Ciaran Doran reports on a recent RTS Technology Centre event that heard about the challenge of getting sound on live TV events just right, including dealing with spill, amplifying the audience, foldback for the musicians, and clean feeds for external use
By Contributor
Published: March 14, 2024
Ciaran Doran reports on a recent RTS Technology Centre event that heard about the challenge of getting sound on live TV events just right, including dealing with spill', amplifying the audience, foldback for the musicians, and clean feeds for external use
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Ciaran Doran reports on a recent RTS Technology Centre event that heard about the challenge of getting sound on live TV events just right, including dealing with spill', amplifying the audience, foldback for the musicians, and clean feeds for external use
https://www.tvbeurope.com/audio/spilling-the-tea-the-challenges-of-live-music-for-television title=Share via Email class=share-email>
From Glastonbury to Glyndebourne, putting live music on television is challenging. TV doesn't lend itself naturally to music events - it always looks great but getting the audio right, for everyone, can be very hard work.
The University of Surrey, home to the famous Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) audio degree course, has produced some of the world's top BAFTA, Emmy and Oscar winning sound engineers. Earlier this month, Royal Television Society (RTS) members and guests were welcomed by Russell Mason, programme director for the Tonmeister course and Rupert Flindt, lecturer in recording techniques, to enjoy an informative and entertaining discussion with engineers Mike Hatch, Mike Felton and Tudor Davies.
Their TV credits include Later with Jools Holland, Eurovision, The Brit Awards, and Top of the Pops, not to mention the huge and iconic live events Glastonbury, BBC Proms in the Park, and touring with the band Simple Minds.
Speaking with guests as they arrived, there was an excitement in the air to learn about the complex art of audio for television, which is renowned for being difficult to get to grips with, given the many demands of running a live event.
Mike Hatch of Floating Earth with Tonmeister undergraduates How do you prepare for live music on television with multiple bands coming on stage sequentially or already there waiting their turn? Logistics and detailed planning are major factors because you simply can't predict what will happen on-location. Are we a guest here, fitting in with someone else's plan or are we in charge? Being in charge and the trust placed in your art as a sound engineer is rewarding and brings more freedom but it can be a lonely place. As in much of television, relationship-building is key.
Microphones get in the way of the cameras or lights. Cables can be a mess and get in the way of camera operators and artists. Live audiences are wonderful on camera and the director usually wants more cheering, clapping and buzz from the audience while the audio team are tearing their hair out to manage sound levels, amplification for the audience, foldback for musicians, clean feeds for external use and, of course, an amazing sound for us all to enjoy at home.
Among the many and wide-ranging problems faced at major live events such as Glastonbury is that the overall volume can be absolutely deafening and the spill nearly impossible to manage. A familiar scenario might be trying to manage spill from the drums over gentle strings while at the speaker stack is positioned to drown even the drums! There's the band that refuses to move to in-ear monitors and insists on cranking up the foldback volume on stage - perhaps to compete with the spill from another stage not far away. It's a constant battle to achieve a crisp sound and then maintain it, always riding the faders and manipulating many different areas to manage a dynamic situation.
In live classical music recording the spill can often be part of the mix but classical music for television can face quite different challenges. It's not uncommon to have a plan only to turn up on site and ditch it completely because someone has decided to position a dance set in the middle of the orchestra. However much you plan you generally have to make it work when you get on site. The key is to first understand what is to be achieved, who the target audience is and then work back from there while working out what good and bad things need to be taken care of from an audio point of view. At the Coronation, there were more than 190 microphones placed throughout and each one has to be carefully considered for not only the sonic quality but visual position to camera and congregation and spill.
Tudor Davies and Conrad Fletcher showing The Mixbus How does one choose the right microphone? There's often a feeling that the same old mics are used for years and without innovation getting through. As with relationships in any live location recording, trust is the element that can maintain a status quo; if an engineer prefers a mic because they know the exact sound they're looking to achieve and have a trusted mic that delivers it, then that's simply what will be used. The old phrase this is not a rehearsal becomes real with live production - there's no second chance and the sound engineer looks for surety as well as sonic pureness.
Speaking about the RTS event, Flindt said: Members and students engaged the sound engineers on various topics, including recording 5.1 surround sound for stereo home delivery, producing surround sound for TikTok, and maintaining uncorrupted metadata. They also explored the realities of limited rehearsal times and handling microphone failures during live performances.
This experience will undoubtedly be memorable for our students, significantly aidin
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
24/04/2025
We're huge fans of shining a spotlight on the documentaries that empower, en...
24/04/2025
Playlists have always been at the heart of the Spotify experience. Since AI Playlist in beta launched last year, Premium users have used it to create millions o...
24/04/2025
From the California desert and Chicago's Grant Park to New York City's Flushing Meadows Corona Park and beyond, music festivals this spring and summer w...
24/04/2025
The sounds of Asia are as diverse and vibrant as the continent itself. From the lively beats of Indonesian pop to the gritty rhymes of Pinoy hip-hop, the region...
24/04/2025
Highlights*
Revenue of $5.1 billion
Operating margin of 10.2%; Adjusted segment operating margin of 15.6%
Diluted EPS of $2.04; Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.4...
24/04/2025
For more than 50 years, the company's commercial approach to delivering resi...
24/04/2025
Century City, Calif. and Bilbao, Spain (July 8, 2024) - Ateliere Creative Technologies, a leading GenAI media software solutions company, and Agile Content, a l...
24/04/2025
Agile Content to Showcase Industry-Leading TV-as-a-Service Platform at IBC 2024
Bilbao, September 4th - Agile Content, a leading provider of Internet televisio...
24/04/2025
Boosting TVaaS in the German-speaking countries with expert integration and 24/7 local support
Bilbao/Wiesbaden, September 5th 2024 Agile Content and netorium...
24/04/2025
New partnership between Agile Content and GlobalDots promises to introduce automated multi-CDN solutions, optimizing content delivery and easing provider manage...
24/04/2025
Empowering operators with real-time content delivery optimization, improved video quality, and reliable end-to-end service visibility
Amsterdam, Netherlands, S...
24/04/2025
Agile Content joins forces with Convergenze to introduce a new platform in Italy, offering a wide range of premium content for all audiences.
Bilbao, September...
24/04/2025
Bilbao, October 10th 2024 - Agile Content, a global provider of PayTV end-to-end solutions, has received the Bronze EcoVadis Sustainability Rating. This ranking...
24/04/2025
Through this agreement, MASORANGE will incorporate new AGILE CONTENT technologies into its television service, enhancing customer experience with optimum servic...
24/04/2025
The company reports positive results in the third quarter, despite ending the first half of 2024 with an 8.8% decline in revenue and an 18.3% drop in EBITDA com...
24/04/2025
Agile Content joins forces with Tiscali to introduce a new platform in Italy, offering a wide range of premium content for all audiences.
Bilbao, November 26,...
24/04/2025
The company positions Agile TV as the commercial brand focused on delivering TVaaS solutions for operators and media.
The chosen tagline TVaaS your way enca...
24/04/2025
A Fully Managed Solution That Maximizes Revenue for North American Operators While Combining Traditional Cable TV and OTT Apps in one Single Interface.
Bilbao,...
24/04/2025
The Entertainment Hub is a fully integrated TV solution that represents a significant step in redefining the white-label TV business model for operators across ...
24/04/2025
Feature-Rich, Widely Deployed Android TV Devices Enable Seamless Transition to Fully Managed Pay-TV Services for Network Operators
NAB Show 2025, Las Vegas, A...
24/04/2025
Aix-en-Provence, France, San Diego, USA and Bilbao, Spain, March 27, 2025 - Verimatrix, (Euronext Paris: VMX), the leader in powering the modern connected world...
24/04/2025
Sonnet Announces Solo5G USB-C to 5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Brie Clayton April 24, 2025
0 Comments
Compact, Bus-powered Adapter Adds Instant 5 Gigabit...
24/04/2025
Sony Electronics Launches FE 50-150MM F2 GM
Brie Clayton April 24, 2025
0 Comments
The World's Firsti Telephoto Zoom Lens with a Maximum Focal Len...
24/04/2025
Branded cinematic shorts and documentaries have surged in popularity as more companies strategize out-of-the-box ways to connect and engage with audiences. Whil...
24/04/2025
Compact, Bus-powered Adapter Adds Instant 5 Gigabit Ethernet Connectivity to Computers With USB-C or Thunderbolt ports
What's New:
Sonnet Technologies tod...
24/04/2025
Black Box , a leading digital infrastructure solution provider, today announced that its Emerald DESKVUE PE is a remote production category winner in the 2025 ...
24/04/2025
Interra Systems, a leading provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, today announced that its ORION content monitoring ...
24/04/2025
FingerWorks Telestrators continues to be at the forefront of live sports broadcasting with its cutting-edge solutions, supporting major events like NASCAR, the...
24/04/2025
IBC announces the launch of the IBC2025 Innovation Awards, which recognise pioneering advances in technology and social impact in the media and entertainment (M...
24/04/2025
Beam Dynamics will make its MPTS debut this year, showcasing its all-in-one platform designed to streamline workflows across live production, OB, broadcast, and...
24/04/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced that Czechia-based Comprimato, a leader in high performance software encoding and tran...
24/04/2025
CueScript, the leading developer of professional teleprompting solutions, took home two awards from NAB 2025 for its simple yet revolutionary solution that stre...
24/04/2025
Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products and a founding partner in the openGear initiative, added anot...
24/04/2025
Dot Group, European specialists in IBM technologies for the media and entertainment industry, announces its participation at the Media Production & Technology S...
24/04/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage for the AI era, today unveiled a first-of-its-kind unified software appliance developed in collaboration wit...
24/04/2025
Expanded applications for precise timing measurement across broadcast and professional AV sectors
Hitomi Broadcast, the market leader in audio/video alignment ...
24/04/2025
The Trump administration's efforts to shut down the Voice of America broadcast network were handed a setback this week when a federal court judge ordered th...
24/04/2025
BOSTON and NEW YORK The sports network NESN has announced that it has selected ViewLift provide solutions and technologies to upgrade the viewing and streaming ...
24/04/2025
YouTube is celebrating its 20th birthday with stats showing how popular the platform has become and by announcing some new features, including the ability for u...
24/04/2025
Warner Bros. Discoverys Max streaming service has announced a new U.S. product update introducing an Extra Member Add-On feature....
24/04/2025
Berklee in Puerto Rico Program to Host 30th Anniversary Concert The event will feature Grammy- and Latin Grammy-winning artist Miguel Zen n BM '98, cuatro...
24/04/2025
Detach Yourself from the Herd': Fito P ez Inspires at Berklee In a session hosted by the Mediterranean Music Institute, the influential Argentine musician...
24/04/2025
April 24th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils Games Program
Featuring World Premieres and Playable Demos of Official Games Se...
24/04/2025
April 24th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announce...
24/04/2025
April 24th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Audio Storytelling Lineup
The Audio Storytelling Program To Kick Off With A L...
24/04/2025
Live From NFL Draft 2025: Van Wagner Turns Titletown Into Center of Fan Entertai...
24/04/2025
Live From the NFL Draft: NFL Media Splits Massive Production Between Green Bay a...
24/04/2025
Comcast Fills SpinCo Sports Executive Ranks With Matt Hong as President, Jeff Be...
Ciaran Doran reports on a recent RTS Technology Centre event that heard about the challenge of getting sound on live TV events just right, including dealing with spill, amplifying the audience, foldback for the musicians, and clean feeds for external use
