SEND Sound utilises KLANG to deliver tournament-grade sonic environment for eSports teams

Dutch sound engineering company, SEND Sound, has a varied portfolio and a wide range of services. Founded by Sander Holmer and David Huybens just two years ago, the pair are already expanding the business to cover even more types of production. It was this varied output that led them to purchase a KLANG:vokal+ system. Having enjoyed using it for musical applications, Huybens knew it was what they needed to streamline their in-ear-monitoring, and it has been useful for a range of clients, including an unexpected application for gaming tournaments.

“Coincidentally, I was at ISE when David called me and said we needed to buy a KLANG system,” Holmer recalls. “Luckily, I also happened to be right next to the KLANG stand, so I was able to head over and ask why would I want this? They explained the benefits, I put it on my wish-list, but it wasn’t until we started working with a singer who was asking for more and more reverb that we actually took the plunge and bought a system.”

The band in question also had two drummers and Huybens was running out of space in his stereo mix to keep everyone happy. Their new KLANG:vokal+ system allowed Huybens to create space for the vocals in the mix, while the ability to place the drums in a more natural way helped the drummers, too. Huybens tends to work more on the musical side of the client list, while Homer concentrates on the technical aspects of each job. Once Holmer had seen it in action, he realised that KLANG could also be the answer to a difficult technical situation he encountered during a gaming tournament at Gamescom in Cologne.

Gamescom is the largest event for computer and video games in the world. Over 1,500 major exhibitors flock from across the globe, with the 2025 edition attracting over 357,000 visitors over four days. SK Gaming, a leading competitive eSports organisation, based in Cologne, was one of those exhibitors and employed SEND Sound to deliver audio for their teams competing during the show.

eSports tournaments are subject to strict rules and teams must not be able to hear anything that could advantage them during the game. This includes commentary, shout systems and audience reactions. Previously, this was combatted by wearing multiple sets of headphones. These allowed players to communicate with their teams with one headset and played white noise from another to drown out ambient noises. This presented a problem, not only in terms of safe listening volumes, but also in the weight and comfort of wearing multiple headsets at once. 

Holmer realised that a KLANG immersive mix would allow him to place white noise around the player’s heads, while keeping important audio like team mates more central. With the previous setup, the players would need to turn their gaming audio up louder, because of the interaction with the wide spectrum sound, but with a KLANG mix, there is more space, so the requirement for increased levels is reduced. He also realised that adding pink noise, in addition to white would help reduce the impact of spoken word, further reducing the need for high volumes.

“We were able to place noise generators in KLANG to create the pink and white noise,” he continues. “We could adjust the height of these sound objects to increase separation, then we placed the game audio dead centre in stereo. This helped the competitors differentiate between each sound source and helped to mask the outside room sounds without increasing the volume.”

Each player had a KLANG:kontroller, so they could adjust the volume of themselves and their team mates. Their mics went directly into Holmer’s Midas HD96 and back into KLANG via the Dante network, this facilitated the broadcast and Twitch feeds. Using KLANG in this way ensured tournament-regulation grade sound control with additional comfort for the players. The :kontrollers delivered flexibility but crucially required only one pair of headphones to be worn. It was a successful outcome and completely streamlined the audio setup, too. 

The SEND Sound team have found their KLANG system to be useful in all areas of their work, improving workflow for immersive in-ear mixes as well as delivering clarity for gaming. As Huybens concludes, sometimes the effect is almost too good.

“Musicians know what they need to do their jobs,” he finishes. “This can mean they’re hesitant to try new things but, once they’ve tried a KLANG mix, they always think it’s the best sounding in-ear mix they’ve ever had. For instance, I had two drummers playing together and we had only used DPA microphones on the drum kits, so they sounded absolutely fantastic and natural. They loved their new immersive in-ear mix, the overheads were 2015 wide-cardioid microphones that I fully panned in the KLANG space. With this setup, the musicians truly experienced being behind their drum kits and it sounded so natural that they thought their IEMs were broken! That was really nice.”