
Preparing for the Return of Sports: A1s Ready To Mix Live Broadcasts in the Age of Empty Arenas Viewers will realize that crowds add more to sports than ticket sales By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, March 30, 2020 - 11:49 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The precipitous shutdown of most major-league sports three weeks ago, including the NCAA's iconic March Madness series, took almost everyone by surprise. But, even as the leagues were devising their doomsday scenarios, the frontline audio troops were working on tactical solutions for making the games happen in empty arenas - efforts that will likely still pay dividends: although the events are canceled for now, the solutions the audio teams have devised will be ready when sports return to the air, likely with fan attendance limited until the pandemic has significantly abated.
Phil Adler, who had been scheduled to mix the First Four games of the NCAA's March Madness for Turner's TruTV in Dayton, OH, describes what that might have sounded like.
Audio mixers have developed strategies in case attendance is limited when sports first return to television.
If it's a close game, that's when you're really going to miss the sound of the crowds, he says. We'll have lots of [court] effects and the announcers but minimal ambient sound. There's not much I can do about that.
Mixing NCAA games involves fewer audio sources than NBA games offer, because college basketball doesn't allow players or coaches to wear microphones. And piping in prerecorded ambient and crowd sounds is out of the question, Adler points out: We're here to document a live event; we're not making a film. If there is no one in the stands, then you can't fake it. It's a national [news] story.
Fewer Mics, Carefully Placed
Adler says he has had to deal with crowds of various sizes over the decade or so that he has mixed these games, so there is some precedent for dealing with sparsely populated echoic venues. Crowd microphones would still be deployed, to provide at least some ambience enveloping the more focused court effects. However, he cautions, their placement has to be carefully considered.
If they're too far away, like the two we usually have on the high-center cameras, too much of the court sound can get into them because they're not being filled with the crowd noise, and that can cause delay problems with the microphones that are picking up the court sounds directly, he explains. Instead, we'll move those mics to the slash-corner cameras, which are on more like a mezzanine level and closer in.
Veteran NCAA A1 Wendel Stevens's strategy for large reverberant arenas is less is more, dialing back his overall microphone count with the goal being to hear fewer discrete sounds.
My thought is that players and coaches will be too easily heard and understood, he says, creating specific bits of audio that could distract from the game instead of contributing to a larger ambient bed around it. In addition, dialog from the game could be colorful' and might compete in the mix with announcer dialog. I think I still have to put out rear [surround] mics to give the show some depth, even though they'll be pointed into an empty bowl. But we need something back there to swirl into the mix.
Crowds Count
The coronavirus pandemic has compelled broadcasters to radically rethink how sports audio may have to be mixed on television when the crowd-sound element is not available.
I don't think we mixers realize what a [foundational] ingredient the crowd noise is to a mix, Stevens observes, noting that the crowds provide both a palette of individual elements that mixers can emphasize when appropriate and a flexible sonic mortar that acts like a grout around the many other sound elements in a sports mix, helping hold them together. In addition, crowd sounds actually mask the mix process itself, making the audio experience seamless and transparent and helping create the sense that the home viewer is there in the stands.
We actively mix to pull out game sounds, with the crowd noise helping us hide all the mixing going on, he explains. It will probably be much easier to hear the actual mixing of sources without something there to smooth it over.
Wiring athletes for sound has added a huge new dimension to sports broadcasts in recent years. However, that intimate audio may depend more than many realize on being part of a larger, more complex mix.
I believe mixers will need to be more cautious with player mics, opines Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Fred Aldous, who mixed NFL and NASCAR in a long career. Without having the crowd as a base to mix in and out of, player mics have the potential to sound unnatural and too dry in the mix. There is also a greater potential of hearing more language that is not suitable for broadcast by not having the crowd to mix against and bury the unwanted language.
Uncertain Future
No one knows how this singular situation for sports on television will turn out, but Aldous sees two sides in possibly broadcasting with empty seats.
From an audio perspective, he explains, a positive by-product of not having the contamination of loud PA systems and loud crowd is that the sound of the event should be phenomenal; the mixer should be able to pick up the nuances of the sport that we would not normally get.
On the negative side, he continues, I am a fan of big, loud crowd at an event; it helps bring the energy level up for the players as well as bringing that excitement to the viewing audience at home. When I mix an NFL game, I prefer a louder crowd to mix in and out of, making the broadcast more exciting. If the crowd is not that into it, it makes it more difficult to bring the excitement to the viewer, albeit it allows the mixer to get be
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...
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 ...
15/04/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live
Brie Clayton April 15, 2026
0 Comments
Powerful software-based live audio mixer with support for SMPTE-2110...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Strategic Alignment With the Riedel Group for Innovation and Growth
Thomas Riedel, founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group, has acqui...
15/04/2026
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company's Rally platform has been deployed by Iyuno Media...
15/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the worlds leading streaming television channels, has become the platform of choice for leading U.S. broadcasters bringing ...
15/04/2026
New Service Simplifies Integration of AI Applications with Exceptional Reliability and Security
SAN JOSE, Calif. April 14, 2026 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) t...
15/04/2026
During the 2025 off-season, VIDI completed a major upgrade of the broadcast infrastructure across all 36 stadiums in Germany's 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The p...
15/04/2026
Clear-Com announced significant updates to its award-winning Arcadia Central Station as well as enhancements to the Eclipse HX Digital Matrix System now runn...
15/04/2026
Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026
Brie Clayton April 15, 2026
0 Comments
New system removes PTZ pan restric...
15/04/2026
LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File...
15/04/2026
This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation Keefer Glenshaws latest project is about collaborating with the Berklee community and beyond.
Apr...
15/04/2026
Two Cities Television and Keeper Pictures to produce six-part series in association with Screen Ireland for RT and ITV Studios
RT has commissioned Two Citie...
15/04/2026
RT 100
RT unveils The Signal' a specially commissioned 60-second film
...
15/04/2026
The NAB Show 2026 trade show, running April 18-22 in Las Vegas, is set to showcase a wave of new features and optimizations for top video editing applications. ...
14/04/2026
ToolsOnAir and Omnistream Bring Mobile SRT Contribution into Professional 24/7 P...
14/04/2026
Haivision has announced the Falkon X4, a 5G mobile video transmitter for live broadcast and remote production. The device will be showcased at NAB Show 2026.
...
14/04/2026
Founded by veterans of the production-truck world, Stripe TV was born out of a d...
14/04/2026
Grass Valley has expanded its partnership with Studio Berlin, supplying 12 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 12 LDX 180 Super 35mm cinematic cameras, including...
14/04/2026
LTN has announced two senior appointments ahead of NAB Show 2026: Mark Romano as Vice President, Multichannel Platforms, and Edward Cox as Vice President, Sales...
14/04/2026
Sennheiser and Italian rental company Agor have begun preparations for their Eu...
14/04/2026
DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced a partnership to integrate ADI Predict...
14/04/2026
Deltatre has announced the completion of a direct-to-fan website and app for Leg...
14/04/2026
Daktronics, will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 in partnership with Grass Valley at Booth C2408, Las Vegas Convention Center, April 19-22.
Daktronics will showcase a...
14/04/2026
Backblaze will host a series of partner presentations at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N1259, North Hall), open to all exhibition hall badge holders. Showcase partners i...
14/04/2026
BRAHMA AI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2415, West Hall), demonstrating its Enterprise AI Content Platform for media, entertainment, sports, and technol...
14/04/2026
Bridge Technologies has announced that its VB440 production probe has been integrated into NEP Platform, NEP Group's software orchestration system. The inte...
14/04/2026
Clear-Com will introduce new products and demonstrate its communications ecosystem for broadcast and live production at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5807, April 19-22)...
14/04/2026
EZDRM will use NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2260) to introduce the Revenue Security Prism, a framework for combining multiple security technologies to protect streamin...
14/04/2026
Telos Alliance will introduce the following products at NAB Show 2026:
TV and Media
Telos Infinity MK2 Panels: A new generation of hardware control panels for...
14/04/2026
Panasonic Video and Audio Systems North America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C3509), demonstrating IP- and IT-based production solutions for sports, bro...
14/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
14/04/2026
Blackmagic Design will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2502). CEO Grant Petty s product announcement livestream is available at youtube.com. The company announ...
14/04/2026
The deal establishes a close strategic alignment' between the iconic cinema...
14/04/2026
BIGSHOT Media, with support from Teradek, produced untamed African mountain-bike race' with daily coverage and highlights show
The 2026 Absa Cape EPIC, an...
14/04/2026
The Sports Video Group (SVG) today announced the launch of the SVG AI Innovation...
14/04/2026
Captures a trio of renowned polysynths
The latest software to join AIR Music Tech's extensive catalogue captures the sound of three sought-after polysyn...
14/04/2026
Free offering includes 10 powerful plug-ins
United Plugins have announced the launch of a new bundle that brings together 10 of their pro-audio plug-ins, an...
14/04/2026
Julian Coryell joins virtual session player line-up
Announced at NAMM 2026, Celemony's Tonalic kits DAW users out with real performances by world-class ...
14/04/2026
WESCAM MX -Series EO/IR Systems Provide Critical Visibility During NASA Re-Entry Operations....