Katowice, Poland (June 9, 2025)—Much like the World Cup, the ESL Intel Extreme Masters 2025 brought together 24 of the best esports teams in the world and pitted them head-to-head in the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. While the played for the packed crowd, they also were watched around the world, and to help make that happen, organizer ESL Faceit Group developed a new recording concept for the livestream broadcast, employing immersive, stereo and shotgun microphones to reproduce the excitement in the arena for an online audience.
Audio-Technica’s BP3600 immersive microphone played a key role in delivering the atmosphere in the arena. Located in the venue’s ceiling, the microphone’s eight hypercardioid capsules allow for capture of three-dimensional sound.
That was complemented by the use of a quartet of Audio-Technica’s AT4050ST stereo large diaphragm condensers (also suspended from the ceiling) and 16 BP4025 large-diaphragm X/Y mics (in front of audience) to form a “sonic bridge” between the arena’s diffuse ambient sound and the direct sound of the audience.
Finally, Audio-Technica’s BP4029 stereo shotgun microphones were used on handheld cameras and the Spidercam to capture the atmosphere directly in the stands.
In order to be able to objectively assess the concept and create a detailed acoustic image of the event, a test control room was set up in the arena specifically for the atmospheric mix. Featuring an Allen & Heath dLive C1500 digital mixing surface with DM32 MixRack, the control room sent the mix from the arena via optical fiber to the ESL studios 15 kilometres away, where it was combined with other signals via an Allen & Heath dLive S5000 surface for the final broadcast mix for the livestream.
