Also (off-topic slightly) does anybody know what kit the radio studios use for the automatic level ducking when a DJ's speaking over the intro / tail of a track? I've seen what looks like a sidechaining compressor in the background of some shots on programmes like Timelapse or suchlike (where a DJ's being interviewed in the studio), but this assumption is largely based on the visible LED activity on the front panel of the device when the DJ's seen speaking in shot (sat next to the broadcast mic at the desk). Unfortunately though the interesting stuff (the hardware!) has always never been in focus so I've not been able to identify the kit :( If someone knows someone who knows and can ask them, that's also quite acceptable ;)
I can help with that one! There's no box itself which auto-ducks the music when the dj speaks, the presenters either have their mic a little high up in the mix with their trim controls, or they fader wank¹ as its called in the business. However, I know the effect you¹re hearing. Part one of the story is that each mic is pre-processed before going into the desk. Not sure what R1 use now they¹ve got fancy digital desks with dynamics compression built in, but the industry standard is either a TC Electronic Finalizer, or a Yellowtec VIP unit (quite old now). These boxes apply multi-band compression, limiting and sometimes a bit of EQ. Basically they make the DJ¹s sound great. I know R1 had Yellowtec¹s for a while, and Newsbeat definitely had a Finalizer. The biggest part of the story though is the final processing of the R1 output before transmission. This is done with an broadcast-grade audio processor. There are a few around, but the industry standard is called an Orban Optimod. Again, they essentially apply multiband compression, expansion, and frequency manipulation to make radio stations sound all loud and compressed, like, well, a radio station. Its these boxes that make it sound like the DJ is ducking the music, even if they aren¹t. Like any compressor which makes the output a near-uniform volume, more louder sounds on the input side repress the quieter sounds by the time it gets to the output. So a loud DJ talking uniformally over music, once processed will seem to sound like the music is changing volume as they start and stop talking. So, its a combination of clever mic processing pre-desk, setting this above the normalised level of the music playout system, and letting the Optimods in the transmission chain do the dirty work. Hey presto, DJ¹s sound great, no matter what they do with the desk. That¹s why Optimod¹s can cost > 10k. That¹s kinda the simple answer. As you¹d expect, its even more complicated than this. But I hope that helps. Wanna know how it all works? Try this book, written by my old boss when I used to be a Broadcast Engineer... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Radio-Station-Dave-Walters/dp/1847287077 And heres some other links.... http://www.yellowtec.com/VIP_digital.html http://www.tcelectronic.com/Finalizer96K.asp http://www.orban.com/products/radio/fm/8500/ Si. On 15/5/08 15:54, "Gareth Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What kit did the Beeb use, and what do they use now? (fascinated by the > choices in tech) > > No idea about the rest of the BBC, but we do the TV Encoding with Osprey 540 > cards in hp DL360G5 servers at Bush running Windows. Windows media audio > encoding is also done here at Bush house using Osprey 230 cards in hp DL360G5 > servers running Windows. We have our own bespoke software to control the > scheduling of clip encoding at Bush (using the Windows Media and Real SDKs) > and drop the content to Borg (the system that puts content on our web/clip > servers) or Akamai as appropriate. > > Our Real encoding is done at Maidenhead by Siemens. IIRC on a load of rather > old Sun Netra servers with the scheduling controlled by cron. There is another > bespoke system called Bob that maintains the crontabs on the boxes. Audio gets > to MH from BU via a number of Intraplex cards and E1 lines. The rest of the > BBC radio encodes their Real files in pretty much the same way, although they > may get the audio to MH in different ways. Since we are looking into > delivering other formats beyond Real and Windows we are in the process of > evaluating the easiest way to do this, so it is likely that things will be > different for the World Service in a years time. > > Also (off-topic slightly) does anybody know what kit the radio studios use for > the automatic level ducking when a DJ's speaking over the intro / tail of a > track? I've seen what looks like a sidechaining compressor in the background > of some shots on programmes like Timelapse or suchlike (where a DJ's being > interviewed in the studio), but this assumption is largely based on the > visible LED activity on the front panel of the device when the DJ's seen > speaking in shot (sat next to the broadcast mic at the desk). Unfortunately > though the interesting stuff (the hardware!) has always never been in focus so > I've not been able to identify the kit :( If someone knows someone who knows > and can ask them, that's also quite acceptable ;) > > We have these things called an SM. Most of the older studios come with them, > although they are less popular in newer studio builds but you can sometimes > share with another studio. And some of them react faster than others to > excessive volume levels judging by the level of the FARSA network this morning > :) -- Simon Cross Principal Client-Side (web) Developer for bbc.co.uk BBC Future Media and Technology - Internet Group Broadcast Centre BC4 D4 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07967 444 304
