[Tech1] BBC News at Ten new look

[Pat Heigham]

Poor audio on Zoom?

Where's the bloody mic?

On the computer - miles away from mouth!

Pat

On 17/06/2022 13:56, Dave Plowman via Tech1 wrote:
>
> Something else I've not quite worked out. Zoom etc usually has quite 
> passable picture quality but poor-ish  audio. You'd have thought 
> decent audio would take up less bandwidth than the vision?
>
> On 17/06/2022 13:15, Chris Woolf via Tech1 wrote:
>>
>> I'm not entirely sure that a lot of the editors/producers actually 
>> listen. Like picture editors and directors of dramas, they kinda know 
>> the scripts, so already have the content in their minds - they don't 
>> need to hear every word, and therefore don't recognise the problem.
>>
>> Without pre-knowledge, perhaps with limited lip-reading due to poor 
>> sync and non-optimal viewing distances, and frequency-limited speaker 
>> replay in a non-optimal acoustic space.... the audience doesn't get 
>> anything like the intelligibility they need.
>>
>> Intelligibility of audio everywhere is not a value that is even 
>> recognised. People say it isn't loud enough, or someone is mumbling, 
>> but gross distortion on poor phone lines, syllabic muting and similar 
>> faults that prevent the actual transfer of useful information - not 
>> even the terminology is available.
>>
>> I had to discuss pension matters on the phone the other day, and the 
>> line quality was abysmal. I'm quite sure I only managed to get about 
>> 30% of the details. Of course the call was so that the pensions co. 
>> could absolve themselves of responsibility for me making a wrong 
>> decision - nothing to do with actually communicating anything useful. 
>> I didn't care because I'd asked them to email everything anyway. But 
>> if I'd needed to communicate for a medical emergency etc, it would 
>> have been disastrous.
>>
>>
>> Chris Woolf
>>
>>
>> On 17/06/2022 12:55, Dave Plowman via Tech1 wrote:
>>>
>>> What I can't understand is it doesn't take 'golden ears' to hear the 
>>> difference in a voice between a decent mic in front of the mouth and 
>>> a decent mic on a lapel. Or much skill to match them as closely as 
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> Imaging the rows if they positioned the cameras so close it 
>>> distorted the face due to a very wide angle lens? We expect the 
>>> camera so show us a face as near to reality as possible. Why should 
>>> sound be different?
>>>
>>> On 17/06/2022 12:40, Pat Heigham via Tech1 wrote:
>>>>
>>>> You are so right, Barry,
>>>>
>>>> Get the bean counters to turn off the sound and see how much they 
>>>> get to understand.
>>>>
>>>> We spent many hours learning how to engineer good sound, from basic 
>>>> mic positioning, with respect to muffling, wind blasting, consonant 
>>>> blasting etc.
>>>>
>>>> How many single person cameramen know about this?
>>>>
>>>> I attach a discourse which I had fogotten I put together with input 
>>>> from esteemed technicians.
>>>>
>>>> Pat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 15/06/2022 11:17, Barry Bonner via Tech1 wrote:
>>>>> Hi Nick,
>>>>> The bit of kit news is missing is called a “Sound Supervisor” 
>>>>> unfortunately due to the extortionate costs of this latest licence 
>>>>> fee spending spree they can’t afford one! EQ has also been dropped!
>>>>> BBC London News are worse due to multitasking.
>>>>> Barry.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>
>

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