36 l February 2013
www.psneurope.com
broadcastreport SOUNDBITES
DTSused last month’s CES show to introduce Ultra HD audio. The launch is aimed at the emerging Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV market, which is based on 4k resolution (4,096 horizontal pixels) and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Sony, LG and Samsung, among others, announced 4k displays at the Las Vegas event. DTS UHD employs both channel and object-based audio and has been designed to offer spatial sound over as many loudspeakers as users want. It is not based on existing cinema surround formats but is intended specifically for the consumer home and mobile markets.
www.dts.com
Pinewood Studios Groupin the UK has installed a CalrecArtemis Beam console in its new 5.1-capable sound-control gallery to mix audio for live and recorded television shows. The sound-control gallery is part of a new television studio facility in Buckinghamshire, which includes all new control galleries and equipment.
www.calrec.com
www.pinewoodgroup.com
German media and broadcast specialist Studio Hamburg MCI has followed up the installation of four independently-configured BroaManautomatic routing systems for Swedish national broadcaster SVT, by specifying the same brand for an OB van fit-out at NRK in Norway. BroaMan supplied a small custom box with an SDI input and a fibre output to house a single camera on one side, mechanically connected to a camera battery on the other. In addition, BroaMan’s V3R-FX-IC444-SDI enables four camera signals to be routed via a single fibre connection to the vehicle and be uplinked to the broadcast centre.
www.broaman.com
Digigramhas announced that Steffensen Multimedia will serve as the exclusive distributor of the company’s AQORD and AQILIM video encoding/transcoding product lines in Norway. Steffensen Multimedia will build on new and existing relationships with OTT and IPTV operators, small and mid-sized broadcasters, government agencies, educational institutions, production companies, and telcos to bring Digigram systems into a broad range of applications.
www.digigram.com www.stmm.no
“With the growth of the mobile market we need to be able to say that if a listener has a screen – of whatever type –we are on it”
Joe Harland, BBC Radio 1/1Xtra UNITED KINGDOM Radio is visualised
Radio prides itself on creating images with words and sounds instead of relying on pictures. But in today’s visually aware world audio-only broadcasters have to consider their visual profile and are now installing video systems in studios, writes Kevin Hilton
RADIO HAS been at the forefront of many technological innovations, taking the lead that television has often followed. Stereo, surround sound, data systems, digital editing and production workstations, automation and higher resolution audio have all been proven first in radio and are now commonplace in its picture- based rival. But in a multi-media society seemingly dominated by image, sound broadcasters are borrowing a few tricks and techniques from TV to secure their place on computers, smartphones and mobile devices, as well as the good old wireless. The BBC has built new studios
that have vision equipment integrated with the expected audio aspects from the beginning, rather than being added later. The new facilities for Radio 1 and 1Xtra were designed to be visually striking as well as practical and feature video technology intended to show what is going on but not get in the way or turn radio into cheap TV. Joe Harland is head of visualisation for BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. During his presentation So This is What Radio Looks Like! at the Radio Academy TechCon in Salford, Harland observed that a newspaper critic had complained about the job title, saying “head of visualisation” for a radio station was the equivalent of being head of stairs in a bungalow. Harland argued that visual
radio is nothing new, pointing to the “football grid” of the late 1920s and ’30s that allowed listeners to pinpoint where the ball was during a game by looking at a drawing of the pitch divided into squares while an announcer working alongside the commentator called out the number of the square in play. Later there were broadcasts of Top of the Pops on BBC1 during the ’70s and ’80s with a simulcast on Radio 1 to add stereo FM sound.
More studios are expected to follow Radio 1 and 1Xtra by integrating video equipment into their design
with visualisation systems for some time, both in its old London studios and now at its base in Salford. The camera switching system was designed by BCD Audio and is activated by the microphones, with the cameras automatically showing the person speaking. Harland said Radio 1 wanted the automated capability but also the ability to switch it off so the presenter was not in vision all the time. “If the Chart Show DJ is announcing the band who are guests in the studio is number one, the audience wants to see their reaction, not the presenter,” he observed. The Radio 1/1Xtra studios
feature Studer OnAir 3000 consoles and VCS automation on the audio side, with multiple Sony pan-tilt-zoom cameras, a controllable lighting rig, hard disk video recorder and a Blackmagic Design routing system. Camera selection is through a custom software program called TriggerMix. According to Harland
preparation of pictures has to be
In recent years there has been
the webcam for basic shots of presenters in the studio. A more adventurous take on this came in 2005 when the then Radio 1 breakfast show presenter Chris Moyles broadcast from a canal boat, with a camera and a laptop providing the visual aspects. Back in the studio Harland said the challenge was to get away from the “security position” style of placing a camera, having it high in the corner of the room. “By doing that you end up with amazing examples of male pattern baldness,” Harland commented. “We need to be as good visually as what the listeners are doing.” Harland explained that Radio
1/1Xtra moving into the new Broadcasting House in London
Radio 1/1Xtra studios now feature Studer OnAir 3000 consoles
gave the opportunity to “do visualisation” from the start. “You need to have it embedded as part of the production process,” he said, “and although the studios look nice they don’t have to look like TV studios.” BBC news and sport channel Radio 5 Live has been working
as much a part of the radio workflow as the sound, with material turned round as quickly. “With the growth of the mobile market we need to be able to say that if a listener has a screen – of whatever type – we are on it.”n
www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra
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