Multicam Sound
The program I have selected to research the sound set-up on is Seven's 'Dancing with the Stars'. This program encompasses many interesting and complex problems that the audio team must overcome each week. The show has a large live band, four judges, VT playback a live audience, a dance floor, a green room and two mobile hosts. Each of these factors must be taken into account with each having special requirements and difficulties.
The shows hosts make use of radio hand held microphones. These are used to speak to the audience and interview the contestants after each dance. These microphones must be monitored continuously during use as the level of sound varies dramatically between people. The hosts are often saying things in the moment and so these microphones would have to be on the top of the sound mixers mind.
The band that plays each week is a major complication to the multi-camera setup as each week the band would be playing a different mix of music with the band being expanded for special nights where extra instruments are required. The hardest part of the band setup would be the drums as they can easily overwhelm the other instruments. The band would be mixed separately on a bus or on another console as a mixing a large band for broadcast is very hard as the sound operators on Live8 demonstrated with their terrible broadcast mixes.
The other microphones for the judges would be fairly straight forward and wouldn't be wireless. There is no boom used and the VT playback and pre-break music would be very easy to accommodate.
Another part of the sound setup that is often overlooked is the fold-back or monitoring that is necessary in all parts of the studio. The dance floor, greenroom and live audience all require sound to be sent to them so that they know what is going on and dance to it. This would be accommodated by using auxiliary buses from the main sound mixer. Each area would receive a different mix depending on it's requirements. The band would require many such mini-mixes so all the band can play in sync and in tune.
I saw an interesting thing on Seven news a few weeks ago. Nula the weather person gave her report from an acrobats tower however the audio kept dropping out as she was using a radio mic and I must have been on the edge of its range. I thought it was pretty sloppy.
The shows hosts make use of radio hand held microphones. These are used to speak to the audience and interview the contestants after each dance. These microphones must be monitored continuously during use as the level of sound varies dramatically between people. The hosts are often saying things in the moment and so these microphones would have to be on the top of the sound mixers mind.
The band that plays each week is a major complication to the multi-camera setup as each week the band would be playing a different mix of music with the band being expanded for special nights where extra instruments are required. The hardest part of the band setup would be the drums as they can easily overwhelm the other instruments. The band would be mixed separately on a bus or on another console as a mixing a large band for broadcast is very hard as the sound operators on Live8 demonstrated with their terrible broadcast mixes.
The other microphones for the judges would be fairly straight forward and wouldn't be wireless. There is no boom used and the VT playback and pre-break music would be very easy to accommodate.
Another part of the sound setup that is often overlooked is the fold-back or monitoring that is necessary in all parts of the studio. The dance floor, greenroom and live audience all require sound to be sent to them so that they know what is going on and dance to it. This would be accommodated by using auxiliary buses from the main sound mixer. Each area would receive a different mix depending on it's requirements. The band would require many such mini-mixes so all the band can play in sync and in tune.
I saw an interesting thing on Seven news a few weeks ago. Nula the weather person gave her report from an acrobats tower however the audio kept dropping out as she was using a radio mic and I must have been on the edge of its range. I thought it was pretty sloppy.
posted by steve at 11:30 PM
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