2019 in Review: Trends in Audio Continued, Esports Exploded Standards, in-venue sound, immersive stayed the course of growth By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Friday, December 27, 2019 - 7:00 am
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Story Highlights
The year in sound was generally one of continuing trends in all its applications - particularly in spectrum reallocation, live sound, immersive audio. One exception was esports, which become a commercially competitive sport and saw dedicated mega venues open during the year.
Broadcast Audio
There were no spectrum disruptions this year. Instead, there was more push into alternative neighboring frequencies in search of open bandwidth. On the other hand, fallout from the spectrum reallocations left many wireless users in the lurch for frequency coordination.
The system of database administrators collapsed, said Joe Ciaudelli, director, spectrum affairs, Sennheiser. Professional mic operators currently lack an official resource that they can easily and confidently check for channel availability and register for interference protection.
Mostly, broadcast audio built on previous trends. Development of such standards as the SMPTE ST 2110 suite continued, and multichannel sound pushed beyond 5.1 channels to embrace 7.1.4, if only tentatively for now. But it was still a busy year for ears.
Esports Stadium Arlington is a mega venue helping turn esports into a competitive sport.
Esports
The esports phenomenon continued to gain momentum, expected to reach more than $1 billion in revenue this year and to triple over the next five years. With a growing fan base of more than 450 million viewers globally, this gaming revolution has become as much a sport as football and basketball. Esports Stadium Arlington and Full Sail University's Fortress had opened their mega venues for videogaming, and more commercial (Comcast's $50 million venue for its Fusion team) and collegiate (University of Washington, Ohio State University, and University of North Texas) venues are built.
What sets esports apart from conventional sports at a very fundamental level is that, aside from crowd noise, all of its sound must be artificially created. Unlike traditional broadcast sports, for which microphones and other transducers capture a game's natural sounds, esports' audio comprises electronically generated sound effects. Videogames have already made an art form of their audio, with their own industry awards and recognition. Now that esports has become commercially competitive, its audio will continue to expand its own sonic universe.
Live Sound
Similarly, as conventional sports become more of a pure entertainment play, their live sound becomes increasingly important. Louder, clearer, a bigger bottom - those have become the key criteria for live-sound systems in sports venues in recent years, as venues have become larger and fans in stands have become accustomed to - and often demand - ever-higher SPL.
Music-touring sound systems have become the gold standard for stadiums and arenas, as sports venues increasingly are part of larger destination entertainment campuses. Avenida Houston, for example, hosts the MLB Astros' Minute Maid Park, the MLS Dynamos' BBVA Compass Stadium, and the NFL Texans' NRG Stadium, and the Atlanta Braves' new SunTrust Park at the Battery Atlanta also houses the Coca-Cola Roxy music venue and shopping, dining, and office space.
Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium features 4,500 JBL speakers of various types.
In 2019, sports venues accommodated a large number of rider-friendly or rider-ready PA systems, those widely accepted by top-tier touring music artists, who list them on their contract addenda (or riders ).
American football has invaded overseas markets, and so are U.S.-inspired venue-AV designs. That was illustrated this year with the opening of the Tottenham Hotspurs' super stadium in London, a facility that would be at home in any major U.S. city and throughout which 4,500 JBL speakers of various types were installed. The speakers range from the 18 VLA-C weatherized compact line arrays that ring the bowl, a design derived from JBL's concert-touring VTX series speakers and intended to connect with touring sound systems, to the CBT columnar speakers in back-of-house areas. Appropriately, given current trends, the audio consultant on the project was Joe O'Herlihy, longtime audio director and live-sound engineer for U2.
Going Deep
Immersive audio inched toward to the mainstream in 2019. NBC Sports capped two full years of Dolby Atmos immersive audio on all Notre Dame Football home games for DirecTV customers, and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) continued a three-year trial of Atmos for regular-season and finals races. The 7.1.4 format is expected to play a large role in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics next summer.
Miked Up
2019 saw on-player audio become more norm than novelty. For instance, for the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, NBC Sports wired four players per team, as well as both coaches and two referees, for sound, and some of the dozen audio sources from the live broadcast were used for an hour-long special broadcast later.
I can't remember having personal mics on this many athletes in a game before, said Karl Malone, director, sound design, NBC Olympics and Sports, at the time. It would be difficult for many reasons to mix the 12 mics live; you would miss conversations perhaps on iso-camera records that would have been good to hear. We also need to protect the privacy of the athlete. That's why we are building a whole hour-long show around the content we get in this game.
Education
What may have hit some headwinds during the year was pro-audio education. The smaller schools we work with don't touch it,
