ESPN Brings ‘Sounds of Omaha’ to CWS Coverage
If you hear a fan crunch on a nacho or an outfielder snap his gum during a College World Series telecast, don’t worry, it was planned that way.
In fact, it’s a goal of ESPN’s production crew to pick up as much of the ambience, atmosphere and action from the event as possible. So much so that the audio technicians have placed nearly 100 microphones in and around TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.
“We are using almost 100 sound microphones, and that doesn’t include the ones our announcers and field reporters use,” said Tom McNeeley, ESPN’s coordinating producer who is overseeing the College World Series. “We’ve fitted every umpire with a microphone, have sound effects microphones buried in the outside wall, warning track and foul polls, ones in each dugout, bullpens and many buried in the dirt around each base and the pitching mound.”
High definition coverage gives viewers a crisp and clean picture of the action, but the mass of microphones around the stadium allows them to feel the environment.
“With all of the microphones, we pick up a lot of nice ambient sounds from around the park that we televise live and other times on a short delay,” said McNeeley. “We are careful not to embarrass anyone with the sound, our goal is take the viewer inside the game as much as possible and the microphones enhance that experience.”
In addition to capturing sounds for the telecast, McNeeley and the crew take all the sounds recorded throughout the day — such as a player grinding around the bases or making a catch against the wall, the unique sound of the ball coming off the bat, the conversation between a manager and umpire — and compile them into a regular 30-second segment called the ‘Sounds of Omaha’.
“With a lot of events, we are only there for that one event,” McNeeley said. “Being at the same stadium for 10 days to televise up to 17 games allows us to best utilize all of the equipment we have on hand. The stadium developers were fantastic as well. We worked with them when they were building the stadium on where we could put microphones and where we could bury cabling that we wouldn’t have to tear up every year.”