22-08-2021, 11:47 PM
The clip on lapel mics used for TV presenters are pretty poor. They are omnidirectional so pick up more of the room acoustics than a directional mic would, which only adds to the problem - TV studios almost always have terrible acoustics because they need to look good (shiny, hard, reflective surfaces, giant TV sets, painted concrete floors, concrete walls and ceilings with minimal acoustic treatment - and of course, TV studios are getting smaller and smaller). With a bit of judicious equalisation you can normally makes things sound reasonable, but it's often hard to do that given all the other pressures of live TV.
Last time I watched Newsnight, I noted that they were using a conventional cardioid mic for the guests on a small table stand. Obviously to minimise close personal contact given the current situation. Before I even noticed the mic on camera, the vastly improved sound quality of the guests leapt out at me. You might get away with lapel mics if everyone is using them, but a traditional mic really shows up how poor the lapel mics can be.
Peter, I'd be interested to see the reply you got from them. I'm doing a bit of digging into this at the moment.
Aside from that example, there's countless reasons why TV sound gets so many complaints. I find it interesting to watch stuff produced 30+ years ago to see how that compares - generally, much, much better. A lot has changed in programme making over the decades, caused by obvious financial pressures.
Today, most TV news packages are mixed by the journalist rather than a technical operator, and usually on headphones - which makes a big difference when deciding the relative levels of dialogue and background music or "fx".
If it's drama, the technical crew are usually freelancers, and much as they want to do the best they possibly can, it's hard for them to make too much fuss for fear of being remembered as awkward and losing out on work in the future.
Some actors aren't used to speaking up on set, as they dub the dialogue on later in an ADR session. Of course, there's rarely the budget for that in TV, so the result is complaints about mumbling, etc. Again, what can the poor (freelance) sound engineer do about that?
Needless to say, equipment at home has changed beyond all recognition. 30 years ago, NICAM was the big thing, and lots of TV sets could put a home stereo system to shame. Even non-NICAM sets could be pretty reasonable - I fondly remember my old Philips K30, and my uncle had a TX10 with stereo speakers (pre-NICAM, of course) and an elaborate audio section (and light show) - though the 4" speaker in the K30 was better than the elliptical Goodmans units used by Ferguson (I made up an adaptor plate from 3mm hardboard to fit it to my TX10 - happy days!). We all know how bad modern TV sound systems are, and the reasons why. I use a hi-fi amp and a pair of LS3/5As with my TV, so at least I know the problem is not my end!
Of course, none of us are getting any younger. But I do think that trying material from back in the day is a good way to eliminate our equipment and our hearing from the equation. Over the last year or so, I've re-watched a lot of old TV from our DVD collection, such as Yes Minister and Morse, and it's all generally pretty good - and even when it's less than good, speech intelligibility is retained. Mentioning Morse, it's interesting that some episodes of Lewis were quite bad in that regard - mostly because of Lawrence Fox not speaking up (I'll resist saying something obvious about him, as it'll be a bit political!).
It's fair to say that the BBC gets a lot of complaints about speech intelligibility. It's hard to see how things will improve given the climate today, but I keep on banging the drum...
But it's not all bad - some things can be really good today.
Last time I watched Newsnight, I noted that they were using a conventional cardioid mic for the guests on a small table stand. Obviously to minimise close personal contact given the current situation. Before I even noticed the mic on camera, the vastly improved sound quality of the guests leapt out at me. You might get away with lapel mics if everyone is using them, but a traditional mic really shows up how poor the lapel mics can be.
Peter, I'd be interested to see the reply you got from them. I'm doing a bit of digging into this at the moment.
Aside from that example, there's countless reasons why TV sound gets so many complaints. I find it interesting to watch stuff produced 30+ years ago to see how that compares - generally, much, much better. A lot has changed in programme making over the decades, caused by obvious financial pressures.
Today, most TV news packages are mixed by the journalist rather than a technical operator, and usually on headphones - which makes a big difference when deciding the relative levels of dialogue and background music or "fx".
If it's drama, the technical crew are usually freelancers, and much as they want to do the best they possibly can, it's hard for them to make too much fuss for fear of being remembered as awkward and losing out on work in the future.
Some actors aren't used to speaking up on set, as they dub the dialogue on later in an ADR session. Of course, there's rarely the budget for that in TV, so the result is complaints about mumbling, etc. Again, what can the poor (freelance) sound engineer do about that?
Needless to say, equipment at home has changed beyond all recognition. 30 years ago, NICAM was the big thing, and lots of TV sets could put a home stereo system to shame. Even non-NICAM sets could be pretty reasonable - I fondly remember my old Philips K30, and my uncle had a TX10 with stereo speakers (pre-NICAM, of course) and an elaborate audio section (and light show) - though the 4" speaker in the K30 was better than the elliptical Goodmans units used by Ferguson (I made up an adaptor plate from 3mm hardboard to fit it to my TX10 - happy days!). We all know how bad modern TV sound systems are, and the reasons why. I use a hi-fi amp and a pair of LS3/5As with my TV, so at least I know the problem is not my end!
Of course, none of us are getting any younger. But I do think that trying material from back in the day is a good way to eliminate our equipment and our hearing from the equation. Over the last year or so, I've re-watched a lot of old TV from our DVD collection, such as Yes Minister and Morse, and it's all generally pretty good - and even when it's less than good, speech intelligibility is retained. Mentioning Morse, it's interesting that some episodes of Lewis were quite bad in that regard - mostly because of Lawrence Fox not speaking up (I'll resist saying something obvious about him, as it'll be a bit political!).
It's fair to say that the BBC gets a lot of complaints about speech intelligibility. It's hard to see how things will improve given the climate today, but I keep on banging the drum...
But it's not all bad - some things can be really good today.
