You’ll never watch alone
There’s no need to suffer the wind and the rain to get an authentic Premier League experience, thanks to BT Sport’s Dolby Atmos and 4K Ultra HD coverage
”The combination of 4K pictures and Dolby Atmos sound provides an epic live football experience. It delivers that ‘in-stadium’ feel – crowd sounds are more atmospheric and noises from the touchlines come across loud and clear through the centre channel”
Choosing the top-of-the-table Premier League clash between Liverpool and Chelsea for the world’s first 4K Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos broadcast of top-flight football was a canny move by BT Sport. It’s a game with plenty of recent history, and the odds on there being lots of action to look at and listen to were short indeed. Which, happily for those of us lucky enough to be watching and listening at Belushi’s Bar at London Bridge, turned out to be the case.
Ultra HD football broadcasts have kicked off in a big way since we first witnessed a 4K football match in the summer of 2015. BT Sport 4K UHD, and rival channel Sky Ultra HD, now deliver a wealth of Premier League games, as well as other sporting contests. In fact, according to BT Sport’s Chief Operating Officer, Jamie Hindhaugh, BT Sport has broadcast an impressive total of 71 live football fixtures in 4K since the current season began last August.
BT was the UK’S first broadcast 4K TV channel and now, thanks to a partnership with Dolby, it has become the first broadcaster to deliver Dolby Atmos surround sound to subscribers of its top-tier Entertainment Ultra HD package. The venue for this groundbreaking broadcast featured several 4K TVS, and a Pioneer SC LX79 home cinema amplifier driving a KEF surround-sound package that included its upward-firing R50 Atmos speaker modules.
So what did we learn?
How does it work?
Capturing the sound is the key to putting the viewer right in the middle of the action, figuratively speaking. As Dolby Atmos surround-sound technology is all about producing a more immersive ‘3D’ soundfield, 12 additional microphones are dotted around the sidelines to capture everything both on and off the pitch, from the referee’s whistle to the crowd’s cheers and the sound of the ball being kicked.
This ‘multidimensional’ sound is monitored and mixed in two outside broadcast trucks, for this game at Anfield. Alongside the UHD images, the sound is processed and checked by BT facilities before the signal is sent via BT’S Infinity fibre-optic broadband to viewers’ homes.
How does it sound?
Just like being at Anfield? It’s not quite as visceral, but we’ve certainly never come across a more immersive presentation of a televised game. The combination of 4K pictures and Dolby Atmos sound provides an epic live football experience.
A packed room with a few pillars as obstacles isn’t the best environment for a sonic scrutiny of Atmos, but it delivers that ‘in-stadium’ feel. Crowd sounds are more atmospheric – the pre-match rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone provides a fine advert for the technology by itself – and noises from the touchlines come across loud and clear through the centre channel, even occasionally over the commentary. When the home team equalises, the roar from the Anfield crowd fills the room.
How does it look?
Football’s a game of two halves, of course, and the 4K picture doesn’t let the side down. It’s a definite step up from HD broadcasts when it comes to stability and sharpness – and this is especially noticeable during close-ups.
All in all, the audiovisual experience impresses more than the 1 1 draw. Even if the players can’t always be relied upon to deliver top quality performances, the technology, it would appear, can.
BT Sport has plans to ensure this is far from a one-off. In fact, every Premier League match broadcast live on the channel, as well as selected FA cup games (and potentially Champions League matches too), will be available with Dolby Atmos sound.
As Hindhaugh says: “TV viewers are used to having the best pictures when watching sports, but sound is often overlooked”. This is why BT Sport has set out to deliver the “best picture and best sound anywhere in the world for a live football match”.
What next?
So it’s good news for football fans but, as yet, there’s no word on the rest of BT Sport’s 4K portfolio – including Aviva Premiership Rugby, Motogp and squash – being given the Dolby Atmos sound treatment. But if the Liverpool-chelsea match is representative of the promising audiovisual partnership, further sports in a 4K and Atmos presentation should be highly anticipated. In the meantime, we’ll be holding out for sport broadcasts in HDR (high dynamic range) too...