Mike Giles
Nice sources ~ shame about the mix! Crowd FX frequently almost inaudible, even when the commentators were referring to strong reactions, at other times commentary almost drowned by international sound, with no attempt to lift the commentators when they were muttering to each other, as was often the case between ends at the curling, for example.
Any lack of crowd reaction or other FX, even in vision performances, was obviously down to the host broadcaster, noticeable from the word go during the opening ceremony, but that could often have been hugely helped by an attentive mixer wielding the faders in Salford. It seems that Aunty no longer deems it necessary to actively mix Commentary and FX, preferring the cheapskate option of a fixed mix, which usually gets it about right half the time (being generous) and distinctly wrong for the other half! This lacklustre approach appreciably reduces the element of excitement and involvement which we always tried to achieve in the good old days.
A sound colleague (who shall remain nameless) said that he was shouting at his TV at times during the opening ceremony, and doubtless muttering under his breath quite often throughout the games.
I make no apology for being critical because I believe the fault to be with the system, rather than with individual operators.
Dave Plowman
Seems to me par for the course these days, Nick. I realise programme budgets are all under pressure, but so many seem to dispense with a qualified sound person – at least on location. Leaving it all to be sorted out afterwards – and that has time/money constraints too. Yet the programme credits seem to get longer and longer. As the ability to capture and balance decent quality sound gets less and less. Technology may have made things easier and quicker – but hasn’t replaced the laws of physics.
Mike Giles
Indeed, Dave, I gather there was just one sound person at the “studio” in Italy and one camera operator, who was also racking the cameras. Besides the ‘bijou’ chalet studio, there were two other positions that they were meant to be servicing, but they were never used because of the difficulty of getting from one to the other, especially after fresh snow.
Shoe strings clearly don’t come into it!
Nick Ware
I read on another forum, which I can’t find at the moment, that all of the available feeds were not mixed locally, but some 4000 miles away in the USA. Maybe similar here in the UK? I can well imagine that with all those sources incoming, a fair amount of automix was involved.
Things are very different from the good-old, bad-old days most of us knew!
Mike Giles
This YouTube video tells all about the Olympics mix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAJSaN8Z3Ik
Alasdair Lawrance
I was most impressed by the drone work, esp. on the Skiing downhill.
It seemed the drone started some way back from the start and accelerated to get behind the competitor to provide a really good dynamic view of what he or she was doing.
It occurred to me that it was putting a terrific load on the battery (ies?) involved – going at speed, providing a fast changing HD signal and sound to a link probably some distance away, and a re-set up time that was usually just a few minutes, although I never saw footage that went all the way to the finish.
Was there a fleet of drones, getting lined up in turn? Even modern batteries don’t re-charge that quickly – or do they?
Whatever, I was mightily impressed by the skill of the people doing the controlling (flying?)
Hugh Sheppard
In the dim and distant past, circa 1978, a few of us designed new Outside Broadcasts commentary units for the dedicated ‘mobile international control room’ (MICR 1) for 20 commentators, replacing those of the antiquated ‘foreign commentary vehicle’ (FCV). This is written up in BBC Engineering No, 113. July 1979.
See: https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/BBC/BBC-Technical/BBC-Engineering/bbc-engineering-113-OCR.pdf
Made for the BBC by Glensound, these was the forerunners of the units since developed and used the world over; both for on-site and off-tube commentators, thanks to the innovation of a range of alternative audio feeds to either ear of one or two commentators, all under their own direct control. An early commitment took MICR 1 to the World Cross Country Championships in Ireland in March 1979 and back again for the Papal Visit in October, interspersed with all the regular UK international events, notably Wimbledon, Song Contests and. most memorably, the off-tune commentaries at TV Centre for the Charles-Diana Wedding of 1981. Needless to say, no automatic mixing of International sound in pre-digital days – and still today I shout at the incompetence of just letting it happen.
At around that time, there was an EBU International Conference in Belgrade, where I spoke to the ideal facilities for commentators operating on-site or off-tube. Afterwards, Arsène Vaillant, legendary Belgian footballer and commentator, said: ‘If they do what you say, no commentators will ever need to leave their own country’. For Milano Cortina they proved it!
