Lectrosonics, Inc.

Barcelona, Spain – June 2014… Video production specialists La Fabrica de Carbon have recently completed a film for Castrol and Ken Block which truly stretched their Lectrosonics audio recording equipment. Entitled 'Footkhana' the film combines world-famous gymkhana driving with world-famous football skills in a head-to-head competition of man in a machine versus man and his feet.

“It’s always amazing to me when people like Neymar Jr. are aware of me because of my Gymkhana videos,” said Block. “Neymar’s one of the biggest names in football [soccer] and it was rad to work with him on this project. I’m stoked that Castrol was able to help us bring the whole thing together and present me with the new challenges of hitting soccer balls with precision slides while I navigated the Footkhana playing field that they created for us. Never in a million years did I think I’d ever be trying to score goals with my Ford Fiesta, but it actually was a ton of fun for both of us. I’m pretty sure that Neymar’s never had to try and score a goal with a rally car defending the net before!”

Recording the stunts were Quique Lopez and Pau Tolosa who explained how they used their Lectrosonics wireless systems to good effect: “Ken Block´s car generated 117 dB SPL when we tried to record wildtracks and ambients from the outside and on the inside it was even worse, we had to work with huge amounts of attenuation. Yet, we were very happy to count on DPA 21 Microdot-Lectrosonics adapters in our configuration. Another problem was the size of the set and the fact that were we were actually recording a running car. We solved the problem by using Lectrosonics ALP620 shark fin antennas.”

Quique and Pau explained the setup saying: “All the drifting ambients and FX were recorded on Sound Devices 788 (mounted on cl9 cart). We tried to get as much stereo separation as possible. We used a Lectrosonics Venue receiver system with 4 VRS and 1 VRT, with the ALP620 directional antennas so we could have a good coverage over the whole set. Everything was mounted on the sound cart.

SMDB series transmitters were paired with DPA 4061s and 4071s and Countryman EMW lavaliere microphones. We also used an HM plug-on transmitter with a Shoeps Cmit shotgun mic for specific FX.”

They continued: “We used wireless transmitters as well for ambients and stereos, as they made for easier location set up. We even used them for some specific Fx, such as football strikes and so on.

Inside the car we had a Sound Devices 664 with us, a Lectrosonics Quadpack containing 2 SR dual-channel receivers, plus four SM series transmitters with DPA 4063 microphones and one non-wireless stereo microphone.”

Ken Block is a professional rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division formerly known as the Monster World rally Team. The film is a collaborative effort with Ken Block, international football star Neymar Jr., and Castrol. Footkhana was designed from the start to be a new and entertaining exploration on how Block’s Gymkhana driving could be utilised in a fun way doing something different than his normal Gymkhana GRID competitions and Gymkhana video series.

Quique explained the choice of Lectrosonics equipment: “Lectrosonics is the system we´ve been using for a long time now in complex recordings, for its great coverage and the fantastic sound it delivers. The reasons we like it are many and varied but if we had to underline something, it would be the LectroRM app for programming the SM Series transmitters, such a great option for this kind of work. In conclusion, we would like say how sa