WO2011054366A1

WO2011054366A1 - Arrangement for the improved presentation of sound for sport-specific sounds, particularly from field sports

Info

Publication number: WO2011054366A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/007972
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gerhard Stoll; Johann Jürgen HUBER; Roman Stumpner; Felix Holderer
Original assignee: Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH
Priority date: 2009-11-07
Filing date: 2009-11-07
Publication date: 2011-05-12

Abstract

In order to provide an arrangement which, for field sports, particularly for football, depicts the audio drama of the game by picking up the specific ball sounds as separately as possible from crowd sounds, it is proposed that at least two directional microphones (3) with a narrow polar pattern be provided which are each mounted on a panning head (2) which is independent of an image acquisition device. Each panning head (2) can be pivoted in a vertical direction and in a horizontal plane such that the instantaneous position of a game ball (1b) is within the angle range (32) of the polar pattern of the directional microphone (3), as a result of which the specific ball sounds are depicted by the microphone signals (31).

Description

Arrangement for improved sound presentation of the sports-specific noises in particular of

Field sports

DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to an arrangement for improved sound presentation of sports-specific sounds, in particular field sports, e.g. the better audibility of the ball in football, or the puck in ice hockey broadcasts.

The introduction of high-definition television images in widescreen format with multi-channel television sound, television viewers especially in the transmission of sporting events much more than in conventional television techniques are included in the sporting events, as much more details are noticeable. For football broadcasts, for example, camera cranes behind the gates and small cameras within the gates provide new perspectives. Also on the sound side, an attempt is being made to bring the events closer to the television viewers. At major sports events, such as the Olympics, microphones are installed in all sorts of places, be it the obstacles in show jumping, under the magnesia shell during stretching gymnastics or buried in the sand pit during the long jump. The sports-specific sounds are now part of the television experience. In ball sports events, especially in football, however, in the TV sound of the specific ball noises is usually heard little. The television viewer has become accustomed to being acoustically embedded on the stands, although he has visually moved much closer to the gameplay. Here, a proper enrichment of the sound mix with the ball-specific sounds would reinforce the impression of being directly on the playing field. Even a list of several microphones with a relatively wide directional characteristic at the edge of the playing field leads to no significant mapping of ball-specific noise, since the microphones are far away from the ball on most plays and they also capture the background noise of the opposite spectator stands as interference.

The object of the invention is to provide an arrangement which maps in field sports, especially in football, the acoustic drama of the game by a possible separate recording of specific ball noise.

This object is achieved by the features of claim 1.

Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the arrangement according to the invention will become apparent from the dependent claims. The invention provides for the use of a highly directing microphone system with at least two directional microphones, which are each aligned with the aid of a pivotable in all spatial Nachfülirungseinrichtung on the current position of the ball. The microphones with their Nachfhnhmngseinrichtung can be well integrated into the current production process of television productions. For this purpose, it is important that the arrangement according to the invention of as little staff quickly up and dismantled and a possible calibration can be performed with the least possible effort. The tracking of the microphones during production can be done completely automatically without manual intervention, depending on ball position data generated by means of a ball tracking method.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an exemplary embodiment shown in the drawings. It shows

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an arrangement according to the invention;

characters

2a to 2c are perspective views of a football field with indicated spectator ranks to illustrate the limitations of vertical pivoting movements of a Nachführkopfes the arrangement of FIG. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the basic structure

Nachführkopfes the arrangement of FIG. 1. In Fig. 1, a playing field 1 with the gates la is shown in plan view. Behind each goal la a directional microphone 3 is arranged with a narrow directional characteristic, for example, a microphone array of the type AT895 the company Audio-Technica. Each directional microphone 3 is mounted in an elevated position, preferably at the top of a post of a set behind the Tor la ball catchment network as possible from the back. Alternatively, an attachment via a crank stand at a height of about 6 to 8m is possible. This elevated position of the directional microphones 3 serves not only to avoid "visual obstructions" in the detection of the ball noises, but also to avoid public noise in the direction of incidence of the main axis 33 of the angular range 32 of the directional characteristic Although this results in a level difference and an increased sound propagation time to the center of the playing field 1, this arrangement fits better to the game dramaturgy.Actions in front of the goal, which are usually also emotionally moving, are presented in a more present and more direct manner.The increased level also comes to the noise Distance, since the audience tends to get louder during game actions in front of the goal, and the increased position avoids possible obscurations and the structure only marginally affects the viewer's view.

Essential to the invention is that each directional microphone 3 is attached to a tracking head 2, which is independent of an image pickup device. Each tracking head 2 can be steplessly swiveled together with the directional microphone 3 in both the horizontal and in the vertical direction in order to attach it to the tracking head 2 Focus microphone 3 on the current position of the game ball lb align. The tracking of the microphones 3 must ensure that the sound events are always within the narrow angular range of, for example, ± 10 ° with respect to the main axis 33 of the directional characteristic of the microphones 3. The angular range of a total of 20 ° applies to the AT895 for frequencies up to 4 kHz. At frequencies above 4 kHz, the angle widens up to ± 30 °. Sound levels that hit these critical angles experience a reduction in 3dB.

Considering only the horizontal pivoting operations, it will be appreciated that it is necessary to be able to swing a range of nearly 180 ° in order to capture the complete playing field 1. If the vertical angle of the directional microphones 2 were fixed, this would mean that the farther towards a playing field ceiling of a football stadium filled with an audience, more and more direct and therefore particularly disturbing public noises are received in the direction of incidence of the main axis 33. Here, the advantages of the elevated position of the directional microphones 3 come into play, which is indicated in Figures 2a to 2c by a tripod with the attached to the end of the tripod microphone 3. By a sufficiently steep orientation of the microphones 3 down the main area of incidence can effectively keep away from directly incident public noises. This requires a corresponding control of the Nachführköpfe 2 of the microphones 3, as illustrated with reference to the figures 2a to 2c. If each microphone 3 with its main axis 33 would always be rigidly aligned with the play ball 1b, this would be the case in the case of Fig. 2c with a movement of the game ball lb along the sidelines very quickly the audience 8 in the 20 ° angle region 32 of the directional characteristic of the associated microphone 3. The swing must therefore, as shown in Fig. 2c, so limited in that the game ball 1b is still within the angular range 32, but the audience 8 remains outside the angle range 32. The maximum pivoting range to be defined in the vertical axis must be almost 90 °, so that all areas are covered from the middle field to the door la.

The basic structure of a Nachführkopfes 2 is shown in Fig. 3 to hand a longitudinal section.

The tracking head 2 shown in FIG. 3 comprises a pot-shaped housing 200, which is fastened on a lower base plate 201. The upper end of the housing 200 forms a turntable 202 which is freely rotatable in a horizontal plane with respect to the housing 200 and with a (only dashed lines indicated) vertical drive shaft 213 of a mounted on the base plate 201 rotary motor 212 is connected. On the turntable 202, two vertical support plates 203 are set up parallel to each other at a mutual distance. Between the two support plates 203, a U-shaped microphone mount 204 is pivotally mounted on lateral horizontal axes of rotation 205 in the upper region thereof. The U-shaped microphone holder 204 carries two successively arranged rubber rings 206 for receiving the tubular housing of the directional microphone 3, which is oriented with its longitudinal axis perpendicular to the plane of Fig. 3. The pivoting of the microphone holder 204 about the axes of rotation 205 is performed by a Timing belt 207, which extends parallel to the left support plate 203 between a seated on the left axis of rotation 205 output pinion 208 and a drive pinion 209 of a swing motor 210. The swing motor 210 is located within the housing 200 and is fixedly connected to the axis of the rotary motor 212. The turntable 202 is attached via rubber buffers 211 on the pivot motor.

The advantage of the illustrated construction of the Nachfuhrkopfes 2 is that the drive motors 210 and 212 are far away from the microphone 3 soundproof housed in the housing 200. The timing belt 207 transmits the movement noise-free and also serves for structure-borne sound decoupling. Thus, no structure-borne sound bridges between the drive motors 210 and 212 and the microphone 3 are present. By this construction, the microphone 3 always turns around its center of gravity in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

The control of the drive motors 210 and 212 of the Nachfuhrköpfe 2 is carried out by a control computer 4 (Fig. 1). This is preferably designed as a robust industrial PC and therefore very well adapted to the extreme conditions of outdoor operation. But it can also be designed as easy to transport laptop to keep the inventive arrangement as portable as possible. The control software of the control computer 4 communicates with the tracking heads 2 by means of a protocol allowing bidirectional data transmission. Thus, on the one hand, the control software to send their position commands 41 to the Nachführköpfe 2, but this also actual position and Return status information to the control computer 4. This makes it possible to check the correct functioning of the tracking.

For the rendition of the Richrmikrofone 3, it is necessary to capture the current position of the game ball. For this purpose, in the illustrated embodiment, the control computer 4 is continuously supplied at its input by a ball tracking unit 5 with ball position data 51 in the form of game field coordinates. At first it does not matter how these ball position data are recorded. For example, the "Image Tracking System TM" of the Swedish Finn TRACAB can be used as a construction tracking unit 5. It supplies highly accurate 3D real-time coordinates of the ball / Tilt data of a

Camera (preferably one of the guide cameras that normally follow the main game action) are used for driving or the ball lb can be tracked manually by mouse or touch screen. On the individual tracking options will be discussed later. This ensures the greatest possible flexibility, which is also useful when applying the arrangement according to the invention to other sports where automatic tracking systems are not used. With the help of the ball tracking unit 5, it is possible to control the microphones 3 so that they are precisely aligned with the ball at all times. However, the influence of the sound propagation time must not be neglected here. So For example, at high ball speeds it may happen that the microphone 3 is already reoriented to another position when the sound waves from the previous event arrive at the microphone standpoint. Thus, for the tracking a variable time offset is maintained, which is dependent on the distance of the ball to the microphone. Another time offset arises due to the Verarheitungszeit of the individual components. Also, this "system latency" needs to be compensated for, and the software also includes motion prediction algorithms that allow the microphone to be aimed at the point where the ball is expected to arrive after the time that corresponds to system latency.

The inventive arrangement according to Fig. 1 further comprises an automatic signal processing of the microphone signals 31. The microphone signals 31 of all microphones 3 are supplied to a common audio processor 6, which processes the individual microphone signals 31, mixes and then a processed audio signal 61 to the mixer 7 of a transmission carriage, not shown gives. This audio signal is provided as a two-channel stereo mix or as a stereo signal for the two front channels left and right of a playback side 5.1 multi-channel sound arrangement (not shown here) to map the sound congruent to represent the current game action on the BÜdschirm. For processing by the audio processor 6, the real-time coordinates of the ball can also be used. For this purpose, the control computer 4 and the audio processor 6 communicate via bidirectional control signals 42. In this way, the Control the microphone signals 31 so that only that microphone 3 is opened or considered, on whose side the ball is located. Processing of the microphone signals 31 with filters and compressors is also possible by the audio processor 6 in order to minimize the proportion of audience noise in the processed audio signal 61.

For the Balltracking unit 5 in connection with the automatic microphone tracking comes, as already mentioned, the Image Tracking System ™ of the Swedish company TRACAB into consideration. This system allows the three-dimensional capture of 22 players, three referees and the ball in real time. The delay due to image acquisition, image processing and delivery is less than the duration of a video frame and thus less than 40ms. The achieved spatial resolution is better than 10cm, according to TRACAB. The output of the ball coordinates can be done via an Ethernet stream. The operation of this system is based on the evaluation of four to eight stereoscopic camera pairs, which divide the field among themselves. The cameras are mounted along the playing field at a height of at least 20m and at a distance of 10 to 15m from each other. Via Ethernet, the cameras are connected to a central computer, which carries out the image processing. The system is mobile and can be set up and calibrated within a few hours. The data obtained are used primarily for the production of TV graphics, but can also be used by other media for statistical statements. One of the main advantages is that no interference with the game, such as the introduction of a Transmitters in the ball, are required. How the system responds to an optical occlusion of the ball is not yet known. The system has already been established. It was previously used in individual games in Mexico, France and the Czech Republic and accompanies all matches of the Swedish league. After the system was already used by the UEFA in the Champions League, with this system, all matches of the Euro 2008 were accompanied.

For the device according to the invention, the data from TRACAB are particularly advantageous, above all because of the real-time capability and the high accuracy of the measurements. A 3D position determination is not even necessary. Since the ball only causes noise when it is near the ground, the x and y coordinates of the game field level are sufficient for the tracking of the microphones 3.

In principle, the microphone tracking works, as mentioned above, with any kind of ball tracking, provided that the data about the position of the ball in real time and with sufficient accuracy are output. For football matches that are not or not yet detected with an automated ball tracking method, a use of the microphone tracking invention using an operator is conceivable. The operator follows as a viewer with a kind of telescope the ball lb. By means of sensors, in turn, the pan and tilt data of the operator's head can be read out and used to calculate the position of the game ball lb. On this basis, the French company Manapps already offers a commercial system with their product "Stadmaster". The tracking of the ball lb on a screen with a mouse or touchpad is also a possibility for a Balitracking dar. In this case, a camera must be used, which records the entire playing field from the highest possible point. An operator can use this video image with the help of a mouse to track the movements of the game ball on the screen and thus determine its position.

Another balitracking method is based on a radio-assisted SD locating system, which was jointly developed by Carlsbad company Cairos Technologies AG, Fraunhofer US Erlangen and Adidas. A transmitter inserted into the ball emits radio signals received from antennas around the field. Due to the differences in transit time at the receiving locations, the position of the ball is determined.

Claims

Arrangement for improved sound presentation of sports-specific noises, in particular field sports, e.g. the better audibility of the ball in football, or the puck in hockey broadcasts., characterized by at least two directional microphones (3) with a narrow directional characteristic, which are each attached to a Nachaumkopf (2) independent of a Bildaumalimeeinrichtung, in the vertical direction and in a horizontal plane is pivotable such that the instantaneous position of a game ball (lb) within the angular range (32) of the directional characteristic of the directional microphone (3), whereby the specific sports noises, such as Ball noises in football through the microphone signals (31) are displayed.

Arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that in field sports the directional microphones (3) in each case behind a gate (la) of the playing field (1) are placed in such a sufficient height that from the side and of the door (la) incident Audience noise are mmimiert.

Arrangement according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized by a control computer (4) for controlling the pivoting movements of the tracking heads (2) and for receiving feedback from the tracking heads (2) via their instantaneous pivot positions.

Arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized by a ball tracking unit (5) for tracking and detecting the current position of the game ball (lb), wherein the control computer

(4) determines from the position data (51) of the ball tracking unit (5) the control signals (41) for the current pivot positions of the Nachfuhrköpfe (2).

Arrangement according to claim 4, characterized by an audio processor (6) for processing the microphone signals (31) of the directional microphones (3) in such a way that they can be integrated into a two-channel stereo mix or a 5.1 multi-channel sound mix.

Arrangement according to claim 5, characterized in that the audio processor (6) the position data (51) of the ball tracking unit

(5) To edit and mix the microphone signals (31) of the directional microphones (3) depending on the ball position.

Arrangement according to one of claims 3 to 6, characterized by a control of the Nachführköpfe (2), that in the case of a public near the edge of the field angle range (32) of the directional characteristic of the directional microphone (3) is limited to the limits of the playing field (1) and that the main axis (32) of the directional characteristic is not necessarily aligned with the current position of the game ball (lb).

8. Arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the tracking head (2) comprises the following features:

a pot-shaped housing (200) which is mounted on a lower base plate (201),

a turntable (202) which forms the upper end of the housing (200) and is freely rotatable in a horizontal plane with respect to the housing (200)

a rotary motor (212) mounted on the base plate (201), the vertical drive shaft (213) of which is connected to the turntable (202),

two vertical support plates (203). which are placed on the turntable (202) parallel to each other at a mutual distance,

a U-shaped microphone holder (204) which is pivotally mounted between the two support plates (203) on lateral, horizontal axes of rotation (205) and serves to receive the directional microphone (3),

a toothed belt (207) for pivoting the microphone holder (204) about the axes of rotation (205), which parallel to a support plate (203) between a on one of the two axes of rotation (205) seated output pinion (208) and a drive pinion (209) of a swing motor (210) extends, wherein the pivot motor (210) within the housing (200) above the rotary motor (212) and connects the axis of rotation of the rotary motor (212) with the turntable (202) via structure-borne sound coupling elements (211).