Tony Briselden
Yesterday (16th November 2017) my wife and I went to our local Vue cinema to see the ‘live’ performance of “Follies”. The early part of the programme consisted of interviews with Stephen Sondheim and the director. Clearly picture and sound were out of sync. A person in the audience rushed out and returned with someone who immediately started to communicate by radio to report this. He went out and returned several times but nothing changed. The show ran about 2 1/2 hours with no interval and so it appeared that we were going to be left with the issue for the whole time. But no, as about 2 hours! into the show there was a loss of sound for several seconds and when it came back sound and picture were completely in sync!
The show was just about tolerable but in close ups the sync was much more noticeable and much more annoying to put it mildly.
I understand that it’s not adjustable locally and has to be done from where the show is originated but that doesn’t excuse why it took them two hours to sort it.
About a year ago we went to a similar production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and there was a much worse sync problem. It was so far out that the sound had no relationship at all with the picture. I immediately went and reported this and someone came in and then went out but nothing happened. We were prepared to walk out but I knew there was an early interval so I suggested we stayed until then.
At the interval one of the cinema staff came in and apologised and dished out free tickets for any future film. Many people left at this time. However I said to my wife let’s see if they have corrected it. Fortunately they had and we stayed for the rest of the show.
In the papers the following day there was a report of this because it had affected all cinemas in the U.K.
Has anyone else had such problems at one of similar ‘live’ shows? I’m reluctant to go to any more if they can’t sort the problems they have.
Dave Mundy
Yes! A couple of years ago my wife wanted to see a live relay from RSC Stratford at our local Odeon. The recorded interviews before it were OK, but when they cut to the play it was the wrong aspect ratio showing David Tennant as very short and very fat! All through the first act various menus appeared and cursors wandered up and down but nothing changed. Lots of people walked out and we followed at the interval. I e-mailed Odeon and they sent us complimentary tickets to see anything anywhere whenever!
Pat Heigham
It would be interesting to know exactly what are the video and sound paths to the cinemas. Are they via satellite? Are there different decoders for vision and audio, with different operating speeds?
Mike Jordan
These "live" to cinema shows are fraught with problems.
Alan Woolford (Ex OB EM) goes to lots of the ROH ones and reports back the problems.
About a year ago they were falling over throughout the country – mainly because they use tiny dishes and the weather was bad (like Sky with standard small dishes – 60cm sorts that out) so the signal faded away.
The audio is encoded in the DataStream so that various options are available for overseas and are decoded on site.
Apparently there is never anyone available in the cinemas to sort things out if there is a problem.
At one time, the ROH feed was handled by Arquiva and sent to them in Winchester (Ex ITV HQ) for uploading to satellites. I believe now ROH sort things themselves more but probably still problems (despite various Ex-BBC staff working there)
It wasn’t till I went to a ROH techie lecture (and not being a sound person) didn’t really realise how much delay there is between singers up and downstage and how CUs can give sync problems.
One never stops learning after leaving Wood Norton!
Pat Heigham
Do I remember a system years ago, of ‘sound in syncs’ thus everything was bundled together?
Years ago, a visit to the Waterloo IMAX, with a tour of the set-up, revealed that if the film suffered a breakage, black frames had to be spliced in to maintain the length, as the audio came off multi-track from computer, and this could not be edited – why not?
This was made more complicated as a 3D presentation required two projectors (L & R) via polarising filters. Anyone know if IMAX is digital projection, now, or still 75mm film running horizontally?
Tony Briselden
I have also seen an IMAX setup. This was when the then Museum of Photography, Film and Television was first opened years ago in 1983 and had the first and only IMAX in the U.K. I was on a press visit and subsequently wrote an article about it.
I can’t find a copy of the article but I remember a few facts we were told at the time. However in regard to sound this was played from a separate disc which was synced in some way which I don’t remember. Very similar idea to what you have seen.
As for digital IMAX, yes, this exists but is considered by the company as being inferior to film although they are, apparently, trying to improve the definition. There is an article at en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX which you may find interesting.
I have a director/producer friend who has made several 3D IMAX films, mainly documentary based. He has shot some material digitally but only when a film camera cannot be used for size or weight reasons. For example on his latest film he had to use a Red camera on a small crane over the Amazon in the middle of the jungle as to get a larger one transported was out of the question.
For editing he has to go to Canada as there are no facilities in the U.K. or anywhere else for that matter. If I remember correctly they make a 35mm copy for the rough cut and also for the final cut as well before doing anything on the 70mm neg. Using Canada is probably to do with quality control as much as anything else and but perhaps there isn’t the demand to make the investment pay. I guess that the quality control issue is the reason.
