Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Greybeard of Audio: A1 Ian Rosam Reminisces on a Lifetime in Sports Broadcasting Sound

10/06/2021

Greybeard of audio: A1 Ian Rosam reminisces on a lifetime in sports broadcasting sound By Heather McLean, Editor

Monday, May 17, 2021 - 13:09

Print This Story

Ian Rosam in Moscow for the FIFA World Cup 2018

From creating the Sky Sports football replay whoosh in 1992 to planning his retirement after the 2021 Euros this summer, A1 audio expert, Ian Rosam, has seen the world of audio evolve over generations.

From the BBC in 1973 to Thames TV, the music business, ITV, Sky Sports, HBS and Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS), to many more, Rosam has a pedigree in audio longer than most.

Memorable whoosh

One of his most memorable career moments that have changed the way we perceive live sports on TV is the association of sound with a graphic wipe; a seemingly small addition, but one that has had a major impact.

Rosam explains: My co-director [Robert Edwards] and I brought to Sky footie the replay whoosh and graphics sound FX. These were things we naturally had on the quiz shows like Catchphrase we mixed. We explained to David Hill, then Sky's head of sport, that a video move such as the replay wipe would normally have an associated sound. He agreed and as I was news dubbing the following day, I spent my lunchtime making the first replay whoosh , which had to be under a certain length in order to fit into the memory of the Yamaha SPX90 that was triggered by a GPI from the Abacus A53 when the wipe was fired by the vision mixer.

From the excitement of a live event to using and playing with state of the art technology to find new solutions, to mixing with great crews, sports audio is a brilliant area to work in

We next added graphics noises, which were manually triggered by the Vision Mixer. Nowadays they are all from the graphics engine in full 5.1 surround. We also treated the football as if it was a gameshow with the various audio sources, crowd, commentators, ball FX, etc; very much as we approached light entertainment (LE) and gameshows, so a much more heavily compressed and LE in sound, rather than just representing what was happening.

The multi-national crew for engineering quality control at the South Korea 2018 Winter Olympics in the control room, made up of five Brits, one Japanese, one Portuguese, and three Spanish. Ian Rosam third from left

Rosam comments on the result of the addition of the whoosh to Sky Sports football coverage: In the early days of Sky Premier League coverage, most viewing was done in pubs. If there was a dull game (heaven forbid!) and you and your mate were ignoring the TV and supping your pints and chatting, on hearing the whoosh you would look up knowing that it signified a replay of an incident that you hadn't seen, with probably three angles of the play. So it became a clever way of re-establishing contact with the viewer for the coverage.

There was some criticism from some parts of the broadcasting world at the time, but it's now the de facto way sport is covered, Rosam notes.

He adds: I think the field of play FX levels were popular with what we termed the Playstation Generation of viewers, and obviously EA Sports and their football video games emulated Sky football audio to the extent of using Sky recordings of games FX.

Mr Rosam out and about inbetween shifts at the ski jump venue for the South Korean 2018 Winter Olympics

Getting hands-on

Rosam started out at the BBC after dropping out of an electrical and electronic engineering degree at the University of Surrey after two terms, as, I realised I was going to be starting in the same job, but three years later . He adds: Also the maths involved with degree level engineering was daunting, so not as enjoyable as the hands-on side .

He had seen an advert in his school magazine for BBC technical trainees, which pushed him towards a career in sound as it seemed to fit in with his obsession with, amps, guitars and a small reel to reel tape recorder, so it seemed like an obvious choice .

He applied to the BBC and began working as an audio assistant for BBC Wales. He got his training at the infamous BBC Wood Norton, and then worked in Welsh radio and television based in Cardiff for the broadcaster.

He later moved to Thames TV at Euston, London, then spent four years in the music industry touring and working on PA rigs and FoH mixing. He went back into TV at Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, then joined TVS at start of its franchise in 1982. A decade later he was made redundant so formed Video Sound Services with fellow supervisor and friend, Edwards.

He comments: Mixing Premier League led to Video Sound Services being asked to originate an audio production plan for the FIFA World Cup 2002, and we covered Korea and Japan for HBS as part of that with quality control in Korea. We then did the same again for the World Cup in 2006 in Munich, the Euros in 2008, and all subsequent World Cup and Euros events. The Olympics contacted me for Beijing 2008 because of my experience with 5.1 audio. I've covered all Olympic games since then for engineering audio quality control.

Rosam's first proper sports broadcasting role was as one of the two main match sound supervisors with Edwards, for Sky's initial Premier League coverage back in 1992. Prior to that, working as a sound supervisor at Television South, he had occasionally mixed football for ITV in the South East and Southern franchise area.

He says: I'd been a sound supervisor for nine years before the Sky opportunity was offered to Rob and I, and as someone who had worked on live network productions I had the experience to cope with anything thrown my way. I'd worked on every kind of programming, from game shows, LE, docos, children's, news, to single camera, post production, drama, the works! There was lots of live or as-live, in fact sport was the least programming I'd done!

After 48 years in
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/greybeard-of-audio-a1-ian-ros...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Aurora's Matt Beal on Taking Up the Broadcast Reins Alongside the FIA

Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Getting the Production Together With NEP Finland, Cloudbass Graphics

Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...

02/07/2025

World RX of Sweden: Host Broadcaster Aurora Looks Ahead to This Weekend's Second Race of the Season in Hljes

Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport, Sunset+Vine Talk Coverage Plans, Distribution and Maintaining Momentum

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League Launches New Content Series to Support Teams, Players Over Summer of Football

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...

02/07/2025

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite Puts Fans, Players Front and Center With Title Sequence for ITV

UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...

02/07/2025

Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down the Craft

Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...

02/07/2025

CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Production Plan

CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...

01/07/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Expansion in the U.S.

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...

01/07/2025

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus Video Production

The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...

01/07/2025

Cherry On the Cake: Inside the Technical Production of the Tour de France 2025 with EMG / Gravity Media

Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...

01/07/2025

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins Fans

NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...

01/07/2025

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge

TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...

27/06/2025

How Smarter Video Compression is Creating a Sustainable Future

How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13 Print This Story Live sport is especially vulnerab...

27/06/2025

RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland

RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am Print This Story | Subscribe Story ...

27/06/2025

Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology

Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...

27/06/2025

Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending Chicago Cubs

Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...

27/06/2025

NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandemic Era

NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...

26/06/2025

10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for the Future of the RSN, Local Media Business

10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...

26/06/2025

The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid

The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...

26/06/2025

Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Generation of Sports TV Technicians

Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...

25/06/2025

SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...

25/06/2025

ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO Booths

ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...

24/06/2025

2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center

2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...

24/06/2025

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on Sports

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...

24/06/2025

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation in Sports

Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...

24/06/2025

British & Irish Lions Men's Tour: Dublin Opener Sees Sky Sports Take Remote Route

Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...

24/06/2025

British & Irish Lions Men's Tour: Pumas Maul Lions as S4C and TG4 Deliver First-Ever Joint Host in Dublin

Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...

24/06/2025

ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center

ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...

23/06/2025

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NBC Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery, and AWS

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...

23/06/2025

Finding the Edge: How Badger & Combes Produces Live-Streamed Coverage of County Cricket for LancsTV

Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...

23/06/2025

Masters of Madness: New Football Format Shakes Up the Rules of Sportainment

Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38 Print This Story The ball i...

23/06/2025

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Building Near Denver

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...

23/06/2025

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production Facility at Disney's 7 Hudson Square

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...

20/06/2025

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can Play

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...

20/06/2025

Sky Sports Goes Large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR Graphics, UHD and a Pop Up Channel

Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...

20/06/2025

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, Legacy

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...

19/06/2025

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning George Wensel Technical Achievement Award

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...

18/06/2025

Technology Focus: Fan Expectations Drive Advances in the In-Stadium Experience

Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36 Print This Story For years, att...

18/06/2025

Making Connections: How Stadiums Are Meeting the Ever-Growing Demand for Data and Connectivity

Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...

18/06/2025

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at 2024 Paris Olympics

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...

18/06/2025

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League Victory Parade

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...

17/06/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon on Powering DTC Streams for Teams Reclaiming Media Rights

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...

17/06/2025

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, Brand Measurement

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...

17/06/2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...

17/06/2025

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Stefan Wistuba

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...

17/06/2025

Production Ambitions: Over Exposed on Making the National League Promotion Final for DAZN as Spectacular as Possible

Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...