Just finished watching the first night of the proms from the Royal
Albert Hall, and the quality of the sound was totally immaculate on
digital TV. For a start, the broadcast had full dynamic range. Next,
the newly rebuilt organ was stunning. It whispered and it roared. The
orchestra and choir were spot on, and even with the limitations placed
on miking by the TV people, you could pinpoint just about every
instrument in the orchestra, and every singer in the choir. The
balance of the whole thing was pretty darned near perfect.

So the question is this. How did they do it? Rehearsal time was
limited, no rehearsals having the hall full of people. Sound checks
just about non-existent. Yet still they broadcast perfection.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

Don Pearce wrote:
Just finished watching the first night of the proms from the Royal
Albert Hall, and the quality of the sound was totally immaculate on
digital TV. For a start, the broadcast had full dynamic range. Next,
the newly rebuilt organ was stunning. It whispered and it roared. The
orchestra and choir were spot on, and even with the limitations placed
on miking by the TV people, you could pinpoint just about every
instrument in the orchestra, and every singer in the choir. The
balance of the whole thing was pretty darned near perfect.

So the question is this. How did they do it? Rehearsal time was
limited, no rehearsals having the hall full of people. Sound checks
just about non-existent. Yet still they broadcast perfection.

They've got a team together. They've been broadcasting the Proms from
that same hall for, what, seventy years now? So they go in and they
know exactly how the room sounds, how the band is going to set up, where
it sounds good and where it doesn't.

And they DON'T mike the crap out of everything just in case they might
need a feed. They go in knowing what they're going to need and they
set it.

The world needs a lot more of that. I won't get to hear it until the
tapes show up at the radio station here, but I'm sure it'll be just as
good as last year and the year before it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 16 Jul 2004 20:09:03 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Don Pearce wrote:
Just finished watching the first night of the proms from the Royal
Albert Hall, and the quality of the sound was totally immaculate on
digital TV. For a start, the broadcast had full dynamic range. Next,
the newly rebuilt organ was stunning. It whispered and it roared. The
orchestra and choir were spot on, and even with the limitations placed
on miking by the TV people, you could pinpoint just about every
instrument in the orchestra, and every singer in the choir. The
balance of the whole thing was pretty darned near perfect.

So the question is this. How did they do it? Rehearsal time was
limited, no rehearsals having the hall full of people. Sound checks
just about non-existent. Yet still they broadcast perfection.

They've got a team together. They've been broadcasting the Proms from
that same hall for, what, seventy years now? So they go in and they
know exactly how the room sounds, how the band is going to set up, where
it sounds good and where it doesn't.

And they DON'T mike the crap out of everything just in case they might
need a feed. They go in knowing what they're going to need and they
set it.

The world needs a lot more of that. I won't get to hear it until the
tapes show up at the radio station here, but I'm sure it'll be just as
good as last year and the year before it.
--scott

Good listening. But you know you aren't going to hear it pristine - it
will have been "worked" on by the time it is broadcast over there, if
only by the dreaded Optimod. How depressing is that?

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com