Randy Marsh calling strikes

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by jimpiano

But for the rest of us,,,,the real sounds on a live TV sports broadcast will continue to be what we expect and cherish.

Garth:

I don't want to get into a semantics battle of "altered" versus "sweetened." I know you know what I mean by those.

Yes, we sweeten the sounds of the tee shot on PGA broadcasts. As I said last night the natural sound of a golf swing, even a pro's, even Tiger's, does not coincide with the visual perception of the power of the swing. We have long tinkered with that. We make the swing and the contact with the ball sound more powerful by upping the low mid-range a bit (800 Hz-1 KHz), dropping off the brightness of the upper range just a little (2.5 KHz-5KHz) and increasing the decay time of the impact with the ball very, very slightly.

This "darkens" the sound a bit and makes it come across more forceful. This is not unlike what is done in tennis.

I don't believe we mislead the viewers and we certainly don't affect the game. We are, after all, in the entertainment business and we are simply addressing the perceptions of the viewer. I also think it makes the game feel more aggressive at times which addresses a weakness the broadcasts of the 60's had. The broadcasts then made the game seem even "weaker" than it was.

As for the basketball question, yes we mic the hoops and, again, we darken the sound a bit. That "popping" sound you referred to was something that the NBA played with for a few seasons about 20 years ago. I haven’t heard it in a long time.

Sweetening sounds in sports is not done with any intention to deceive, but entertain. As for the thought you relayed expressed by someone on the internet that the home viewer hears what the on-site fan hears, that's nonsense. The home viewer hears so much more than what the on-site fan hears, both "actual" sounds and sweetened or enhanced sounds.

The potential for trouble I see down the road is that some of the golf pros, through their agents have suggested the possibility of having their own specific sound enhancement to their swing...sort of an audio trademark. Even with today's technology hat could cause some mild havoc in the truck, particularly if someone brought up the wrong settings when Tiger's on the tee.

So, do we sweeten live sounds? Sure. Do we do this to deceive? No. Again, we are in the entertainment business.

Larry

Edited to add: Back to ignore jim.