ESPN audio technicians will use Schoeps new SuperCMIT shotgun microphone at the 2010 World Cup to pick up ball-kick sounds. The microphone digitally suppresses extraneous noise and will be used instead of parabolic microphones along the sidelines.
Both stereo and 5.1 audio feeds are being made available to producers from the World Cup. Schoeps is providing several specialized microphones, including ORTF surround arrays and the SuperCMIT DSP-based shotguns, which are camera-mounted. Not only are they expected to give good "kick action" on the ball, but they are expected to better diffuse noise created by the crowd's vuvuzelas, the trumpet-like noisemakers that are a key part of South African football.
The new Schoeps SuperCMIT shotgun has a two-channel output, with the SuperCMIT signal on channel one and the direct, single-transducer CMIT signal on channel two. The company said the SuperCMIT defines a new category of shotgun microphone, with directivity that goes beyond anything previously available.
The SuperCMIT can be a problem-solver wherever diffuse sources of noise — such as street noise, wind noise, room sound, audience and passers-by — might interfere with a recording. Unwanted noise is greatly reduced in level, even at low frequencies, without altering the tone color of front-arriving direct sound.
Other key sound gear to be used at the World Cup includes Sennheiser MHK416 and MKH418S shotgun mics, Lawo mixing consoles, Genelec monitoring and Dolby encoders.
