Live HD Drama Makes Debut On Sky With UPM-1
UK-based satellite broadcaster Sky made broadcasting history over the summer, transmitting completely live for the first time ever a series of weekly television plays in high definition, with a 5.1 surround soundtrack. Helping to create the 5.1 ambience during transmission of the Sky Arts channel series from Sky Studio 6 in Isleworth, London, was one of the broadcasters eight recently acquired SoundField UPM-1 stereo-to-5.1 upmix processors. Specifically, the UPM-1 was used to process stereo spot effects, atmospheres, and pre-recorded music from the Sky audio libraries so that this content was also transmitted in full 5.1.
Originally designed to allow HD broadcasters to create 5.1 audio in real time from stereo-only archive material, the UPM-1 has been used extensively on live broadcasts since its arrival at Skys HQ in the early summer. Even during live HD sports coverage produced mainly in 5.1 surround, the UPM-1 is being used to upmix the audio from match roundups and highlights packages, which are often only supplied to Sky in stereo. However, the series of live plays, transmitted as Sky Arts Theatre Live!, marked the first occasion on which the UPM-1 has been used on a drama production.
Although weekly live drama was a staple of ITV in the 1950s and 60s with their Armchair Theatre series, it has been many years since broadcasters have attempted the theatre play live to camera concept, preferring the security of pre-recorded drama and the opportunity it affords for re-takes in the event of technical or other problems. As a result, Sky could comfortably claim a first for attempting live drama in full high definition for the first time, as part of their efforts to originate more content in HD and 5.1 outside their well-established HD sports coverage. The brainchild of Sky Arts Theatre Creative Director Sandi Toksvig, Arts Theatre Live showcased completely new work by six previously unpublished playwrights over the course of its six-week summer run, and was transmitted completely live, warts and all, just like Armchair Theatre in its heyday.
The Sound Supervisor for the entire series was Skys Carlton Waghorn, who explained some of the thinking behind the use of the UPM-1. "This was a very exciting project, blending some of the old skills from the heyday of live black and white transmission with the latest in 5.1 surround and high-definition broadcast technology. We had to hire Fisher live mic booms and operators, and planning the audio took a bit of thought.
"It was a question of trying to make the most of the 5.1 experience for our viewers. Once I knew that the plan was to do it in HD with 5.1, we went to the production guys and asked them to produce some HD opening titles with 5.1 theme music, and then I wanted to add as much as I could. We used a surround mic on set to pick up the ambience of the studio and the live audience, and we panned some of the output from the Fisher boom mics into the rear channels, and a little of the performance mics into the Centre channel. But I was concerned that the viewers would get the opening titles in 5.1, a round of applause in surround at the start, and then an essentially flat stereo performance until the applause at the end, with the exception of the commercial breaks. What audiences really notice is when youve had all five full-range speakers active, and then all the audio disappears from the Centre channel - that really smacks you in the face. So we wanted to avoid that."
The approach was to put all of the library-sourced atmospheres and most of the spot effects and occasional stock music, which were from stereo libraries, through the recently installed SoundField UPM-1. "Our Operations Manager Keith Lane had told me that there was a UPM-1 in studio 6, and that it was there for us to experiment with off-air," explains Carlton Waghorn. "I said, Im going to do more than experiment with it! Its a great piece of kit; it brought the whole thing to life, and meant we had some 5.1 content all the way through the performance.
"For example, for the finale of one of the plays, we had some library music in stereo, which in the play was supposed to be coming from backstage. On the initial run-throughs and rehearsals, we put it through a stereo effect and just panned it left and right - we played it safe. But for transmission, we put it through the UPM-1, and it really opened up in surround. It sounded terrific. I know some people regarded it as a post-production tool when it was announced, but it is adaptive and designed to be used in real time, and we were making the most of that.
To be honest, I will be running an awful lots of things through it over the next few years, because all of our cart, music and effects libraries are still in stereo as far as I know, and if you want to make those work in 5.1 broadcast, the UPM-1 provides a really good way to do it. I imagine there wont be large numbers of 5.1 effects libraries for some time yet, and also you need to be able to deal with stereo material the clients bring you - the finale music I mentioned earlier was supplied by the client, and you cant really say, no, sorry, this is no good, I need it in surround if Im going to use it. Obviously, you can pan stuff like that left and right, but then youre not really making the most of the audio for the HD viewers."
"The other thing thats great about the UPM-1 is that it produces very phase-coherent, stereo-compatible results," adds Keith Lane, Skys Operations Manager. "We need backwards compatibility. Its no use doing 5.1 mixes if they sound terrible when theyre folded down to stereo. If we were ever going to use any kind of upmixer, weve known for a long time that it would have to be one that produces good stereo-compatible results, so that the HD viewers dont get their 5.1 at the expense of people still liste
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
Live HD Drama Makes Debut On Sky With UPM-1
