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Introduction The broadcast of a programme from source to listener involves use of studios, microphones, announcer console, switching console,

telephone lines / STL and Transmitter. Normally the programmes originate from a studio centre located inside the city/town for the convenience of artists. The programme could be either live or recorded. In some cases, the programme can be from OB spot, such as commentary of cricket match etc. Programmes that are to be relayed from other Radio Stations are received in a receiving centre and then sent to the studio centre or directly received at the studio centre through RN terminal/telephone line. All these programmes are then selected and routed from studio to transmitting centre through broadcast quality telephone lines or studio transmitter microwave/VHF links. A simplified block schematic showing the different stages is given in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Simplified block schmatic of broadcasting chain Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)433,(DC185)

Studio Centre The Studio Centre comprises of one or more studios, recording and dubbing room, a control room and other ancilliary rooms like battery room, a.c. rooms, switch gear room, DG room, R/C room, service room, waiting room, tape library, etc. The size of such a centre and the number of studios provided depend on the programme activities of the station. The studio centres in AIR are categorised as Type I, II, III and IV. The number of studios and facilities provided in each type are different. For example a type I studio has a transmission studio, music studio with announcer booth, a talks studio with announcer booth, one recording/dubbing room and a Read Over Room. Type II has one additional drama studio. The other types have more studios progressively. Broadcast Studio A broadcast studio is an acoustically treated room. It is necessary that the place where a programme for broadcast purposes is being produced should be free of extraneous noise. This is possible only if the area of room is insulated from outside sound. Further, the microphone which is the first equipment that picks up the sound, is not able to distinguish between wanted and unwanted signals and will pick up the sound not only from the artists and the instruments but also reflections from the walls marring the quality and clarity of the programme. So the studios are to be specially treated to give an optimum reverberation time and minimum noise level. The entry to the studios is generally through sound isolating lobby called sound lock. Outside of every studio entrance, there is a warning lamp, which glows Red when the studio is ON-AIR. The studios have separate announcers booths attached to them where first level fading, mixing and cueing facilities are provided. Studio Operational Requirements Many technical requirements of studios like minimum noise level, optimum reverberation time etc. are normally met at the time of installation of studio. However for operational purposes, certain basic minimum technical facilities are required for smooth transmission of programmes and for proper control. These are as follows: Programme in a studio may originate from a microphone or a tape deck, or a turntable or a compact disc or a R-DAT. So a facility for selection of output of any of these equipments at any moment is necessary. Announcer console does this function.
Facility to fade in/fade out the programme smoothly and control the programme level within prescribed limits. Facility for aural monitoring to check the quality of sound production and sound meters to indicate the intensity (VU meters). For routing of programmes from various studios/OB spots to a central control room, we require a facility to further mix/select the programmes. The Control Console in the control room performs this function. It is also called switching console. Before feeding the programmes to the transmitter, the response of the programme should be made flat by compensating HF and LF losses using equalised line amplifiers.(This is applicable in case of telephone lines only) Visual signalling facility between studio announcer booth and control room should also be provided. If the programmes from various studios are to be fed to more than one transmitter, a master switching facility is also required.

Mixing As already mentioned, various equipments are available in a studio to generate programme as given below: Microphone, which normally provides a level of 70 dBm.
Turntable which provides an output of 0 dBm. Tape decks which may provide a level of 0 dBm. CD and R-DAT will also provide a level of 0 dBm. The first and foremost requirement is that we should be able to select the output of any of these equipments at any moment and at the same time should be able to mix output of two or more equipments. However, as we see, the level from microphone is quite low and need to be amplified, so as to bring it to the levels of tape recorder/ tape decks. Audio mixing is done in following two ways: i) Required equipments are selected and then outputs are mixed before feeding to an amplifier. This is called low level mixing (Fig. 2). This is not commonly used now days.

Fig. 2 Low level mixing Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)434,(DC186)

ii) Low-level output of each equipment is pre-amplified and then mixed. This is called high level mixing. (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 High level mixing Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)434,(DC186)

Low level mixing system may look economical since it requires one single pre-amplifier for all low level inputs, but quality of sound suffers in this system as far as S/N ratio is concerned. Noise level at the input of best designed pre-amplifier is of the order of 120 dBm and the output levels from low level equipment 70 dBm. In low level mixing, there is signal loss of about 10 to 15 dB in mixing circuits. Therefore, the S/N ratio achieved in low level mixing is 35 to 40 dB only. High level mixing system requires one pre-amplifier in each of the low level channels but ensures a S/N of better than 50 dB. All India Radio employs High level mixing.

Announcer Console Most of the studios have an attached booth, which is called transmission booth or Announcer booth or play back studio. This is also acoustically treated and contains a mixing console called Announcer Console. The Announcer Console is used for mixing and controlling the programmes that are being produced in the studio using artist microphones, tape playback decks and turn tables/CD players. This is also used for transmission of programmes either live or recorded. The technical facilities provided in a typical announcer booth, besides an Announcer Console are one or two microphones for making announcements, two turn tables for playing the gramophone records and two playback decks or tape recorders for recorded programmes on tapes. Recently CD and Rotary Head Digital Audio Tape Recorder (R-DAT) are also included in the Transmission Studio. Audio block schematic of transmission studio is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 Announcer Console Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)435,(DC187)

Control Room For two or more studios set up, there would be a provision for further mixing which is provided by a control console manned by engineers. Such control console is known as switching console. Broad functions of switching console in control room are as follows: Switching of different sources for transmission like News, O.Bs. other satellite based relays, live broadcast from recording studio.
Level equalisation and level control. Quality monitoring. Signalling to the source location. Communication link between control room and different studios.

Audio block schematic of control room is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Block Schematic of Control Room Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)437,(DC189)

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