Live from the Rugby World Cup 2023: Referee mic plays crucial role in capturing atmosphere and ambience By Will Strauss
Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 11:47
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For the host broadcast operations, the Rugby World Cup 2023 is being delivered in HD/SDR 1080p/50 and UHD/SDR 2160p/50 in 12G-SDI with 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, Stereo International Sound and Radio International Sound. The World Feed comes in a 1080i/50 standard.
Chatting with SVG Europe during the tournament, Nicolas Brie, engineering manager at Host Broadcast Services (HBS), provided some insight into how the audio is being managed in France.
Here at the IBC, for audio, we have the audio QC. Within comms, we use a Riedel network. We have comms panels inside the IBC and we have 14 commentary circuits between each venue and the IBC
At the stadium, for ambience, we have a surround sound set-up with four ORTF stereo microphones. The aim is to provide an overall ambience of the stadium and not just on the wide listening points which is what we would get if we only had one microphone.
The main microphone for the match coverage, however, is the referee microphone, he says.
During the match, it's 95% of the ambience of the field play because that mic is inside the game. On the pitch, we have some additional microphones, but they are more there to capture the players' try celebrations. We also have microphones on each remote wireless camera. These are used for touchline announcements. And we have a tunnel mic for player entrance.
The set-up is similar to previous tournaments.
We deliver a 5.1 stereo mix. 5.1 is discreet on the main feed and we anchor it on Dolby E for the World Feed. We have a satellite backup of the main feed from the match for contribution. This is also encoded in Dolby E.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup continues in France until Saturday 28 October.
Read more:
Live from the Rugby World Cup 2023: World Rugby and HBS offer up additional content for rights-holding broadcasters
Live from the Rugby World Cup 2023: Consistency and simplicity are key for host broadcast match coverage
Live from the Rugby World Cup 2023: Immersive and emotional cinema-style shots bring fans closer to the action
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Live from the Rugby World Cup 2023: Referee mic plays crucial role in capturing atmosphere and ambience By Will Strauss 
