MARLOW, ENGLAND—As the world was watching the 2015 Women’s World Cup on Fox Sports, the broadcaster utilized TSL Products for its audio production during the entire tournament. Now, Fox Sports has announced it will incorporate TSL’s SoundField X-1 Upmix/Downmix processor and SoundField UPM-1 Stereo to 5.1 Upmixer for future audio productions.
Audio mixer Fred Aldous working on TSL products for Fox Sports
The X-1 is a 1U rackmount device that combines upmix and downmix processing in a single box. The SoundField X-1 can separate dispersed crowd sound, reflections, reverb and atmosphere, offering user adjustable parameters to position the diffused sound into a 5.1 image. It is also able to create presets on the GUI.
Unlike other upmixing tools, the UPM-1 uses an algorithm to perform real-time analysis of stereo source material, identifying and separating the ambiance from the direct sound. Mono sources are extracted from the stereo signal and fed to the center channel, maintaining a good frontal stereo image by keeping the direct sound sources at the front. The extracted natural ambiance is then fed to the rear surround channels.
Fox Sports has installed both SoundField X-1 and UPM-1 onto the GCV Encore and intend to use it for future NFL and golf broadcasts.
