The first thing I had to make sure of was getting Telstra to install a line at the venue for the ISDN hook up back to Master Control in Ultimo. We were broadcasting from an unused pier at Walsh Bay in an old wharf building right down the end of the pier. So Telstra had to tap in to their junction box and basically just run a long cable down the length of the pier to where we were going to be.
Then we take our ISDN codec and plug in to this line and dial up the number to connect us to a similar machine back at master control and then go to air.
We split all channels coming from stage so we could do our own mix. Then mixed the program with our mixer output going into the ISDN codec. Simple as that. We also had so signal coming back to us from master control so we could play the news through the PA. So I had a line out from my mixer going to the PA system of my mix post fade, plus a pre fade send of the return line from master control also going to the PA. It was pre fade so it didn’t go out my mixer back down the line. That’s called mix minus. One of our favourite terms in broadcasting.
As a backup to the ISDN line, we had a 3g wireless dial up thing, but it didn’t work. So if the ISDN had fallen over, we had no back up. It didn’t fall over. The 3g thing just couldn’t get enough bandwidth to maintain a connection. We had heaps of signal, but being right in the middle of Sydney, there was just too much traffic on the network for us to get on. Bad idea.
Anyway here’s some pics, thanks to Jen.
That’s me mixing away.
Gear wise I’m using –
Allen and Heath 16ch mix wizard
Denon CD player
Then in the rack on the right –
On top is a Sound Devices Hard Disk recorder.
Then some compressors
The thing in the middle roadcase of the rack with the digital display is the base station for the GPS clocks. Being live to air we have to be right on time. This clock picks us a signal from the GPS network and the transmits the time for the satellite clocks like the one at my feet to lock to.
The bottom roadcase is the ISDN codec.
One the floor behind the clock is the splitter rack. The red thing is my back pack.
Everything else is the PA system.
The orange thing on the right is a residual current detector power box. Like a power board, but it is extremely sensitive to current surges and will trip before we have a chance to be electrocuted.
Also on the right you will see coffee and chocolate brownie – all important things when you have literally had no sleep and you are live at 10am.
That’s me looking very smug.
They are the GPS clocks which hadn’t locked into the proper time yet and we wanted them to really badly.
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1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. It reminds me of some of the stuff I go through with work at times when we have to get technology to work in remote locations. Always a challenge but also a great buzz when it comes together. The GPS clocks look like fun, kind of like stick men with clocks for faces. I think I listened to a recording from Sydney Writers Festival on the Philosopher's Zone podcast but it might not have been from that location - from the live stuff I've heard on RN, it's always very clear and balanced which I know is difficult to achieve (based on my experience of many other dismal failures of recorded public lectures I've heard). I've heard all the problems you mentioned in the previous post: crowd noises cut off when a person stops speaking, terrible balance, horrible EQ turning the speaker's voice into something akin to a muffled clarinet being played by a monkey, not to mention buzzing at all manner of frequencies.
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