Manik Gupta, associate director of engineering at Interra Systems, on how to deliver sound in sport broadcasts
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Manik Gupta, associate director of engineering at Interra Systems, on how to deliver sound in sport broadcasts
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We all enjoy audio books, but have you ever tried watching your favourite television programme on mute?
Audio is a very important ingredient of any audio visual media. It is that one ingredient that brings the entire content to life; otherwise it would be lifeless motion jpegs. But many times audio doesn't get the full attention it deserves in the media workflow because of the misconception that delivering a superior consumer experience is driven by video only. While visuals are captivating, audio is also vital. If audio quality isn't good, then even the best quality video will lead to a negative experience. Poor quality audio shifts consumer attention to noises and other types of distractions, impacting the overall experience.
Audio in sport
Looking exclusively at sport, content is generously interspersed with commentary it's a way to provide otherwise inaccessible information to viewers in a timely manner, enhancing their viewing experience. Viewers are generally interested in knowing important information not covered by the live camera angle, such as how the injured player is recovering, and whether the crowd is friendly or not. There are many things commentators can see and tell the audience besides sharing interesting facts and trivia in order to make experiences more memorable.
Further, the ability to hear clear game sounds makes fans feel as if they are viewing the game right in the stadium. Just imagine hearing the sounds of skates grinding into the ice in hockey or figure skating, the crack of a baseball bat hitting a homerun and a ping pong ball hitting a paddle. Audio quality in these situations is paramount. Not to forget, the sports sector is a big business, worth tens of billions worldwide. Digitisation is further driving the revenue for global broadcast rights, but today's digital consumers are spoiled with so many choices and susceptible to clicking away at a moment's notice. Any slack in audio quality can lead to a loss of viewership and revenue. So it's important now more than ever to understand how to uphold audio quality and create an immersive sports experience.
The challenges
Unspoken guidelines exist for good audio quality. For instance, audio should be in sync with video and captions. It should be free of any artifact like noise, dropout, jitter and echo. It should follow the appropriate loudness guideline for that region. Some broadcasters would also require removing profanity from the audio. In the case of multilingual global delivery, correct audio language order needs to be ensured. To some extent these guidelines are easy to maintain for offline content, but sport with all its frenzy and excitement is broadcast live. The content is produced and broadcast simultaneously, leaving little room for quality control and correction. Knowing this, there are many different issues that can impact sports audio.
Audio quality:
Sport broadcast experiences, by their very nature, feature high-intensity events like scoring a goal in a football match, which momentarily changes the loudness level. As the next generation of sport broadcasting experiences is being defined, it is important to ensure that high-quality audio experiences conform to loudness regulations
Regional guidelines: broadcasters should ensure content loudness complies with various regional regulatory standards like CALM in the US, EBU in Europe and ARIB in Japan
Ad switching: when broadcasters insert advertisements in content for monetisation purposes, it changes the context of the content and likely changes the loudness level. The broadcaster should ensure that the switch is seamless to ensure a smooth listening experience.
Any noise in audio can distract viewers, thus degrading the overall viewer experience. There could be multiple sources for such noises
To enhance viewer experiences, broadcasters want to simulate the sports-arena-like environment with the predominant sound components containing audience voice, reverberation and stadium music. To capture all of the important components, broadcasters typically use multiple microphones strategically placed all over the stadium and mix them along with the running commentary. During the mixing process, it is very important to ensure that channel layout is followed properly. For example, if the centre channel contains dialogue, it should remain the same even after the mixing process. Any glitch here can severely impact the audio quality
The biggest challenge during commentary is clear audio. This is the stage where different noises such as background and echo can be introduced into the content. The scene of action is generally an outdoor area. Weather, wind, cheers from the audience and many other subtle factors can also allow various noises to creep into the content. These noises need to be suppressed before content is sent upstream. Data transmission over a slow network also causes multiple issues such as audio dropout and jittering noise. The advent of OTT resolves most of these issues, as viewers automatically switch to a lower bandwidth in the case of a slow network
Broadcasters should ensure that sports workflows are efficient to avoid the above kind of noises.
During live broadcasting, some audio segments may contain strong language, which can offend viewers and is especially unsuitabl
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Manik Gupta, associate director of engineering at Interra Systems, on how to deliver sound in sport broadcasts 
