How many times in your career, have you said, “What happened to my mix?” My guess is it’s also true for many people in this organization. For me, in television, most of the problems are presently in transmission and/or local broadcast. We now have to mix for possible play in many different formats and mediums. Because of major changes in technology, we are also in the midst of a revolution in transmission and marketing often engineered by people only driven by dollars, not quality. Last year at a Board meeting, I offered to help put together a CAS forum with representatives from broadcasters, cable companies, etc. to discuss mutual problems relating to audio so that we may have a better understanding of each other’s issues. The bad news is that I’ve been too busy. The good news is that the technology is changing so rapidly that any time will be a good time. This dialogue could potentially make some real progress in a mutual understanding some of these issues. Do you adjust the way you mix to the way a show plays on the air? During a live show we are lucky to have a usable net return. If the show is in the East, there may be an opportunity to listen off air, through an affiliate with often a five- or 10-second delay. Even with both of the above, the best source may be a group called the AVS forum. This is a bunch of TV geeks, online, often commenting on both picture and sound during
a live program, from all over the country. I believe anyone can guest on their website and at least read their comments. This, combined with really good and persistent transmission engineering people on site, can provide a reasonable idea of how it’s all going. Based on that information, I may make adjustments that seem prudent in any of the audio parameters of a show. Many years ago a colleague made a line drawing of what happens to audio from source to listener. It’s a miracle, sometimes, that anything gets through at all. There is an old saying that “A good mix is a good mix, is a good mix,” meaning that a proper mix will survive almost anything. Unfortunately, it seems that there are people in our business that take that as a challenge. Again the transmission landscape is changing radically and I believe that we individually and collectively need to communicate any problems to clients, producers and broadcasters. There is a more recent saying, “The better it looks, the better it sounds and the better it sounds, the better it looks,” I believe that. Of stereo, surround, 5.1, mono—which has a chance or airing best? Again it’s up to the individual carrier, affiliate, cable system, etc. My experience is that the Hi Def channels sound better because the carriers often just leave them alone or they have better (often simpler) transmission paths. As you know, I always protect (and listen to) the mono signal. High-profile programs
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