DPA Microphones Helps UEFA Deliver the Roar of the Crowd

As every soccer fan knows, the roar of the crowd at a major game is just as important as the action on the pitch when it comes to truly experiencing the excitement of the event. With this in mind, OB specialist United Studios and Outside Broadcast chose DPA Microphones' 5100 Mobile Surround Microphone, 4006A Omni Microphones and 4017B Shotgun Microphones to capture the ambience of the Amsterdam Arena when SL Benfica played Chelsea in the 2013 UEFA Europa League Final on May 15.

UEFA was adamant that the broadcast quality had to be top class as this was a huge 35 camera production that was going out to broadcasters all over the world, say Huub Lelieveld, senior sound supervisor for United. We wanted to make sure the audio quality matched that excellence. To do this, we wanted to capture the ambience of the stadium in phase coherent surround so that it sounded huge in surround, but also still sounded great in stereo and even mono.

Supplied by DPA's Dutch distributor Amptec, the 5100 is widely regarded for picking up surround ambience. It was the perfect microphone for the task because its compact size and ease of use comes at no sacrifice to stunning sound quality. Ideal for bringing truly engaging surround ambience to sport events, documentaries and other ambience applications, especially HDTV productions, these microphones require no external signal processing and are versatile enough to be mounted on a camera or microphone stand, suspended or simply held via a hand grip.

Lelieveld, in conjunction with his colleague Mischa Kortleve, tested the 5100 microphone during one of the UEFA preliminary rounds in the Amsterdam Arena to ensure they were the right choice for the important final event.

We recorded all our microphones to multitrack and decided, after extensive listening tests, that the 5100 was perfect for the final, says Lelieveld. The microphone was rigged in the catwalk of the stadium where it was able to capture the whole arena in surround. We complemented this system with four DPA 4006A Omni Microphones, which were hung from the catwalk in each of the four corners of the stadium. We also used two DPA 4017B Shotgun Microphones positioned on our two Steadicams as these were smaller and lighter than the microphones we usually use.

Based in Hilversum, Holland, United is part of the huge Euro Media Group that has production and post-production facilities in Belgium, France, England, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. United operates nine state of the art Outside Broadcast vehicles and mobile control rooms and provides broadcast facilities to capture major sporting events and live music concerts all over Europe.

We were really delighted with the performance of all of our DPA microphones, but in particular the 5100 Mobile Surround Microphone, which sounded fantastic, concludes Lelieveld. It was incredibly easy to rig and protect from bad weather and was significantly less expensive than other microphone systems. Thanks to the DPA 5100, we achieved a rich, smooth and fully enveloping sound that was great in its coherence, channel separation and localization accuracy.

For the UEFA Europa League Final, United provided the live broadcast feed to Infostrada Sports, which distributed it around the world. For anyone who didn't see the game, the final score was two to one, Chelsea.

ABOUT DPA:

DPA Microphones A/S is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high quality condenser microphones and microphone solutions for professional applications in studio, broadcast, theatre, video/film and sound reinforcement environments. All DPA microphones and components are manufactured at the company's purpose-built factory in Denmark.

For more information on DPA Microphones, please visit http://www.dpamicrophones.com.

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