Surround Sound Lets England Rugby Viewers Hear the Ugly Truth During Drubbing

By Kevin Hilton

SVG Europe Editor

The England rugby union team’s run of poor form took another bad turn
at the weekend with a 6-32 defeat at the hands of New Zealand. And to
add to the misery unappreciative noises or comments from the crowd
at Twickenham Stadium in West London were picked up in 5.1
by a new Surround Sound microphone system used by Sky Sports.

The
broadcaster is already using SoundField mics for its coverage of
Premier and Champions League football, cricket and rugby league and now
has introduced 5.1 for its HD broadcasts of rugby union. A DSF-3 5.1
digital processor and DSF-2 microphone have been installed in OB
company Telegenic’s new T16 HD truck on a permanent basis and are being
used for the Guinness Premier League, Heineken European Cup and
England’s home games in the Investec Challenge Series.

Sky
Sports’ rugby union coverage is now benefiting from the new DSF-3/DSF-2
combination and follows the broadcaster’s policy of installing surround
sound equipment either in football grounds or OB trucks owned by its
contractors.

“We’ve been transmitting HD pictures for rugby union for
several years but without 5.1 to match,” says Sky’s Operations Manager
Keith Lane. “We wanted to upgrade the experience we were offering Sky
Sports rugby union fans and the SoundField system was the obvious
choice as it’s doing such a fine job on all our other HD sports
coverage. With the system permanently installed in Telegenic’s T16
truck we can offer 5.1 surround via the SoundField on all the domestic
games in the Guinness Championship and where we can match this coverage
overseas, we will.”