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of Sky Arts Theatre Creative Director Sandi Toksvig, Arts Theatre Live showcased completely new work by six previously unpublished playwrights over the course of its six-week summer run, and was transmitted completely live, warts and all, just like Armchair Theatre in its heyday.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
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Live HD Drama Makes Debut On Sky With UPM-1
