Arena Sound Quality - 4CC Frustration

[skatingfan4ever]

I wonder if the sound quality at 4CC could be improved between segments. I have only watched the Ladies SP, but I found the sound quality so distracting even though the skating was glorious. What is going on? Can it be fixed easily? I hope someone realizes how it was coming across. It was awful! Depending on the music choice, sometimes it was more noticeable than others. I am watching on TV, so maybe it sounds different in the arena? Feel free to also add any general thoughts about how sound quality varies at different venues. I am disappointed and mystified.

 

[Nirti]

And what is really boring is the continuous cameras' crackling... Is the microphone too close from the photographers?

 

[rain]

The sound quality is horrendous, and has been for all the disciplines. I doubt it's getting any better any time soon. I wonder if it's as bad in the arena for the skaters as it is for screen viewers. I don't know how some of the skaters are keeping their programs together if they're hearing the same terrible echo we are. I don't think I've ever seen a competition with this problem before. Awful.

 

[lariko]

I wonder if the sound quality at 4CC could be improved between segments. I have only watched the Ladies SP, but I found the sound quality so distracting even though the skating was glorious. What is going on? Can it be fixed easily? I hope someone realizes how it was coming across. It was awful! Depending on the music choice, sometimes it was more noticeable than others. I am watching on TV, so maybe it sounds different in the arena? Feel free to also add any general thoughts about how sound quality varies at different venues. I am disappointed and mystified.

I started watching pair skating in archived video and gave up. For some reason each skate started with silenced music track, then a short segment had music, then there was silence again. After 3 pairs... that was it for me. I dunno if that’s how they bypass the music copyright lock or what?

 

[DSQ]

The sound quality is horrendous, and has been for all the disciplines. I doubt it's getting any better any time soon. I wonder if it's as bad in the arena for the skaters as it is for screen viewers. I don't know how some of the skaters are keeping their programs together if they're hearing the same terrible echo we are. I don't think I've ever seen a competition with this problem before. Awful.

It’s bad in the area, not just for us. Piper G said so on Twitter.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

It’s bad in the area, not just for us. Piper G said so on Twitter.

How sad.

 

[NanaPat]

I started watching pair skating in archived video and gave up. For some reason each skate started with silenced music track, then a short segment had music, then there was silence again. After 3 pairs... that was it for me. I dunno if that’s how they bypass the music copyright lock or what?

That was when the commentator first appeared. Whenever he turned off the mic, all the sound stopped. They noticed it, and "resolved" it by leaving the mic on all the time. That has led to a lot of background noise, especially from the shutters of the nearby photographers. But at least the music was restored.

 

[surimi]

I have only seen the ladies SP (archived) and a bit of men's SP (live), and what bothered me considerably more than venue echoes, was the timing of archived stream's sound for the last 2-3 groups of the ladies. It was not synchronized and preceded the visual by about 10 seconds so one couldn't watch movements timed to music, and the audience started clapping when a skater was launching into a jump... terrible, it was spoiling my enjoyment a lot. But that's on the ISU stream, I hope it's better for the other disciplines.

 

[Yucky]

The sound is amazing from where I am sitting (opposite the judges slightly towards the kiss & cry). At practice I thought the sound was louder on one side of the arena, so perhaps there is less echo during the ladies and men as the audience is greater and thus more sounds is being absorbed?

The clapping is on the beat in the arena.

 

[GF2445]

Apparently this sound problem is fixable.

 

[Greengemmonster]

Omg I thought it was just me.

Rika's SP music is quite a loud, wailing song but I could barely hear it this time!!!!! I thought I had waxy ears.

 

[rollerblade]

The sound is amazing from where I am sitting (opposite the judges slightly towards the kiss & cry). At practice I thought the sound was louder on one side of the arena, so perhaps there is less echo during the ladies and men as the audience is greater and thus more sounds is being absorbed.

You might be on to something. I watched a few fancam videos and the audio was noticeably better depending on where the person is sitting.

On the prime center seats on the long side of the rink (ie: above the judges, or the opposite seats across from them), I hear little to no echo.

But on the short side, especially corners, sound was boom-y and echo-y. One corner especially, where they had the clusters of press cameras, is ultra terrible. ISU commentator must be near them, since I heard him complaining about the camera shutters clicking frantically.

Oddly enough, wherever FujiTV broadcast team is sitting, their videos have pretty clean audio. I assume they are with the rest of the broadcasters, so maybe they just have better post processing.

 

[dancelion21]

I hope the sound is fixed, it was noticeably awful during the rhythm dance. C/B have repetitive lyrics, and you just heard ‘Too Darn Hot’ echoing over and over as they did their Finnstep. How they stayed on time I’ll never know. God, don’t get me started on H/D’s ‘Daddy’ song and how that sounded with the horrible echo...