In this article I will describe what I learned from Dennis Baxter, which can be transmitted to any audiovisual project, be it a live event or the installation of a boardroom.
Juan Tamayo
This year I was fortunate to work under the command of Dennis Baxter ([email protected]) who is the sound designer for television of the most important sporting event in the world, from my opinion, because 17 days of games are continuously transmitted, always with the best possible quality, both in audio and video.
What you want to capture
Before selecting any audiovisual equipment, for our case, any microphone, the ideal is to know what you want to capture and reproduce. A big mistake is made in the industry by not knowing what you want to capture, what detail you need to enhance, what emotion you want to convey, what position you want for the viewer.
A fundamental exercise in the design process is to put yourself in the position of the person who will use the system, to achieve that empathy, sometimes it is difficult. The design process is not only limited to paper, a very common case is when mixing a live band, the mixing engineer must perform a microphone design to know how the band wants it to sound. Sometimes the importance of achieving the desired playback is forgotten and is the reason why some live bands do not sound like their record.
In the Variety Is The Pleasure
Having such a wide portfolio of microphones allows the designer to use the one that suits him best and not limit his design to a few references. The question that many ask us is: if it is necessary? According to the industry, currently we are looking for more real sounds, purer sounds but at the same time we seek to capture as much detail as possible. For example, it is not ideal to capture the audience in a stadium with a simple dynamic microphone or a low sound pressure condenser. So if you do a sound design, do your research and test as many microphones as possible, so you can find the microphone that fits your solution.
Support
For any professional in any branch, the support provided by a manufacturer is essential to develop your project. For more than 20 years, Audio-Technica has supported Dennis in the development of his sound designs. Support is not only a telephone line 1-8000 where it is called to solve doubts, support for us is to be able to provide a very wide portfolio of microphones so that he can select which is the best for the capture he wants, and if we do not have a microphone that meets the characteristics he is looking for. A research and development process is initiated to achieve the desired capture, of these developments 7 new models of microphones have been launched, most of which are stereo.
Work Team
Even if you have the best products, this investment is useless if you do not have an excellent human resource. For any company it is required to have a work team, not a group. The big difference is that the team will always seek the common good, the group each one does its part and that's it. Almost 380 people are hired for the games in audio alone, so if everyone does not look for the same north, the desired capture and transmission would not be achieved.
Reliability
The proposed system must be reliable at all times, during this sporting event many of the facilities were made 8 days before and should remain 17 days without any problem and with a really variable climate, have a sunny day and go to a complex rain with very fast winds, and even so at the end of the event where almost 5000 microphones were used only 4 were damaged.
You must be able to trust your system, you must be calm after finishing an installation that the system will not fail, because these failures translate into after sales, which in turn translates into money. In the case of a live broadcast, whether televised or a concert, the interruption of the signal is deadly to your image as a designer or operator, because people will remind you that your system cannot be trusted.
Safety
Hand in hand with reliability must be safety, if the elements must remain at their point, no matter what happens. In stadiums microphones are hung over the public, you can not afford to drop a microphone on a fan because these become missiles and can cause the death of someone.
When a design or installation is made, it must be designed against the user, the weather and "Murphy's Law", leave nothing to chance, do not leave a loose cable, a microphone without insurance, a speaker without support against falls. Our goal is that the sound system does not become a risk to human life. If an element fails and the show is interrupted, little is lost compared to if an element fails and someone is injured or killed.
Dennis Baxter's career
Dennis Baxter is an audio consultant and sound designer for major international sporting events. The preparation for the Summer Olympics in Rio 2016 has just been completed. His experience, both in creative and technical audio production, spans nine Olympic Games and 30 years of career, has won five Emmy Awards and the most recent international award has been the New York Film Festival for sound from the BBC production "The Sound of Sport".
Author of "A Practical Guide to Television Sound Engineering" published in English and Chinese, Dennis Baxter is currently working on his second book focused on surround sound and immersive sound practices for live sporting events. He is the author of columns and articles in professional publications and sought to lecture in professional television industry groups.
Dennis Baxter teaches transmission engineering both at the University and in professional-level courses around the world. He is currently developing innovative didactic material for the teaching of audio engineering in professional sound.
I tried to sum up how much I learned from Dennis, a great human being who tries to teach me a lot with nothing in return. If you want more information about the design for sporting events please write to me at [email protected]
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