NAB 2025 in Review: SVG Audio Roundtable Reflects On a Changing Industry Global sports, speech intelligibility, digital microphones are on the table By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, April 14, 2025 - 10:49 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Now a staple at major industry events, the SVG Audio Roundtable (formerly the DTV Audio Group) has evolved much like the industry it supports, becoming leaner, palpably younger, and more diverse.
SVG Audio Roundtable Chair Roger Charlesworth emphasized the changing nature of sports media, especially the shift to streaming.
Gathering at NAB 2025, a group of 25 or so attendees and presenters, led by Chair Roger Charlesworth, was about half the size of some previous events and, at two hours, about half as long. But the content was just as good, with concise and informative presentations.
The Roundtable event - sponsored by Audio-Technica, Calrec, Dale Pro Audio, Dolby, the DTV Audio Group (sponsored by SVG), Lawo, Shure, and Telos Alliance - takes place off the record, with presentations and comments mostly not attributable. But trends do emerge.
It's a Global World Out There No, Yogi Berra did not say that. But one commenter who had made the transition from a conventional sports network to a streamer, did note that sports is now a global proposition, with some events reaching far beyond what has been typical, and cited the reported 65 million viewers for the Nov. 15, 2024, Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Netflix.
Underscoring the increasing globalization of sports media, it was noted that WBD Sports, whose Max streaming service provided Olympics coverage to Europe, delivered 90 events in 38 languages last year. Across both Max and Discovery+, Paris 2024 drove almost 1 billion streaming minutes, more than seven times that logged at the same point of Tokyo 2020 and already representing 75% of the total minutes from those Games, the broadcaster had reported earlier. That underscores, according to the commenter, the need to address audio services for sports in a broader manner.
To accomplish that, artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies will have to be part of the equation. AI could, it was established, derive as many as 50 translations from a single-language commentary - in real time. At the same time, machine-learning techniques can create auto-mix capabilities for audio, necessary to support an exponential number of new descriptive-audio streams.
The entire experience, however, will have to start with the best audio quality possible, said one participant. That includes being vendor- and codec-agnostic.
In fact, the person continued, achieving that will require the sports-media industry to rely even more on its vendors and equipment/technology developers and suppliers as technologies and formats proliferate.
A lot of what needs to be done along these lines is already a reality. The complicating factor for sports at this scale, however, is that it all needs to be done live, with as little latency as possible. As a result, another commenter noted, viewers may be more willing to forgive some types of audio glitches with live event production, not letting the pursuit of perfection limit the immediacy of live.
Feeds and Stems Among the new and improved technologies for processing audio discussed was the increasingly refined capability to separate sound sources into discrete stems. The need for this is two-fold: to enhance speech intelligibility (more people, including younger ones, are enabling closed captioning as television sound becomes more dense) and, as rightsholders become more aggressive in protecting copyrights, to strip out unauthorized and unlicensed background music.
AudioShake, whose algorithms are being used to do this in postproduction, expects to be able to accomplish those stem separations in real time later this year. Salsa Sound's representative noted that their company is working to do the same for noise reduction as well to be able to eliminate distractions, such as rain noise, during sports broadcasts in real time.
Digital microphones - the Great White Whale of pro audio - are a perennial topic at these conclaves. Efforts in that direction by Audio-Technica, Shure, and Voyage Audio (whose Spatial Mic 2nd Order Ambisonics VR microphone is currently capable of single-wire digital connectivity) were cited as making progress.
The conversation did come back to the viewers and, more specifically, to their devices - all 2 billion of them, by one estimation, none of which can accommodate and decode every possible audio format. Dolby's MS12 Multistream Decoder - which can decode virtually all worldwide and certain local broadcast standards, including Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, Extended HE-AAC with MPEG-D DRC, all AAC bitstreams (including USAC), and Dolby AC-4 - was cited as a good start for what will be a Sisyphean undertaking.
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
15/04/2025
As women in Afghanistan are stripped of their rights - banned from education, barred from public life and rendered invisible - a number of women journalists con...
15/04/2025
In March this year, Spotify unveiled its annual Loud & Clear report, a transpare...
15/04/2025
As the world's most popular audio-streaming subscription service, Spotify is...
15/04/2025
Claudia Karvan, Tom Gleeson, and Mark Coles Smith join in the adventure of a lif...
15/04/2025
SBS and Volleyball World sign landmark deal for Beach Volleyball World Champions...
15/04/2025
Seven different platforms deliver March's most-watched streaming titles.
St...
15/04/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communication Commission's Media Bureau has issued a Notice seeking comments on a major filing by the National Association of Broadca...
15/04/2025
PHILADELPHIA As cable operators face increased competition from fixed wireless plans, Comcast is introducing the option to choose a five-year price guarantee wh...
15/04/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Kaleidescape has announced that it has joined the 8K Association (8KA)....
15/04/2025
Jan Krupp, VFX supervisor at Scanline VFX, tells TVBEurope how the company created a range of environments for the Netflix film
By Matthew Corrigan
Published...
15/04/2025
Ateliere said that due to the current, unforeseen turbulence in the US and in the global business and financial markets the company is no longer in a position t...
15/04/2025
WASHINGTON In a wide-ranging filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Sinclair applauded the agency's push towards deregulation while arguing that...
15/04/2025
From Homer to Mickey, How ESPN Is Blazing the Live Animated Broadcast Trail ESPNs Amy Nelson, Sparky Sparrgrove, and Spike Szykowny offer an inside look at the ...
15/04/2025
SVG College Sports Media Awards 2025: Final Deadline to Enter is Wednesday All entries must be received by end-of-day April 16 By Brandon Costa, Director of Di...
15/04/2025
Football Summit 2025: BBC Sport and Sunset Vine share plans for UEFA Women's...
15/04/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: ScorePlay Cofounder and CEO Vic Tixier on Media Manag...
15/04/2025
Inside IOWN: Envisioning a high-speed, high-capacity future for live productions By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 09:38
Print This Story
As dele...
15/04/2025
Neither fair nor objective , Mediapro reacts strongly to LaLiga decision to awar...
15/04/2025
HBS and NVP take LaLiga production and distribution for first and second divisio...
15/04/2025
LA28 Details Venue Plans for 2028 Summer Games By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 1:37 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
St...
15/04/2025
Rohde & Schwarz unleashes the key to unlocking true spectrum dominance in multid...
15/04/2025
Rohde & Schwarz expands testing equipment portfolio to support Telesat Lightspee...
15/04/2025
Matter interoperability has become the foundation of uniting diverse ecosystems. The universal connectivity standard developed by the Connectivity Standards All...
14/04/2025
Rwanda's vulnerability to climate change is underscored by its ranking of 124th out of 182 countries in the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative's in...
14/04/2025
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festi...
14/04/2025
On Monday, April 14, Blue Origin's NS-31 mission lifted off from Launch Site...
14/04/2025
Whether it's having first access to tickets, being a part of once-in-a-lifet...
14/04/2025
SBS becomes first Australian broadcaster to have near-and long-term carbon reduc...
14/04/2025
For 190 years, innovation and technology from our talented workforce have distin...
14/04/2025
As Calrec continues to lead a new era of technical innovation with its portfolio of complimentary broadcast audio solutions, the company has today announced the...
14/04/2025
For the first time, advertisers and agencies can directly compare campaign perfo...
14/04/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communication Commission's Media Bureau has issued a Notice seeking comments on a major filing by the National Association of Broadca...
14/04/2025
magic multi media unveils new customizable features and advanced AI for EDIUS 11...
14/04/2025
Rotating around an object or layer in After Effects
Graham Quince April 14, 2025
0 Comments
One of the most frequently asked questions on forums is: ...
14/04/2025
Does Clearing the Cache Really Work in Premiere Pro?
Colin Smith April 14, 2025
0 Comments
This tutorial clearly outlines the types of problems that c...
14/04/2025
Stanley has been promoted to the role following seven years as general manager with the company
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 14, 2025 Updated: Apri...
14/04/2025
StreamAMG delivers more than 15,000 live events each year, with over 52,000 hours of content watched in 200 countries
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 14...
14/04/2025
TVBEurope content director Jenny Priestley sums up her 2025 NAB Show experience, from the end of AI hype to the impact of tariffs, trying out virtual production...
14/04/2025
Ottawa, April 14, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce a new creative partne...
14/04/2025
14 Apr 2025
VEON Publishes 2024 Integrated Annual Report Detailing Commitment t...
14/04/2025
NAB 2025 in Review: Broadcast Audio Faces a Future of Tariff-Induced Higher Cost...
14/04/2025
Changing the world: Behind the collaborative production of the 2025 Special Olym...
14/04/2025
From Paris to Milano Cortina: The International Paralympic Committee on the move...
14/04/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Jimmy Platt, ESPN's College Football Playoff, Women...
14/04/2025
NAB 2025 in Review: SVG Audio Roundtable Reflects On a Changing Industry Global sports, speech intelligibility, digital microphones are on the table By Dan Dal...
14/04/2025
NAB 2025 in Review: The Pairing of AI and Audio Is Possible But it won't necessarily happen tomorrow By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, April 14, 2025 - ...
14/04/2025
WNBA Draft 2025: ESPN's Onsite Effort Fits Into NYC Grid for National Teleca...
14/04/2025
Monday 14 April 2025
On an unmissable day of world-class sporting drama, Sky Sports created its own history by breaking viewership records on Sunday 13 April, ...
NAB 2025 in Review: SVG Audio Roundtable Reflects On a Changing Industry Global sports, speech intelligibility, digital microphones are on the table By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
