In the realm of television broadcasting, visuals are only part of the equation. Behind the scenes, and behind the cameras, there is a whole world populated by advanced technologies that television audiences rarely, if ever, see. What goes on in the studio is a highly complex set of disciplines that are inextricably woven into a professional production that goes out to a worldwide audience on a daily basis.
To truly captivate studio audiences and make them really feel part of the production, exceptional audio quality is essential, and that’s where professional loudspeakers come into play, delivering every nuance of the storytelling.
One of the primary challenges of sound reinforcement in television studios is ensuring clear and intelligible audio for the live audience. Intelligible sound needs to reach all parts of the studio, including the audience seating area, while avoiding feedback or delay. Well-designed and professionally installed sound reinforcement is therefore crucial to ensure that the audience can hear the presenters, performers, and any other audio cues clearly.
In order to achieve acceptable sound coverage of a television studio, various types of loudspeakers are often used. These are usually variously deployed in individual studios and on-set locations to optimise coverage. In most applications and as a general acoustic principle it is generally desirable to try to locate speakers as near to performers or audience members as practically possible so as to reduce the potential for reflections or audio spill into areas where sound is not needed.
A practical solution is to use point source speakers in TV studios where overhead gantries are available, flown with electric hoists from a lighting truss. An advantage of this approach is that by choosing speakers with an appropriate fixed dispersion it is reasonably simple to control coverage by point-and-shoot aiming. Speaker boxes can also be relatively compact and unobtrusive.
In larger spaces medium-format line arrays come into their own, offering the ability to give substantial SPL and defined coverage, often using onboard digital system processing to more precisely tailor response and dispersion.
In practice a commonly adopted strategy is to use a combination of the previous two types of speaker systems: both point source and line arrays. For example, audio production company Terry Tew Sound & Light frequently deploys systems consisting of rows of point source speakers in combination with rows of line array.
For the Graham Norton show we have two rows of point source speakers and also a row of line arrays filling in the front audience,” says managing director Terry Tew.
“The traditional BBC old school way of doing TV shows was with column speakers, popularised by RG Jones and equally adaptable to churches, indoor spaces or television studios.” he continues. “And the reason they worked so well for so long is that they’re dead at the bottom, so you can put the audience mic at the bottom to give plenty of audience noise with very little colouration. They were the predecessor of the modern line arrays which are of course much more controllable.
“There are naturally individual preferences amongst sound supervisors; some like Gary Clark preferring to use point source speakers with close up audience mics for shows like Children in Need and others who will stick with line arrays.”
Whichever type of speaker system is chosen there is often a common goal, which is placing sound sources close to audience and performers in order to favour more direct sound over reflected, improving coherence and reducing the possibility of acoustic feedback.
There are scenarios in television studios however when none of these former strategies are ideal, and that is typically when the show design and director dictates very wide camera angles. In these situations, speakers must be out of shot and necessarily high in the air – and therefore further away from listeners – washing everywhere and not particularly controllable.
K-array’s Anakonda-KAN200 speaker presents a smart solution under these circumstances, addressing the challenge of inconspicuous appearance and satisfying the requirements of focused sound coverage, and good intelligibility, which according to Terry Tew “is a real problem solver”.
“For ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ what we’ll do is put Anakonda across the front of the stage because they’re black against the black stage and won’t be seen,” he explains. “So they are really good for in-vision audiences. And when you have rows of audience chairs you can just roll them out on the floor at people’s feet.” Audiences attending shows such as The Jonathan Ross Show, The Apprentice – You’re Fired, QI and Limitless Win all benefit from this solution.
Placing loudspeakers much closer to audience members acts as a true near-field source and requires less acoustic output to achieve the required sound level at the listener simply by significantly reducing the acoustic path and with much better controlled directivity.
Anakonda is small – its architecturally-friendly, slim and flexible, snake-like body measures only 56mm high and 35mm deep and is supplied as an extendable 2-metre-long package. It’s manufactured with a flexo PET-grade braid exterior, which provides its flexible properties and an ability to bend into any seamless shape and be routed in curves or even around corners.
Each Anakonda module houses eight 1” neodymium cone drivers configured for a 64ohm load impedance, which means that it can be easily and seamlessly extended up to a total of 16 modules and providing a continuous source of 32 metres. Cabling is a snap – each module inter-connects into the next using the lockable Neutrik speakON™ NL4 through-connections at each end, one male and one female, which are fully integrated into the body of the speaker. Even a long, extended run of 16 Anakondas still presents an optimum impedance load for an associated Kommander multi-channel power amplifier and requires only cable run to the end module.
“If you watch Lee Mack’s 1% Club, you’ll see the set is circular,” says Terry. “There’s around 100 people in there and without sound reinforcement you can’t hear what someone’s saying 25 metres away across the studio floor. So, our solution was to place 32 metres of Anakondas in 15 zones following the circular line of the set-in front of all the contestants, a far better option than 60-odd point source loudspeakers fixed to the set with the cabling complexity that entails. We also throw them out under seats and around the front edge of sets where we can’t get speakers close enough because we’re being kept out of wide shots or they’re in the way of lights. Because in the real-world camera shots and lighting always come first and the sound is kind of third.”
Anakonda has the ability to deliver extraordinarily precise sound coverage over a wide 140° horizontal dispersion pattern – and the narrow 10° vertical pattern directs sound exactly where needed, making it possible to deploy individual modules in awkward spaces such as partially concealed within seating where conventional speaker boxes would not be a viable option.
Anakonda is architecturally matched to its surroundings using either of the two supplied fabric socks, one black and one white, which can also be used to cover and protect the speaker from foreign objects such as dust. Anakonda is also lightweight, weighing only 1.4kg, and this makes it fast and convenient to install practically anywhere using the supplied mounting brackets. It can even be deployed vertically.
Anakonda speakers are not just visually discreet; they are also powerful despite their compact size. The advanced neodymium cone driver technology that is an essential component of these sleek, versatile and compact speakers produces clear, articulate, and balanced audio from 150Hz to 18kHz at a maximum output of 96dB SPL (when measured with music signal) and when combined with subwoofers from the Rumble or Truffle ranges will deliver extended frequency response across the entire audio spectrum. This means that every whisper, dialogue, musical score, and ambient sound can be reproduced with exceptional accuracy, ensuring that viewers hear every nuance of a broadcast.
Scalability is another key factor when it comes to choosing audio equipment for TV broadcast applications. Anakonda excels in this area, offering adaptability to diverse broadcasting environments. Whether it’s a small studio audience requiring only minimal coverage, large soundstage, or outdoor location shoot, Anakonda speakers can be rapidly tailored to meet the specific needs of the setting by simply connecting more identical modules from a larger rental stock without the need for extra cabling and the additional labour that entails.
Anakonda is a real problem solver for situations like television broadcast studios where a traditional speaker box just would not work, but where good intelligibility, ultra-reliability and a sleek design are required. Its outstanding and highly practical features allow it to be deployed in places where it can’t be seen, and, simply put, it brings sound closer to people in an unobtrusive way.
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