Pro sports events live audio setup?

[Saloos]

Hey guys

I always wondered what kind of mics do they use on NBA games to be able to mute the crowds so good yet have clear sounds of ball bouncing, sneakers screeching and net/hoop sounds?

I never noticed the microphone at the hoop, is it hidden somewhere? Because the backboard is see-through so I guess I would see some wires.

Any info on this would be nice

[Murton]

My guess would be hypercardioid and shotgun mics in various places and maybe a few omnis for crowd noises etc

[dero]

They use parabolic shields.

[tourtelot]

Originally Posted by dero

They use parabolic shields.

Not on basketball. They would sound horrible. When I mixed NBA (this WAS years ago<g>) we used Sennheiser 416 mounted on the backboard stands pointing at the foul line for "sneaker-squeaks", a Sony EMC50 lav pushed through a little hole in the foam bumper under the hoop for a "swish" mic and a handheld Sennheiser 816 at center court that followed the action. Also one or two EV RE635 omnis for crowd background. The announcers used Sennheiser headset mics. Everything was seriously compressed, the ratio of EFX to announcers was dealt with by keeping both in compression ALL the time.

I am certain that like sound for other live sporting events (baseball especially), the technology has gotten better and better in the NBA. I haven't set foot in a truck in many years but I am certain the it would be a steep re-learning curve for me<g>. Those guys do a great job.

D.

[bishopthomas]

Make sure you click the tag at the top of the page. We just had an in depth discussion of this and there's great info there for your reading pleasure.

[DannyL]

For basketball games I would second most of what Doug T said vis a vis mics and so forth. Though now we use Sony ECM 77's typically. There is often a center court handheld camera which gets an 816, as do the other handhelds under each basket. My personal choice is to use an ORTF pair positioned at the announce table at center court, pointed cross court and up into neutral space (no PA speakers). I leave these mics up whenever I have any mics open. By carefully balancing compression and eq it is pretty easy to have a pretty specific mix of action sounds along with clearly heard announcers.

I have published a couple of papers regarding this, one has specific references to Basketball. This can be found at: revista , Indice 2009, article 308.


Danny

[Remoteness]

Danny, thanks so much for chiming in since you're an expert on this matter.
If you have the time please consider clicking on the "news sports events" tag.
There are a few threads that could use your experience and enlightenment.

FYI, fellow Remotesters:
It's great to see Danny here on the forum.
He's one of the finest location broadcast engineers around.
He knows his stuff!

[DannyL]

Aw Shucks. Thank you Steve for the kind words. I am really enjoying the forum. Glad to be of help.

Danny