The Sounds of the NHL in the Bubble
31/08/2020
Chuck, who has been sharing mixing duties on a Calrec Artemis audio console since 24th July 2020, has written this very current and relevant back to work account that provides a window into the world of audio inside the NHL Bubble.
NHL is Back
With the NHL returning to North America, we had a very unique sound situation to deal with. Obviously we'd be returning with no crowd in the arena, and new guidelines in place to restrict the spread of COVID-19. The NHL has done an amazing job of sheltering it's players, staff, officials, broadcast crews, and service industry workers inside a secure bubble. We're all tested daily for COVID-19, plus undergo a screening questionnaire and temperature check before entering the venue and hotels. We're committed to staying inside the NHL bubble until the end of the Playoff series, which could go until early October. It's an adjustment, being confined to a small area including your hotel and the hockey rink, but we're all excited to be back doing what we love.
The Crew & Setup
Our audio crew is from across Canada and includes Patrick Castonguay and myself sharing the broadcast mix duties in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Benito Altobelli is with us as relief and backup A1 in the (hopefully) unlikely case of someone getting sick. Jeff Kozak is in charge of the Synthetic Crowd mix, and we have 2 of the best A2s in North America, Mike Cleasby and Steve Hilder.
This event is very much like how a world feed would be done for an event like the Olympics. We have 2 broadcast trucks from Dome Productions handling the production of the game, with national and regional broadcasters taking our packaged audio/video feed of the games and adding their own commentators, graphics, and other content down the line. Inside our truck, we deal with the sounds of the game only and do not have to worry about announcers like a traditional broadcast. The other thing we don't have to deal with is a crowd. Obviously, because of the current pandemic, the arena is empty. An arena that can typically hold over 18,000 cheering fans.
The Crowd
The NHL's solution to this was to produce a synthetic crowd layer that can react to the game in real-time. Using a library of recorded crowd beds and sounds from EA Sports, Jeff Kozak is playing the crowd in real-time during the game with an Ableton Live setup and midi trigger. Someone's on a break-away scoring chance, you'll hear the anticipation of the crowd as he skates toward the goal. The home team scores a comeback goal, you'll hear the building go crazy with team-specific goal horns and fans cheering. Once we had everything dialed in with the mix, you could close your eyes and it sounded like any other playoff hockey game.
Acoustic Issues & Solutions
We quickly found that having an empty arena provided a lot of acoustic issues. We are mixing these games in 5.1 surround sound and placed a number of ambient microphones throughout the arena to capture the live sound of the building. The PA is still playing inside the arena, and we wanted to ensure we captured the live ambience of that and the players. Unfortunately because of the empty seats, we heard a lot of echo and slap delay as the sound hit all of our microphones at different times. It's something that wasn't noticeable during typical hockey games. Our solution was to time-align all of our microphones and the feed we take of the PA. Dialing in delay from 1 or 2 frames all the way up to 17 frames or so, we managed to get the whole building to sound in sync. Another unusual aspect of the mix was the inclusion of the PA feed into the mix full-time. In a typical hockey game, we'll mix in the PA feed during anthems and referee calls, but never during the game itself. It's just too much sound, and the PA is typically cranked to 11 inside the building, so it's all we ever hear in our microphones. During this event however, the PA is being played much quieter, and we felt a lot of energy and presence missing in the mix. That formed the NHL's decision to include some of the PA feed directly into our broadcast mix.
Calrec Artemis
The Calrec Artemis console we are using quickly showed it's usefulness during this event. We have somewhere around 65 channels of transmission audio, spread over 24 different transmission paths, going all over North America to many different national and regional broadcasters. We have our primary 5.1 mix, plus a number of other 5.1 or stereo mixes and stems available for broadcasters to choose from. Having such a large need for flexible and adaptable routing was exactly what the Calrec was made for. The ability to create such a high number of outputs and different mixes was a must-have for this, and we needed to work with multiple layers. Having 3 different A1's mixing these games, with a very short turn-around in between games meant there was no time for re-configuring or reloading of the console. With the use of cloned faders, paired faders, and multiple layers, we're able to each have our own operating layer organized the way we like it. We have our own presets saved for compression/EQ/automixing, and can quickly load those as the next A1 sits down to mix his/her game. Sound is a very expressive and subjective medium, and we didn't want to shoehorn any of us into working a certain way.
More from Calrec
25/03/2024
NEP Australia expands IP and remote production with Calrec Argo
NEP Australia expands its IP and remote production capabilities with first install of Calrec Argo consoles NEP Australia, a division of NEP Group and a prominen...
25/03/2024
NAB 2024 Preview | Why attend NAB 24?
NAB 2024 Preview | April 14 -17 | Booth C6307 | Las Vegas Convention Center We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at the 2024 NAB ...
11/12/2023
How I won a Sports Emmy Award for supporting FOX Sports
The show must go on: How I won a Sports Emmy Award for Calrec's work supporting FOX Sports' presentation of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 By Elliot Rober...
16/11/2023
Calrec's Argo Wins 2023 NAB Show Product of the Year Award
Calrec's Argo Wins 2023 NAB Show Product of the Year Award Calrec has won the 2023 NAB Show Product of the Year Award for its configurable Argo audio contr...
27/10/2023
An Insightful Look into the World of Calrec
An Insightful Look into the World of Calrec By Will Wayman Before going to Calrec I was excited and looking forward to the many experiences I would be able to...
08/10/2023
Calrec finds new zeal and expertise with Protel
Calrec finds new zeal and expertise with Protel...
08/10/2023
Group One partners with AVL Group in Puerto Rico
Group One extends its relationship with Puerto Rico's AVL Group Calrec distribution partner Group One has teamed up with supply and service specialists AVL ...
08/10/2023
Group One invest in IP with new Calrec technical support hires
Expanding on its already robust technical support team and further investing in IP, Group One, professional audio and lighting distributor of Audiotonix brands ...
08/10/2023
IP specialist Tim Casey joins Group One
Group One expands its Support team with IP specialist Tim Casey Group One has hired Tim Casey to join its growing team of Calrec Customer Support Technicians in...
08/10/2023
EMG UK chooses Calrec for ROC
EMG UK flexes with Calrec for its Stratford Remote Operations Centre Expanding on its 30-year relationship with Calrec to satisfy its complex audio needs, OB an...
08/10/2023
IBC 2023: 6 reasons to join Calrec at IBC
IBC 2023 Preview | 15 18 September | Hall 8, Booth D60 | RAI, Amsterdam We're looking forward to meeting up with friends, customers and partners at the I...
08/10/2023
Calrec launches into the German market via a new partnership with Cerberus
IBC 2023 sees Calrec announce its launching into German market for the first time via a new partnership with Cerberus Media Solutions At IBC 2023, Calrec, a lea...
07/10/2023
EMG Stratford ROC
EMG UK flexes with Calrec for its Stratford Remote Operations Centre Expanding on its 30-year relationship with Calrec to satisfy its complex audio needs, OB an...
07/10/2023
NEP goes remote with ImPulse
NEP flexes its remote capabilities with Calrec's IP ImPulse engine NEP Group, the leading media technology partner for content creators around the globe, is...
07/10/2023
INA TV kick off world cup with Calrec
Greece-based INA TV used Calrec's Summa console and Hydra2 networking technology to satisfy the complex UEFA technical specifications to broadcast European ...
07/10/2023
Calrec partners with AV Worx to expand its presence in South Africa
Calrec partners with AV Worx to expand its presence in South Africa Calrec, a leading designer and supplier of broadcast audio mixing consoles and equipment, a...
05/10/2023
NAB New York 2023 Preview
NAB New York 2023 Preview |October 25 -26 | Level 3, Booth 217 | Javits Center, New York We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at...
04/10/2023
Inside Broadcast Hungary's 4K Outside Broadcast Truck
Inside Broadcast Hungary's 4k Outside Broadcast Truck Last month at IBC, KitPlus sat down with Calrec's International Sales Manager, Michael Reddick to ...
03/08/2023
Join our quest
We have big news! Calrec has always been on a quest to solve tomorrow's audio challenges, and we have some big news to share on the Calrec booth in Hall 8, ...
03/08/2023
NAB 2023 Preview
NAB 2023 Preview | April 16 -19 | Booth C6107 | Las Vegas Convention Center We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at the 2023 NAB ...
01/06/2023
Inside SuperSport's New 4K Outside Broadcast Truck
Inside SuperSport's New 4K Outside Broadcast Truck Take a look inside one of the most advanced outside broadcast (OB) trucks in the world! SuperSport's...
28/04/2023
Join Calrec at MPTS 2023
Join Calrec at MPTS 2023 | May 10-11 | Stand A40 | Olympia, London We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at this year's Media ...
27/03/2023
Calrec Wins Media & Entertainment Best in Market 2022 Awards
Calrec Wins Media & Entertainment: Best in Market 2022 Awards for Argo We are delighted to have been selected as one of the winners in this year's Media & ...
15/03/2023
The Super Bowl by Shawn Peacock
The Super Bowl by Shawn Peacock Shawn Peacock, Broadcast Audio Engineer A1 for over 20 years, encompassing college football, X Games, tennis and motorsports inc...
21/02/2023
Calrec makes switching to ST2110 more affordable with ImPulse1
Calrec makes switching to ST2110 more affordable with ImPulse1 IP engine Following on from its new Argo audio mixing control platform launched at IBC 2022, Cal...
23/12/2022
The Audio Checklist by Freelance A1 Andrew Stoakley
The Audio Checklist by Freelance A1, Andrew Stoakley Over the course of interviewing, recording and editing my podcast series, Idle Hands: Conversations with T...
03/10/2022
Audiotonix Gets Even More Creative with Slate Digital Acquisition
About Audiotonix Audiotonix is a global market leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of professional audio mixing consoles and ancillary products...
02/09/2022
IBC 2022: 10 reasons to join Calrec at IBC
IBC 2022: 10 reasons to join us at IBC We're back! It's been three years since we've been to IBC 2022, and we can't wait to get back into it w...
15/07/2022
A Statement from Calrec
Statement from Calrec July 2022 Recently we have received many comments via social media that mistakenly claim Calrec are in some way supporting Russian state...
14/07/2022
NAB 2022 Preview
We're excited to be back at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on 23-27th April. Here is a sneak preview of what we will be unveiling!...
08/07/2022
Sounding out the future
Sounding out the future I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future. Ralph Abernathy By Madison O'Reilly...
30/05/2022
ABEX 2022
One of our International Sales Managers recently attended the ABEX 2022 Morava Montreux 2022, an international electronic media and television conference in M...
01/04/2022
Star Acadmie TVA
Jean-S bastien Roy, Sound Engineer at Headroom Productions talks to Calrec about his work on Star Acad mie on TVA in Montreal, Canada. As a Sound Engineer and ...
31/03/2022
Craft Interview: Myles Carlyle, Audio Engineer
Canada-based Myles Carlyle was exposed to the world of broadcast audio at a young age. As an audio engineer, he mixes a variety of live sports and worked at the...
17/03/2022
Audio in 2021: The future is now
Audio in 2021: The future is now By Dave Letson, VP of Sales, Calrec 2020 was a year of necessity; of using technology in ways it had been designed for and so...
16/03/2022
Calrec IP Primer
IP Primer Welcome to Calrec's eight-part primer on AoIP! The IP Primer builds up your knowledge of IP and will enable you to create reliable AoIP networks...
09/03/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Network Design
Calrec IP Primer Part 8: Network Design Welcome to the final chapter in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the last 7 weeks, we have released an I...
03/03/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Network Switches
Calrec IP Primer Part 7: Network Switches Welcome to the seventh in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the last 6 weeks, we have released an IP ch...
23/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Quality of Service QoS
Calrec IP Primer Part 6: Quality of Service (QoS) Welcome to the sixth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next three weeks, we will be rele...
16/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Latency and Jitter
Calrec IP Primer Part 5: Latency/Jitter Welcome to the fifth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next four weeks, we will be releasing an I...
10/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Bandwidth
Calrec IP Primer Part 4: Bandwidth Welcome to the fourth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next five weeks, we will be releasing an IP cha...
02/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Precision Time Protocol PTP
Calrec IP Primer Part 3: PTP Welcome to the third in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next six weeks, we will be releasing an IP chapter eve...
26/01/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Multicast
Calrec IP Primer Part 2: Multicast Welcome to the second in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next seven weeks, we will be releasing an IP ch...
19/01/2022
Calrec IP Primer: Introduction
Calrec IP Primer Part 1: Introduction Welcome to the first in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP! Over the next eight weeks, we will be releasing an IP ...
06/01/2022
Calrec's IP solution selected for state-of-the-art Sportsnet Studios
Calrec's IP solution selected for state-of-the-art Sportsnet Studios Two Calrec Artemis consoles with AoIP ImPulse cores and Gateway technology lie at the h...
16/12/2021
Ross Production Services choose Calrec for all live and esports output
Ross Production Services (RPS) recently purchased its fifth 96-channel Calrec Brio audio console to standardize on Calrec technology. The new Brio is installed ...
26/11/2021
IBC 2021 Cancelled: Calrec's 7 Key Focuses
IBC 2021 Cancelled: Although we can't meet in person, we can still have a chat Get in touch for a catch-up, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadca...
24/11/2021
IBC 2021: 7 magnificent reasons to speak to Calrec
Not travelling to IBC 2021? We can still have a chat. Get in touch, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadcast specialists, to get up close and personal...
23/11/2021
7 magnificent reasons to speak to Calrec
Not travelling to IBC 2021? We can still have a chat. Get in touch, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadcast specialists, to get up close and personal...