersive audio is no longer as challenging as it once was: it's now produced as standard. But with over a hundred audio A1s, 90 audio consoles, 3,680 microphones and a 509 strong crew to manage, producing over 11,000 hours of live audio content was.
We had 128 A1s mixing during the Games, and all of them have to provide a consistent product across every sport, all in 5.1.4, for two weeks straight. And that is difficult, said Duarte. Difficult because we have many different cultures and experiences to manage, and some sports are very difficult to mix. This year the technical audio setup was not the most difficult part.
Meanwhile, Malone noted the event was NBC Olympics' most successful ever, broadcast across more channels, with a significant increase in online viewers.
There were 4.1 million viewers that accessed the Peacock streaming service on NBC, with a 500% increase on social media viewership over the Tokyo Olympics, he said, leading to new initiatives to drive engagement, such as the application of Apple Airpods to generate content in the training enclosures.
Making it personal: The future of audio tech More new initiatives, and specifically next-generation audio (NGA) initiatives, were on the bill in the next session, a joint discussion chaired by consultant Roger Charlesworth. Malone remained on stage and was joined by BBC senior audio R&D engineer David Marston, Salsa Sound co-founder and director (and Associate Professor in Audio Technology at the University of Salford) Dr Ben Shirley, and Dolby Laboratories senior staff architect James Cowdery.
The subject of audio personalisation was high on the agenda, a theme that panellists would return to throughout the afternoon, as the discussion looked at how technologies are coming together to make the possibly of user personalisation a reality.
For us, microphones are not just sound recorders, they are data gatherers. There's so much data out there, and microphones are constantly sampling and capturing that data.
Metadata is the answer, but where we've really struggled in the past was having a single concept for metadata that travelled well across different transports, said Cowdery. I think with Serial-ADM we have a really good platform, with metadata that can flow nicely and a lot of different standards all coming together.
Marston added that while personalisation could put the power into the hands of consumers to deal with a range of challenges, from hearing loss to neurodiversity, it will be important to set limits on what the consumer can modify to maintain the artistic integrity of the content creators: This is where it is important to have metadata in place to set rules and limits on how much can be modified.
First on the throttle: MotoGP excelling in audio After 32 years working with superbikes, Dorna Sports head of global technology for MotoGP Sergi Sendra (pictured, below) was next on stage for a spirited and passionate discussion with SVG Europe editor Heather McLean about sound in the saddle. Sendra has spent the last 10 years standardising the audio coverage of MotoGP across multiple international territories, and the championship now makes use of 200 mics, half of which are located on the bikes themselves.
Sendra identified several key advances and how working directly with partners like Lawo and Audio-Technica, as well as multiple engineers, has helped accelerate the sport's coverage. And he's not finished yet, working on adapting audio technology into helmets to literally get into the heads of the riders. But it's not an easy adaptation.
In Formula One, the driver is sitting in the car with an in-ear with speakers inside a silicon block, and because he's not moving, it's comfortable, he said. When we test it in MotoGP, the rider is moving all the time and feels it because he's pushing 350km per hour.
The helmet is very serious. So we are working with 10 different helmet manufacturers; we are talking to the 22 riders; we are talking to the engineers; and we need to do all of this passively. It will take a long time, but we are trying to succeed within all the parameters we have.
Presentation: Masterclass: Audio Intelligence - Real-world use of AI in live broadcast audio With AI and cloud production both hot topics over the last two Sports Audio Summits, two technology vendors both provided insights into more recent developments, with co-founder and CEO of Salsa Sound Rob Oldfield and SSL director of product management Tom Knowles both providing overviews of recent projects and providing a glimpse into what might come next.
For us, microphones are not just sound recorders, they are data gatherers, said Oldfield. There's so much data out there, and microphones are constantly sampling and capturing that data; that's why we're so passionate about AI. It's all data processing, and can we use that data to do some really cool stuff.
Some of that cool stuff includes Salsa's Mi
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/03/2026
NBC Sports selected Imaginary Forces to create the main title sequence for the M...
02/03/2026
The NFL announces the launch of the NFL Draft Innovation Challenge, a new crowds...
02/03/2026
The World Teleport Association (WTA) has named Skyline Communications' DataMiner SatOps solution as a finalist for the 2026 Teleport Technology of the Year ...
02/03/2026
Ventum Tech announces a strategic partnership with Pixotope, a real-time graphic...
02/03/2026
Victory , a free, ad-supported sports streaming service, announces the launch of...
02/03/2026
Global powerhouse Delta Goodrem to represent Australia at this year's Eurovi...
02/03/2026
SBS brings together prominent voices to discuss rising social division and seek ...
02/03/2026
NITV Unveils Wednesday Night Sport Night
Media releases
A Midweek Hub for Blak Sport
Flagship NRL program Over The Black Dot moves to Wednesdays at 9:30pm
...
02/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz demonstrates FR1-FR3 carrier aggregation, advancing 6G readiness Rohde & Schwarz and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. have reached another pivotal ...
02/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 2, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announc...
02/03/2026
Harvey Norman tops New Zealand's biggest ad spenders as retail leads and telcos and beverages sure Auckland March 3, 2026 - Nielsen's New Zealand'...
02/03/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, and Arqit Quantum Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQQ, A...
02/03/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, has appointed Jody Boatwright as Chief Strategy Of...
02/03/2026
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management, is reinforcing its commitment to simplifying complex AV environments with the continued evolution of its TPN...
02/03/2026
ZEISS Cinema opens its doors to an exclusive screening, filmmakers Q&A and hands-on showcase of the new ZEISS Aatma lens family on Tuesday, March 10, 6:00-9:00 ...
02/03/2026
To expand the creative potential of the compact Astera QuikBeam, DoPchoice introduces the SNAPBAG Round. The new light-shaping accessory transforms the powerfu...
02/03/2026
Douglas Dubler
On a rooftop in New York City, veteran photographer Douglas Dubler watched the sun's angle shift across the urban landscape, his internal cl...
02/03/2026
ZEISS is expanding its Otus ML lens family with the introduction of the new ZEISS Otus ML 1.4/35. This manual-focus lens is designed for photographers who live ...
02/03/2026
Matthews Studio Equipment now offers the new Dinkum Systems White FlexiMount and Phone Mount Kit, a compact, highly adaptable setup for mobile content creation...
02/03/2026
Luxembourg, February 26, 2026 - SES and Africa Mobile Network (AMN) have expande...
02/03/2026
02 03 2026 - Media release Ausfilm and Screen Australia launch joint UK market initiative
Ausfilm and Screen Australia have announced Partner with Australia (...
02/03/2026
Monday 2 March 2026
Saturday Night Live UK announces writing team
L-R: Jonno Johnson; Charlie Skelton; Celya AB; Omar Badawy; Gr inne Maguire; Laura Claxton; ...
02/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer for 53 Sundays, the New Film by Cesc Gay
Entertainment
02 March 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Dis...
28/02/2026
With two features seen in Formula 1 coverage, the broadcaster aims to bring view...
28/02/2026
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addresses a crowd of approximately 1,500 L3Harris employees in Camden, Arkansas, as part of his Arsenal of Freedom tour....
28/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/02/2026
Berklee Presents Mambo Mania: Eguie Castrillo and the Berklee All-Stars Big Band...
28/02/2026
Berklee Announces Two New Summer Programs in Los Angeles The Berklee Music Business Program and Electronic Music Production and Sound Design Workshop bring imme...
28/02/2026
AI-RAN is moving from lab to field, showing that a software-defined approach is ...
28/02/2026
Autonomous networks - intelligent, self-managing telecommunications operations -...
28/02/2026
Back to All News
Final Trailer for BEASTARS Final Season Part 2' Roars Tow...
28/02/2026
New way to intentionally discover molecular glues could expand drug discovery Scripps Research scientists and colleagues show how drugs that eliminate certain d...
27/02/2026
The E.W. Scripps Company names Oliver Gray as Vice President, Network Sports and...
27/02/2026
The Gotham Sports App, the exclusive direct-to-consumer streaming home of MSG Networks and the YES Network, is now available for purchase through Prime Video fo...
Sports Audio Summit 2024: Immersive sound and inclusivity discussions top the bill at bustling London event By Kevin Emmott 
